Peter’s 1:25, 24 mm gauge rolling stock

[PeterH]

A couple of years ago (though it seems like only yesterday), I made a 1:25 scale goods van on 24 mm track, for 2 ft gauge:

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See here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10699

This seemed a bit big to me, so I made three more goods vans in different scales and gauges to see how they looked, and to try out different ways of making. My first wagon is on the right:

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I really wanted something that would run on 16.5 mm track, but if the wagon was big enough, the wheels were so close together that the wagon was unstable. So I’ve decided to stick with 24 mm track, 1:25 scale but use a smaller prototype than my first wagon. On the se lounge I found several drawings for goods vans about 10 ft long, 5 ft wide and a bit over 6 ft high. Also here, second drawing down: http://www.009.cd2.com/history/goods.htm. This model is second from the right above.

I’m going to make another...

[PeterH]

Wagon number 5:

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The basic wagon core is mostly cedar, a light wood, to keep the center of gravity down. It was time consuming to get all the angles right, and I’ll probably make future cores from bits of wood glued together.

The planks I cut from old wood Venetian blind slats. They are possibly basswood, and yes they do make fuzzies when I sand them.

[chris stockdale]

Peter,

I particularly like that first van. The track looks to have very light rail, just out of interest what Code please?

Cheers,

[PeterH]

Chris, the rail is Frank’s finest 00, which is a bit light. My backstories often play out at the level of the model, not the prototype, for example this excerpt from the Huia Morning Star, 2019:

“... rail used on the line was second hand, obtained at a knock-down price from a local abandoned line of 15 inch gauge. The CME was quoted as saying that the light weight was justified because the loads on the new line were not expected to be heavy. The ceremony for hammering the first spike will be next Wednesday at 2 pm, followed by refreshments at the Poke and Fern Hotel”

The stick boys have been busy:

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though they will be going away up north for a week now.

[PeterH]

... well the stick boys are well back from their holiday up North, and have been sticking on more sticks. The body has ‘doors’, washers and ‘bolts’. The bolts are pieces of 1 mm square stripwood eased into 1.2 mm diameter holes. Pythagoras wins again.

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And a roof, stripwood glued to cardboard (on the flat) then curved over a piece of wood and made rigid by PVAing some tissue on.

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[PeterH]

Springtime.

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I laminated strips of cardboard (over the same wood former that I used on the roof), then cut a 3 mm length for each spring. I’ve got room for plenty more.

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The lines on the piece of laminated cardboard are from my printer, to align the strips of cardboard when I glued them, then to mark the 3 mm widths to cut,

[PeterH]

And now solebars; the piece of cardboard on the back locates everything in the right place.

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[Broadoak]

This really is a work of art, it is good to see cardboard being used so effectively.

A first rate job.

Regards Peter M

[PeterH]

Thank you Peter. I have fun using card and wood.

Underneath is finished.

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Each pinpoint axle runs in a U shape brass holder and two holders are soldered to a black spring steel strip. The spring strip screws to the underframe near the middle, with a card washer to lift it off the underframe a millimeter or so. This gives just enough spring to cope with small track irregularities. The spring steel is strapping used to tie lengths of timber together.

Now the wagon poses coyly beside what might be a mock-up of a new layout:

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[Jon Randall]

Looks smart

[chris stockdale]

Very smart!

I have to admire you steadily ploughing a fairly lonely furrow. Onwards!

Cheers,

[PeterH]

Thanks John and Chris. There are a couple of modelling groups in Auckland, mostly the New Zealand 3 ft 6 in railway, but the groups are too far away for me. I’m modelling what I find behind local shops ... if indeed there was ever a railway behind the local shops.

[PeterH]

Paint happens. Paint is mostly cheap gesso, coloured with artist’s rod oxide or black. Scumbled on in several thin layers. Via this underpainting:

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To this:

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It took too many steps and was difficult to paint the gaps between the planks, then to keep later layers of paint out of the gaps. Ive got a better way planned for next time ...