Wagon modifications
Main building
Laurence down with a bad cough so he stayed away. Geoff, bleary eyed and coughing, soldiered on with Stephen.
The running session the previous week had highlighted a problem with a small rake of 5 ore wagons. Built by John on at least three different chassis types they all had Kadees. The couplings and short wheelbase made the wagons very flexible sideways - in technical terms, they wiggled around a lot. Geoff took the intermediate couplings off and replaced them with fixed draw bars/rods with loops and pins, which helped with the movement and will make it easier to move around.
Stephen worked on the main building trimming the stone sheeting to suit the various wall intersections. Part of the staircase side wall face was carefully sliced off and a sheet of cardboard glued back to allow plastic stone sheeting to be applied without over-sailing the steps.
Finally, a solid cardboard under-roof was created. The side door and loft window are just showing through the plastic sheet.
It's about time we decided on the actual use of this building and come up with a proper name for it. The inspiration for it came from a farm vehicle/equipment store with a malting room/floor over. Stephen has always seen at least one of the three bays used for things like an Information Centre, Reception, Ticket Office, Sales, Refreshments or just Offices, i.e. things an embryonic preserved railway might need? The rest would be storage or display space.
Stephen and Geoff also discussed the issue of wagon loads from the quarry, as raised the previous week. It was agreed that John's mine wagons were too small, but the Peco 4 ton GVT mineral wagons were ideal. 8 wagons and a 'suitable' loco fitted nicely on a standard cassette and, in Geoff's opinion, the physical load to engine power worked well. It appeared that between the three of us, we could probably muster 8 wagons albeit one had a glued-in coal load and at least four hadn't been assembled. If we adopted two trains - one full and one empty, 8 more wagons would be required, at around £14 each (a far cry from the £3.75 on the unopened packets). More sensibly, the glued-in wagon load could be cut out and removable loads created to fulfil natural train movements back and forth to the quarry. We then investigated making our own wagons using components fabricated or cast ourselves. Geoff has experience of both white-metal and resin casting, so all we needed was to make a set of masters. Stephen then suggested 3D printing might be suitable. He had experience with some Gn15 components and would investigate this option as well. To be continued ...
Subsequent delving through computer folders unearthed the photo that inspired the building - a 'brick-built cart shed with a granary over' - just like the model (not very!).
Further Google Image searches found a few more prototypes that might provide the odd detail such as quoins, arches, lintels, window positions etc.
