Three-D Modelling for Railways

This is a rather obscure wagon that was converted from a mark 1 coach. It seems to have run in pairs, and there may have only been two of them; image here . It was an experiment by GWR (the modern company), between 1999 and 2005, and seems to have failed as a business. They were later used Network Rail Brake Force Runners, and there are photos of them in that role here . It is not my era, but people were expressing an interest on a thread on the N Gauge forum, and suggested they would be happy to pay, so I had a go. It is a pretty straightforward model, but took me several goes to get it right - in particular to get the height right on the chassis, a Lima BG, but eventually I got there. Two coaches each were dispatched to three gentlemen. The first time I have posted models, and the first time I have posted a parcel at all for a good five years. Here is an early photo back - still waiting for transfers.

I discussed the prototype in a previous post . This was my first successful attempt at printing a loco. The big issue are firstly finding a suitable chassis, and secondly getting your model to fit said chassis... It took me three prints before I got that right. As usual, it was designed in Blender, and is not that complicated a model. It is basically a box, with slightly thinner boxes at each end, and a curved roof. The chassis is a Dapol Hymek, and is no a great match, the class 76 had very long bogies, but it is the best I am going to get, and is acceptable to me. Dapol sell them without the body. For new , it is not great; it is a little temperamental until it gets going, and quite noisy.  The pantographs are from Kato and only a couple of quid for the pair. The windows are "Glue n Glaze", which is great, but there is quite an art to using it. The black version has blobs where I added a little too much, but mostly on the other side! The blue and yellow are Ammo paints, sol...

This is my first try at a loco. My prefered era is ca. 1980, and I am put off doing locos of that time because of the windows - how do you get flush windows? However, I am making a small layout set in Dorset/Hampshire between the wars, so thought a steam engine might be fun. The model is designed to fit a Graham Farish chassis - which I already had - and the prototype was selected on that basis. Details of the prototype can be found here . This image is by Ben Brooks, and on wikipedia, so I assume I am okay to reproduce. This is the model in Blender with details added, but before consideration of the chassis. It is basically a whole bunch of cylinders and cubes, plus one sphere and a few Bezier curves. The trickiest part was where the chimney, steam dome and safety value meet the boiler/smoke box. I accomplished this by extending the chimney outwards a significant way, and then down, and then beveling the corner. I then selected all the vertices at the bottom of the chimney and assigne...

 These wagons were French built and owned by Ermefer, a Swiss company. Their TOPS code was ICX-D, diagram E536. In the UK, it looks like they ran from Harwich to a bottling plant in Telford, Saccone & Speed, carrying Cinzano, but I think they originated from Sète, near Montpellier on the south coast of France, though Cinzano comes from Turin in Italy. Prototype here: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ermeferwine

These were (and I think still are) used to fix the track, getting the ballast right, etc. There were numerous designs and my model represents one that would have been around in ca. 1980. It is not an accurate model; for one thing it had to fit the chassis I had (a Kato). These machines were not photographed much, so that makes it difficult too - but hopefully makes it hard for someone to say it is wrong! From a modelling point of view, this was interesting as I used NURBS to create hoses.

 For about ten years, from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties, ICI used these PNA wagons to transport drums from Runcorn to Willesden. They were divided into three sections, with standard 45 gallon drums in the larger end sections and larger drums on their sides in the centre. I now suspect the drums were covered in a tarpaulin, so may want to address that at some point!

 Based on the ammonia wagon, but adapted to represent a liquid-carrying wagon. And a lagged version. I did the former for a friend, and still waiting to see the result. The lagged version is here: If you zoom in enough, you can see the rivets. I printed eight, and all were missing the bogie pivot at one end, and I am not sure why. It has to be an issue in the design, but I cannot see a problem. I printed out new pivots and glued them on, but now the wheels are rubbing the body, so some further adjustment is required. But they look great! The wet effect where the tar has run down the sides was done using Warhammer paint "Ardcoat".

Just realised I have nothing about these wagons. The reason being they are older than my printer - they were printed out by a friend back in February 2022, a year before I got my own printer and started this blog.  Prototype The prototype wagons were built in 1968 with curtain sides, but there were issues with pallets moving during transport and sticking out the side, and they were rebuilt in 1970-71 with solid sides. They were used to transport fertiliser from UKF's factory in Ince in Cheshire all around the country, until 1993. They were originally built for Shellstar Fertilisers, a subsidiary of Shell, but are best known for the UKF brand. UKF stands for " Unie van Kunstmest Fabrieken ", Dutch for Union of Fertiliser Factories  (and not  United Kingdom Fertilisers !). Later they became Kemira Fertilisers , but that was after the era I am interested in. There were a few variations in liveries in the UKF era, some including the Shellstar logo along side the UKF logo. Cur...

I am a chemist by profession, and so the transport of chemicals by rail is of interest. In fact I wrote an article on the topic, see here . Nitrogen Liquors The appeal for these is in the name, which makes no sense at all if you are a chemist. They actually contained ammonium nitrate, which is a fertiliser used to put nitrogen in soil, which will be where the name comes from, presumably a solution in water, that is likely both hot - given the wagons are lagged - and very concentrated. Images of the prototype can he found here . They are so dirty it is not possible to tell the original colour, but I am guessing green? One end has four flanges; these would have been to allow the contents to be heated using steam. They were printed separately. The wagons have channels down the sides to catch spills. i guess this is to ensure the solution down not end up between the rails, where it could mix with oil to create an explosive mixture. The ladders are brass. The chasses are Peco. Carbon Dioxid...

Here are some "tip-air" wagons, the prototype can be found here . The dry powder is taken out by raising the hopper to an angle of 12° with a hydraulic piston at one end, and then blowing out with compressed air. I designed these some time ago, and a friend has a go at printing them, but there were issues. The first run I did I found they were slightly too long for the base (a Farish PCA wagon). With some adjustment, I think they look pretty good. I did the walkways as separate pieces, and in hindsight would try doing it all in one next time. They do have a diamond pattern visible on them, but you have to look pretty close. The ladders are brass. The transfer were created in InkScape, and might be a bit overscale. They were stressed before printing to give a faded effect. There is an interesting image of the prototype here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/27033094837/in/album-72157668581940828