Pics courtesy Darryl PalmerI adjusted the RFL picture's perspective in Photoshop, cleaned it up and eventually managed to get a complete copy out of the printer. Yes, the entire side of my wagon - door, hinges, rain gutter, rubbing strip and all, is a white backed decal. Lazy bugger.
If you'd like to make your own, I've included a file at the bottom of this post, so don't say you don't never get nothing from the Dandruff Brothers. Print it out on a laser or photo printer, stick it on a plasticard box and you'll be laughing. (at it).
RFLs ran in both Islands from 1980 through 2008, albeit now rebuilt with treble doors and alas they lost their signwriting in the late 1990s, by which time the former-UK wagon and the container were jointly considered a "VRA" wagon. Presumably they ran around with TranzLink branding until recently. Our contacts at KiwiRail seem to think these haven't run in a few months, so it may be all over red rover. There are plans in the August 99 Journal that (as usual) surfaced right after I built it - just in time to point out my mistakes!
I found the Speights logo in a dark corner of the interweb and printed it out on the same sheet. By the time you read this, the horrible blue GSX box container will hopefully have been made more presentable.
So now I have a beer container to go with my wine ones. Shame they never made cider containers, or Blenheimer Cask box containers with little plastic taps on the ends. Time for a beer methinks.
RFL jpeg file provided for your pleasure.
Hope the blog didn't down-res this too much...
5 comments:
Nice job on the RFL wagons, Darryl.
I remember those running around years ago.
Glen.
You can call it lazy - I'd call it efficient prototypical fidelity
We had one VRA surface at Whareroa during the course of the last milk season, but it was in very poor condition and totally unsuitable for the task.
One of their downfalls is that they are not strong enough to support a forklift inside them, thus product has to be handled manually via pallet hoists and cheap Island labour...
If I remember next week I will have a look in Amicus and see where they all are these days.
A visit to Palmy yard and you will see many VRB bodies sitting on the hard after BlackBeard ordered their chassis back into container service. There may be some VRA bodies there too.
The VRB has taken over where the VRA left off, but even then there are very few in daily service.
Drew
I concur with the screams of acclaimation Mr Bond!
Very nice, and so simple.
OK, firstly I must say well done DB on the models - so rude of me not to mention it before.
Secondly, the RFL reefers you have modelled have always been classified VRA's.
A check in Amicus yesterday showed that there are a mere 11 VRA's left in the system. No doubt at one stage there were more, but now, of that 11, only 2 appeared to be roadworthy, the rest bad ordered and "parked up".
Drew
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