There have been lots of centenaries marked in this blog. In
a forgotten siding at Froissy (the ‘little train of the Upper
Somme’) Jim Hawkesworth snapped this abandoned WD wagon. One
hundred years ago, the wagon was taking supplies to the Army in the trenches.
In this very area , the British Army was waiting anxiously
for a German attack. They knew it was coming, but not where or how. The people involved,
their worries, most of the 60 cm railways which served them have all gone, but these mute and
aged witnesses remain.
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| A WD class D wagon without a side waits on a siding at Cappy, Haute Somme. Photo taken by Jim Hawkesworth 1990 |
Perhaps these 100 year old wagons have something to teach us
in the modelling community. To truly appreciate the passage of time, we should
try to live more in the present. By this I mean enjoy everything and escape the concept
of ‘waste-of-time’. Try to shake off the idea that being time-poor is somehow
to be materially rich.
For example, ‘time-poor’ people look for meal replacements not real food.
Too often, people entering our craft are looking for the equivalent on their
scale railways. Yes, meal replacements and convenience foods have their uses.
Ready-meals have appeared in the Wright household.
I have never tasted a true ‘meal replacement’ but they have
been marketed for years, a staple of old-folks-homes and hospices. Rachel Joyce describes the experience of
consuming a ‘nutritional milkshake’. These have hopeful names like strawberry,
butter-scotch and vanilla but their colour gives the game away. They are all a shade
half-way between beige and pink that has no name except possible ‘blush taupe’.
They are a chore, to be consumed without pleasure.
In contrast, consider a simple fruit, a peach. You may wonder what is so special.. Real food has the
potential to surprise or disappoint. A peach has non-standard colour,
shape and a little ’give’ to the touch. It has a well defined crease and a
dimple where it was once attached to a tree. It has a smell. When it is cut,
the juice runs out. It dares the most careful eater to consume it without
coating his/her chin in pulp. It has flavour, sometimes delightful, sometimes
not. When it is eaten, there remains a glorious stickiness.
The same applies to even the simplest of things, boiling a
kettle. You could on the one hand, flick a switch and let your super-convenient
device supply you with water at exactly 100 degrees. On the other hand, you
could watch as the water travelled up to boiling point. At room temperature, water appears
stationary. The French and the Chinese have terms for liquid as it starts to heat up –
in French étincelant; the Chinese see 'fish eyes' in the water. At the simmer, the French say frémissant,
a Chinese poet describes water as ‘pearls from a gushing spring’. At a full boil, the French term is a gros bouillons, the Chinese say
‘galloping waves’. Are we perhaps missing something when we just flick a switch, walk away and come back when the job is done?
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| Coal tipper wagon in HO scale produced by Roco International ref 4335a |
In the same way, there are
plenty of instant products for the modeller in a hurry. I am not decrying them.
Pictured above is a lovely HO Roco wagon produced with painstaking attention to detail.
It is, of course, exactly like every other Roco side-discharge tipper wagon reference 4335a .There is a place for this quality on any
railway of this scale. But if a railway consists merely of a circle of proprietory track
surrounded by ready-made buildings on which run locomotives and wagons straight
from neat boxes, there is no individuality, no hopeful travel and no sense of
owning the end result. All you have to do is transfer your money to the right
quarter and then open the box. Isn’t this the equivalent of swigging down your
Soylent Green instant lunch at your desk?
Many modellers may fear the alternative, which is making up
a kit. They then miss out on a chief joy of the 16mm craft. A high proportion
of available wagons and accessories are only available in kit form. The fact is, we aren’t the large market that is typical of,
say, HO. The techniques of mass production are very often not practical. Whatever the
reason for being drawn to 32mm or 45 gauge, the charm was not the vast range of
readymade stock available.
Most
kit suppliers take pride in the customisations possible – early, middle or late
versions of a prototype railway. The original wagons were adapted, botched and
cannibalised. They were bought up by different orgaisations and used in new places.
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| Wrightscale 16mm WD bolster on Wrightscale WD bogies. The bolster was used for carrying long loads such as timber. Something similar was used to carry lengths of prefabricated track. Phot MD Wright |
Making up a wagon is risky. Your first painful effort
involves time, materials and the chance of many things going wrong. The
end-result may be a wagon which compares poorly to the professional model, especially
if it is a first attempt. For many of us, this is uncomfortable. We have been
taught to avoid risk. Yet taking a chanc may bring its own rewards.
We are pleased that over the years, we have coaxed thousands
of 16mm society members to consider Wrightscale WD bogie kits. On studying them, a
fabric of history gradually unrolls. A lot was expected of these bogies. Two
had to support a load of up to ten tons, on rough track without derailing. What
is more, they had to be produced in their thousands within a few months.
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| Wrightscale WD 16mm bogie kit based on a 1917 prototype; long side-frame, short side-frame, end-frames and centre with pin to support one end of a wagon body. The wheels are Binnie Engineering curly-spoked. |
As you get to know the components, you can see how these
engineering problems were solved. The rivets are not mere decoration; parts
were welded when this was sensible. Rivets and welds turned standard lengths of
channel steel into sturdy frame members. Those chunky springs above the
axle-boxes earned their keep; without serious springing, the bogie would be
upset by rough track. The brakes, operated by prominent brake-wheels were
essential to safety under trench conditions. Central to the bogie is the
‘pin’, the link with the wagon body which allowed parts to swing independently
where necessary. A trench railway was sinuous at best. In fact, a nice straight
line would be a gift to enemy gunners.
Most of all, let’s face it, hands-on modelling is a chance
to overcome failure. Look on mistakes as part of the experience. Indeed,
trouble-shooting is a valuable life-skill. There is no better achievement than
looking failure in the eye and watching failure blink first.
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| 16mm model of a WD covered wagon made by Jim Hawkesworth. It set on WD bogies. It has sliding doors; adaptations were used as ambulance wagons. |
