By TAC Foley
Although the WHR has at least five, maybe more of these ex-SAR ballast wagons in service, as yet there is no mass-produced 16mm scale model, although the teeny scales seem to be well-catered-for. Lacking anything at all in our scale, I decided to scratch-build my own version of the composite riveted/welded wagon – the reason being that it would give me practice for a rake of five or six to haul behind my Accucraft Beyer-Garratt, a loco that really needs a serious train behind it to justify its existence
A drawing of a low-sided version was used to get much of the detail, and, of course, the many excellent photos on the WHR website. Being an imagery analyst and photogrammatist meant that scaling and measuring from the photos were easy. Having a few spare Accucraft arch-bar trucks hanging around helped, too, I have to admit, although to be honest, anything would do until some brave soul makes a proper SAR narrow gauge truck. Bachmann archbar trucks or USA Trains Bettendorf cast trucks are fine. Swift Sixteen also makes some fine cast resin trucks, but as my aim was to keep the cost down as much as possible, spending £25 per wagon on trucks was not a priority, bearing in mind that I’d eventually need six sets….. Construction…….was simple and very basic, as I had decided early on the make the sides out of a laminate of 1/16th balsa sheet and styrene – Photo 1.
Photo 1:
Strength and lightness all in one were achieved very easily. Bearing in mind the very basic nature of the wagon, a simple but strong chassi/frame was made out of scrap wood strip – I have a LOT of scrap wood strip from many projects…See Photo 2:
Photo 2
Next, the sides were erected, and reinforced channel made up from stripwood, since I didn’t fancy spending almost £2 for a piece of plastic strip….see Photo 3
Photo 3
Lots of bits and pieces here – many shaped and rounded to simulate the heavy-duty hinge fittings. One of the few bits of scrap styrene angle was used as the ‘locking latch…See Photo 4
Photo 4
Photo 5 shows the complete body – well, almost complete – with stripwood sill-tops, and more scrap angle alloy used to reinforce the end corners – rather like the real thing.
Photo 5
It was at this point that I decided to use a load of rivets to give the surface texture more interest than a plain ol’ all-welded structure – this will, however, be the only one like it, any subsequent models will be ‘all-welded’. Grab-irons and fine-scale nuts/bolts/washers came form Phil’s Narrow Gauge in the USA, and are of scale appearance, meant for his range of 1/20.3 Denver & Rio Grande freight cars and work cars. See Photo 6:
Photo 6
Photo 7 shows the simple but strong construction of the whole wagon.
Photo 7
Adding the Brandbright brake hoses and Accucraft couplings to match my Beyer-Garratt, plus a brake wheel that just happened to be lying around completed the vehicle, and yes, I know that the real wagon has a novel-looking ‘crimped’ style brake-wheel. Trying to make one look like that ended up in deep frustration and a very strange-looking object that just wouldn’t do, so I settled for ‘round’ instead. Rivets – actually nuts/bolts/washers if you look hard enough, came from the vast range of Ozark Miniatures. We spend a lot of time in USA and Canada with other train friends, and manage to stock up on all we need during our travels there.
A reasonably-realistic ‘load’ was made by layering some granite chips – actually from my stock of rail ballast – onto a false base to give an appearance of a near-filled wagon – you can do whatever you like, even to installing a bicycle rack in one, just like the WHR have, should you feel like it.
Here it is before some gentle weathering….see photos 8 and 9:
Photo 8
Photo 9
…and here it is with some fairly heavy sign of having been used…see Photo 10:
Photo 10
The usual methods of weathering apply – nothing fancy – a wash of various shades of grey/black and the applications – with a large brush formerly used to apply extra beauty to Mrs tac – if such a thing were needed (looking over shoulder), and that’s it.
I know that it’s not an exact replication but then, why should it be? All I have to go on are a few photos after all. Sure, it could have been better, and trust me, the next few will be. After all, this was a trial run, done on the cheap – something that we can all applaud. Do I have a build ethos? Well, yes, I do, and like me, it’s simple, and needs no elaboration. Here is tac’s method in all its lack of glory –
1. Have an idea of what you want to build firmly in mind.
2. Start building it, and carry on until
3. it looks like what you have in mind, then, stop building it.
Further pictures of the finished model are shown below:
Text and photos by TAC Foley