Build a Wagon Competition - changes for 2018 including scratch built models

A downside of presenting an "annual" award to the winner of the 2015 competition is that there has to be another competition in the following year... and the next year... and the year after that... which leads to the announcement of the 2016 Covered Wagon competition. The idea is to build a 7mm kit, to S7 standards, for a prototype covered wagon which ran / runs on track to one of the following gauges:-

* 4' 8 1/2";
* 5' 3";
* 7' 0 1/4".

The chosen prototype is to be a covered wagon for revenue service, have either four or six wheels and with a total wheelbase of less than 21'0".

Judging of entries is to be at the 2016 AGM which is to be held at the Warley MRC clubhouse.

So what prototypes are eligible... and what are not? These prototypes are eligible for the 2016 Covered Wagon competition:-

* wagons for general merchandise;
* wagons for the carriage of bagged minerals (for example:- salt, cement, gunpowder);
* wagons for the carriage of perishables (for example:- meat, fish, fruit, vegetables).

and these prototypes are not eligible for the 2016 competition:-

* wagons with hoppers and / or bottom discharge (for example:- covhops, grain, presflo);
* wagons for the carriage of livestock;
* wagons for departmental and / or internal use.

S7 Group members can read about the 2016 competition in the current S7 Newsletter, NL101.

Any questions please contact me either by PM or by this topic.

regards, Graham

Ooh, I think I'll give this one a go - I have a van kit kicking around that I need an excuse to build.

Is there a limit to the amount of kit bashing that can be done?

Pugsley said:

I have a van kit kicking around that I need an excuse to build. Is there a limit to the amount of kit bashing that can be done?

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Good idea Martin, one less Shelf Queen. Just watch the wheelbase... must be 21'0" or less. The purpose of the competition is to encourage people to build something from a kit, as long as the result can be seen to have its origin in a kit then there is no constraint on how the kit is assembled / altered / finished... provided that the model fits within the rules.

The judging of entries is meant to be "blind" in that the Judge does not know who built which entry... so asking here if kit "A" or prototype "B" is acceptable is not a good idea - if you wish to ask such questions then please PM to me and I shall reply in similar vein.

regards, Graham

Dog Star said:

The judging of entries is meant to be "blind" in that the Judge does not know who built which entry... so asking here if kit "A" or prototype "B" is acceptable is not a good idea - if you wish to ask such questions then please PM to me and I shall reply in similar vein.

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Cheers - I've suitably edited the type of wagon from my post - could you do the same with yours please? That way it remains a mystery (although it'll be fairly obvious which entry was mine in any case, I think!)

Wheelbase is 20' 9", so a full 3 inches to spare

Incidentally. what was the thinking behind the wheelbase restriction? It's potentially unfair to us air braked stock modellers - I couldn't enter a VGA for example (29' 6").

Pugsley said:

... what was the thinking behind the wheelbase restriction? It's potentially unfair to us air braked stock modellers - I couldn't enter a VGA for example (29' 6").

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You might think that drafting a set of rules for something as simple as "build a kit" would be easy... no sir! There were some amusing questions about which Peco wagons were appropriate for the 2014 competition (and what were the S7 standards for those kits?) and some equally amusing questions as to what constituted an "open" wagon for the 2015 competition. So for 2016 we have tried to set some rules which constrain the choice of prototypes to give a level playing field - the introduction of rules relating to number of wheels and total wheelbase is an attempt to keep the prototypes within the "wagon" world (there are some interesting four wheel covered vehicles which are more appropriate to a NPCS category).

And before you ask... your covered twins that you have been designing / building over there are not eligible at the moment because the pending kit is not available generally. However, if you do produce a set of parts for the IZA then you could enter the resulting model in any future scratchbuild competition on the basis that the model is entirely your own work.

I'd figured that the Twins were excluded from the competition as they're not a commercially available kit, not to mention the fact that they also have a wheelbase of 29' 6" or 73' 2" depending on which way you wanted to look at it!

@Dog Star how many kits need to be available to constitute a commercial kit?

BrushType4 said:

]how many kits need to be available to constitute a commercial kit?

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Martin @Pugsley is designing a 3D model of a covered wagon and he intends that the 3D model is to be used to produce a corresponding set of parts. If Martin assembles the model himself then I feel that the "kit" of parts can be considered as either a scratchbuilt model, because Martin has done all of the work, or as a kit because his "set of parts" looks just like any other supplier's "set of parts" at the start of the build. I am aware that the Princes Risborough MRC has a laser cutter and that one of the members has been producing a "kit" for open wagons... if there was a "kit" for a covered wagon that otherwise met the rules of the competition as of today then models built from that kit are eligible.

So, one, seems a starting point - albeit maybe there is an easier way of entering the competition.

PM me if you want to discuss further.

regards, Graham

This is supposed to be a competition to build a four wheeled covered wagon yet some four wheeled covered wagons are deliberately excluded? A great big smoking hole in the foot, in my opinion. I want a VsomethingA for the little layout and would build it for the competition.

If you put too many restrictions you cut the interest and thus loose the oportunity to encourage some practical model making.
Why the restriction to standard and broad gauge? I know a few folk who are modelling the narrow gauge and use S7 track standards adapted to the gauge, why exclude them?
Let's simplify the whole thing, last years rules were too wordy, and despite the column inches devoted to it in the NL, missed out the fact that it was to be an open wagon. My entry was all ready until the day before the AGM when I discovered it had been in an earlier edition.
Ian.

SimonT said:

I want a VsomethingA for the little layout and would build it for the competition.

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As long as that something is A to E, you're OK

So a 4 wheeled covered wagon up to 21 foot wheel base top scale 7 width of track, seems easy, what the problem?
or can you have an open wagon with a tarp?

Ian G

When I first saw the title I thought of this-

These are covered wagons and almost certainly standard gauge and certainly ran on tracks, although 'rails' were only included in heavily trafficked areas. I think covered wagon is the only term used to describe these road going wagons, at the time a covered railway wagon would have been called a covered truck (could be a canvas tarpaulin over it or a solid roof) or a van.

I think the word 'van' needs to be added to the rules if that is what is wanted. As I read the rules at the moment I could enter a Highland railway fish wagon if I add a tarpaulin over it. I don't think that is the intention.

Overseer said:

... a Highland railway fish wagon...

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Now that is neat. There is much to like in your photograph especially the stone wall behind the green vehicle.

Dog Star said:

Now that is neat. There is much to like in your photograph especially the stone wall behind the green vehicle.

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Thanks, but that wasn't quite the response I was expecting. The Newsletter arrived today with the definitive statement "and with a roof which is attached permanently to the wagon body". So the HR fish wagon would be excluded.

The wall is just scribed das on a plywood base with a wash of ochre water colour to represent aged mortar then each stone painted with water colour paint. The layout is based on (inspired by) Findhorn, on the coast east of Inverness and the building still exists next to the piers. Findhorn is located on a sand spit so all the stone was brought in from a number of quarries around the area, each with different coloured sandstones, hence the lack of uniformity. After a comment or two at the first exhibition about the funny coloured stone I now have photographs of some of the buildings in Findhorn on hand to show people - they are still multicoloured but toned down a bit by 140 years of weather since the 1870s period the layout is set in. The real Findhorn Railway only lasted 10 years before closing in 1870. And the loco should be the Neilson box tank (still unfinished after 20+ years) rather than the visiting George England exile from the Sandy & Potton Railway.

The embargo on publishing photos of wagons to be entered in the competition means those of us living further away don't get to see what is being built by other S7 Group members until after they are finished. This is the van that I might enter in the competition, if I was to be attending the AGM, but that is not on the cards so I can show progress so far. It is a Freightman SR van kit, bought from Dikitriki last year. The kit came without a roof or underframe so I am making them and using an Exactoscale sprung underframe unit. The solebars are riveted and folded from brass sheet, the internal members have been folded but still to be formed and fitted. The plastic mouldings are quite nice but show their low volume production technology origins. I think the plank grooves are too shallow to represent the pronounced chamfers on the planks on the prototype - it is one of the distinctive features of the vans so a P cutter has ben used to increase the depth of the grooves and a scalpel run along to achieve the 45 degree look. More tidying up still to be done. I haven't decided whether to smooth the face of the planks, maybe not as it will be useful for representing wood grain showing through towards the end of its life.






I know this isn't the latest in high fidelity kit but I think it will turn out well, and capture the character of the distinctive prototype.

Hopefully there are lots of vans under construction which will be entered in the competition. It will be good to see them ….

Very nice Fraser, thank you for sharing your photos. Progress so far shows that the basic body is worth the effort, I shall look forward to seeing the finished model.

Hi,

Nice to see Fraser having a super-detail go at this. Like Graham, I think the Freightman kits still stand up very well with a bit of judicious extra work.

Here's some of the Heyside contingent, and I am more than happy with them.



Richard

Less than ten days to go...

I shall not be present at the AGM, something to do with Bernie Ecclestone and the F1 calendar causing Le Mans dates to be later this year and we had booked tickets before the last AGM. Ian Roll (@Railwaymaniac) is "Master of Ceremony" for the competition and shall be pleased to be inundated with entries.

If you intend to attend the event and might be considering taking a camera, please take oooodles of photos of the wagons before judging and of the presentation of the Chairman's Cup so that I can illustrate the report in a future group newsletter. Contributions are welcome from any WTer even if not a S7 Group member.

Of course, those who enter models can forward photos to me via the WT-PM route... after the competition and before the end of June please.

The subject for the 2017 Wagon building competition is to be announced at the 2016 AGM and there is a possibility that an announcement may be made about subjects for the 2018 to 2021 competitions.

thanks, Graham

I can confirm that the member from our club producing a SR open wagon with the laser cutter, is also producing an uneven planked SR van with the laser cutter along with a 3D printed roof, he has also made one of these in 3D print SR Specially constructed wagons - Lowmac SD Flatrol ZVR ZXR | DS61107 ZVR [1]

Ian G