Some time ago, I purchased a couple of C=Rail's bulk container packs, one with 40' box containers, the other with five 20' tank containers.

I have built and decorated three of the box containers, with two still being completed (delayed by a bad can of primer that left lumps stuck to the surfaces). These are now awaiting their transfers, plus the locking bars on the white one.

The tank containers were only partly assembled, to make painting easier, before putting all the fiddly bits on. I completed the painting to my own satisfaction, even though a couple of bits are still a little rough. The detailing bits (walkways, tank fillers, ladders, etc.) have now all been added, although, looking at liveries of the real things, I should repaint the red framework one into black. The GCatainer item is the first to be completed properly, although there were only a limited number of images I could find to assist with the positioning of the transfers (which also came from C=Rail). I think it looks reasonable, regardless of the accuracy of positioning some of the transfers.








They are posed here with a couple of C=Rail's professionally finished tank containers, which also gave me some clues as to where some of the markings might be placed.

And these are the previously finished examples of the 40' boxes.

And another tank container with transfers applied, this time for Stolt.

Nicely put together Jeff… Not sure if you've got room for a container terminal on your layout though?! Just through traffic?

Marty

Is that bus in there holding the tanks up? 


[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

And another tank container with transfers applied, this time for Stolt.

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Nicely put together Jeff… Not sure if you've got room for a container terminal on your layout though?! Just through traffic?

Marty

Thanks Marty.
Most of these will be on container wagons, but there are a few 'spares' so I can ring the changes. I'd love to have a proper container terminal but, as you said, there's not enough room, so 'through traffic' it is! 

[user=1710]D_Will[/user] wrote:

Is that bus in there holding the tanks up? 

It looks like it, but the bus is actually several inches behind! That one is actually a new London Buses Metroline Optare Spectra bought on special from the London Transport Museum.

Continuing with the C=Rail containers, I have decorated a couple more of the tank containers, plus a 40' hi-cube container, and finished off a previously started 40' hi-cube one.

Starting with the box containers, I completed the Hanjin one, which had already had the main large side logos and names applied some time ago, I added all the remaining details such as the numbers and end logos and information panels. The OOCL one was just a bare, off-white box! Both still require the locking bars to be applied … unfortunately, I can't find where I have put those at the moment!






Turning to the tank containers, I decorated the Stolt and Seabrook ones. Both are visible just behind the Brisbane City Council Leyland Panthers (resin models from Brisbane's Model Buses), which are another project (I have just added the fuel and water filler detail on the closer bus).

Frustrated by my own lack of motivation in building my London Transport train of 1920 F Stock, I ordered one resin body shell for a single-ended Driving Motor from Radley Models. I still have the older Harrow Model Shop white metal kits to build and one double-ended Driving Motor already built (also white metal). The resin shell was intended to speed the build of one more coach so I could at least run half a train with driving cabs still at both ends. However, having painted the resin shell red with grey roof, and assembled two bogies and an underframe from one fo the white metal kits, that's where it stopped again. All that was quite a few years ago.

I have had a few days off work with a chest infection, but got bored and decided to attempt further work on the single-ended car to bring it up to a stage where it matched the existing "finished" double-ended car. This involved painting black around the window rims and down the door centre divides, plus painting the interior with green (I use Humbrol #88, which has a suitable bluish tint to pass muster), the floor dark earth colour, with plasticard strips hiding any holes, then glazing the lot. All that doesn't sound too hard, except my hands were shaking rather a lot and I had a nose bleed half way through! At least it matched the red exterior colour!

Anyway, after a few trials and tribulations, I only have to glue some of the underframe bits and pieces in place to complete a two car set.




​Next, I have to construct two white metal centre trailers. I'll try not to let it take so long this time.

Having nearly completed the two driving cars for the London Transport F Stock, I decided to make a start on the two trailers. Bearing in mind I am on an antibiotic and a little under the weather still, so my hands are a bit shaky and my stamina is low, I decided to just do little bits at a time,

The two trailers i have are original Harrow Model Shop white metal ones, which means there are three double doors plus four separate sections per side, two halves of the roof joined with a bridging piece (plus the vents to add later), and an underframe that has two extra end headstock pieces to stick on, it is just a little bit more complicated than the one piece resin bodies of the later kits from Radley Models. After that, both types of kit require the underframe details to be added and bogies to be assembled.

With so many separate parts to the sides, I came up with a method long ago that used Blu-tac, a steel rule, a flat, hard surface and 5-minute Araldite glue, plus a modicum of cursing and swearing.

That's jumping ahead a little. For starters, after cleaning up all the relevant bits with a file, I glued the two roof halves to their bridging piece, for each of the two trailers, and left those to set on a flat surface.

Next, I glued the headstock pieces to the ends of the two underframes, while at the same time, gluing two coach ends to each of the roofs and propping those to dry with the coach ends held vertically.

That's where I am up to now. The photo shows the two roof/ends sitting on the two underframes loosely. As you can see, the alignments are perfect.




The sides will be next, and the reason for assembling the roofs and ends is so that I have the correct lengths to work to for the side assemblies. With so many separate pieces to fit and room for small movements relative to each other, it would be quite possible to end up with sides that are too long or too short by a few millimetres.

Following on from the previous post, here is a pic showing the elements that make up each side. On the left I have left the items spaced out, while on the right they are positioned very close to the final effect. You can sort of see what I meant about the possibility of getting it even slightly wrong so making the sides too short or too long, with possibilities of being crooked or with bits out of alignment as well.





The double-ended driving car had two more components per side (the cab side doors), while the single-ended driving car (motor or trailer, depending on period modelled) had one extra door per side - all that is rather academic if you build the resin kits from Radley Models as the body moulding comes with sides, ends, roof and internal partitions as one single casting.

The LT F Stock trailer construction continued tonight. The side and door sections have been glued together and glued to the roofs. Both cars are still sitting loosely on their underframes.

Has anyone ever wondered what the F Stock from 1920 would have looked like if they had been built in aluminium and left unpainted? Well, here you go!






I suppose the next thing to do is to build the bogies and mount them on the underframes. I could also glue the roof vents into position too. 

A curiosity of the F Stock was that those vents proved rather too effective, so were blanked off fairly early in the life of the stock.

There is a small amount of weakness in the centres of the sides, reinforced by the underframes and the tabs and recesses there. Once the interior partitions go in, they will strengthen things further, in spite of the fact that they are fairly soft and flimsy themselves. The whole is stronger than the individual parts.

Sorry to hear that you are crook… nasty things infections and I do hope it clears soon Jeff.
But…you are making some railway progress, albeit shakily… so it can't all be bad :)
1920's F stock eh?… the things I learn from this forum… Nice builds, keep it coming.

cheers
Marty

Thanks Marty. I finished the antibiotic yesterday, now it's a waiting game to see if it has cleared up the infection or if it will hit back again. It has been frustrating.

I like the F stock, and always thought it looked more modern than the following clerestory roofed 1923/27/31/35 stocks (which became part of the Q stock). The complexity of the sides make them tricky to build, at least in the form the white metal kits come in. Not quite as bad, perhaps, as GWR 'concertina' coaches, though. :roll:

:cheers

And now, here they are with bogies assembled and fitted, plus the roof vents in place. The painted bogie was recycled from the double-ended DM when I put a second Black Beetle into it, and needed a little adaptation and packing to get the ride height the same as the others.




Next to do are the interior partitions, couplings and underframe fittings (which are fairly sparse on the trailers).

And today just a few more minor touches: the couplings and underframe bits have been glued on. In this form, it can actually run on the layout, although still incomplete visually.
 

Hope you are on the mend. Those cars are a real labour of love, but the results are excellent. Looking forward to seeing the whole set painted and up and running. There is something fascinating about the underground - I think it is because it is so busy with trains coming every few minutes.

Thanks. I am on the mend, and getting more energy to do the modelling in the evenings after work.

I gave the four-car unit a quick test run and it ran successfully apart from dropping the last coach in the tunnel. That was easily fixed by bending the coupling slightly. It all ran perfectly after that.

Glad to hear your feeing better Jeff :thumbs

When travelling to School in the late 60s, I used to pick up a District Line train which invariably had a 'silver' car somewhere with in it. Sometimes the entire train was silver and at the time I never knew if they were intended to be like that or nobody had got around to painting them red.

I've since found out it was deliberate, but obviously more modern trains than your F stock.


Ed


(PS: totally irrelevant, just thought I'd mention it)

Hi Ed.
The only trains that would have been mixed red and silver would have been the R Stock, with the flared lower skirts. They were in the process of being painted silver, grey or white (steel cars) or returned to unpainted aluminium for the rest in the early 1960s. The reason was to avoid staff confusion with the incompatible but almost identical looking CO/CP Stock, which remained red.

The last of the F Stock ran in 1963 on the East London Line, which gives me a good link to the SR lines at New Cross and New Cross Gate. The East London Line trains were of four cars, which also fits what I have been building!

I keep wondering if I should stick to the 'correct' train red for my F stock, or try for a rather lighter, more faded shade as they were towards the ends of their lives. Having painted the two driving cars LT train red already, I'll have to do the two trailers the same colour first, then maybe work on lightening it a little, perhaps with a little yellow mixed into a matt varnish - experiments may follow.

The two trailers have had a little bit of filler applied to the roof joints, followed by a coat of primer. After removing any rough bits that showed up, another light coat of primer was followed by a coat of bright red (as a good base colour for the train red that will be brush-painted on afterwards.




What this photo also showed up more obviously than before is that the side panel closest to the camera is not straight and needs to be removed and remounted. This demonstrates that taking progress pictures is not only for my own ego in showing off the models, but also a useful tool to show up any little errors or omissions before it's too late to fix them.