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Glossary of model trains - 51L - Glossary of model trains Category: Hobbies and Crafts > Glossary of model trains Date & country: 16/11/2010, UK Words: 62

Acrobat
Adobe have produced a portable document viewer which we use to store our assembly instructions. It keeps the document size, hence download time, to a minimum and allows complete control of the appearance of the document. All our downloadble documents are produced using Acrobat Version 3.01, which are viewable in any version of the Acrobat reader from 3.01. If you do not have a copy of this product...

Araldite
A trade name for CIBA Geigy's two pack epoxy adhesive. Sold as a Normal (blue pack) or Rapid (red pack). Any two pack epoxy glues will do in its place. Depending on your preference you can use a rapid cure or a conventional cure. The rapid set adhesives can be a great boon the the modeller, however care should be taken as it does set rapidly, a matter of minuets depending on temperature, and undo...

Bell Code
Telegraph code used to offer trans from signal box to signal box..

Bolster
a transverse baulk of timber or steel to support long loads, such as timber, rail or metal products. Usually found on single, twin or more recently bogie wagons. Bolsters could be either fixed or swivelling. See Caledonian Dgm 109, North Eastern Dgms D1, D2 & D4 for examples.

Brass
an alloy of copper and zinc, typically 60% copper 40% zinc. However other elements such as aluminium, iron, manganese, nickel, tin,and lead are frequently added.

Clasp Brake
Brake System with two shoes acting on a single wheel. Usually seen on fitted stock as exemplified on the Diagram K1 fitted cattle wagon.

Covered goods wagon
The railway term for the 'humble' van.

Curb Rail
More correctly called the side rail (See below).

Diagram book
Book issued by railway companies detailing basic dimensions, tares and carrying capacity of vehicles. Generally used by the traffic departments and others for selection and loading of stock. Diagram books were produced for all manner of items including wagons, special wagons, carriages, road vehicles etc. The standard of the information supplied in a diagram book varies from a basic outline sketch...

Etched Brass
Etching is a means of reproducing fine detail in sheet metal materials such as brass It is a photo-electrical process by which surplus material (brass) is removed from a sheet by selective corrosive attack of the parent material. The components will need removing from the sheet using snips or fine scissors and folding or forming to make various shapes. Usually the fold lines are soldered and the p...

EWS
English and Scottish Railway, The. The UKs principal freight operator. .

Finescale
Term used to describe models built close to the correct size. Can apply to any scale and gauge.

Fitted wagon
One fitted with a continuous brake, that is a brake which was applied to every vehicle in the train and controlled by the engine driver. Could be either the automatic vacuum or theWestinghouse air brake. The latter was superior and is now becoming standard on Railtrack.

Flash
The name for surplus material which can occur on moulded parts in line with the mould parting line. It may be found on either white metal, plastic or resin components and can be removed using a fine scalpel blade.

Flitch
An iron or steel plate on the exterior surface of the solebar. Commonly used in the pre Great War period.

Freightliner
Second largest freight operator in UK after EWS.

GA, General arrangement drawing
The drawing showing side, end and plan elevations. This was not a drawing from which a vehicle was made but one from which general information could be obtained. At least in the early days prepared after the manufacture of the vehicles.

GLW
refers to 'Gross Laden Weight', which is the maximum weight of the wagon loaded.

GNoSR
The Great North of Scotland Railway, based in Aberdeen engineering workshops were at Inveruie, Aberdeenshire.

Grease
Lubricant used in wagon axle boxes until the widespread use of oil. The relatively poor lubricating properties of grease limited wagon running speed and load. There were two principal types of grease axle box the Ellis and the Attock's pattern. Both came in a number of different designs with round or square bases and in the case of the Attock's type a 'solid' or a moving plate type giving easy...

Grouping
Government inspired reorganisation of the British railway network after the Great War into four groups each with a separate geographical area. The companies were the Great Western Railway, London Midland & Scottish, London & North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway often referred to as the Big Four.

Headstock
The railway term for the buffer beam.

Hopper wagon
A wagon which is completely unloaded by gravity. A method pioneered by the NER and its constituent companies.

Horse hooks
Attachment points on the solebar allowing the horse powered shunting of vehicles. The use of shunting horses continued until after the Second World War.

Instanter Couplings
A special three link coupling where the centre link can be placed in two positions to change the effective length of the coupling. Common on the Great Western and modern image air brake freight stock.

LMS
London Midland and Scottish Railway, formed in 1923, from the LNW, Midland, Caledonian, Furness, Glasgow & South Western, North Staffordshire and others.

LNER
London and North Eastern Railway - formed in 1923 from the North Eastern, North British, Great North of Scotland, Great Eastern Railways and others.

LNWR
London and North Western Railway amalgamated with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1922 to form a group of the same name. In 1923 at Grouping. Became part of the LMS.

Loose coupled
Train which does not have an automatic brake and is dependent solely on the locomotive brake and strength of the guard in the brake van to stop the train. Freight trains without an automatic brake continued to run on BR until 1983.

Lowmac
Low machine wagon.

LYR
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway based at Hunts Bank Manchester with engineering facilities at Horwich and Newton Heath. Amalgamated with the LNWR in 1922. CMEs included J A F Aspinall, G Hughes and Barton Wright. Heavy weight of the British Victorian and Edwardian railway scene.

Mineral wagon
Mineral traffic includes coal, coke, limestone, and similar bulky traffics. Coal has historically outweighed other minerals in tonnage carried and mineral traffic has tended to be thought of as coal traffic. Mineral traffic was the preserve of the Private Owner wagon.

MSJS
'Midland Scotch Joint Stock'. The stock allocated for anglo Scottish services operated jointly by the Midland, Glasgow & South Western and North British Railways. Set up in 1879 and operated until 1899 when separate M & GSW (Midland and Glasgow & South Western), and M & NB (Midland and North British) joints stock was formed.

NBR
The North British Railway. Engineering works was at Cowlairs. Became part of the LNER at Grouping.

NER
The North Eastern Railway, based in York. Became part of the LNER at grouping.

Nickel
Silver-white metallic element, chemical symbol Ni.

Nickel silver
Copper alloy, nominal composition 18-25% Zn, 8-12% Ni remainder copper.

Nickel steel
Steel alloy containing nickel as a principal alloying element.

NSR
The North Staffordshire Railway based at Stoke, became part of the LMS at Grouping.

Open wagon
One without a roof(!), where the load had to be protected from the elements, if required, by a tarpaulin. Such wagons came in a range of heights from 1 to 8 planks but are more correctly called low, medium or high sided wagons. Every company had it's own ideas of what was a low, medium or high sided goods wagon. Until recent years such wagons were the mainstay of the British scene comprising a fa...

Plasticard
A trade name, for a range of thin polystyrene sheet, which is ideally suited for modelling. Plasticard is manufactured by Slaters Ltd and supplied is in a range of thickness ( 0.005" to 0.060"). Similar products are available from several suppliers.

Pre-group
In the United Kingdom this is the period up to the 'Grouping' of the railway companies in 1923 to form 'the Big Four' the GWR, LNER, LMS and Great Western Railway.

Private owner
A wagon or ( more rarely) a van not owned by the railway company. There were also a limited number of private owner brake vans but these tended to stay in their owner's industrial sites. Typical examples were the colliery mineral wagons prior to nationalisation in 1948. In more recent years private owner wagons have made a come back and numerous examples now run on Network Rail.

RCH
The Railway Clearing House. The organisation used to arrange payment between companies, and to handle common interests.

Resin
Two part Eepoxy resin used for large components such as carriage roofs, boilors and wagon bodies where the use of white metal would be too heavy.

Scalefour Society The
The Society which promotes modelling to 4mm standards..

Sheet Brass
Often used by scratch builders, is available from a wide range of engineering suppliers in various thicknesses. Often purchased as shim brass by the roll.

Sheeting
The sides of a wagon formed from either timber or metal.

Side Rail
a longitudinal strip running above the solebar which supports the sheeting (See above).

Solder
A material used to join two pieces of metal which has a lower melting point that either of the two parent materials. Comes in a wide range of materials but commonly a tin/lead alloy. There are three basic grades of solder used by modellers these are, 188, 144 and low melt solder.

Solebar
Outside, longitudinal frame members. Usually these would be visible and have the makers or owners plates attached.

Steel
An alloy of iron and carbon often with other elements as well. Difficult to solder without correct flux.

Strengthening
The addition of a carriage to a train, usually on an ad-hoc basis, for a specific service!

Superglue
The generic name, and also a trade name, for isocyanate glues which cure very rapidly, in some cases in less than 1 minute. Should be stored in a refrigerator firmly closed to prolong life. Frequently used to assemble resin based kits.

Tumbleholme
Where the sides and sometimes the ends curve inwards from the waist to the floor.

Unfitted
A wagon with hand brakes only, that is no automatic vacuum or air brake.

Universal
When used in the context of 4mm OO, refers to the wheel profile. Universal wheels are suitable for Peco code 100 rail and SMP track and other proprietary RTR makes.

Weathering powders
A means or selectively 'dirtying' the model to make it seem as if the model has seen years of active service!

White metal
A tin alloy containing varying amounts of lead, copper, antimony and other elements which have a 'low melting' temperature, ideal for low volume fine detail casting. Historically used for bearings and domestic items. White metal has an additional advantage in that 4mm vehicles do not usually require extra mass. It is not appropriate for large vehicles where mass exceeds 2 ounces (50grams). Often...

G&SWR
The Glasgow and South Western Railway.

R-T-R
Ready to Run completed models, usually injection moulded plastic which are ready to run straight out of the box. These are often a good source of modern image rolling stock, as well as an economical source of common rolling stock. Require weathering powders and in many instances modifcations.

S Scale
Modelling to a scale of 3/16":1 foot. This scale is supported by the S Scale Model Railway Society.