Fixing up WD wagons

 I've been acquiring WD wagons for my Ashover based layout. I picked up a job lot of them from a good friend but also picked up some from the 009 Society Sales Stand at Narrow Gauge South. Some are Bachmann and some are Dundas. They all need their couplings changing and several of them are missing their brake stanchions.

My choice of coupling is the Greenwich coupling but I have to confess a desire to switch to DG for a shunting layout so that I have the remote uncoupling capability. For now I am going to ignore that itch and focus on converting stock to Greenwich. The locomotives and the wagons all have the standard Bachmann coupling in an NEM socket. Now I know you can get a variant of the Greenwich coupling that is suitable for NEM sockets but I decided it should not be that hard to print an adpator.

Here it is. My version of an NEM socket to Greenwish adpator. All you have to do is take a regular Greenwich coupling, cut of the tang as far as you decide and smooth off the edges. It simply pushes in and then, when you push the adaptor into the socket that helps hold the coupling tighter. They are quick and easy to print and you can get a large number on a build plate.

The brake stanchion is not so simple. I did think about asking Dundas Models for some of their sprues but I do have a thing for trying to do things myself. I considered what would be the best material to use. The answer was brass, to provide the strength. However, cutting out parts and folding them and soldering them didn't appeal so I experimented with 3D printing. 

The real life stanchion is a vertical piece of angle iron with fixings to support the rod of the brake wheel. There is also a traingular plate used to bolt the assembly to the bogie. 

 I'm still refining this. I had some concerns about strength but it seems to be okay. On the right is the stanchion in the support asembly needed for printing. I could try and add more detail but it's not going to show, except on the screen.

I'll post a picture of an updated wagon when I have this finalised.

Coach No 1

Nailsea has been and gone. It was a good show and the layout and stock mostly behaved itself. I did have to return a borrowed engine in a completley dead state but it turned out to be a broken wire. Not something I could fix at the show when I was operating all day. It was great to see friends and to see some quality layouts and be inspired to get on with my own modelling.

I've been lining my first Ashover coach since forever. It's just tedious and the transfers were not always sticking. I had to take advice from Matt who is the master at lining and eventually I developed a technique that worked sufficiently well. It's still tedious and there are 41 individual transfers on each side since I split the long lines into 3 parts.

The lining itself is Fox transfers FG1292 Off white/Straw and I expect one sheet to be enough for all 4 coaches. The lettering and Carriage numbering I commisionned from Custom Model Decals and they have gone on really well. Finally today I put on a coat of Army Painter Satin Varnish to seal the transfers on. I wasn't going to do that today since the weather was foul and I spray in the garden but there was a good break with some sunshine so it got done.

I also finished off the roof. I previously sprayed it with primer before I had put on the rain strip on each side so I stripped it back with and soldered on some 0.3mm dia brass wire. A quick spray with Halfords primer and then a liberal coatning of Humbrol Dark Grey Wash which is then dabbed away with a tissue to leave a mottled appearance.

One confession. I've only done one side! That's good enough but won't do for the planned layout since the Ashover Railway had triangles at each end so both sides will be seen at different times.