Powsides Private owner wagon kit

A quick late evening project. A Powsides PO kit, actually the kit is the exSlaters 1907 7 plank 15′ wagon kit, but with Powsides branding. These are used in their wagon decals packs but they do sell them as undecorated kits, at normal kit prices unlike the inflated eBay prices. No mention of Coopercraft at all.

Although I prefer the Cambrian kits as they have less flash and go together well, this kit is finely detailed, the buffers are a nice turned metal, whereas the Cambrian buffers are a bit of a let down. The brakes however are only ok if your modelling a wagon with the brakes ON!

Coupling hook is my now standard Lanarkshire models whitemetal hook, drilled to take 3 links. Brakes will be replaced by an etched set. Either Masokits or Bill Bedfords as I was kindly sent a few examples to try.

All in all a pleasant hour spent building a nice kit, 4 wagon kits down another dozen or so to go.

Wordless Wednesday

Stock building underway

Having made life more difficult by modelling the 1920’s, with the majority of reference photos and details dating to mostly the 50’s & 60’s. Without finding details about which wagon company or companies the Railway used, not to mention the engineering talent and facilities that were available at The Wallows (the engineering works and sheds) there was a chance that some wagons were built on site, like some of the locomotives. Finding suitable stock off the shelf is very limited.

There is a reference to The Midland Railway wagon and carriage works, about a hopper wagon with a similar design built for export to Australia. Which is visible in a photo taken at a land sale wharf, which sadly I can’t post.

So to establish a base of wagons for the layout to get things underway I’ve chosen both the 5 & 7 plank Gloucester 1907 15′ po wagons. Simple but well detailed kits from Cambrian kits.

The buffers have been replaced with Lanarkshire Model white metal buffers for wooden underframed early po wagons. The coupling hooks will also be Lanarkshire models white metal which although originally designed to be cosmetic are more than strong enough for actual coupling use, especially given my rakes would be between 5-7 wagons max.

P4 wheels are from Alan Gibson and although I’ve built the brakes from the kit, they will be retro fitted with Masokits and Bill Bedford brakes and levers a long with all future builds. I always try and build atleast one to the original instructions.

The chassis is the base for the 5 plank and the 7 plank is just awaiting couplings and brakes retro fitting.

These Cambrian kits will be in a reasonable good condition given the 1907 design heritage. For the more older wagons there’s a large variation of types available to model but will mostly require scratchbuilding.

The railway used many plank variations including 1,3,4,5,6 &7 plank wagons. The railway did have many dumb buffered wagons. As seen in this photo, which will require scratchbuilding.

Dated early 20th Century, this is Abbiss coal merchant’s landsale wharf. The third wagon from the right is a 4 plank dumb buffered wagon. There’s a few variations in the rake too, near the back appears to be atleast 1 slope sided hopper.

The following is an extract from the Dudley archive which accompanies the photo:

Mr Joe Abbiss, who owned the coal merchants whose company name is on the lorry, is the gentleman standing in the lorry. The man on the left holding the horses, is believed to be a Major Westwood. The “E D” on the sides of the trucks indicate that the colliery belonged to the Earl of Dudley. The description “Landsale wharf” in the Black Country, usually means a railway siding at which coal is unloaded for sale to merchants or consumers. Coal is usually loaded from the train to lorries by hand. (Courtesy of Mr. J. Abbiss).

Courtesy of Dudley Archives and the Black country History website

Severnside Models Weighbridge

After entering the MRJ Cameo layout competition, more to follow, I picked up a Severnside models weighbridge kit. A very nicely etched road vehicle weighbridge kit in brass.

As suggested by the company the kit was built using CA glue, although you can very easily solder the building together, which may be easier, attaching some of the parts that require the usual three hands to hold everything.

A magnifying glass/stand is required, as the kit has an etched door-handle and mount and even with 30-something eyes I needed help locating the etch.

All the etching is very crisp, and the next stage is a priming coat, to see what needs a little tidying up.

Severnside models

I know common wisdom is to use an etch primer, but I’ve been reading on a few US modelling streams about a new airbrush friendly primer, called Stynylrez from Badger. It can be airbrushed straight from the bottle and comes in a range of colours.

A little experimenting should be fun.

Merry Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas holiday and wonderful New Year everyone! Happy modelling.

Tying up loose ends… for those following my Miami NW 22nd St layout

Well the original idea for this blog was to charter my build of my Miami ho layout before it went to exhibition.
That exhibition came and went and the layout was built in time. It received some really good comments. So for those who are/were interested here is a batch of photos taken of the layout on the day of the exhibition before the doors opened.

Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments. There are more photos if people would like to see them. The layout still exists and is available for exhibition if any one is interested.