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F5 and F8 both started life as Lehmann
# 94016 flat wagons as in the photo on the left.
The work involved in giving a German style toy wagon a more Australian
identity is not that great, starting with correction of the asymetrical
chassis. I slice two chassis in half and join the "like" ends to
give a "short" and "long" symetrical version of the chassis. This
first step is common to all my Lehmann conversions, not just the flat wagons.
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This photo shows F 5 before painting and F
8 before work commenced. F 5 has had the side sills and three of
the stake pockets removed from each side while buffers made from push pins
and thumbtacks, styrene springs and axleboxes and handbrake constructed
from brass strip have been added. While it is not a scale model of
an actual Tasmanian vehicle, is reminiscent of some of the earlier flat
wagons employed on the Emu Bay Railway. The three photos below show
the completed models.
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The two photos of F8 below show it with and
without the firewood cradles that I constructed from styrene and brass
strip based on this photo by E Thomas, on Pg 30 of the 1st Edition of Lou
Rae's "The Abt Railway",
of Baldwin No 5 at Queenstown in 1898. I originally made four of
them, but one got lost in the garden..... such are the hazards of
Garden Railways! Since that happened F5 normally runs with the cradles
and F8 with the stakes. |
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The photo above was taken at Rosebery on the Emu
Bay Railway during the mid 1950s and is used courtesy of Tom Rogers,
the photographer's grandson. It shows an interesting collection of
flat wagons carrying cars. Before the Murchison Highway was completed in 1963 the Emu Bay Railway was the only link between Guildford and Rosebery, and transporting cars, buses and trucks, and their occupants, was a lucrative traffic for the EBR.
FF 16 started life as one of these, an LGB
#42690 C & S Flatcar.
The container holders were removed, along
with 3 of the stake holders each side and a buffer beam was added with
styrene. Pushpin buffers, hook and vacumn pipes and a coat of RVR
standard grey and FF 16 was in service.
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The LGB # 40770 Disconnect Log tucks were not altered but were
given a "rust and old wood" colour scheme. The metal portions
of the model were painted with a dilute mix of Tamiya Dark Brown and Isocol
alcohol, while the timber portions were done in Tamiya Medium Grey and
Isocol. The whole lot was then dry brushed with Tamiya Buff and then
treated to a dilute wash of Aqueous Hobby Colour 343 Soot and Isocol.
A little airbrushed Tamiya Dark Earth finished them off.
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The RVR has six of the Bachmann mine wagons, which have been
modified to resemble wagons that were used in the construction of the Hume
Weir.
The underframes have been extended and modified to resemble
the steel I beam underframes of the prototypes, while the bodies have been
heavily woodgrained and distressed with sandpaper and had bracing added
from Florists wire. The timber has been painted to represent heavily
weathered timber and the ironwork heavily rusted.
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The photo above comes from the article by Peter Charrett
on the Hume Reservoir construction that appeared in
Light Railways No 23, Autumn 1968
and which was later reprinted in
"Rocky Bluff to Denmark"
Light Railway Research Society of Australia
1986.
The article features a number of photos of these interesting vehicles
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The most recent conversions of the Bachmann side tippers bring the
RVR's total in service to 6
This vehicle is the Lehmann end platform
brake van
and has been rebuilt to resemble TGR 4 wheel
brake van D 6, (which disappeared from the register in 1881 or 1882, fate
unknown). Of course, as we now know, it was sold to the RVR and gave
many years of service, eventually being rebuilt along the lines of the
more modern TGR vans, albeit still with 4 wheels!
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D 6 has undergone alteration to resemble what
a rebuilt D van may have looked like had it survived and been rebuilt
along the lines of the DBs. Major body modifications were one with
styrene, oil lamps constructed from styrene tube and push pins and it has
been fitted with the RVR standard pushpin and thumbtack buffers.
It is painted in a similar shade of red to the colour the TGR use prior
to the introduction of the green livery in 1936.
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