Recently, I’ve been doing some research on 6N84, Duxford to Tyne Yard speedlink service, nicknamed ‘The Glue Train’.
The service carried chemicals between the Ciba-Geigy plant at Duxford, as well as Urea for Haverton Hill for use in chipboard manufacturing. The train was made up of ICI TTA tanks, Ciba-Geigy TTA/TTB tanks and ICI PAA hoppers. This was the mainstay but occasionally Grainflow and Scottish Malt Distillers Polybulks would be included too.
I had a couple of the Bachmann Ciba-Geigy TTA wagons that I’d put aside since they were released, so this seemed like a logical starting point.
I renumbered the wagon and changed the tops code to TTB by painting out the printed numbers, brush painting gloss varnish, and adding individual numbers. Gloss varnish was applied to seal the transfers.
The walkway is incorrect for the Ciba-Geigy TTA and TTB, but Bachmann were never going to retool it as it wouldn’t be economical. So this was removed and a Stenson Models walkway replaced the plastic item. I placed masking tape on the tank and marked the required drill holes, and drilled them using an Archimedes drill and a 0.5mm bit.
The new walkway was located with a gell superglue, primed with vellejo grey primer, and once dry painted with Griffon Blue. Next, I added handrails, bufferbeam walkway, a central end ladder and painted them in the same way.
It was now ready for weathering. I masked up the Ciba-Geigy and PROCOR logos as these appear less dirty on the real item. Looking at prototype photos on Paul Bartlett’s website, I mixed some Sons of Honus Green and Electric Blue. A nice weathered base colour, which I applied to the tank with the airbrush. The chassis and tank centre were then blown over with Brown Leather and Charcoal Grey.
Finally, I used Charcoal Grey and dry brushed around the masked logos. I then removed the masking tape and applied Flory Models Grey and Grime washes to provide some streaks to the sides. I’m quite pleased with the finished wagon.
