Consett 56t Ore Wagon Build x 9

delticfan

Active Member
I've been fascinated with the Consett to Tyne Dock Ore Wagons for years, I even had a silly idea of scratch building a rake using plastikard but thought better of it. Fortunately John Firminger produced a kit - great I thought I'll have nine! so over a 3 year period I bought them. The nine big red boxes have been staring at me for over a year, the possibility of working from home recently could have been an ideal opportunity but just my luck I was told to keep going to work - drat! I got going with one and although the kits are straightforward enough there is a lot of bending and to be honest once you've done a bit coming back to do the same bend on another wagon a few weeks later you forget how to do it. The answer has been to batch build and so far I'm enjoying it, it's quick doing the same part nine times or 18 in some cases. Anyway here's the progress to date and I thought if I shame myself into doing it on here I might keep going and do it more swiftly. I've got the Finney 7 W1 sat waiting to be built so I need to get these things finished first.co1.JPG
 

delticfan

Active Member
I made a bit of progress on wagon 2, soldered the centre section to the frame and the nuts for the underslung air tank frame. Partly through trial fitting the hopper insides the length of these needs to be spot so that the end bulkhead sits at 90 deg to the frame, a bit of filing required to trim off about 0.5mm and the insides fit perfectly. I'll get this wagon complete to diagram 1 of the instructions then move onto wagon co2.JPG number 3. Its a pity one of these wagons never made it into the national collection they must have been scrapped about the time the NRM was opened in 1975 - great shame...
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Its a pity one of these wagons never made it into the national collection they must have been scrapped about the time the NRM was opened in 1975 - great shame...

It's a moot point (and with my academic historian hat on there is something to be written about large item collection policy at the NRM as it's an interesting and unusual case), but in terms of UK wagon development they're a bit of a dead end. They followed a European model, built in tiny numbers for a very particular purpose and flogged hard. And that's interesting, but is it the way the NRM thought when it was founded? They were pretty quick to get the HAA they'd had designated, but I can see that this was a different case, not least because it was 40 years later.

Whether this was the way that collection development was thought about in the '70s is interesting - as you probably know, stuff is nominated for preservation as part of the collection. There's an overview of current policy here: Managing the National Collection and Gifting the T3

Anyway, this musing is irrelevant to the - ambitious - project you're working through. I know it's been done before in 4mm several times as I've seen the results (a member of the Norwich club built a couple of rakes from the Dave Bradwell kit in OO and the same kit in P4 for Blackgill). Good luck!

Adam
 
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delticfan

Active Member
I need to find a nice person to build me a MOK 9f, I think I’ll be done in after these 9 are finished, seriously though it is a fun build and I like the batch build principle at least I’m fixed at 9 and no more. Knowing my luck Heljan will bring out a rtr version. I know John Firminger offers a rtr version but being a tight Yorkshireman I’m doing it the hard way.
I suppose the NRM not going in for preserving these wagons was not surprising, I remember as a kid in York being disappointed at the ancient exhibits they had, Western Fusilier and the APT broke the mould but to me it was all too old. Thanks for the interest, if you like I’ll keep posting a few photos as things progress.
 
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