Iam in the process of building ballast hoppers for a layout based on sidings serving a quarry. I have been buying kits from M&M Models in Bournemouth who sell etched metal kits for Catfish and the larger Dogfish. These are very reasonably priced at £25 and £27 respectively although that does not include wheels or transfers. If you want sprung buffers, that will also cost extra. M&M’s website is at www.model railwaywagons.co.uk.

The hoppers are sold under the EMKDE brand name. I had been wondering how I could get transfers for the different ways ballast wagons were branded. Some were in a circuit marked for example Return Empty to Kelty Coup. Some showed the District Engineer they were allocated to. This could be in plain English such as Glasgow District but more obscure markings seem to have been much more popular such as DCE KX which I assume means District Civil Engineer King’s Cross or GN2 which apparently means Glasgow North Pool 2.

I had thought of using Letraset but they don’t have a very wide range of white lettering. Then in a moment of serendipity I found Lazertran Waterslide Decal Paper in the excellent catalogue from Squires. This comes in 2 varieties, one for inkjet printers and one for colour photocopiers. I bought the inkjet variety. Both cost just under £15 for 8 A4 sheets but you can get a lot of transfers on an A4 sheet.

In the 1950 s BR used Gill Sans typeface for wagon lettering. If you Google on British Railways Fonts, you are directed to websites not only giving information about Gill Sans but also Rail Alphabet which BR adopted in the 1960s for station signs etc. Have a look at www.mrol. com.au.

If it’s not already installed, you can download Gill Sans free from the internet and it then appears in the list of fonts in Word. The only problem is that the smallest size is 8 point. There are 72 points to the inch so you get characters about 2mm high – about 3 scale inches. This is ideal for wagon numbers which were that size and obviously for larger lettering - XP was 4in for example – you just use a bigger font. The problem is that the tare weight, the capacity and the wheelbase length were painted in 2 inch high characters. If you use 8 point for the tare and tonnage, it doesn’t look too out of scale but the wheelbase marking does look a bit too big to me. There are however some fonts which produce much smaller than the nominal point size. Freesial UPC 9 point produces characters about 1.2mm which are ideal. It’s not Gill Sans but it’s so small that the difference won’t be noticed especially if you’re using it mostly for numbers.

As far as the inkjet paper is concerned you create your transfers in Word and print the document on to the decal paper, hoping you’re using the right side. You have to leave it to dry but you can then cut out the transfer you want, soak it in warm water for 30 seconds or so and the transfer slides off the backing paper on to the model. Unlike some transfers the whole decal is cut out including the backing paper. Pat it dry to get any air bubbles out and you end up with a matt finish transfer. One advantage of this process is that when you are applying transfers to nonfitted, grey painted wagons, you don’t need to apply a black patch first. You just create a transfer in Word using white lettering on a black background and then cut the whole thing out.

If you have private owner wagons you will probably find a suitable font or at least something close enough. There is always Wordart if you need something other than horizontal lettering. The problem is that for fitted stock you just want white lettering on a clear background to apply over the vehicle body colour. Lazertran however produces lettering on a white background unless you choose a different colour. If you just create white lettering, this does not print at all. If you use cream or yellow, this prints on a white background. What you can do is print the lettering on a colour you think is closest to the vehicle paint colour and then attempt to merge it in. This, though, is easier said than done.

However a discussion on this appears in the Guild website Members’ Forum. It began on 15 March 2013. For the Lowfit wagon I created the lettering in one long transfer and then cut it up to fit between the hinges. I then painted the body with a mixture of Railmatch dark rust and a little matt black. I did try to produce plain brown transfers for the sides and ends but this wasn’t a success. It was very difficult to get these transfers to lie flat and stick to the surface.

The photographs show wagons which haven’t had any weathering applied to the bodywork although they have had a coat of matt varnish. The ballast wagons have white lettering on a black background. I think the lettering on some of these was yellow to start with but there were lots of wagons with white lettering as well. You can of course just as easily create yellow lettering on a black background. I had painted the sides gloss black to make it easier to apply the decals. When first applied, they almost disappear but the lettering becomes visible as it dries.

The tank wagon has the lettering printed in Arial font. The owners are an in joke for tax practitioners. Ensign was involved in a court case about an avoidance scheme. As far as I can remember both sides claimed they had won in court so maybe everyone was happy. The real life tankers were ships of course, not railway wagons. You can just see the repair notice in Microsoft Uighur under LTD. This is another font where nominally 8 point lettering produces characters 1mm high. There is also a number to the left of ENSIGN but this almost disappeared in the varnishing.

Some kit manufacturers, Peco and Parkside Dundas for example, do supply transfers and I’ve always used these where they are provided. The Lazertran transfers aren’t perfect. You can see the edges of the transfer close up and a black background fades in direct sunlight. If however you want one off markings for freight stock and you don’t want to buy a sheet most of which you’ll never use, making your own is a simple alternative especially if you want lettering on a black background.