Behind The Iron Curtain

I know I said I wanted to get the Tamper finished before I started a new project, but I couldn't resist any longer. I've been itching to tackle this monster for months...



It's the WHR's Romanian-built ballast wagon, and a very sophisticated bit of kit it is too, capable of spreading its load in three directions (not at all at the same time, though).

I appreciate the title is a little behind the times but even twenty years on from the fall of communism in eastern Europe I can't help thinking of countries like Romania as very distant and exotic (in a grey sort of way) and off limits. Now, of course, they're in the EU.

Anyway, onto the model.

When I built the ex-SAR wagons I started by making the frames before the hoppers. This time I've chosen to do the opposite, mainly because the hopper is such a complex shape and getting it right is going to be the key to making the model look convincing.

I'm fortunate to have a set of general arrangement drawings for the wagon which is going to be an immense help.

Because we're going to be running our ballast wagons loaded on Bron Hebog I'm taking the opportunity to use some formers to help get the angles right and give the hopper a bit more strength.

Here they are laid out as a kit of parts...



And glued together...



The hopper on the wagon is divided into two compartments, allowing the loads in each half to be spread differently in the same run, which explains the positioning of the formers in the middle.

Then I added in the first of the angled pieces at each end.



I can't help feeling that this wagon is going to seem more like a 3D geometry puzzle than a modelling project at times.