Railfreight variety…

Not every model requires hours of work, variety is good, within reason and re-working ready to run models can be very rewarding. Today we take a look at a pair of similar Graham a Farish N gauge VGA…

The VGA van was the ultimate British Rail development that traces a lineage back to the 12t Palvan. These long 2 axle vehicles had a pair of doors each side that could allow half the wagon to be loaded at once. Initially delivered with the Railfreight flame red ends they had ‘Railfreight’ and ‘Speedlink’ markings on boards that were supported on the top left and right corners of the outer edges of the doors. Over time these became troublesome and occasionally hung off causing an out of gauge hazard so during the mid to late eighties they were removed, and often replaced with a Railfreight sticker. Later a number were repainted in the sectorisation Distribution livery with yellow ends and the diamond graphic on the bottom right. Later still some received an all over EWS maroon.

Farish only produce the original and sector versions - so the intermediate requires some real modelling. I’ve previously tried removing the hoardings from them first original version but you are left with scars where there are circular holes in the side for mounting. I wondered if it would be easier to rework a later version?

Removing the shell from the chassis, the silver body was masked and I resprayed the ends in flame red, cleaning the handrails off once it had gone tacky. Warning flashes were replaced with Fox. The RfD diamonds were removed with Humbrol enamel thinners on a cotton bud. This works, but does damage the silver paint so I had to try and paint match that and respray over the top before sealing with lacquer and starting weathering.

Chassis were treated first with my Humbrol 98/33 wash, the brake lever wiped clean during the process. Bodywork was wet on wet - so apply white spirit to the van side, then use a thicker 98/33 wash along the top and bottom of the sides, and remove it slowly with a vertical motion. Same with the ends, if a little heavier in application. Finally, a very light dusting of airbrushed dirt, should you see fit, along the roof and base of the ends in particular.

The result, a model that blends well with the RTR examples. These long vans are awkward on smaller layouts but I have a Hereford based micro in mind, similar in concept to Penpont, and they’re very useful for that - well, essential. Perhaps an older new Farish tooling but very good, never the less. I hope today shows that you can add variety to your ready to run stock without complete repaints, or resorting to kit builds. Until next time, more soon…

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