Another ‘spoilt’ Rapido OAA: Redland conversion in N…

They come in threes and this is the second. First a coal conversion and now roof tiles, and the beginning of an appreciation of this humble air braked open wagon…

It was a regular blog reader, Alex, who suggested the prototype! I had only loosely been aware of the wagon, just 5 were converted like this for Redland traffic in the Speedlink network, RailExpress and Paul Bartlett have a little prototype information if you’re interested. Spotting differences include the side ratchet winches (scratchbuilt in styrene, I must be mad) below the doors (and a hole for the straps I’ve not been able to recreate) and the taller extended ends (which I have).

The Rapido wagon was given a bath of IPA which removed the markings and grey paint but wouldn’t touch the red! Rather than wrestle with this or damage the moulding I left it - and went on to carve slots in each side door for the ratchets. These are two slivers of styrene rod of different thicknesses - and there are twenty in total! The ends are styrene again, sheet and section, assembled like the prototype as an extension and braced to the original framework. Finally some thin styrene was thinned further on wet and dry and superglued to the upper left door for the Redland marking.

The unifying primer didn’t show any problems although handling had dislodged some of the ratchets so more were made and they were all secured with a spot more glue and a second waft of grey. This side lit photo also snows the finesse of the tooling - a pity the ready to run paintwork is so thick.

I mixed a suitable green shade from Humbrol 3 and 121, but don’t ask me proportions - as usual, done by eye with half a hope I’d mixed enough to do the whole wagon! The chassis was painted black, by hand and the seperately applied chassis details re-installed and touched in with paint as required… this sort of job makes you realise just how dexterous and incredibly talented the model makers are in the factories of China.

I cobbled together the markings from studying the limited photos available - all hand drawn and designed on my Mac and printed for me, as usual, by John at Precision. These were applied over a gloss lacquer, and sealed with a satin coat before weathering, in my usual manner, was lightly applied.

The result, a unique wagon for the Speedlink ‘collection’ and an enjoyable distraction. I find the process of working like this, both the mental planning as well as tactile modelling, a mindful distraction. Almost going through the motions, trusting the process. It helps keep me grounded. On its own, without heart, but seen as part of the wider collection its reason and place becoming more obvious; the child within me collecting the colourful wagons of his childhood books and railways beyond. 

Now though, what it really needs, is a load - that can wait for another day! Until next time, more soon…

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