I am building the rolling stock for my railroad, which is very roughly meant to be a part of the Denver & South Park & Pacific RR of Colorado in about 1880, in 1/20^th scale.

This is because I like the Mason Bogie locomotives – which can be described as a larger version of the single ‘Fairlie’ locomotive as on the Ffestiniog Railway. There are going to be a pair of the ‘Bogies’ built, with some other locomotives, and also the buildings I require..

Back to rolling stock: I weather my rolling stock, not by very much, but I find it looks better. This means that I have a use for a number of containers for the different colours that I use.

Another part (of the RR) to be built is hopefully a large mill; this will need an equally large number of corrugated iron sheets for the roof. These are to be made from the aluminum sheet that is the main part of the universal ‘drink can’,  that litters our streets. These are made from either the aluminum (I find the large 500ml) Fosters (the blue ones) beer cans are best. Do not try to use the lager cans – these are generally steel – I cut off the top & bottom of the cans after washing and through cleaning (outside!) with a small slitting saw in my multispeed tool (the B&Q £29 version). Steel cans at this point will produce sparks, so dump those in your dustbin. I use ‘thrown away’ cans, but you can of course sample the contents of the cans before working on them! Ensure the cans are not dented or marked in any way; you want the ‘pristine article’.

With the top and bottom removed you have a tube of aluminum sheet – cut it with a pair of scissors (but not your best pair!) into a sheet, trim one long end at the same time, and de-curl it under the edge of a table with your hand, after again ensuring that the inside is clean. That will give you a flat sheet that is 6 thou thick.

That leaves the top & bottom of the can – throw away the top, the bottom needs to have the slightly rough cut edge (by the saw) cleaned up with a sanding drum, and there are your palettes for painting. I use both sides depending on how much paint needs to be mixed, and if you use acrylic paint (DecorArt at 99p each) when a set of used ones have accumulated they can be dropped into some water left for an hour, and the dry paint will then flake off.

What do I do with the aluminum sheets – that will wait for another article, explaining how I ‘corrugate’ them  later!

© Peter Bunce