Thursday, 28 August 2025

Wagon Works - Coal Wagons and Van...

Coal Wagons

Removed the couplings and the drop-in coal wagon loads...

Swapped out the wheels, with some new ones...

Trial fit of the new couplings with some low tack glue to get the positioning right.....

Fixing up the coal loads... broken edge fixed and glueing some loose coal bits back on ( some black paint to add when the glue is dry...)

All finished with the new couplings, ready to run ....

The Van ...
this is a LGB post van, which had been 'weathered',  but the weathering didn't look right.  I thought a clean-up and a repaint would suit it.... taken apart....
repaint in progress - olive green and pale brown/earth interior...
For the roof I added two ventilators and gave it a coat of mid-grey.. and then re-assembled
This van will be part of my maintenance train.

Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Wagon Works - Flat Wagon...

 The newly arrived flat wagon form a recent cheap job lot was first into the wagon works...

The cable reel and covered oil drums were only lightly stuck on, so they were easily removed
The bogeys removed, these are nice and will go in the spares box...
I was going to replace the bogey's with some spare LGB ones I have, however when I inspected the flat wagon deck carefully I found it was warped and twisted slightly and uneven by about 10 degrees between the ends. - Its wooden construction had obviously got damp some time in the past - not worth saving - so into the scrap box it goes.

At least the bogey's were saved to use on something else and I've got myself two wagon loads as well.

Friday, 22 August 2025

Incoming to the wagon works...

 A couple of Ebay purchases, an Accucraft brake van

plus a good cheap priced job lot of 5 weathered wagons  - ore wagon, two coal wagons, a bogey flat and van..


For now I've put the van out on the garden layout to sit in the bay platform of the station.
All the newbs will pass through the wagon works for repair/repaint/couplings as needed in due course.

Sunday, 17 August 2025

Sunny Sunday (13) - the Bagnall gets a run.... ....

After a month or so of having muscle problems with my left shoulder, I'm finally able to move properly so some light duties today cleaning the garden railway track.

The track cleaning loco finally gave up the ghost today - its is defunct etc.... 😢  Well it is the 13th Sunny Sunday post, so I'll accept some bad luck 😕 So it was back to using my trusty track rubber on a broom handle and a light workout for 20 minutes to get the track clean.

So with the track clean I hooked up the track power controller and got the Bagnall 2-8-2 out for a run....

pulling a bogey van and 3 carriages.


A nice long run for the loco and its train; I enjoyed sitting on the garden bench and watching it run round. On picking up the loco to put it away, the '13 effect' struck again 😡  The smoke box assembly at the front of the boiler came away... an emergency visit to the loco repair shop resulted.  The glue had dried out and a thin bit of plasticard had snapped - thankfully some contact adhesive and superglue had things back in place. 

Sunday, 10 August 2025

Sunny Sunday (12) - Tram loco and goods train ... ....

 The run of sunny weather is great for train-time; another spell in the garden enjoying running a train.....







Sunday, 27 July 2025

Sunny Sunday (11) - tipper wagons ... ....

I made best use of the nice weather this afternoon to run a goods train with my tipper wagons (old Hartland Loco Wagons, with new wheels).


Sunday, 6 July 2025

Sunny Sunday (10) - short mixed train ....

 After a week or so with a nasty summer could/virus; finally caught up with the gardening; so today I enjoyed the summer sunshine, sitting on the garden bench watching a train going round .....