MRWA/WAGR/WESTRAIL GE Wagon

I have been working on my next kit and its ready to be released.

I wanted to do something simple and to cover all eras I model.

This kit is the MRWA WAGR WESTRAIL GE Wagon, however its the outside braced version. Only 30 wagons of this type were made, originally used by the MRWA, however some survived right through to the Westrail era.

I have done some experimentation with kit building and wanted to do a one piece mould.



I originally was going to scratch build five of these wagons, but only ended up doing one side, one end and one inside detail piece. This became the basis for the pattern.

I then poured the rubber over the pattern and left to dry over night. The result gave me a mould to use so every side was exactly the same. I then modified by NA Sleeper wagon underframe to become the underframe for the smaller GE wagon.

I then put the pieces together just like any other kit. This formed the basis for the one piece mould. My first attempt failed beacuse I forgot to put a release agent between the teo pieces so I had to cut the pattern out and try again.

The result is a one peice mould, of a wagon that represents three different eras. Naturally I have 10 MRWA 10 WAGR and 10 yellow westrail wagons for myself, and will do some for others if they wish.

HAPPY MODELLING............................

S Scale Detail Parts from Tichy Trains (US)

Just letting everyone know that Tichy Trains in the US has quite a few detail parts in S scale.

I have just ordered some doors and windows which are pretty close to the correct size for a model of the Kendenup station which I am planning to build for my layout (to go at Springdale). Kendenup Station had 8-panel double-hung windows, before they were covered up by shutters after the move to Katanning. If interested, there is some historical film of Kendenup from the 1920's including a train trip from Perth. The station in the film is an earlier, smaller building.

They do online orders so the parts are fairly easily available.

They also do some nicely detailed oil drums and a neat little crane.

Some of the HO items such as the pipe load could also be useful.

ModelRail 2011 Videos

I went along to ModelRial this year to test a few things and took my video camera,

Here is a video of the trains running at ModelRail this year on Swanview...

Some nice stuff on display!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V8MKw2wvQM

My First Locomotive.

Like many others my first scratch built styrene model was a WAGR D class four wheeled open wagon.

This was promptly followed by a model of a R class open bogie wagon.  Satisfied with the results of both models, I then moved on to something of greater interest to me, end loading long distance country AQS passenger cars. 

Most scratch building projects require time to be spent on planning, making jigs and sometimes fabrcating items on a trial basis, etc.  These tasks are not as non productive as they seam, as they help the modeller devise the simpler, easier and cheaper methods of building  models.  In order to get the most from this time it I decided to build a pair of AQS carriages. 

As time progressed so did my skills and confidence in using styrene.  By the time I had finished the carriages  I was ready to build something to "pull 'em" with. 

As far as steam locos were concerned the choice was easy - a Vclass.  For me the V class epitomized what a modern narrow gauge railway steam locomotive was all about.  

I was advised that the "Bachmann Plus" 2-8-0 consolidation locomotive [item 31401] was most suitable donor mechanism for a V class and that Murray Hartzer had previously built a Vclass in brass using the same donor mechanism.

I used a piece of 32mm diameter electrical conduit for the boiler.  All the other parts, e.g. fire box, cab, running boards etc. were attached to the boiler. The boiler was attached to the donor mechanism in the same way as the original Bachmann body shell. 

In the case of the tender, this was also constructed using sytrene, except for the brass sheet used to form the upper curved pannels of the coal bunker.  "Rails West" components were used to detail the the model. 

The model was primed with Holts brand red primer and top coated with a spray can of Colourbond brand Rivergum Green.  Black letraset tape was used to line the tender and simulate the boiler bands. 
A light coat of Wattyl brand Matt Estapol was applied to the model to dull the gloss of the paint and seal the Letraset tape.  The model was then weathered using Art Spectrum brand soft pastels [chalk] and sealed with a second coat of Estapol.   

                                                A model of V class locomotive 1216.