WHR Brake Van

[Peter Richardson]

I am nearly finished a Dundas WHR brake van kit.

Instructions advise no details are known about painting of this vehicle so I would be interested to hear what livery any forum members have used.  At present I have just given it a grey undercoat.

The brake van was marked with white WHR letters. Can anyone suggest a supplier for a suitable transfer or a home made option?

Many thanks

Peter

[Alan Pollock]

Hi Peter

Can I please ask where you got that from

Thanks
Alan

[Peter Richardson]

Hi Alan
I picked it up in the summer at the shop at Porthmadog station when taking a trip on Ffestiniog Rly. I think they have an online shop.
Peter

[JulienW]

Also available direct from Dundas via their online shop, Alan.

As to Peter's question as to livery most railways seem to have used variations on a theme of grey, or variations on a theme of red oxide, for their good stock.  When it comes to break vans you could follow this and paint it the same* colour as your existing good stock, or use the 'other colour (so grey if using red oxide, or vice versa) to differentiate the break van(s) from the rest of the goods stock.

It was not unknown for some companies to paint the ends of break vans red (signal read rather than red oxide) to act as a 'last vehicle' check - a goods train passing a signal box that didn't have a red end had obviously lost part of it's consist somewhere.

At the end of the day though as nobody knows what the colour of the original actually was then nobody can tell you it's wrong - even if you paint it pink with yellow spots!

As to lettering there may be something suitable from Old Time Workshop, also available from Dundas

(* A little tip here - on the full sized but impecunious NG line when it came to painting wooden goods stock they probably would have used whatever was to hand to mix up enough paint to do the job.  This whilst all the goods stock might be grey, it's likely that no 2 wagons would be exactly the same shade due to how long it has been since the last repaint (weathering), or different batches of the 'standard' paint used or what the result was from mixing all the various remaindered pots of grey paint bought cheaply at the local Woolworths / left over from the last couple of wagon rebuilds / repairs, or a host of other reasons...)

[Peter Richardson]

Many thanks for feedback and tips!

Much appreciated.

Peter