Loads

LOADS.

As indicated previously, various loads were carried in HWO/HWOS wagons.  Steels loads are easy to make.

 

 

In this wagon the steel sheet is styrene sheet cut to size and painted with gun metal. Pigments were used to add some rust.

 

 

 

The steel rod bundles were made from Evergreen styrene rod. Most are .040”, one bundle of .035”. A few bundles of angle were also done to make a mixed load. All were painted gum metal, pigments were used to add some rust. Dunnage used to separate bundles of steel is 4” x 4” hardwood. I used 4“ x 4” Evergreen styrene cut to size, about 4’ long and painted brown.  Most steel wagons had loose dunnage laying around on the floor and old car/truck tyres. The tyres in these loads are off my old Matchbox cars I had as a kid. The axle/hub centres were drilled out with my cordless drill. They were painted black mounted on a skewer.  

In the Sep - Oct 2016 issue of MainLine,  Rod Tonkin has an article on “Building Material Size”, this gives a run down on steel sizes and lengths.     http://nmra.org.au/mainline/index2015.html

Auscision Models have suitable loads for Open Wagons for about $ 20.00 per single wagon. These include “H” Frame (New or Rusty). Wire, Pipes (Silver, Yellow, Black), and Telegraph Poles.

Evergreen Scale Models offer a verity of structural shapes in channels, “H”– Columns, “I” – Beams, Angles, Round Rod, Round Tubing, Square/Rectangular Tubing and strips. Most hobbies have a stand with the various sizes in each type. Cost can vary from store to store somewhere between $ 7.00 to $ 10.00 a packet.  

 

This wagon is loaded with Roof top vents made by Rix Products Stock # 628-0610.

 

 

This wagon has a load of concrete pipes, Evergreen # 234 - 7/16” Tube was cut to length using a razer saw and a mitre box. They were painted concrete and added to the wagon. One packet will give you a load for one wagon with most of the second tube in the packet left over. This could be used with tube of a different size for a mixed load. Note the tyres at each end to stop longitudinally movement during travel.

All these loads can be easily removed and can be exchanged.    

Loads covered by Tarpaulins.

The loads were made from styrene sheet and off cuts.

 

 

The 1982/1989 General Appendix shows general freight traps are 6 700mm x 5 200mm.                     

I made a template from styrene sheet to make it easy. I make most of my general freight tarpaulins from Lipton tea bags. After making a cup of tea, I wash the bags out in the sink. The tea bag is placed outside in the sun to dry out. Once dry the staple at the top is removed, open the seam with care and remove the tea. Using the template I cut two tarps out. I was using a fine black felt pen and cut around the line. However the black line is hard to hind during painting. Lately I just cut around the template. The centre is marked on the traps in a couple of places in pencil. I also mark a centre line on the load so the trap has equal overhang on both sides.  

The trap is placed over the load and tacked into place with a drop or two of super glue. I let is dry before attaching the trap to the sides with super glue. Using a tea bag the super glue will soak through paper onto the styrene load. I use super glue as some of the other types of glue will distort the styrene over time. Allow the super glue to dry before folding the corners into place. The ears should be folded back across the wagon ends, but you will find some that were folded back along the sides, this was much easier than across the couplings if you were on your own. I won’t talk about a windy day, I’m sure you can understand the fun we had. If there is more than one tarp covering a load, consider must be given into the wagons direction of travel. Over laps should not be allow to balloon up during travel. The leading tarp should go over the top of the tarp behind it, In other words the rear trap goes on first and work towards the leading end of the wagon. Contractor with mix loads would place the traps to suit the various heights of the load to stop water entering, if the overlap was the wrong way around, ropes over the tarps near the overlap would be used to stop ballooning.

 

These tarps were painted with Vallejo acrylic paint # 70.915 deep yellow. This is the first time I have used this paint for traps. The colour didn’t cover the black felt pen marking. A light grey was used to paint out the lines, then covered with the yellow, a few coats were required. In some cases, the black line on the covered trap is still showing. The stain in the tea bag add a nice weather effect.

Tarps are secured to wagons with rope called ratline. I think they are more trouble than they are worth on a working layout. After a short period of handling they all come off, so I left then off. On the Modelling the Railways of Queensland Convention website in downloads there is a copy of my presentation on tarpaulins from the 2012 Convention http://qldrailheritage.com/mrqc/downloads.html. The presentation covers various materials used to make tarps and other references.

 

This wagon is a load of empty stubbies, two pallets high. ARHS Sunshine Express reported HWO’s 39546 and 39544 conveyed empty stubbies from Roma Street to C.U.B Cairns on the 14^th April 1979. 

 As an experiment I have added trap numbers. A few moons back, a colleague by the name of Mr. Ken Edge-Williams made some home printed decals for my WH grain wagons. The decals have not made it to the grain wagon yet. Thus, the number are for the mid-sixties and not the correct for the era. From 18” the number are not visibly anyway.  Vallejo # 70.510 gloss varnish was apply to the traps, when dry the decals were added. After the decal set another coat of gloss was applied over the decals.  To finish off the painting, the traps were given a coat of Mr Hobby water based acrylic flat clear H 20. I would normally stick with the same brand of paint, but the Vallejo Flat clear had been sold out. One tarp on both wagons were given a wash of dirt using Fatigue Green pigments. Just a bit of fun to see how it looks, I let you judge if I have made a rod for my back.    

 

 This wagon had a coat of Vallejo # 70.522 satin varnish applied to the tarp to give a PVC look. The wagon is modelled on a Hiles contract wagon with a mixed load for Warwick. More on the contract train 6678 will be in the next blog. A few more loads are needed to complete the train.  

The wagons were lightly weathered using an airbrush with Vallejo Model Air # 71.133 Dirt, Game Air # 72.762 and AK 723 Dust.

 

 

 

The HWOS was weathered using Doctor Bar’s Scale Consortium Industrial Weathering Pigments. I have had these for a number of years and purchased them from Rails in Scale at a Sydney Exhibition. The following colours were used Brownstone, Dry Fresh Rust, Light Rust and Fatigue Green. The Pigments were applied with a wet (water) brush and allowed to dry. A dry stiff brush was used to remove excess pigments. Areas around the doors was added by dabbing pigment with a fine wet brush and let to dry.   

 

Trust you enjoy, please yell out if you have any questions.     

Arthur Hayes.