G&SWR Brake Van construction complete.

G & SWR 16T Drummond brake van, construction complete.

I still have a few details to add to the interior of the van and I'll post some photos soon of this and of the busy underside too. The solebar needs a number plate, which I'll draw myself and print on the ink-jet and the inner compartment or guard's house will be glazed at a later stage. The roof is held in place by a screw mounted in the chimney which locates into the threaded pipe of the stove below. In the doorways you can see evidence of yellow-grey Milliput which has been used to fill the uprights which inexplicably narrow above the safety bars. As I made the uprights from hollow section metal, filing them to shape removed one side and revealed the hollow inside, hence the filler. The lower footboard has been thickened to a more realistic thickness and the centre footboard support has been strengthened with a wire soldered behind it.

The buffers are from my spares box and are internally sprung which I prefer to the piano-wire system supplied with the kit. Couplings are made by myself from 1.25 mm n/s for the hook and 0.8 n/s wire for the links, making my own ensures that I can arrange a shank to match the slot in the buffer beam and sidestep any problem that may arise due to the incompatibility of the coupling hook casting and the buffer beam slot. I've arranged that the couplings are sprung with a stiff spring, though I'm no great believer in sprung couplings, the main benefit being that they can be easily removed at the painting stage. I've already blackened the couplings and buffer rams with Birchwood Casey brass black and intend to keep up the momentum and spray the van with Acid 8 etching primer in the shed as soon as the weather improves in the far NW.

You can just glimpse the guard in this picture leaning out of the van on the side of the brake wheel, he's from the "Heroes of the Footplate" range now produced by Invertrain though I've changed his cap to something suitable for a G & SWR guard. The tail lamps, of which you can see only one of the three in position, are from the same source.

G&SW timber wagons painted.

G & SW 10ton swivel bolster wagon.

My attempts at printing a number for the wagon and a "To Carry..." plate to fit inside the raised edges of the etched plates that came in the kit just didn't work, the paper rectangles didn't fit properly and looked scrappy. So I removed the metal plates and replaced them with printed paper ones which I glued to thin Plastikard sheet to give them more body, the effect was much improved.

My artwork was for number 12783 which is the only register number known for these wagons, it didn't take long to substitute a "2" for a "3" to produce a different albeit speculative number plate for the second wagon which was then scanned, sized and printed to produce the plate. The smaller plates, "To Carry 10 Tons" were produced similarly ; the tare or weight of each wagon appears on the bottom plank under the "G".

Nos. 12782 and 12783 paired together.



The colour used to paint these wagons is my own interpretation of the G & SW's light grey goods livery. All below the solebar is spray painted, all above is painted by hand, in both cases with enamel paint ; transfers are HMRS Pressfix. A light weathering mix has been airbrushed from below which unifies the colour scheme and helps to tone down the bright white of the transfers and number plates.

Sketchbook page with hand-drawn artwork for number and load plates