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ESSO SO GOOD

Another hobby night sees a venerable old kit finished. 


Another Thursday, another hobby night. Fuelled by a bottle of Timothy Taylor's Landlord, I spent an hour last night finishing off this Dapol (ex-Airfix) plastic kit of the iconic Esso oil tank wagon. I've had a pile of these kits, mostly in Airfix packaging, for decades but only now am I getting around to assembling them. Well, a couple of them. Like most of those old Airfix kits, dating back to the 1960s/70s, they make excellent models, with only a handful of detail refinements necessary to bring them up to current specs.

Brake rigging, sprung buffers and etched ladders are the main enhancements and, in retrospect, I think I should have replaced the plastic tank-top walkways with some etched chequer plate. But, I'm happy with the results and am looking forward to completing the other two wagons under construction, whereupon they can enter the paintshop. Some new transfers are required, so I'll be trawling through the lists on Fox's website soon. I've just learnt that Fina operated some of these wagons in the '60s/'70s too, but I've gone and fitted the raised Esso lozenge now. Oh well...

For anyone interested in tank wagons, look out for the mighty tome by R. Tourret,  Petroleum Rail Tank Wagons of Britain. It includes a number of images and plans of the Esso tank, as well as a complete history of tank vehicles on Britain's railways. See www.tourretpublishing.com

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Comments

  1. Anonymous3 November 2012 at 10:29

    Hi George,

    Excellent upgrade (and good choice of ale), the blog goes well with the current article in MR176, just wondered whether you could supply details of what thou Brass wire you used on the underframe detail and what make were the sprung buffers?

    As was wondering whether you planned on doing a blog update on weathering the tankers?

    Best Wishes,

    Stephen Lacey

    ReplyDelete
  2. George Dent5 November 2012 at 05:59

    Hi Stephen,
    THanks for the kind comments. I used Alan Gibson 0.7mm wire for the rods linking the brake shoes and 0.9mm for the main cross shaft between the V hangers and vac cylinders.As for the U-shaped safety loops, they're from an old steel guitar string; an unwound 'G' I think. The sprung buffers are from a bag of spares from Bachmann. They're not strictly accurate (the shafts are too short and fat), but they don't stand out too much once the wagon is painted. Look out for more images on the blog of the finished models...
    All the best,
    George.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous14 August 2013 at 21:56

    Where did the etched ladders come from.

    ReplyDelete
  4. George Dent15 August 2013 at 09:56

    Hi, the ladders were cut from strips of etched brass ladder available from Mainly Trains (www.mainlytrains.co.uk), cat. no.MT154, which is 4mm wide, 4mm rung spacing and supplied in 5inch lengths - so one strip will do one wagon. They're about £1.40 each I think...
    Cheers,
    George.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous16 August 2013 at 11:43

    Thanks for the reply, looking for tank wagon parts, tank filler hatches, boardwalks, fixed buffers, handwheels, ect.

    ReplyDelete
  6. George Dent16 August 2013 at 12:25

    Hi, Mainly Trains also do brake hand wheels, while Dart Castings have a large range of buffers. Inter City Models do lots of wagon details too.
    See www.dartcastings.co.uk and www.intercitymodels.com
    George.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous17 August 2013 at 14:40

    Yes tried these and many others no one seems to make tank filler hatches.

    ReplyDelete

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