Living in Harrogate, James Smith knows that UKF PWA vans were frequent visitors there and decided to model a few of these distinctive wagons to provide something a little different on his layout.
in partnership with BRM
Right up to 1984 and the closure and demolition of the Harrogate goods yard, UKF vans were still to be seen. This may have been the last time the vans were seen in Harrogate, around June 1984 with 20143 at the head of the train. If anyone can identify the livery of the third van I would be very interested to know more!
To model these wagons, the Lima/Hornby pallet wagon provides a great starting point. Of the four main batches of the PWA prototype, the Lima model appears to be based on the final Procor- built batch from 1975. There seem to be some differences between the various batches but, without proper drawings and plans being available, I decided to keep it simple and employ the
old ‘if it looks right, it is right’ mantra. The first three wagons were picked up from EBay relatively cheaply and I added a couple of etched trusses from Jon Hall through RM Web to backdate a couple of them to represent earlier batches. I didn’t make a lot of alteration to the bodies other than reducing the height and angle of the end stanchions.
I made up my own sheet of waterslide transfers for the UKF and Shellstar brandings as well as TOPS panels with correct wording and solebar lettering which, after weathering, blended in very nicely.
After I had finished the first three wagons, my thoughts turned to representing the original, Gloucester RCW- built batch of wagons with blue vinyl curtain sides and Shellstar branding. In original form these wagons were introduced in 1968 and were all rebuilt with doors by 1971/72 so pictures seem to be a little scarce. There is, however, enough information available online to get an idea of how they looked and my father also trawled through his collection of vintage ‘Modern Railways’ magazines to find a few articles dating from their introduction.
A few ideas for producing the curtain side effect were floated around and tried out until I stumbled across a technique involving tissue paper and plastic rod that seemed to work quite well, and ‘project curtain side’ was commenced. The first step was to remove all the raised door detail from the sides of the vans leaving only the top lip just below the roof line. The triangular stanchions on the ends were also re profiled at the same time. The picture here shows a trial of the ‘tissue paper and plastic rod’ method on some scrap plastic and some colour matching.
