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Gauge 3 – good news and bad news

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The bad news is to do with my steam-powered locomotive. I took it to my friend’s house to have its boiler “hydraulic test”, which it failed spectacularly.  A hydraulic test is when you fill the boiler up with water, put it under pressure, and see if it leaks.  I had high hopes of this, after all it had run on compressed air.  My friend Warwick Allison clearly had high hopes also, but when we tried it, water leaked out all over the place – from the regulator fitting, from the front boiler plate, from the top of the backplate, possibly elsewhere.  “I think it’s a ‘boiler off’ job”, said Warwick’s son-in-law (Andrew, who is a boiler inspector).  When air leaks out, you cannot see it.  When water comes out, it is very obvious!

Clearly a fairly major setback, but I always knew this could be a major undertaking.

The good news is progress on a fourth G3 wagon.  This is a long flat truck, and model of the Midland Railway D336 single-plank wagon, the kit coming from Peter Korzilius.

As you can see, the basic construction is out of wood – “mahogany stripwood” (a little  ideologically unsound?) with a plywood floor.

 

Reproduction of the metal framework is in styrene, with little brass rivets to represent, well, rivets.

This is also a very satisfying wagon to make, and I like working in wood.

 

The other good news is that the man in Victoria who has offered to make the transfers for my coal wagon has finished them.  They were a bit difficult because of white lettering with green shading and a red cross design on a white shield, but the colourful nature of the wagon is its main attraction, so we will see if I can apply the transfers adequately once they have been posted to me.

Offsets for air travel

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I have been feeling guilty for some time about my “carbon footprint”.  I cycle to work when I can, and far more often than Sue would like).  I catch the train when I can, I drive a Diesel powered small car, eat largely vegetarian, etc.  However my travel to conferences and to visit friends abroad is not (by carbon emission standards) a good thing.

So I have been looking into what I could do to “compensate” for this.  Buying “offsets” is not straightforward, as this website shows.   https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/short-guide-carbon-offsets

In fact the direct purchase of offsets is arguably a poor way to compensate for carbon emissions and it is better to send the funds to an environmental organisation such as The Red Cross, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, etc.    
 
This also appears to be a good source of information:  https://www.goldstandard.org
 
From <travelnav.com>, CO2 emissions are 3.6-9.7 tonnes (upper figure is with radiative forcing.  Whatever that is.  Return journey.  Probably economy.  
From <traveller.com.au>, though, the return figure is 16.8 tonnes!
The Choice* figure is 10.7 tonnes return, 20.1 Business class (why different?).
The <clevel.co.uk> return flight figures are 5.5, 16.1 tonnes (economy and business respectively)
So on average: 7.6 tonnes flying economy or 18.1 business.  
* Choice is an Australian consumer organisation.
 
Buying offsets is not straightforward either.  According to <choice.com.au>, depending on the type of project, offsetting a tonne of carbon can cost less than $10, while other projects can cost more than $50. 
This may be a good place to start: https://www.tasmanenvironmental.com.au
 
One way or another, buying offsets as such is open to fraud, uncertainties and changing circumstances in future years ruining the investment (eg planting trees which later are cut down or are burnt).   The Choice site recommends donating to a charity known for environmentally good projects (eg the Red Cross and their cooking stove replacement project inAfrica) or to environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth, or Greenpeace [largely on the grounds that these organisations are most likely to effect political change for the benefit of the environment].  
 
The easiest way, though possibly less effective than more specifically targeted donations, is to give to “Gold Standard” <http:\\www.goldstandard.org>, which is a subdivision of the World Wildlife Fund.
 
Qantas seems to have the best airline-run offset scheme, but it isn’t well-supported.
(<https://www.choice.com.au/travel/on-holidays/airlines/articles/should-you-buy-carbon-offsets-for-flights#Why don’t people buy them?>)
 
Comparing CO2 emissions from different flight routes
Return flight and seat class Emissions per seat (CO2 equivalent)
Figures from ATMOSFAIR http://atmosfair.de/en/
 
Sydney to Brisbane, Economy 381kg
Perth to Melbourne, Economy 1346kg
Sydney to London via Abu Dhabi, Economy 10,700kg
Sydney to London via Abu Dhabi, Business 20,062kg
Driving a mid-range car for 12,000km 2000kg
 
From the Choice reference above:
You can calculate the amount of emissions attributable to your seat on a flight (in kg of CO2 equivalent) at Atmosfair, which will also sell you offsets. Compared to Qantas, Atmosfair attributes a much higher offset cost to a Sydney to London flight via Abu Dhabi of $177.67, indicating the discrepancy between calculations and offset programs.
It is also clear that travelling Business Class is 2-3 times as carbon-unfriendly as travelling economy, although I don’t know why.  Yes, you have a larger luggage allowance and can eat off crockery rather than paper plates, but that doesn’t seen enough to account for the difference.  If weight were the difference, surely the offset amount should also depend on just how much you weigh!
 
It is never straightforward or easy.  Personally I am thinking of donating 10 tonnes x $30 if I fly economy or 20 tonnes x $30 if I fly business to the environmental charity of my choice at the time.

Gauge 3 Woodbury Midland Railway D302 wagon finished

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It’s finished!

Finally my model of a Midland Railway D302 5-plank open wagon is complete

Painted to look realistically dirty.

 

I’m pleased with the weathered look.  I have painted it to look like a wagon in the early LMS days (London Midland and Scottish Railway), with the old Midland lettering visible through the paint as it “wears away”.  So the LMS letters look just a little dirty, the M and the R are only just visible.

 

 

Back to the Gauge 3 Woodbury wagon

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Back to the Gauge 3 Woodbury wagon, a model of the Midland Railway diagram D302 5-plank “open wagon”.

I have now put the (initial) topcoat on – a representation of Midland Railway wagon grey, with black underframe gear.  Although it is gong to be a later era wagon (London Midland and Scottish Railway years), I am putting some Midland Railway lettering on it.  My intention is then to paint over it, “weather” it, and finish it in LMS colours and script.

So here it is with MR insignia, some weathering, and with the inside painted to resemble wood.  This being Gauge 3, the transfers (“decals”)a re difficult to apply over the lumpy details on the sides without either of both of cracks in the transfers and “tenting” of the transfers over the raised detail molding.

It might be better if I could paint the lettering on, but I am simply not capable of that!  On the second view it is possible to see where I am preparing to paint a replaced plank – in unpainted wood finish.

 

More of “Another Wagon”

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-This other wagon is a model of a Railway Clearing House (“RCH”) design from 1923, the model produced as I’ve previously said, by Mike Williams.

 

I have now put most of the underframe together, as this shows: the brake gear is on, and the springs, etc.

 

 

The details go together quite well, and although I have had a little more trouble than with more expensive kits, by the time this is done I think it will look fine, and it is only about 60% of the price!

For instance the brake gear,  instead of being made of individual components (as in more elaborate (and expensive) kits, is a single resin moulding.  The brakes on this moulding did not line up properly with the wheels so I had to saw the moulding in two, then fit it to the underframe.  It will look fine once painted, so this really isn’t a major problem.

 

I’ve now had a chance to put on the “primer”, and as this is black, it will do well as the final colour also, I’m hoping ….

This actually shows one of the ways in which this kit has been “a little more trouble”: given that there is no floor, there was nowhere to fix the brake safety straps to, so I had to add the strips of balsa wood which you can see.  Not a major problem either, of course.

Gauge 3 Woodbury wagon and another

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I’ve painted the wagon in undercoat and then a topcoat of what I thought would be a good representation of the Midland Wagon Grey, but it looks too light/pale to me.  The answer might be to put on the MR transfers (white) and then “weather” it to a darker colour.  I’m not sure.

Here it is, without the wheels or buffer heads.  The inside needs to be made a realistic wood finish also.

Meanwhile, I have started another wagon!  This time it is a Williams models “Flexi Kit”.  These are an “economical” type of model, which Mike Williams is a little hesitant to sell, actually – he thinks they are lacking the detail of other kits, and though less expensive are not (in his view) good value.  There is no internal detail, and no floor inside the wagon.  However for coal wagons (which this is a model of) filled with coal, these features would not be visible anyway.  So if I make a model load (with real coal incidentally), the lack of internal detail will become irrelevant!

The way it is constructed is very different, as you can see.  The first part is to put the “W-irons” (the bits holding the axleboxes) onto the underframe.

The underframe has NO detail, and this is added by glue-ing detail facings onto the frame – which you can see in the picture.  I think the resin mouldings of the facings must have shrunk when moulded – they are too short by a couple of millimetres.  Fortunately there are no details in the central portion, so I could simply put a cut into the facing and line up the detail (bolt-heads for the W-irons) and then fill in the central cut with Milliput filler, later.

The brake gear is much less complex to put together – it is a single resin moulding, seen here in the top of the picture.

Mike is correct in that it looks crude when first seen.  However with care I think the wagon can be made to look good.

 

It’s interesting to start the wagon from the bottom and work up, whilst my previous wagons I have built the bodywork first and added the W-irons, wheels and brake-gear later.  The details on the mouldings look OK, so with care I suspect a perfectly acceptable wagon will emerge.  

We will see.  Click on pics. to enlarge.