Up beat about collaborative blues...

The history of the Lochdubh branch remains a little fluid at present but one of the long held ideas was not the clichéd whisky distillery, instead an aluminium smelter fuelled by a hydro power scheme...

On the West Highland alumina imported at Blyth in the North East found its way to the smelter via train in a variety of wagon types - one of which were a rake of refurbished ex Whisky blues. These wagons were given pedestal suspension, revised top loading arrangements and airbrakes. Whilst the aging Peco wagon outwardly looks similar, it runs on a vacuum under frame. 

On the Lochdubh branch I would envisage a mixed rake of alumina hoppers, including these and some of the Procor replacements - more on that shortly.

A few months ago I was approached by Will at Coventry Rail Works about giving him a hand promoting his a range of new N gauge wagons developed around his personal interest in the West Highland. Rather than a 'paid promotion' I offered to design the decals in return for a short rake of pre-production kits - and the results are shown here.

The Peco wagons are still crisply moulded and Will's parts offer a direct replacement of the top moulding (with better roof walkways and 4 circular loading hatches in place of the longitudinal doors), chassis moulding and a new piece, under the frames representing the bottom of the hopper. On my examples I have removed the Peco moulded 'advertising' hoarding using a sharp blade and file.

I have also fitted Mosskito 6.2mm diameter 3 hole disc wheels and DG couplings - which are a direct fit onto the Peco end inserts that poke through the under frame. I used Humbrol 25 for the blue which I think is a good match to the prototype and they have been fitted with the pre-production samples of the decals I designed. These are all from photos on Paul Bartlett's excellent website, so the numbers match the body and under frame style.

The prototype weathered a little curiously, the framing seeming to be lighter than the panels between. I pre-shaded the primed models with a white spray to the framing. After the decals were sealed with lacquer I used my usual washes of Humbrol 98 and 33 to bring some depth and life to the finish.

The most visible improvement to the un-initiated is the hopper door that plugs into two holes in the chassis - and theoretically could be offered as a spare part for retrofitting to existing Peco wagons, that are all deficient in this area!

If you would like to purchase your own examples, the conversion kits (excluding the Peco donor model, DG couplings and Mosskito wheels used here) are available on eBay. Will has done a great job of these, his skill as a designer and manufacturer of kits shouldn't be any surprise as this is a side hustle to the day job of Beacon Models, specialising in small scale aviation models. I enjoyed collaborating here, and I hope we can work together again on the Procor hoppers in the coming months. In the meantime, I'm enjoying seeing this short rake on Lochdubh and day dreaming of the 'one day' project to build a larger scenic model of somewhere between the terminus and the Far North line at Dingwall.

Until next time, more soon...

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