This is a rake of ten Bachmann PNA and other than my usual Spratt & Winkle fixed system  between wagons, they are completely standard. The rake includes each style of side reinforcements, five and seven bars.

This rake is an exercise in weathering using ‘Designers Gouache’, which is a water based paint that behaves like an oil based paint. The best thing about these paints are that they mix very well.  You can create depth and texture and if you don’t like your results you can wash it off with warm water. When you are happy with your results you make them permanent using enamel varnish. The only down side – they are a bit expensive for the best brands. I only use six colours!

As well as weathering the outside and underframe, I used this paint on the inside to look like wear and distress. I will eventually add some weathering powders to the inside of the wagons.  I have tried to vary the amount of weathering so that the rake looks realistic.

I detailed these wagons about 25 years ago, before the better Bachmann and Hornby models were available. There is no way I am going to criticise these wagons, as in those days, they were the best we could get and if you wanted something better, then you had to do it yourself.

I have put these on as a separate post because they are an exercise in a form of weathering called ‘dry brushing’. I used Humbrol enamel paints for this exercise. How to do this has appeared many times in magazines and I will not repeat it. In my opinion they still stand the test of time, and still look very much at home on my garage layout.

I did make some basic mistakes when I detailed  them, the main one was I used solid tops to the protectors instead of mesh – sorry. I also added some footsteps on the four corners. The hand brake wheels could also have been replaced with something more scale.

This a rake of five wagons.

This train is completely made up of Cambrian Kits. The train consists of 3 Seahorse, 1 Borail (Mullet) and 1 Salmon. All are very good kits that make up very easily in reasonable time. This is a more recent project, having been completed in the last two years. I used Railmatch Paints and Fox Transfers.

Cambrian have an excellent range of engineers wagons and I can not recommend them any higher.

I sometimes run this train with  two other salmon, each fitted with two hi-abs. These are used to recover rail from the trackside. The Hy-Ab kits were available from Genisis Kits at the time.

In the early 80’s the GEML was being electrified and I used to visit my local station to see the Electrification train stabled in the old goods yard. On one occassion there was a Tool & Mess train stabled there. I thought that it would be nice to model something similar. I took a few photographs and then checked my model stock to see what I could make. At this point I realised that an exact copy of the train was not going to happen, but I could get close. A good supply of Engineers Olive was acquired, then the stock modified.

Considering this was nearly 30 years ago, the models still get good commemts at exhibitions.