A Week's Brake

Overseer

Western Thunderer
This is looking very nice. It does strike me that you could have scratch built the same van in less time and with less effort. I look forward to seeing the finished result.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
The End

Well one of them. Wheels and couplings as well. As promised earlier, a picture of the current state of play stood upon a length of GER track.
025 The End.jpg
Sorry again for the depth of field. If anybody has a decent lens attached to their camera at Sudbury on Sunday then perhaps I can obtain a shot where less of the van is fuzzy.

Or come along and see it for yourself. You don't actually have to model Scale7 to attend; although you're not allowed to leave at the end of the day without some "homework" for either Love Lane or West Mersea.
 

Rob R

Western Thunderer
'Tis looking very nice indeed Dave.
Will you have it on your "modelling table" at the excellent Mid-Essex show on the 21st September? (shameless plug for a club I've not been a proper member of for 30 years;) )

It does strike me that you could have scratch built the same van in less time and with less effort. I look forward to seeing the finished result.

Yes, but there is the satisfaction of turning a pigs purse into a silk ear (or summat like that).:)
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Looks very neat in the flesh, well worth all the effort.

Like Phil says, hope your much better now.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Thank you all for you kind comments (a) re. the pig's purse and (b) my temporary health blip yesterday afternoon.

All of (b) now resolved. Still lots to do to get (a) finished -- I reckon I'm about half-way to completing the kit. Then there's the DCC controlled lights and motor to turn the handwheels...

Bob, thanks for the shameless plug but the show this year clashes with the weekend that we have to install Jenny at uni so I may be missing my 2nd show in 36 years. For those of you who don't have the faintest idea what we're talkng about please click here.
 
S

SteveO

Guest
Or come along and see it for yourself. You don't actually have to model Scale7 to attend...

Are there any plans to meet up on Aug 11th? I'm from Suffolk originally but don't seem to get up there much these days but I may be free at some point on that Sunday.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Are there any plans to meet up on Aug 11th? I'm from Suffolk originally but don't seem to get up there much these days but I may be free at some point on that Sunday.

Meetings are the last Sunday of the month, though there are mid week wednesday working parties but the last Sunday usually has the most people to meet and chat.
 
S

SteveO

Guest
What's this 'maybe' malarky? :)

Ah, the randomness of my visits is like striking lucky on the lottery while being stuck in a lift with a buxom blonde who is feeling very hot and asks if you mind if she takes off a few things to cool down.

You know it make sense. If you're building your own stock as your are, you may was well put the correct wheels in. :)

Funny you should say that as I'm seriously considering the S7 route. I'm worried about the implications of that though, and what it means for any layout I produce...
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Are there any plans to meet up on Aug 11th? I'm from Suffolk originally but don't seem to get up there much these days but I may be free at some point on that Sunday.

Every time I manage to escape to Sudbury for my monthly "hit" of Love Lane and West Mersea then SWMBO goes to see the in-laws in Brighton. You'd only be doing the opposite trip to her! And you are closer than Mick from York...
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
A Two Year Brake...

There has been some, as yet unpublished, progress but whilst soldering the footboards I managed to melt my RSU. This somewhat dampened my mojo for this project so it was relegated to become a shelf queen.

A Two Decade Brake...

However, whilst trying to find space on the shelf I found another partly completed brake van. This time in plastic so no chance of damaging my newly-repaired soldering iron! This one is an LMS D1657 20t brake van based on the Parkside kit which I started a decade or so before the GER brake which forms the main subject of this thread.

A bit of recent dining-room table modelling has got us this far. It was meant to be M328337 (LMS Wagons Vol 1 p5) but when I sent the number to @Oz7mm for the very nicely etched plates I sent the wrong one :( so the vehicle is now M295657 (same book, same page) with a few errors. The rainstrips are wrong as well because I went by the drawings in Official Drawings of LMS Wagons rather than the photos.
LMS D1657 three-quarter view.jpg
Excuse the fit of the roof; the tissue-paper "canvas" is causing a little distortion which, I hope, will be resolved when the roof and body are finally united. Still needs label clips, seat backs inside the duckets, boltheads inside the ends to hold the lamp brackets in place and a few spots of filler.

LMS D1657 top view.jpg
So, to the real purpose of this post. A couple of questions for the WT team:

1. What colour would the interior be painted? Assuming the last visit to a paintshop was early-1950s at the latest, the grey exterior will be showing distinct signs of wear. Essery states (Official Drawings of LMS Wagons Vol 2 p4) that the LMS 1936 paint scheme was green with a white ceiling; would this have lasted until the mid/late 1950s or was there an official BR paint scheme for brake van interiors at this time?

2. Presumably the desk was for the guard to complete his paperwork; but what did this paperwork look like? Was it a large ledger (as used in signal boxes); a pocket-sized notebook; foolscap sheets of paper; or smaller cards? How was the paper work completed (e.g. pen and ink; fountain pen; biro (too early?); stub of a pencil)?
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
1. What colour would the interior be painted? Assuming the last visit to a paintshop was early-1950s at the latest, the grey exterior will be showing distinct signs of wear. Essery states (Official Drawings of LMS Wagons Vol 2 p4) that the LMS 1936 paint scheme was green with a white ceiling; would this have lasted until the mid/late 1950s or was there an official BR paint scheme for brake van interiors at this time?

I think there would have been a good chance that the interior would still be in LMS colours. It only became BR in'48.
Might be worth a question asked of Don Field or Bob Essery as they may well have seen the inside of an LMS brake van at that time.

Superb work Dave, as always :thumbs:

Col.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Lovely Dave!
What did you use to stick the tissue paper to the roof?
JB.
Just flooded it with Butanone. But you have to be quick as the tissue paper soaks up the dissolved surface of the plastic and quickly sticks like :shit: to a blanket. Keep the tissue stretched tight so that no wrinkles appear.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Six months further on...
LMS D1657 three-quarter view painted.jpg
I managed to force the roof back into shape (rubber bands and superglue dispensed from a hypodermic syringe via a fine needle) but the interior detail is invisible unless you shine a torch through the windows which were laser cut for me by @BrushType4 - thanks Phil. Not fully convinced about the weathering yet as the finish looks a bit "flat" when viewed in the flesh.
 
Top