A Card Kit For August

Coal Office and Staithes.

View the Card Kit here.

Don't Bin it - Repair it

The locomotive and all wagons shown here were broken and/or had parts missing, being consigned to a drawer for decades until one day....

Click a link in the table below to read about their faults and the repair methods.

Item Link	Brand
3MT class locomotive	Tri-Ang Hornby
GWR Mink D	Peco Parkside Kit
Esso Tanker	Airfix Kit
24.5T Mineral Wagon	?
GWR High Bar 7-Plank open wagon	Cooper Craft Kit
McCain Beefeater Chips van	Lima
Blue Circle Cement Wagon	Airfix Kit

Read about the layout build here.

See where you can get the buildings here.

Recovered From The Bin. Another quick Project

Another broken wagon stored away for decades. This one was so far gone that it was destined for the bin except, I enjoyed my previous wagon repairs so much that I decided to give it a second chance.

It is the Parkside PC38 Mink D general merchandise van kit. A GWR design that saw service until during the second world war. This is before the period that I model. Incidentally 'Mink' is a shorthand code devised by GWR to define a range of goods vehicles.

Further research revealed that 10 were converted for Departmental use (9 in 1947 and 1 in 1955).  These vans were in use on BR(W) throughout the 1960s (my modelled period). They carried the 'Enpart' sign and conveyed locomotive parts. The conversion resulted in different style end panels and the underframe is different to the Parkside model. I have not modified my model in this respect. 

I model the BR Southern Region main line in the west country not Western Region. The Western took over that part of the Southern Region in 1963, giving me some licence for  it to run on my layout, although I doubt it ever did in reality.

Nearly all detail was missing from the model underframe. Most notably the axle boxes and springs. These I had previously cut out for use on a scratch build wagon. That wagon was subsequently retired so, with careful manipulation the superglue fixing the four axle boxes/springs in place was severed and the parts reapplied to the Mink.

Wheels, couplings, vacuum cylinder, vacuum pipes and two buffers came from my stock.

The other two buffers I could have 3D resin printed but it is such a faff to set up and clean up resin printing it is not worth the effort for such a small job. Instead, the shanks were fabricated from proprietary kit sprues with 3D FDM printed discs applied.

The rest of the missing parts I designed and 3D FDM printed.

Dual steps beneath each door were made from plasticard and wire.

It was brush painted with acrylics. The paint was watered down a little and applied in several coats.

Decals were designed and printed on sticky back paper.

The Parkside kit is available today, costing about £20. At that price I am glad I did not bin mine!