B462772

Those of you who attended Warley at the NEC over the weekend might have noticed this wagon lurking under a large pile of advertising material. KR Models (who sponsored the lion's share of the transport cost) are making model Palbricks, for anyone who doesn't have room for a real one, so had their logo all over it for the weekend.

Anyway, for those who prefer their wagons naked, here's a photo of B462772 stripped of display materials and awaiting the lorry move back to the GCR after the show ended last night. Work will continue next year on fitting the rest of the floor and refreshing the paintwork 'down below', and on the load clamps, which would have been done this year but need to be un-seized first. Looking at this photo, we need to do some adjustments to the brake rigging too.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat about 1:1 scale modelling. I met some interesting people from various walks of life over the weekend, and managed to raise some funds for the next stage of the un-rebuild as well. (Talking of which, the side panel edge strips are going to cost around £2k, so if anyone is feeling generous, drop me a PM and we can speed the job up considerably.)

 

Various things conspired to prevent any progress on this vehicle in 2023. Hoping for more luck this year!

We spent the weekend preparing and fitting another 10 floor planks, with only one of the main ones left to do.
9 were relatively straightforward, the 10th was a pig as it needed to be planed to drop in the remaining space which was slightly narrower, but this was complicated by having kept one particularly banana-shaped plank back for just this purpose, so it had to be planed approximately straight, but not quite straight as one of the ones next to it was also not quite straight... anyway, got there eventually. The remaining missing plank will also need planing, but at least we're starting with a straight one!

Note the clamp in the far right corner (same out of shot lower left as well). These are necessary because the bolt holes don't exist in those positions, due to the handbrake mechanism below. It occurred to me as we were bolting those down, that that is probably the first time someone has done that since about 1961...

The wagon will also have some short longitudinal planks in-filling between the triangular end stanchions, but the underframe paintwork needs a refresh in that area first. And the non-clamping end will have planks fitted in due course; these will be painted. I'm still debating what to paint them on the inside (given that originally they probably weren't painted inside, but I don't have any photographic proof) but they'll probably be body colour; since the sides will be body colour inside and out it sort of makes sense.

Following on from the wagon's appearance at the penultimate Warley show in November 2022, and with thanks to KR Models, I have a number of 3-pack sets of OO gauge Palbrick models available for sale; all proceeds to B462772. Please drop me a PM if you're interested.
Images of the models here: BR Palbrick Wagon - KR Models (but they are £60 each plus p&p - that site says £50 but none available).
[Admin please delete this paragraph if not allowed, thanks.]

 

I found a Youtube review of the Palbrick models here: 3 minute review - KR Models Palbrick wagons - YouTube
It shows the lettering in more detail, whereas the previous link I posted to the manufacturer's website just shows the unlettered prototypes.

I could point out that the vacuum dummy bracket is on the wrong side, the triangular end stanchions are the wrong colour on the full-body version, and the match-wagon version shouldn't have a vacuum cylinder (and should have a false-headstock added to extend the wagon 7" at each end)... but I won't. It's still a nice model.