WAGON LOADS 1

DIFFERENT LOADS FOR WAGONS  

Due to a surplus of empty wagons I began to look around at other objects I could use as a load. I didn’t want to fill them with coal or gravel or any other bulk minerals. I wanted to reflect the multiple variations that could be found on the railways in the late 1940’s and on. Looking at some of our club`s back issues of Modelling Magazines showed that a wide variety of items were transported by rail before the advent of heavy haulage road firms 

My first stop was at Hobby Junction in Dorval to look through the various items on offer for HO gauge modelers, I found two interesting packages from Chooch Enterprises #7221 and #7229 “Coiled wire loads for gondolas “ which looked like reasonable propositions. One is coiled wire bundles set upright and the other has the bundles laid horizontally. In the package is a simulated wooden platform printed on the backing cardboard that can be cutout and used as a base. In my case I have saved this for other projects.

I took them home and compared the overall length against an empty wagon and found that the gondola load lengths could be cut into three individual sections that would each fit an empty 00 guage wagon. It should be noted that the length can be varied to suit whatever sized section is needed

After cutting the loads into three sections I drilled out the upright bundle cores to resemble the hollow interior using a 1/8 pilot drill and stepping up the drill size until I was happy with the resultant holes. I also trimmed the load base edges and painted them to resemble a wooden support platform

Having recently purchased an air brush and been given lessons from a fellow BRMCM member I applied various weathering colours until I achieved what I considered an acceptable finish.

 A set of wagons with private owners identification that were compatible with the product were selected and the loads installed , some adjustment was made for fit and appearance before applying double sided tape to the bottom of the coiled wire loads to ensure they would not lost in transit or use.

This was my first attempt to introduce different loads when compared to the standard loads offered by the manufacturers and /or other suppliers and has led me to create  several other wagon loads of various types