Wagon and Carriage Works Mobile Hand Crane and Runner/Match Wagons

Way back in 2016 I started to build a Wagon and Carriage Works mobile hand crane and a pair of match/runner wagons.
The three wagons started off as identical underframes

The crane itself is made up from quite good quality whitemetal castings with a piece of shaped wood for the jib.





I am a bit surprised to find that I don't seem to have taken any more photos of it than these.
Fast forward to September last year and I dug it out to take a photo of for someone who wanted to know what they looked like.



At this point the match trucks just had an unpainted wooden replacement made from coffee stirrers, for the sheet of scored ply that had been supplied with the kit. - I bought the kit from the Bring and Buy at Telford in 2015.

 

Thanks Ian, I hope that before it finished it will be even more interesting.

In my quest to clear the workbench of it's long time inhabitants I took stock of what was needed to finish the crane and runner/match wagons. It turned out that to do the bare bones of the build they only actually needed buffers and couplings. Then I recalled why the build had stalled. The buffers and couplings that came with the kit were a bit of a 'hotch potch' of different makes/types. I bought it second hand so I am not sure which of them might have been included originally.

There were a couple of different type of white metal buffer stocks and a nice set of Slaters cast brass RCH pattern buffers but there were only three buffer heads. There were buffer heads/springs and retaining nuts. The trouble was that the springs were a bit bigger than the normal springs that Slaters and other supply.

I had a look in my spares box and managed to find three complete sets of Buffer stocks, one set NER, One set GNR and one set LNER. Which I thought would be typical of a railway company using whatever wagon was available to use as runner wagons for the crane.

Again, there was a mixture of couplings so I sorted out three assorted sets and added them.

It was at this point that I asked for assistance on the LNER forum as to what colour mobile hand cranes would have been painted by the LNER. I didn’t get a definitive answer but the suggestion was that they might have been lined black the same as the steam cranes were.

Armed with this, I masked them up and painted them black. At this point I thought that the runner wagons were a bit plain so I made up some toolboxes from coffee stirrers and added them to what was to become the leading runner wagon.






I couldn't resist posing them together with a shabby van and a brake van to simulate a brake down train.



Still a way to go before I am happy with them.

 

Having looked at it for a couple of days I felt that the second runner wagon looked a little bare so I knocked up another toolbox and I added some hardware to them all. It's starting to come together now. A friend has just sent me some spare 'Crane Runner' transfers so I now have enough to do both runners (assuming that I can get them to fit of course.





I am still undecided as to whether to line the counterbalance weight on the crane because the gears on the crane itself will prevent me being able to add any lining around the frame if indeed they were actually lined.

A few tools and lumps of timber and some weathering will bring it all together.

 

Hi Andy,
Good point, the answer is that I am not sure, the LNER lined their steam cranes and back in the 20's labour was cheaper than materials so they may well have done the same with all mobile cranes.

 

I finally got around to finishing off the Crane and match trucks this week ready for taking them to Guildex to enter in the modelling competition. Nothing like a deadline to make you pull your finger out.

 

I managed to grab a couple more shots out in the sunshine this morning. I am really pleased that this took third place in the Modelling competition. It was one of three cranes entered and one of them took first. The one that took first was an impressive scratch built beast with a professional paint job which really made it look superb. As soon as I saw it first thing in the morning I was sure that it would win.

 

Thanks Brian,

A pair of scratch built GWR coaches came second and I have to admit they were really nice.

 

I missed a photo of the tools