Monday, 27 June 2011

Blue, Orange and Black - and two discoveries

The article on model railroader on "Switching Fun" illustrated it's puzzles and techniques with wagons of contrasting primary colours; on the real model they would be distinct liveries, although possibly not in the primary colours.  Garden Railway Specialists in Princes Risborough then decided to have their 20-20-20 sale: 20% off second hand stuff for 20 days from 20th June.  So, it was out with the plastic once more and three distinctive wagons were ordered.



Ebay had in the meantime what appeared to be another bargain wagon, although whilst it had a German name in the advert it is in fact an American reefer.  And thus on the first discovery: a long wagon on a small layout will cause trouble.  The Schlitz reefer is 415mm long, compared with the 300mm of the three previous wagons.  One of the very useful tips from the article (and the book on modelling freight yards) is to ensure that your sidings can take the longest wagon/coach that you have on your layout.  The Picture illustrates the difference.

Whilst setting up this photo shoot I also discovered that the patio isn't level (something which had never really occurred to me before): enough of an incline for the Leikeim wagon to start to roll towards the lawn (the white blob near one wheel is a small piece of white tac to keep it in place).  Given that I intend to do most of my passings loops etc, at right angles to the direction of this photo shoot then I'm hoping it won't be too much of an issue.

I've got another black Leikeim wagon and orange Cardinal wagon coming, so the bits where they have to be "delivered" are going to have to be at least two wagons long. To add to the impact I'm already thinking of some low relief model fronts to represent the breweries.  Seems like beer wagons prove popular in Germany.   Not sure what other colours of wagons I will add yet: probably depends upon what comes up on ebay and what appears second hand in the shops.   White, Green and Red are obvious choices.  

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