Roy C Link/ KB Scale ‘Hudson’ Wagons:
Most of the good stock will be from my collection of Roy C Link/KB Scale wagon kits. I have found two wagons that I made years ago (probably about 25 years!) as part of an article in Issue 3 of the Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review. I really must finish them!!
Two Roy C Link (now KB Scale) Hudson skip chassis converted into man-riders way back when I first started thinking about this layout.
I have some more somewhere – I just need to sort through some of the old boxes that went into the attic when we moved in and started a lengthy house renovation project in 1992. I need to build some more since, at 2 wagons every 25 years I think I might have some very short trains!
More recent wagons include ‘ammunition style’ wagons (which I completely messed up during construction as the floor is supposed to be between the lower bar and the hinged sides! I have a number of skip wagons to build but found these were too unstable when being filled in the quarry. The alternative was to use tub wagons which have proved to be very successful.
KB Scale (Roy C Link when I bought them) ammunition wagons
KB Scale (Roy C Link when I bought them) Tub wagons
I have a couple of bogie trestle wagons, one carrying a tree trunk the other, for a bit of variety, carries some Hudson track panels.
Towards the end of 2019 I finished some more wagons, this time a pair of KB Scale oil drum wagons. These are actually the original Roy C Link ones from the 1980’s which I have finally got around to finishing. They are joined to a pair of ammo wagons which I have lined with corrugated iron to carry coal.
I started the fuel wagons so long ago when I didn’t appreciate that all these wagons run better if they have a bit of weight added. Most of mine have two thin strips of lead glued under the floor, narrow enough to clear the wheel flanges. If I had known then what I knew now I would have put a little weight inside each oil drum before the lids were glued on.
I’m glad I have managed to finally finish this rake as they will add to the operational interest on Tony’s Forest by being parked in the loco servicing siding. I have one coal wagon filled and one empty so that the public will see coal being delivered and will have walked away before the train is sent up the line, the new viewers fooled into thinking that the empty wagon has just been unloaded. Now I just need to keep that a secret so no one guesses what I am really doing.
One of the problems with Tony’s Forest is that I can’t really set it up at home, so the opportunities for testing ideas tend to be at exhibitions. The fuel train that I have been working on to add some operational interest turned out to be just a bit too long!
You can’t get the train in the refuelling siding and fit a loco in at the same time, so I am going to have to lose a wagon. The trouble is that I have permanently coupled them together! I like the idea of the full and empty coal wagons so I removed the green double oil barrel wagon. This was added to another pair of oil drum wagons to make a fuel train in my standard ‘3 wagon’ formation, which should add a bit of operational flexibility as all 6 fuel wagons can arrive, 3 can be put in the loco fuelling siding and the remaining 2 can carry on up the line.
Locos N Stuff WDLR Wagons:
I’ve had a couple of Mark Clarke’s (Locos n stuff) 3d printed WDLR Class D wagons and a Class F wagon for Christmas 2019 and have been slowly preparing, painting and assembling them. Whilst I have some of the Wrightlines whitemetal ones, they are a bit too heavy for my lightweight small diesel locos that I use for many of the trains and the 3d printed ones are significantly lighter.
I had originally thought that I would have to restrict these to the “main” line, but it looks as if they will (just) fit down the quarry siding.
I managed to get out into the rather chilly garage in early January 2020 to test the WDLR Class D wagons down the quarry line. The bogie pivots needed a little adjustment to get the bogies to track reliably but it all looks reasonably successful so far. Sorry for the quality of the lighting, it looked okay to start with but the low lying sun produced a lot of shadow that the phone couldn’t cope with at probably the most interesting bit. I think it still gives an idea of what the wagons have to navigate!
Roy C Link/KB Scale Hudson Works Train:
Latest lockdown-3 project for February 2021.
This has been lying around for far too long and it was about time I did something other than locos. It is a laser cut wooden kit on a standard plastic bogie chassis and is still available from KB Scale at Light Railway Stores. I wanted a faded paintwork look, gradually disappearing lower down. I used a mixture of EDM Models wood stain, enamel paint and thinners. I didn’t want to use acrylic paint as water tends to warp the wood. It was finished off with a dusting of weathering powder.
The interior details were a mixture of components from S&D Models and Andy Duncan. I got impatient with the details so the finish isn’t as good as I intended but I am after an impression of contents rather than accuracy. There must be some serious work on the line somewhere as a couple of the spanners are huge and would probably take two people to handle.
I used separate strips of wood for the roof rather than laminate the two scribed layers of sheet provided in the kit. Apart from finding this much easier for me it has given what I think is a nice texture underneath the tissue covering. It also gave me the chance to include a torn bit of roof covering too.
It was suggested that a bogie flat wagon would be a nice accompanying model to go with the van so I set to work with strip wood cut to length, distressed, stained and then treated to a bit of weathering powder. I produced a variety of finishes from old knackered timber progressively getting better to recently replaced timber.
The wagon progressed rapidly and I thought it was going to be the quickest build to date until I started of a load for it. Initially I was going to cover it with a pile of rotting sleepers but that rather hid the deck that I had lavished so much care and attention on.
I decided that I would put a pile of rail on the wooded deck and build a further bogie flat wagon, this time with a steel deck, to take the sleepers. The sleepers were cut from strip wood and distressed with a razor saw and craft knife. Spike holes were drilled after staining and rust patches added where the rails would have been. A little ballast residue and some tools finished off the load.
Although the three vehicles together will be a bit long for the loop they will give a bit more variety to operations. I may need to re-think the fiddle yard as I have far too many trains for the number of sidings so I may need to design some sort of cassette system.
I found three Roy C Link Hudson style ammunition wagons that I bought back in the 1980’s and decide that hey would make a nice addition to the track maintenance stock if I filled in the gaps in the slatted sides. I used Evergreen plastic strip for the first wagon before I realised that I some timber strip that would look better added after the wagons were painted as I could stain the wood and get a better variation in colour and appearance.
The centre wagon has the plastic strip while the two outer wagons have the timber strip. I need to add couplings and a little bit of ballast in each before they can enter service, probably with one of the bogie flat wagons.
I have also built three peat wagons which I will load up with undergrowth from track clearance. They wouldn’t really have seen use on a line like Tony’s Forest but I rather liked the look of them and decided that they were acquired by the railway along with one of the second-hand diesels.
Fourdees 3d printed Snailbeach District Railway Hopper Wagons
I just had to have some of these hopper wagons to go with my 016.5 Baldwin 4-6-0T but when David John (Rhyd) re-gauged some to 014 it made me think.
As Tony’s Forest is based in Shropshire, I figured that they could easily have obtaind a few of these wagons from the SDR and re-gauged them. A trial fit to see if it would work showed that there was just enough room under the quarry hoppers and down the quarry track.
I have re-gauged four wagons and initial trials are promising as this video indicates. However, reliable operation under exhibition conditions remaines to be proved. The next show at Jarrow will be interesting and if they don’t appear in routine operation will indicate that they are not quite ready!