N Gauge Forum

Hi to the Hive.

Has anyone bought and tried any of these products:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/westhighlandmodels ?

Interested in any reviews as they could be a useful basis for modifying,

Colin.

They look interesting. The builder has obviously spotted a market but until I see one and get to see how it is modelled and runs I'll wait and see. I don't need any of the wagons he is producing, some of which I think have been done as RTR, NGS kits and from our own Ross Tierney.

One to keep an eye one maybe

Dave

Quote from: Southerngooner on July 08, 2024, 01:56:14 PMsome of which I think have been done as RTR, NGS kits and from our own Ross Tierney.

@Southerngooner

The LNER tranship van ( roadvan ) is something I had not seen modelled before - also the LNER 12 ton van looks a little different with its canvas roof section ( it looks awfully familiar and I have been trying to find it in my Tatlow but so far have failed ).

And almost certainly the wheels would need replacing - but I have a big box of those...

@Southerngooner my mistake, I found them - thought they looked familiar - they are both NER designs - found the 12T in North Eastern Record and then the correct pages of Tatlow. The 12 ton is a Diag G2 with short strapping and tarpaulin roof door section. The Tranship van is a 15T Diag G6, the version without roof doors.

Don't think I have seen these elsewhere so I think I may buy some - could be good if the print quality is OK.

Quote from: cmason on July 08, 2024, 02:08:12 PMThe LNER tranship van ( roadvan ) is soemthing I had not seen modelled before

A Little Piece of N Gauge History

Way back in the very early days of British N gauge, Peter Middleton (through his company Highfield Models) introduced various rolling stock card kits including the NER Road Van and the NER Tranship Van.

The kits included the design of the vehicle body printed on card (which had to be cut out with an X-Acto type knife), and two sets of coloured lithograph sides to be glued on to the completed body. 

Here are models of the two Highfield kits that I made around 1969-70 when I was about 16 years old.  They were designed to fit on the Peco 15' underframe. 

Ian

@icairns

Ian,

Thanks. I think you posted these a while back as well (yes?) which is maybe why I vaguely recalled the Tranship van,

Cheers,

Colin.

Quote from: cmason on July 08, 2024, 04:36:19 PMI think you posted these a while back as well (yes?) which is maybe why I vaguely recalled the Tranship van,

@cmason

Well, you have a better memory than me!  I know I have made several posts about Highfield Models in the past but I do not remember posting photos of these vans previously.

But I could be wrong.......

Ian

I think Chris may be right. I recall seeing these photos  :thumbsup:

Quote from: icairns on July 08, 2024, 07:16:19 PM

Quote from: cmason on July 08, 2024, 04:36:19 PMI think you posted these a while back as well (yes?) which is maybe why I vaguely recalled the Tranship van,

@cmason

Well, you have a better memory than me!  I know I have made several posts about Highfield Models in the past but I do not remember posting photos of these vans previously.

But I could be wrong.......

Ian

@icairns

Hi Ian,

Relief - I knew my memory was not totally blown  :bounce: 

Quick search and seems you did it at least twice:

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?msg=822718

and

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?msg=793653


I rest my case M'lud   ;)

Cheers,

Colin.

I am glad that some Forum members apparently pay more attention to my posts than I do!

Good job!

Ian

Back to the OP I have bought the fruit D in crimson. They run well, but I have dropped peco plastic wheels in. They are slightly shorter and narrower than the Dapol version.
Better underframe detail than Dapol and the coupling pockets work to change over for other brands.

The problem with finding a relatively rare design, like the tranship, is that there are no transfers out there for Numbering etc.....

So 6 off the Diag G2 and 3 off the Diag G6 arrived a day or so ago and I am mighty pleased with them.  A solid add to my NER/LNER van collection.

Here are some pics in the raw - I will get to the decaling and re-wheeling very shortly. Although as @class8mikado has commented decals are an issue on some of these rare models. Having said that I have gradually sourced a fair few solutions for a number of models that frustrated me. Given that I am still searching for the old Woodhead WR20 sheets which even if they are dried out may be restorable - and maybe one day I can get some custom designs done as well as there does seem to be enough interest to share costs. Anyway - pics:
 
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173443.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173550.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173857-1436281473.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173857-1436281876.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173858-1436372113.jpeg)

So from those first pics I think that it can be seem that there is a good level of detail. Including the underframe and brake gear. So I have taken a few more pics with the flash switched on which shows some of that even better although I still have not managed to capture the underframe as well as the real life images - will try harder once they are "dressed". BTW - I noted when inspecting the underframe that metal weights are already in place which augers well for theses staying on track :-)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173950-14363947.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173951-143643159.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724175345-1436442046.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173951-1436411368.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173951-1436411164.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173950-143639561.jpeg)

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/143/7694-260724173950-1436382100.jpeg)

I used a old Woodhead sheet when labelling my LMS Fish van last month.

I still have the remains of two sheets which sometimes come in useful

Martyn 

Quote from: martyn on July 26, 2024, 06:50:46 PMI used a old Woodhead sheet when labelling my LMS Fish van last month.

I still have the remains of two sheets which sometimes come in useful

Martyn

If that artwork exists somewhere so a reprint could be done it would be most useful...

I think that the artwork may have once been offered to the Society, judging from a conversation I had once with a committee member.

They may have been offered the limited Ultima (?) range as well. I'm sure there was also a cryptic mention of this in the Journal or the management committee notes, that were issued separately with the Journal.

However, both were declined at the time (over twenty years ago, probably) and I've no idea what happened to it.

Martyn

Ooooh, these look very interesting.  I am wondering if I can get away with some of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176405865982? as stand ins for the side discharge wagons once used on the Lavant/Drayton gravel runs around Chichester?

Always good to find a new cottage industry level supplier.

Quote from: martyn on July 26, 2024, 08:21:19 PMHowever, both were declined at the time (over twenty years ago, probably) and I've no idea what happened to it.
Martyn

It a shame nobody picked them up as there are things ( on the LNER sheet at least ) that are currently to be had nowhere else.. Actually have been thinking of funding something else but that has to wait until I find my roundtuit .... so busy these days I cannot remember where I left it ...  ::)

Colin.

Just received 3 of the Transit vans and really pleased and surprised at the quality.
Apart from the wheels, any advice on the difficulty or otherwise on changing for metal ones? I have some Parkside spoked sets.
Maurice

I have just received a package of four LNER 20T hopper wagons from West Highland Models.

My first impressions are excellent!


More details on my 'Ferryhill' thread here:

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=49706.new#new

Ian

I had a running session yesterday including my 3 Tranship vans. Fitted with Peco wheelsets and after an hours of running-in they are not as free as I would wish.
I then hooked them up to various other brands and found that they de-coupled quite a lot at various places of straight track. The couplings are about 1.5mm lower than standard Peco, Farish and Minitrix so may have to resort to spots of bluetack.
Will be in touch with Callum about this problem.

Maurice C.

Had a concern regarding 3d print chassis - putting flexibility into the mix such that fine details such as brake rigging are not so brittle as to snap off and that there is some flex to insert wheelsets is required, but is the resulting compound hardwearing enough that pinpoint axles dont wear out their housing in short measure ?

Quote from: mojo on October 10, 2024, 09:21:52 AMI then hooked them up to various other brands and found that they de-coupled quite a lot at various places of straight track. The couplings are about 1.5mm lower than standard Peco, Farish and Minitrix so may have to resort to spots of bluetack.

Interesting. 

I lined my LNER 20T hoppers up with some Farish and Peco rolling stock.  I found that the WHM hopper couplings were exactly level with Peco ELSIE couplings but were slightly lower than Farish couplings.  (This means that the Peco couplings were also slightly lower than the Farish couplings).

So, I assembled a mixed freight consisting of three of the WHM hoppers with various Peco and Farish wagons and successfully completed about 50 circuits of my continuous run layout without a single coupling separation.  The slight difference in coupling heights with the Farish wagons did not seem to cause a problem. 

It may be that the coupling design on the tranship vans are slightly different to the 20T hoppers.  Also, my test train only consisted of nine wagons.  If the tranship vans are in a long train the weight of the vehicles behind the vans may cause some uncoupling problems on certain sections of track (although not usually on straight track). 

Ian

Quote from: mojo on October 10, 2024, 09:21:52 AMI had a running session yesterday including my 3 Tranship vans. Fitted with Peco wheelsets and after an hours of running-in they are not as free as I would wish.

Last weekend I ran in both the 6x12T DiaG2 and the 3x15T Dia G6 (Tranship) together. Multiple ovals while I was exercising a couple of locos. Fitted with PECO hardlon wheels ( which I believe are slightly shorter axle than GF ? ). The G2s ran very well - the 3 tranships proved a slightly heavier load causing wheelspin on a dapol terrier (of course they presented no problem to a union mills B12/3  :) ).

However there does appear to be an issue with the coupling of the tranships where the 3 kept dropping off the back fo a 9 wagon train. As you mention it may be that a spot of blu-tack , or maybe tacky wax, may need to be applied...

Colin.   

I ran 3 ICI hoppers behind a 9F with no problems, on the strength of this I've got 6 more , running trials on Tuesday night, also awaiting 8 LMS 40 ton coal hoppers to arrive, but I'm running out of Peco wheels.

Quote from: w greatbatch on October 12, 2024, 09:52:53 AMI ran 3 ICI hoppers behind a 9F with no problems, on the strength of this I've got 6 more , running trials on Tuesday night, also awaiting 8 LMS 40 ton coal hoppers to arrive, but I'm running out of Peco wheels.

Hi

Are you meaning the old all plastic Peco wheels if so I have 88 axles with solid wheels and 48 axles with spoked wheels.

You can have them in exchange for a donation to the forum.

Cheers

Paul

Thanks , but it's ok , I sourced a plentiful supply this very day.

Today I finished work on a set of 24.5 ton mineral wagons I ordered a few weeks ago. I am quite impressed with the quality of these prints, however I did discover that the integrated NEM coupler pockets were not very good.

The flexible material on the chassis I think works well for all the fine details, but it did not seem up to the task for NEM pockets. The motion in the couplers felt sticky. The parts flex too much to keep tolerances and ultimately proved to be too delicate as I damaged one pocket on every wagon by clamping it in an alligator clip (lesson learned there).

However, I'm kinda glad I went with my backup plan of replacing them with Dapol NEM pockets. I tore out all the printed pockets (which were weak enough to just pry the bottoms off with my fingers). I then cut and filed off all remnants until there was a smooth surface to mount the Dapol ones. I also used Peco wheelsets in place of the included printed ones.

There were a few defects on the wagon bodies but nothing too noticeable. They were fairly tricky to separate from the chassis and to reattach later, being worried about breaking parts as they are held together with quite a lot of friction. However I was again impressed with their lack of brittleness and had no further damage occur during the process of squeezing them back on.

The only other downside was the shipping method chosen by eBay for delivery to the US. I would have been ok paying more for a service that had more reliable tracking.
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/150/8414-040425001747.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=150738)

Quote from: bigdawgks on April 04, 2025, 12:19:13 AMhowever I did discover that the integrated NEM coupler pockets were not very good.

The flexible material on the chassis I think works well for all the fine details, but it did not seem up to the task for NEM pockets. The motion in the couplers felt sticky. The parts flex too much to keep tolerances and ultimately proved to be too delicate as I damaged one pocket on every wagon by clamping it in an alligator clip (lesson learned there).

However, I'm kinda glad I went with my backup plan of replacing them with Dapol NEM pockets. I tore out all the printed pockets (which were weak enough to just pry the bottoms off with my fingers). I then cut and filed off all remnants until there was a smooth surface to mount the Dapol ones. I also used Peco wheelsets in place of the included printed ones.

Hi all,

I was beginning to think it was just me!

I agree with all the points raised.

But I decided on a different approach to finding a solution.

I've coated the whole model in extra thin superglue.

This stabilised the print and stopped it being as flexible.

Not had chance to run the rake yet, but will do shortly.

Thanks
Phil H

Quote from: ScottishModeller on April 04, 2025, 01:14:09 AM

Quote from: bigdawgks on April 04, 2025, 12:19:13 AMhowever I did discover that the integrated NEM coupler pockets were not very good.

The flexible material on the chassis I think works well for all the fine details, but it did not seem up to the task for NEM pockets. The motion in the couplers felt sticky. The parts flex too much to keep tolerances and ultimately proved to be too delicate as I damaged one pocket on every wagon by clamping it in an alligator clip (lesson learned there).

However, I'm kinda glad I went with my backup plan of replacing them with Dapol NEM pockets. I tore out all the printed pockets (which were weak enough to just pry the bottoms off with my fingers). I then cut and filed off all remnants until there was a smooth surface to mount the Dapol ones. I also used Peco wheelsets in place of the included printed ones.

Hi all,

I was beginning to think it was just me!

I agree with all the points raised.

But I decided on a different approach to finding a solution.

I've coated the whole model in extra thin superglue.

This stabilised the print and stopped it being as flexible.

Not had chance to run the rake yet, but will do shortly.

Thanks
Phil H

Interesting - so far I have had no issues with the coupling pockets - I guess time will tell on that one. However definitely need to swap out the wheels for Peco. Also they are in deed a tight fit for reassembly however that cannot really be avoided if taking apart for glossing, decaling and then matt varnishing the body without getting varnish on the chassis,

Colin.

I've had a go with the GWR 16ft box vans. I bought the ones with magnetic couplings and these seem to work well with other wagons I have that are fitted with Hunt couplings from West Hill Wagon Works. I initially changed the wheels for Peco metal wheels but these did not run well (too tight a fit). I then changed them for some of the cheaper plastic spoked wheels and they run perfectly. I also fitted tie-bars to some of the wagons based on prototype drawings/photos as I feel this is something that is quite noticeable on models. I painted them in Railmatch GWR goods stock grey and lettered them with an old sheet of Woodhead transfers I happened to have left over.
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/152/6874-260525224048.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=152653)

Nice job! :thumbsup:

@XC1978

Looks good! Now you spur to me to get move some of mine up the lettering queue!

Quote from: XC1978 on May 26, 2025, 10:42:19 PMlettered them with an old sheet of Woodhead transfers I happened to have left over.

That makes me jealous! I really want to get hold of a Woodhead LNER sheet(s) as there are tranfers on there that have not been done elsewhere since! I keep scanning ebay but so far to no avail,

Colin.

Quote from: Bealman on May 26, 2025, 11:39:17 PMNice job! :thumbsup:

Wot he said, and welcome to the forum.
How about a post in the 'Intro' section with maybe some pics of your GWR layout? ;)

@cmason

Colin, in addition to the Woodhead WT20 transfer sheet details I have previously posted in your custom decals thread https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=54628.0 , there is a another (newer? , but still ancient) Woodhead LNER / LMS sheet WT220. These are smaller transfer sheets with less overall variety, but includes numbers on the 4 sheets.

(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/152/6709-270525094833.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=152666)

Mark

Quote from: Platy767 on May 27, 2025, 09:52:04 AM@cmason

Colin, in addition to the Woodhead WT20 transfer sheet details I have previously posted in your custom decals thread https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=54628.0 , there is a another (newer? , but still ancient) Woodhead LNER / LMS sheet WT220. These are smaller transfer sheets with less overall variety, but includes numbers on the 4 sheets.

Mark

@Platy767

Mark - thanks for the info - I do keep on searching for Woodhead sheets. What I am searching for right now is QUAD lettering as I have a "fistful" ( term defiend for me by @Train Waiting ) of (L)NER QUADS to finish. See:

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=52472.msg861659#msg861659

Cheers,

Colin.

Hi all,

As far as I can remember (it is a long time ago).....

The Woodhead artwork went to Cambrian Models and then (I think) ended up with Modelmaster Decals.

I.m another one who searches all the small item boxes at exhibitions and shops looking to replace the ones I am currently using up at a great rate!

Phil H

Quote from: ScottishModeller on May 27, 2025, 02:42:56 PMThe Woodhead artwork went to Cambrian Models and then (I think) ended up with Modelmaster Decals.

@ScottishModeller

Phil,

unfortunately the Modelmaster sheet is incomplete and does not have everything the Woodhead did..

Cheers,

Colin.