Garden Railway Forum

Despite the photographers epitaph, the surviving example of a Rylston Pickle company van spent the better part of a decade in the backwaters of the yard awaiting a new roof. Although dwarfed by the combined output of the quarries, the Rylston Pickle factory contributed a steady stream of traffic to the railway and even had their own branded PO waggons.
In reality this was a trial of using my daughter’s crafting Cricut cutting machine. The van walls are cut from thin ply (then multi-layered for strength) and the stencils for the branding are cut from vinyl to be used as layered stencils. The Cricut worked well cutting the van wall but the painting using the stencils was a bit of a curate’s egg - the adhesive of the vinyl tended to pull off the previous layer of paint. This was tolerable for a heavy weathered van but wouldn’t quite work for anything pristine.

Still it showed promise for anyone with access to such a machine.

Best wishes to you all. Sadly no progress in the garden yet.

Andy S

Very nice siding scenic accessory with its own story to tell. Great idea.

Very atmospheric, and very believable with the scale mixed fencing.

Looks very rustic.

Rik

Looks like a nicely detailed van unde the tarp.

Don

Roofs been done and tarp removed. You can see the irregular edge of the livery (eg “The Original & Best”), where the Cricut cut stencil pulled off earlier paint layers. With judicious weathering I hope it just looks aged.
Posed by the side of a RLR standard van. In reality a slightly modified Tenmille kit of a GVT van, made a couple of decades ago.

Andy

It looks great for a time served goods waggon. I also like the detail of the door closures, as well as the brake detail. Were those details 'home made' or features of the original kits?

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 10:10 pm It looks great for a time served goods waggon. I also like the detail of the door closures, as well as the brake detail. Were those details 'home made' or features of the original kits?

The door closures are soft soldered from 1.6mm brass inserted through small eye screws. The brake detail is a rescue job. The basic brake gear is from Atropos, but daftly I drilled the chassis hole the wrong side of the wheel so that the standard provided lever fouled the doors.

I had some small square section rod already bent for a previously abandandoned job (power drive line brackets in the workshop IIRC). I slotted one end with junior hacksaw to locate a soldered brass washer. At the other end I soldered a short length of brass rod as the handle. I rather like the curved effect but don’t think I would have gone to the trouble if I hadn’t got the bent rod in my junk box.

The embarassing thing is this is the second time I made the same mistake. If you look at the picture of the PW tool van in my other current post you can see a small plasticard plate hiding the same mistake made last year. I could have utilised the bent rod then butbit didn’t occur to me - it suits the Pickle waggon better I feel.

I used to learn from my mistakes and then remember them. Is it still learning if you don’t recall next time ?

Andy S.

The other innovation tried is noise reduction. I find the earlier box vans (like the Tenmille kit in grey above) have a very echoey noise on track especially track embedded in Rowland’s mix. I had a half tube of builder’s expanding foam leftover from the viaduct build, so decided to fill the Pickle Factory waggon with it.

I had visions of the expanding foam forcing the joints of the van. I expected coming back to a viscous mess of foam and panels on the desk.

The verdict: th van survived but the redution in sound-box effect was minor only.

Any suggestions of what works?

Andy S.

You could try some weight held in place with resin. To explain further lead shot or similar in the bottom and two part casting resin poured over to hold in place. My reasoning the weight will help prevent "bounce" and being resined in should reduce vibration, just a thought

RylstonLight wrote: ↑Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:57 am
I used to learn from my mistakes and then remember them. Is it still learning if you don’t recall next time ?

Andy S.

Thanks Andy, the overall effect is very convincing. And who hasn't seen patched up bodywork on rail waggons?
Regarding learning from mistakes - me too! If I'm lucky I will make a note in a little notebook I have, for next time. Trouble is, I usually then can't find my notebook, or I forget I've tried to do something before, and so don't check my notebook