N Gauge Model Carts From Card

Inspired by my Steptoe cart in the previous article, I've gone cart making mad and created a further 9 different models. Some time ago I purchased a pack of white plastic animals in N Scale 1:150. These included several horses in various positions. After painting them I found I had really too many for the field I had set aside on my railway layout so the idea was born to add carts to them, starting with a Steptoe & Son rag and bone cart. Now my collection includes one for my coal merchant, timber merchant, Hodges the grocer, a Double Diamond brewery cart, an Esso Blue one and a cart for Manor Farm. I then took the design a little further and created a horse drawn milk float under the United Dairies brand.

I have added the model plans to my Etsy store if anyone would like to make these themselves. For the loads in the carts, I made these as follows.

Milk churn load. I created milk churns by cutting the ends off a cotton bud and pushing this onto the end of a cocktail stick. I then carefully cut off the end of the cocktail stick together with the cotton bud shaft, so that about 1mm of plastic remained on the cocktail stick to form a lid. I made about 20 of these and painted the ends light grey. I then stuck each cocktail stick's remaining pointed end in plasticine to dry. Once dry I cut about 5mm off each painted end of cocktail stick, creating milk churns.

  

Coal Sacks load. For coal sacks I cut off the ends of cotton buds and painted the ends a light grey. Once dry I cut them into 5mm pieces using a pair of wire cutters. This has the effect of squashing the thin tube into a more sack like shape. I then filled my sacks with a little bit of black plasticine.

Timber load. For the timber I painted several cocktails sticks with brown and black water colour paint. Once dry I cut pieces roughly to the length of the cart.

 

Barrel and sack loads. These are from the Ratio 221 plastic kit of sacks, barrels and pallets. These are quite often on Ebay and are generally no too expensive at £3-£4.

Paraffin/Gas bottle load. Cut off the very point (about 2mm) of several cocktails sticks. Paint the ends a light blue and allow to dry. Then cut 5mm pieces off the ends.

I was very pleased with the results and was able to create some little scenes as you can see in the photos. The knocked over milk churn and the United Dairies horse enjoying a surprise breakfast. The coalman filling the sacks and the brewery cart delivering to my Railway Inn pub.

Steptoe Rides Yet Again

The very popular Steptoe & Son TV sitcom in the 70s inspired me to create a rag and bone wagon from card, cocktail sticks, match sticks and cigarette filters. So you could say, Steptoe rides again. Well he does on my model n gauge railway layout!

Steptoe Rides Yet Again!

Using my own plan making software I have created several model carts to add to the horses I have. After printing out the plans, I cut out the shapes, painted any white edges and glued them together. For the wheels I used cigarette filters. Using a needle I pierced a filter through the centre, then pushed through a wooden cocktail stick so the filter was like a kebab. I then painted the filter with matt black enamel paint. Once dry I sliced a wheel sized section off both ends of the filter using a razor blade. After carefully removing the centre section, I was able to paint the inside walls of my wheels and the centre cocktail stick which was to be my axle. Again, once dry, I carefully moved the two wheels to the centre of the axle and cut off both wooden ends leaving an axle of 1cm. Still with the wheels in the middle I touched the ends of the axle with red enamel paint. When the red paint was dry I was able to move the wheels to the end of the axle so that the red was in the middle like a hub.

Making the wheels was quite a performance and took a few days allowing coats of paint to dry, so I then created some card wheels on the same plan I used for the cart and the result is just as good if not better. So my Mk2 cart was born but still very similar to the picture above. My cart plan includes a flap underneath to secure the thin wire I used for the shafts that attach the cart to the horse. I then painted the shafts black and attached a small piece of black cotton between the shafts to go over the horse's back. Using black cotton, I wound it around the horse several times and fixed it with a little glue. The shafts then rest on the horse's back without being permanently attached.

Two pieces of match stick painted blue make the seat and front of the cart. I will add photos of the other carts when I have completed them including a Double Diamond brewery cart, Esso Blue paraffin delivery and a United Dairies milk float.