Construction article
Warren Shephard GWR W12 8 Ton Cattle Wagon
Charlie King - Gazette August 2018 (Vol 20 No.8)
The Warren Shephard kit represents an example of one of the 130 wagons comprising Diagram W12 introduced in
1929/30 that were just another step in the evolution of cattle wagon design on the GWR.
Although livestock traffic probably only represented a small proportion of overall goods
revenue, in the agricultural areas served by the GWR it must have been sufficient to justify the
regular updating and modernisation of the company’s fleet of cattle wagons which at its peak
numbered around 1200 vehicles. Given the nature of the traffic, from local station cattle dock to the
nearest market town, it is a fair assumption that cattle wagons, unlike other rolling stock, would not
travel far and wide. However, besides the parent company, if your layout is based on one of the
other company areas that overlapped or neighboured the GWR, then such a wagon could
be justified on your layout as these cattle wagons were part of the railway common user arrangements.
The kit, with the exception of the lost wax buffers, vacuum pipes, axle boxes and springs is
entirely etched brass. If you like kits that involve riveting, folding and adding overlays to replicate
the depth and detail of the real thing then this is a kit for you. The weakness of etched – brass
as a medium for certain types of goods wagons is its inability to represent thickness
and I got round this on this model by representing the visible interior detail with Slater’s 4mm
planked embossed Plastikard which by sheer chance has near enough the correct plank spacing.
The instructions comprise notes and exploded drawings which illustrate and set out the sequence recommended
for construction but as this kit is probably more appropriate for the more advanced modeller, this is not
a blow by blow account of how to build it. Having said that, the instructions are clear and the recommended
sequence makes sense. A further point of note is that the construction sequence breaks down in
such a way that would suit a pleasant evening’s modelling doing one stage or more as time allowed.
The quality of the parts is very good. The brass used is quite hard and produces crisp folds,
certainly much better than the softer material used by some manufacturers. The etches are
cleanly done and the lost wax castings are neat and once off the sprue require little in the way of
cleaning up. The rivet marks are very fine and difficult to see. I got round this by rubbing the side
of the point of a soft pencil over the surface which reveals the rivet marks; an alternative is to place
the work to be riveted on the rivet punch next to a strong light which will also show them up.
Studying photos shows that the eaves on the roof projected out level with the side stanchions. I
found the roof in the kit to be too narrow once rolled and so I added a couple of strips of scrap
etch from the kit, one either side to get the correct width.
Before assembling any of the body parts, I used these as templates to cut components to
represent the interior planking from Slater’s 4mm spaced embossed planking. These are set aside
until after constructing the kit when they will be trimmed and fixed into place using contact adhesive.
Fitting the solebars
Ends cleaned, finished and ready to erect to the floor
Ends and lower sides in situ
Following the sequence set out in the instructions, the basic body of the wagon soon takes shape, all joints being soldered
with 60/40 solder using a 40watt Weller soldering iron. I would advise that the recommendation to sharpen
the half-etched fold lines with tip of a file be followed as there is a lot of bending to do and not always a lot of
material to get hold of so any aid to obtaining a crisp bend is useful.
Adding the detail to sides and ends
A close up of a corner fitted with additional strappings
The fit of the parts is very good the only trimming required was on the diagonal side
stanchions where a little material needs to be removed to get the parts to fit closely into the bottom
corners near the doors. The doors themselves have several detail overlays so that the full
impression of catches and hinges can be formed. The instructions contain information on how to make the
doors so that they can open. If you want to do this, representations of the hinges and catches are
all there. They are so fine that I resorted to using a magnifier to see them properly but I chose to
solder the doors shut because this wagon will be used on a layout and I can envisage a situation
where it is picked up and by accident the doors are pushed in.
Fitting the lower door, strapping and hinge plates
The upper doors and hinges were the last of the body etches to be fitted
The roof needs to be formed. I have a set of rolling bars but it can be formed by rolling a length
of broomstick or similar diameter tube over the roof on a carpeted surface which will gradually
form the curve. As previously mentioned, the roof was too narrow but this is easily remedied by
adding a couple of strips of scrap etch from the kit, one to each side. I needed to do a little bit of filing
down to get the correct width and this was done by fixing a sheet of fairly coarse wet and dry paper
to a flat board and rubbing the roof edges on this. I find this is much easier that to try to hold the work
and file it in a conventional manner. The outside of the roof is finished with cartridge paper to
represent the canvas covering and this also hides the joins made when the roof was widened.
Top angles and roof supports were fitted to stiffend the whole structure
Instead of placing the roof supports as shown on the diagrams with the kit, I laminated the four
sticks in to two pairs and soldered these into the two most central positions. This is where strength
is needed most and by laminating two parts together a strong support to
both the roof and spacing to the sides of the van is achieved.
There is full under floor detail. The brakes can be made up to show the prototypical gap between
the pull rods but again for the sake of strength I soldered the parts up more solidly. The safety
loops fold up from brass etch and although they look flimsy, and so they should, they are really
quite strong. The vacuum cylinder is made up from etched brass with top and bottom etched discs. I
decided to replace this with a cast GWR wagon vacuum cylinder from ABS. The one I used was in
one of their wagon kits for a GWR open that could be built fitted or unfitted and as I had chosen the
latter option the vacuum cylinder had gone into the useful bits box.
A close up of one of the brake gear safety loops (left), and the
lost wax castings that are included for the buffer stocks, axle
boxes and springs and vacuum brake pipes
Three point suspension is provided by the etched brass w-irons
whose positions are marked on the underside of the floor
With construction complete and the work thoroughly clean and dry, I detailed the interior
using the previously cut embossed Plastikard. You might be thinking that this is going a bit over the
top but much of the interior of the wagon is visible and given the level of external detail I fell that it
was appropriate to at least show a representation of the planking. The Plastikard was glued in place
using good old fashioned ‘Evostick’ which, if used sparingly and spread evenly across the surface to
be glued, will form a strong bond without damaging the Plastikard. Although I had used the
parts from the kit as templates, a little trimming was required because, of the course, the assembly
of the kit had altered dimensions slightly. I left the work to dry out overnight before trimming out the
Plastikard from behind the cutouts in the lower sides of the wagon and the hand holes in the
doors. I used a sharp Exacto knife to do this supporting the Plastikard on the inside with some
scrap modelling ply which also protects the fingers giving a final clean up with a 1mm drill running in a
mini drill and using the flutes of the drill as a milling cutter to trim the last of the Plastikard back
to size. A bit of fine glass paper is then used to tidy up the inside of the wagon to get rid of any burrs.
To put the floor in. I needed to remove the two roof supports but this was a couple of minutes work
with a hot soldering iron and certainly more time efficient than trying to manoeuvre the floor around them.
By applying the interior planking, the partition used to adjust the capacity of the wagon will need
its sides filing down to accommodate the thickness of the Plastikard.
With the finished model clean and dry, it was first sprayed with etching primer; I use Acid 8 from
Halfords. This was left for a couple of days to thoroughly dry and harden before applying a thin
coat of grey primer again from an aerosol can.
The interior of the wagon was painted with varying shades of cream, brown and grey to
represent the unvarnished wood and when thoroughly dry this was masked off and the exterior sprayed
with Precision Paints GWR freight grey.
An underside view of the painted van (left) and a look at the interior before the roof was
fixed in place
The outside of the roof is done with Precision Paints roof grime with some
additional weathering. Transfers come with the kit. They are of the dry print variety
and are very good. There is sufficient for one wagon only so you will have to be
careful as there are no spares. However, GWR wagon transfers are available from a variety of
sources but if you are doing only one wagon, I can recommend the Slater’s transfers which come
from their own cattle wagon kit and can be bought as separate item. There is no GW lettering on the
ends as this practice was discontinued in 1928, before the introduction of this diagram.
The model was given a final thin coat of matt varnish and left for a week for this to dry and
harden. A light weathering was given to the model to bring it to life but as I wanted
to represent a wagon in fairly new condition, I showed restraint with this. Also, the GWR seemed
to keep its wagon stock in a better state of cleanliness and repair than the other companies
and this needs to be born in mind too.
In conclusion, I enjoyed building this kit. It cannot be hurried but will repay the extra time and patience that it requires. It is one of those kits worth considering by the modeller who wants an enjoyable challenge and is seeking to build up skills in etched kit construction. At a current price of £57 plus wheels it is not cheap but the end result is a superb representation of the prototype.