oldravendale
Western Thunderer
What an absolutely splendid present! Tinplate isn't my "thing" but I can certainly appreciate the attraction.
Brian
Brian
Rivermead Central
- Thread starter 40057
- Start date
A bit of time spent on the Benham’s warehouse over the last couple of days.
First, the lead flashing along the top of the canopy. I made this of heavy-gauge paper (165g/m2). I was concerned the paper would cockle when painted, so soaked and stretched it first. It behaved and strips were glued in place yesterday to represent flashing:
I have now also added the coping to the top of the wall behind the canopy:
The coping is wood and it is secured by countersunk wood screws vertically down into the wall. Also glued. I hope the strength of the joints will resist any attempt by the canopy or coping to warp. The building is essentially made of wood, so warping is a risk — but the material is appropriate for Rivermead Central, in keeping with the approach used for model railway buildings in the first half of the 20th century.
First, the lead flashing along the top of the canopy. I made this of heavy-gauge paper (165g/m2). I was concerned the paper would cockle when painted, so soaked and stretched it first. It behaved and strips were glued in place yesterday to represent flashing:
I have now also added the coping to the top of the wall behind the canopy:
The coping is wood and it is secured by countersunk wood screws vertically down into the wall. Also glued. I hope the strength of the joints will resist any attempt by the canopy or coping to warp. The building is essentially made of wood, so warping is a risk — but the material is appropriate for Rivermead Central, in keeping with the approach used for model railway buildings in the first half of the 20th century.
As the weather was suitable today, I took the Benham’s warehouse building outside and gave the top of the building a light spray coat of matt varnish. I am very happy with the result:
I am particularly pleased with the slates which are impressed into a sheet of plywood, but after painting look really convincing.
So, some weathering needed on the coping. Fit the doors (already made). Make and fit the windows. Add the railings to the ends of the loading platform. Then it’s done.
I am particularly pleased with the slates which are impressed into a sheet of plywood, but after painting look really convincing.
So, some weathering needed on the coping. Fit the doors (already made). Make and fit the windows. Add the railings to the ends of the loading platform. Then it’s done.
Weathering done! I think (hope) all the painting is complete on the Benham’s warehouse. It still needs doors, windows and railings fitted, but now looks like this:
Since Saturday, weathering added to the coping and roof. I am happy with the result. As modelled, it will not have been an old building — but in an industrial setting and next to a railway, the atmosphere will have been continuously smokey, so soot staining won’t have taken long.
The back is not detailed but I don’t like untidy work, even where it can’t be seen. So it’s painted and neat, but with no representation of bricks etc:
The ‘shutter’ is in place behind the middle window aperture. It’s painted black on the inside so that is what will be seen through the window (see image above), instead of the blue painted wall of the room. There are shutters for all the windows.
Since Saturday, weathering added to the coping and roof. I am happy with the result. As modelled, it will not have been an old building — but in an industrial setting and next to a railway, the atmosphere will have been continuously smokey, so soot staining won’t have taken long.
The back is not detailed but I don’t like untidy work, even where it can’t be seen. So it’s painted and neat, but with no representation of bricks etc:
The ‘shutter’ is in place behind the middle window aperture. It’s painted black on the inside so that is what will be seen through the window (see image above), instead of the blue painted wall of the room. There are shutters for all the windows.
Onwards with the Benham’s warehouse!
Doors now fitted:
Also, started on the windows:
The frame is from LCUT Creative, to fit the apertures in the panels used in the building. The glass is, well, glass. My late father was a microbiologist and I found these large-size microscope slides when we were clearing his shed. They are certainly old, possibly actual antiques. Anyway, I kept them for exactly this purpose.
Not much to do now to get this one finished.
Doors now fitted:
Also, started on the windows:
The frame is from LCUT Creative, to fit the apertures in the panels used in the building. The glass is, well, glass. My late father was a microbiologist and I found these large-size microscope slides when we were clearing his shed. They are certainly old, possibly actual antiques. Anyway, I kept them for exactly this purpose.
Not much to do now to get this one finished.
Two windows installed in the Benham’s warehouse:
(Sorry about the indifferent photo — taken indoors in poor light.)
That’s the left-hand end of the building actually complete. There is a black painted board about an inch behind the windows, but in the above photo it is the reflection in the glass that is mostly visible. I do prefer the use of glass to represent glass. As it has a truly plane surface, the glass in the model windows reflects light in the same way as real windows do.
(Sorry about the indifferent photo — taken indoors in poor light.)
That’s the left-hand end of the building actually complete. There is a black painted board about an inch behind the windows, but in the above photo it is the reflection in the glass that is mostly visible. I do prefer the use of glass to represent glass. As it has a truly plane surface, the glass in the model windows reflects light in the same way as real windows do.
David Waite
Western Thunderer
Those windows look magnificent so beautifully fitted.
David
David
Thank you, David. I take that as a great compliment, coming from you.
Distractions. Others on WT have commented on how easily modelling activities can be diverted away from the intended priority and onto some other task. In this case, I have been distracted by the arrival in the post of some spare wagon wheel-sets. These will allow a wagon that has been wheel-less for many years to be put back into service. It’s a super wagon, pre-WW1, and was a birthday present from my wife when I was a lot younger than I am now. Finally, I have found some spare wheels of the type the wagon had when new. Now, at last, it can be complete again — and I’m just going to get that job done ASAP.
So this brings me to tinplate wagons. Nearly every toy and model railway between 1900 and the 1960s had tinplate wagons. Given the aim of Rivermead Central is to create a vintage style model railway using preserved historic model railway equipment, tinplate wagons are something I must have. They won’t look right alongside the more scale models built of wood and metal, thus I intend to have alternative sets of rolling stock. Then, some days, Rivermead Central can be operated using tinplate rolling stock, some days using vintage wooden/metal scale models. There will only be five or six sidings for wagon storage on the completed layout. Around 25 wagons will be enough for an interesting operating session, but not fill the sidings, so that’s about the number I need to have.
Before coming on to the particular wagon now being re-wheeled (in a later post), some introductory comments about the range of tinplate wagons sold by Bassett-Lowke in the 1909–1914 period. These wagons were designed by Henry Greenly and made by the Nuremberg firm Carette (see my post #55), exclusively for sale by Bassett-Lowke. Arguably, this series of wagons were the finest tinplate wagons ever made. The quality of the artwork and lithograph printing of the bodies is outstanding. The printed bodies were assembled using the well-known ‘tab-and-slot’ method. The W-irons however were attached to the solebars by soldering to allow the wheel-base to varied, depending on the prototype. The solebars (and whole under-frame) therefore could not be lithograph printed, but was painted. However, litho-printed tinplate strips were clipped to the face of the solebars to provide detail. Roofs, where present, were painted.
The range of tinplate wagons listed by Bassett-Lowke just prior to WW1 was extraordinary. I doubt if any modern manufacturer could equal it. There were numerous different types of open wagon and covered vans. But also specialist vehicles including rectangular and cylindrical tanks, bolster-twins, brake vans, bogie loco coal and trolley wagons. The wagons have serial numbers which are included in the lithography. The numbers run from 1341 to 13449. On an 0 gauge wagon, the serial number appears as 134X - 35. The ‘35’ signifies the gauge — 0 gauge then being measured between the centres of tinplate rails, 35 mm. With one exception, all the types of wagon made were offered in 0 gauge. Nearly all were also made in Gauge 1. About half, those introduced first, in 1909, were additionally produced in Gauge 2 versions. Just considering the 0 gauge vehicles, there are a lot more than 48 different models. The serial number 13413 was used for a private-owner mineral wagon. This carried a fictitious livery, ‘Bassett-Lowke’. In 1909, this wagon had a red coloured body. Then there were grey and black versions (I’m not sure which came first) which had the same lettering, just a different body colour. Finally, shortly before WW1, the artwork changed with ‘Bassett-Lowke’ now on a diagonal stripe and an overall brown body colour. These four distinct wagons, produced successively, each had the serial number 13413. Serial number 13425 was used for a covered van with a yellow-coloured body. Three types were produced each with an appropriate suffix added to the serial number: 13425BL was a private-owner van belonging to Bassett-Lowke (fictitious); 13425M was Colman’s mustard, and; 13425S was for Colman’s starch traffic. Additional to these clearly different models using the same serial number, there were variations in running number. Many of the models introduced in 1909 were numbered ‘1909’. Popular types were reprinted as further production was required. Some models introduced in 1909 are also found numbered 1911 and, say, 1912 and 1914. Lots of scope here for collecting variants and trying to get ‘a set’, if that is your interest.
To start at the beginning, the serial number 1341 was used for an LNWR brake van:
The serial number is on the solebar. This, obviously, is not the wagon waiting for wheels! Indeed, the wheels I have just obtained are not the type this wagon will have had fitted originally. This van, I’m afraid, is sat in the queue of wagons awaiting repair. It illustrates some points about finding wagons of this age suitable for use on Rivermead Central. The condition is not too bad — some chips and scratches to the paintwork and lithography, but no serious corrosion. Both headstocks are pushed inwards around one of the buffers, presumably by a rough shunt sometime in the distant past. These wagons are built of quite thin gauge tinplate and are often badly rusted around the W-irons where the acid flux was not completely cleaned off after soldering. So there is an inherent fragility and, I’m sure, was no intention by the manufacturer to design the wagon for a working life of more than 100 years. The litho printing is effectively not restorable. The roof could be repainted — but I certainly won’t be doing that for the van pictured above. That’s a pretty good roof — much, much better than most. The wheels currently on the above brake van are Carette, but later than the van and refitted on non-original (? Hornby) axles. This highlights another issue. The original owners of these Carette-made wagons are all dead. The wagons that come up for sale now haven’t emerged from someone’s attic following the death of an elderly relative who had them as a child. These wagons have, almost always, been in someone’s collection — and often show signs of previous repairs or restoration attempts, not always expertly carried out.
The wheels were a definite weakness in the design of the Carette-made wagons. The early production was fitted with wheels pressed from sheet metal. Later wagons were fitted with cast lead alloy wheels. My experience is the vast majority of these Carette-made wagons no longer have the original wheels. I think that is because the wheels really were not very good. They were commendably narrow, but surviving wheel sets almost invariably have wheels that are way out of true, and often the axles are bent where the axle was splined to provide grip for fixing the wheels. These issues are so generally present, I think they are manufacturing faults, rather than damage in use. Probably to address such problems, a previous owner of the above brake van has removed four cast lead Carette wheels from their axles (easily done) and pushed them onto some different axles where they are free to turn independently. In fact, the above brake van should have the pressed sheet-metal type of wheels. I have no spare sets of these, so it will have to wait.
That will do as a general picture of the Carette-made Bassett-Lowke wagons. I will get back now to the wagon I am at last able to fit with the correct wheels, and report on that in a future post.
So this brings me to tinplate wagons. Nearly every toy and model railway between 1900 and the 1960s had tinplate wagons. Given the aim of Rivermead Central is to create a vintage style model railway using preserved historic model railway equipment, tinplate wagons are something I must have. They won’t look right alongside the more scale models built of wood and metal, thus I intend to have alternative sets of rolling stock. Then, some days, Rivermead Central can be operated using tinplate rolling stock, some days using vintage wooden/metal scale models. There will only be five or six sidings for wagon storage on the completed layout. Around 25 wagons will be enough for an interesting operating session, but not fill the sidings, so that’s about the number I need to have.
Before coming on to the particular wagon now being re-wheeled (in a later post), some introductory comments about the range of tinplate wagons sold by Bassett-Lowke in the 1909–1914 period. These wagons were designed by Henry Greenly and made by the Nuremberg firm Carette (see my post #55), exclusively for sale by Bassett-Lowke. Arguably, this series of wagons were the finest tinplate wagons ever made. The quality of the artwork and lithograph printing of the bodies is outstanding. The printed bodies were assembled using the well-known ‘tab-and-slot’ method. The W-irons however were attached to the solebars by soldering to allow the wheel-base to varied, depending on the prototype. The solebars (and whole under-frame) therefore could not be lithograph printed, but was painted. However, litho-printed tinplate strips were clipped to the face of the solebars to provide detail. Roofs, where present, were painted.
The range of tinplate wagons listed by Bassett-Lowke just prior to WW1 was extraordinary. I doubt if any modern manufacturer could equal it. There were numerous different types of open wagon and covered vans. But also specialist vehicles including rectangular and cylindrical tanks, bolster-twins, brake vans, bogie loco coal and trolley wagons. The wagons have serial numbers which are included in the lithography. The numbers run from 1341 to 13449. On an 0 gauge wagon, the serial number appears as 134X - 35. The ‘35’ signifies the gauge — 0 gauge then being measured between the centres of tinplate rails, 35 mm. With one exception, all the types of wagon made were offered in 0 gauge. Nearly all were also made in Gauge 1. About half, those introduced first, in 1909, were additionally produced in Gauge 2 versions. Just considering the 0 gauge vehicles, there are a lot more than 48 different models. The serial number 13413 was used for a private-owner mineral wagon. This carried a fictitious livery, ‘Bassett-Lowke’. In 1909, this wagon had a red coloured body. Then there were grey and black versions (I’m not sure which came first) which had the same lettering, just a different body colour. Finally, shortly before WW1, the artwork changed with ‘Bassett-Lowke’ now on a diagonal stripe and an overall brown body colour. These four distinct wagons, produced successively, each had the serial number 13413. Serial number 13425 was used for a covered van with a yellow-coloured body. Three types were produced each with an appropriate suffix added to the serial number: 13425BL was a private-owner van belonging to Bassett-Lowke (fictitious); 13425M was Colman’s mustard, and; 13425S was for Colman’s starch traffic. Additional to these clearly different models using the same serial number, there were variations in running number. Many of the models introduced in 1909 were numbered ‘1909’. Popular types were reprinted as further production was required. Some models introduced in 1909 are also found numbered 1911 and, say, 1912 and 1914. Lots of scope here for collecting variants and trying to get ‘a set’, if that is your interest.
To start at the beginning, the serial number 1341 was used for an LNWR brake van:
The serial number is on the solebar. This, obviously, is not the wagon waiting for wheels! Indeed, the wheels I have just obtained are not the type this wagon will have had fitted originally. This van, I’m afraid, is sat in the queue of wagons awaiting repair. It illustrates some points about finding wagons of this age suitable for use on Rivermead Central. The condition is not too bad — some chips and scratches to the paintwork and lithography, but no serious corrosion. Both headstocks are pushed inwards around one of the buffers, presumably by a rough shunt sometime in the distant past. These wagons are built of quite thin gauge tinplate and are often badly rusted around the W-irons where the acid flux was not completely cleaned off after soldering. So there is an inherent fragility and, I’m sure, was no intention by the manufacturer to design the wagon for a working life of more than 100 years. The litho printing is effectively not restorable. The roof could be repainted — but I certainly won’t be doing that for the van pictured above. That’s a pretty good roof — much, much better than most. The wheels currently on the above brake van are Carette, but later than the van and refitted on non-original (? Hornby) axles. This highlights another issue. The original owners of these Carette-made wagons are all dead. The wagons that come up for sale now haven’t emerged from someone’s attic following the death of an elderly relative who had them as a child. These wagons have, almost always, been in someone’s collection — and often show signs of previous repairs or restoration attempts, not always expertly carried out.
The wheels were a definite weakness in the design of the Carette-made wagons. The early production was fitted with wheels pressed from sheet metal. Later wagons were fitted with cast lead alloy wheels. My experience is the vast majority of these Carette-made wagons no longer have the original wheels. I think that is because the wheels really were not very good. They were commendably narrow, but surviving wheel sets almost invariably have wheels that are way out of true, and often the axles are bent where the axle was splined to provide grip for fixing the wheels. These issues are so generally present, I think they are manufacturing faults, rather than damage in use. Probably to address such problems, a previous owner of the above brake van has removed four cast lead Carette wheels from their axles (easily done) and pushed them onto some different axles where they are free to turn independently. In fact, the above brake van should have the pressed sheet-metal type of wheels. I have no spare sets of these, so it will have to wait.
That will do as a general picture of the Carette-made Bassett-Lowke wagons. I will get back now to the wagon I am at last able to fit with the correct wheels, and report on that in a future post.
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michael mott
Western Thunderer
I am enjoying the ongoing education that you are providing about this early stage of our hobby. I spent many an afternoon playing with the more modern versions of these tinplate models at a friend’s house.
Michael
Michael
Thank you, Michael.
I think these early tinplate models are wonderful objects. I guess when they were new it would have been appropriate to judge them primarily on the criterion of how accurately they portrayed the real wagon they represented. That’s essentially what most modellers do for models made today. But now I feel age, historic context and scarcity has made these 100-year-old wagons ‘things’ in their own right. They don’t just exist as miniature copies of full size vehicles, they have their own history and importance. They can be studied and appreciated both for what they are and for what they were intended to represent.
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
All very interesting.
Although the locomotives and rolling stock are not to scale by today's standards it does show how the hobby has developed over the last century alongside materials science and manufacturing methods.
The models in a way act as a colour archive as they provide us with a guide, with tolerances for accuracy, to the liveries and lettering used by the various railway companies - especially the private owner wagons commissioned (for advertising?) by companies at the time with prototypical liveries.
In their day when new the early models would have had the 'wow' factor by being some of the smallest and possibly relatively affordable working models at the time. Providing children (and adults) something closely representing to what they would have seen running on the railway as a matter of course in the period.
Although the locomotives and rolling stock are not to scale by today's standards it does show how the hobby has developed over the last century alongside materials science and manufacturing methods.
The models in a way act as a colour archive as they provide us with a guide, with tolerances for accuracy, to the liveries and lettering used by the various railway companies - especially the private owner wagons commissioned (for advertising?) by companies at the time with prototypical liveries.
In their day when new the early models would have had the 'wow' factor by being some of the smallest and possibly relatively affordable working models at the time. Providing children (and adults) something closely representing to what they would have seen running on the railway as a matter of course in the period.
Those spare wagon wheel-sets received in the post a few days ago (see my post #129). Three wheel-sets (ie. three axles) for the wagons made by Carette and sold exclusively by Bassett-Lowke. All three of the type with cast lead alloy wheels. I am not sure when these replaced the earlier type of Carette wagon wheel-set, with wheels made of sheet metal. There would be no reason for a change of manufacturing process to be mentioned in catalogues or advertising. One possibility is the cast wheels were introduced with the new wagons added to the range in 1911.
Anyway, as received, all three of the wheel-sets had at least one wheel badly out of true. So much so, that none of them was useable. The wheel castings are generally not terribly round. Someone had tried to make one of the wheels a bit more round, using a file — spoiling the wheel in the process. I decided one wheel was fine as it was, but the others would have to be taken off their axles. This is easy to do by lightly tapping the end of the axle with a hammer. That done, I could proceed with straightening the axles and choosing the best wheels to make up two useable wheel-sets.
The axles are chemically blackened steel, splined to provide fixings for the wheels:
The upper axle in the photograph shows a common problem. There is a kink in the axle where it is splined at the left-hand end. I’m very sure this is down to the manufacturing process, not damage in use, because it is such a consistent fault. In fairness, I have a couple of these Carette-made wagons in really excellent condition which I am sure have the wheel-sets that were fitted at the factory during manufacture. Holding these wagons in the air and turning the wheels by hand, there is a visible wobble on most wheels. However, the wagons run perfectly well. Sure, if you rest a finger on the roof and push the wagon along, there is a very slight regular rise and fall caused by the eccentricity of the wheels. But it is hardly noticeable. Somehow, the unevenness of the wheel castings, the bent axles and the out-of-true wheels cancel each other out and the wagon runs smoothly. For use on tinplate tracks, laid on the carpet, these Carette wheel-sets are more than good enough.
I still don’t like wobbly wheels. Very unrailway-like. So I straightened the axles.
The wheels themselves have six spokes and are commendably narrow — much ‘finer’ than the Bassett-Lowke wagon wheels made in the 1920s and ‘30s. As found today, the wheel castings generally appear the colour of lead. When new, I believe the wheels were black. I am not sure if the black coating was a chemical treatment or a thin coat of lacquer or similar, but on close examination traces of black are usually still present:
I think the black coating is/was paint that has not adhered well to the lead alloy. But compare, for example, the wheel rim and the spokes in the top photo. And the slightly depressed areas in the casting around the rim. Something was used I am pretty sure to colour the wheels black(ish). Occasionally, Carette wagon wheel-sets turn up with much more obviously black painted wheels. This paint might have been applied by the model’s owner. Or it could have been applied at the factory and survived exceptionally well. And not all wheel-sets were necessarily made the same. We will never know.
As I wanted two matching wheel-sets for my wagon, I used a thin wash of black paint on those wheels that had little black colouration left:
The near wheel on the right is ‘as found’. Very definitely it has a black coating. Both wheels on the left-hand wheel-set were given a wash of thinned black paint.
Wheels done. Wagon body next.
Anyway, as received, all three of the wheel-sets had at least one wheel badly out of true. So much so, that none of them was useable. The wheel castings are generally not terribly round. Someone had tried to make one of the wheels a bit more round, using a file — spoiling the wheel in the process. I decided one wheel was fine as it was, but the others would have to be taken off their axles. This is easy to do by lightly tapping the end of the axle with a hammer. That done, I could proceed with straightening the axles and choosing the best wheels to make up two useable wheel-sets.
The axles are chemically blackened steel, splined to provide fixings for the wheels:
The upper axle in the photograph shows a common problem. There is a kink in the axle where it is splined at the left-hand end. I’m very sure this is down to the manufacturing process, not damage in use, because it is such a consistent fault. In fairness, I have a couple of these Carette-made wagons in really excellent condition which I am sure have the wheel-sets that were fitted at the factory during manufacture. Holding these wagons in the air and turning the wheels by hand, there is a visible wobble on most wheels. However, the wagons run perfectly well. Sure, if you rest a finger on the roof and push the wagon along, there is a very slight regular rise and fall caused by the eccentricity of the wheels. But it is hardly noticeable. Somehow, the unevenness of the wheel castings, the bent axles and the out-of-true wheels cancel each other out and the wagon runs smoothly. For use on tinplate tracks, laid on the carpet, these Carette wheel-sets are more than good enough.
I still don’t like wobbly wheels. Very unrailway-like. So I straightened the axles.
The wheels themselves have six spokes and are commendably narrow — much ‘finer’ than the Bassett-Lowke wagon wheels made in the 1920s and ‘30s. As found today, the wheel castings generally appear the colour of lead. When new, I believe the wheels were black. I am not sure if the black coating was a chemical treatment or a thin coat of lacquer or similar, but on close examination traces of black are usually still present:
I think the black coating is/was paint that has not adhered well to the lead alloy. But compare, for example, the wheel rim and the spokes in the top photo. And the slightly depressed areas in the casting around the rim. Something was used I am pretty sure to colour the wheels black(ish). Occasionally, Carette wagon wheel-sets turn up with much more obviously black painted wheels. This paint might have been applied by the model’s owner. Or it could have been applied at the factory and survived exceptionally well. And not all wheel-sets were necessarily made the same. We will never know.
As I wanted two matching wheel-sets for my wagon, I used a thin wash of black paint on those wheels that had little black colouration left:
The near wheel on the right is ‘as found’. Very definitely it has a black coating. Both wheels on the left-hand wheel-set were given a wash of thinned black paint.
Wheels done. Wagon body next.