AKFX Wagons and Scratching Round Here and There

So during the last week, there has been a rather large collection of photos shown on some facebook sites of NSW and other state’s wagons at Kyogle and Acacia Ridge in particular and some of these had some AKFX wagons loaded with rail.  Well, I did some digging and found out that the AKFX started out as an SAR SGMX (4 letter code) wagon.  It also appears that this wagon is very similar to the WAGR WOAX.  I have 2 WOAX wagons in traffic and I could use them as a template for making one, or two or maybe three AKFX wagons which I started building on New Year’s Eve late afternoon.  

I was going great guns until I worked out on Tuesday afternoon that I needed some 0.030” x 0.030” styrene to help construct the end bulkheads.  Well I thought that there would be no shops open selling styrene on New Year’s Day, so I went to the next best thing – Raymond!  Of course he had some.  Lefty dropped a packet into my letter box at 7:00am in the Wednesday morning when he went to the local shops for the paper, and probably a nice cream bun for morning tea.

Upon a second look at the model, and some of the photos that had been posted, I thought that 0.020” x 0.030” styrene would make better end wagon ribs, so I jumped into using that size styrene which I also had.  I did this on New Years Eve (Tuesday night) before I saw an email response from Raymond.  

Early on New Year’s Day we went to Ikea for breakfast along with every other person in Brisbane.  My main aim was to check out some low stools to sit on for the shed, slide in wire baskets for my storage trays, some low steps to help see the top level of the layout, and maybe anything else that I could use the Shed.  The current wire baskets they are selling do not match the size that I have already got in use.  Who changes these things?  Anyway when I got home, I decided to cut up some 3mm MDF and make a shelf in my storage tray holder.  I cut these up and then decided to put another piece of 3mm MDF on the top of these trays.  Now I can store something on top as well.  I will eventually get around to gluing these in place to stop them from moving, but that is a task for another day.

So on New Year’s Day, I completed the second AKFX wagon.  Both wagons run pretty well on the tracks.  So late on New Year’s Day, I put the first wagon through the paint shops.  I had some green paint, so I gave it an all over covering.  On late Saturday afternoon I hit the green with my Frosted Glass and it came back from being like a toy to a more like a weathered model.  I then hit the wagon with some Yellow Oxide, Indian Red and Matt Black from my $2.50 can supply and the wagon has come up a treat.  These colours were painted from about 700mm away from the model and the wagon has received a very light dusting and it looks like a nicely weathered model.  So I started work on running the second wagon through the paint shop on Saturday afternoon.  It has received it’s green base coat.  But that is as far as it got.  I will complete the third AKFX wagon at an upcoming modelling night.

On Saturday morning, I did a round of the hobby shops.  I picked up some styrene from Austral Modelcraft and two lengths of 12mm track from Aurora Trains.  So when I got home, the two lengths of track were installed in Clapham Yard tracks 7S and 8S giving a 900mm long sidings, and the existing track from those sidings has been consolidated into Clapham Yard track 6S, giving about a 550mm long siding.  So all have now been lengthened and are now ready for use.  I will get around to adding some toothbrush bristles to these tracks to ensure that wagons don't run away when left there.

After lunch I decided to start running a few trains.  First was the narrow gauge shunt from Clapham Yard to Acacia Ridge Yard.  One of my new wagons, had had its couplers raised by the addition of some metal washers above the bogies, as is coupler height was too low.  The next train was the steel shunt from Rocklea Sidings back to Acacia Ridge Yard followed by an engine run around.  I did some maintenance on a set of points that had previously given me trouble in track three at Acacia Ridge Yard.  I added a power jumper to one rail and soldered a fishplate to ensure power was not a problem with this set of points.  I then added some check rails to one rail on a curve in two locations using some code 83 rail I had lying around.  This was super glued into position.  One length of checkrail was about 30mm long and the other was about 50mm long.  Running the shunt loco back and forth through this location produced no issues.  I then added loads to the ballast train that I was to run next.  But I pulled up stumps as it was quite hot in the shed and the cricket was back on TV.  I will resume running trains in the timetable next weekend.

On Sunday My plan was to make a small stool out of some 90mm x 45mm pine I had laying around in the shed.  I layered two lengths on top of each other and then put some 12mm ply on top to stand on.  So these create steps that are just under 200mm high.  Just like a bought one and at no cost.  The first step is about 650mm long.  The next two are about 430-450mm long each.  I've given then a quick test and are OK to use.