Skip skip skips at Cuarto

An unexpected knock on the door this morning was answered to find our local Evri driver with a box in his hand. On examining the postmark I realised who it was from, the sender had mentioned posting the contents, rather than bringing them with him next time he visits, so I could start work on the wagons in readiness for the June operating session.

A big thank you to David Travis for these, I do so like skips! There were also two other Gnomys in the parcel, a spare skip chassis and a rather weird looking coach.

The skip chassis will find a use eventually, probably fitted with a tension lock at one end and a Kadee at the other so it can act as an adaptor wagon but the coach was instantly converted into a transfer caboose for local freights or p-way trains.

Shown above in primer, it will eventually be red to match the genuine Gnomy caboose.

Back to the skips…

Twelve Tri-ang coach bogies, fitted with coffee stirrer cradles so the wheels will clear the bodywork, have been waiting for the skips to arrive. I had hoped they would fit inside the Gnomy underframes but they’re slightly too wide and the wheels do not quite match up with the axleboxes so some modifications were made.

I was not sure if the original couplers could be retained, doing so will make a massive saving in cost (Kadees are not cheap). A test run of all twelve wagons coupled together was made in both directions through the switchback at Paño Cucina with no issues being found. They only just fitted in the headshunt but there will never be a need to run such a long train during normal operations. This successful test means each set of four skips just needs two Kadees, one at each end.

As can be seen in the close up of the original couplers the skip bodies were removed for painting.

This done they wagons were reassembled. Two sets of four have been fitted with Kadees, the third will get its in a few days when a fresh supply of the couplers is delivered.

The acid test was how they perform under load, a job they did most satisfactorily. I made a video of the trip but cannot edit it on the new laptop so these stills will have to do.

After setting out the loads at Grande No.7 collected a train of empties for the return run.

With the coach shunted to the holding siding No.7’s last job of the day was to leave the empty skips on the mine branch for the top shunter to propel them the last few miles up the hill.

All twelve skips still need weathering but I reckon that was a good day’s work on the railway.

Post script

It occurred to me that the skips might look better as longer trains, five and a caboose instead of four.

The hidden staging at Cuarto de Pulgada is, just, long enough to take a five car train.

As it the middle road at Grande, where loads and empties are exchanged. There are only twelve of the Gnomys though so three additional vehicles will be needed to create the third set of five wagons.

I like the look of that. The two new skips have their original couplers between them and are temporarily fitted with tension locks at the outer ends. I’ll replace the temps with Kadees when I get them to give better flexibility with the Gnomys by making it possible to run four car sets as originally planned in addition to the three sets of five.