1/32 GWR Toad AA19 Guard's Van Build

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Whilst I'm waiting for my body kits for the Mink A,C.D and Gs I thought I'd get on building a Toad GV to run with the few wagons a currently have. It's not a problem when I'm at a EAG running day as they have a 10mm one for the use of, but when at a members outdoor GTG I don't have a brake van to go on the end on my wagons.
Here's the progress so far.IMG_5852.JPG
Component parts with the stanchions fitted, all parts are soldered on. Since this photo was taken I have folded up the other solebar.
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Three different view of the assembled brake van some detailing parts still to be fitted.
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These are the other items required to complete the chassis, W Irons, Axleboxes and Drawgear from Ken Martin. Buffers from NMRS Models (Graham Jones). Wheels from Peter Korsilius.

There are brake gear on the etches and these will be fitted according to the Brian Morgan design in his article gwunderframes. This is a downloadable as a PDF from the scalefour society, it has drawing for most of the GWR wagon types and the construction there of.

Dave
 
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Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Here's the remaining parts I forgot to add to the photo yesterday. I also meant to say the van has been through my Ultrasonic Cleaner that's why it look so clean.
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Sand boxes and front cover, there is an etched lever but the casting needs modifying before it can be fitted. The missing axlebox that should have been with the other three. Brake column and the Chimney.

Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Time for an update with a photo.

Because of the amount of brass and thickness of it my Antex 660 TC soldering station is not up to it so I'm using a cook's blow torch. I've just finished adding the LW Casting W irons and the foot boards, all of this I used the torch. You may be able to see where the 1mm wire that supports the end on the foot board comes through the W Iron casting and bent round at 90 deg. then using the torch it's attached to the side.

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Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Here's what I was going to add in my previous post but then discovered It wasn't quite going according to plan!

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The items at the top are a brake hanger and two pieces for the brake blocks, this can be seen with the two items made up in the bottom of the view. What I then found out after soldering the two shoe pieces on to each brake hanger I should have only used one item. So I now don't have enough to complete the rest.

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This is my jig to solder the three items together with a cook's blow torch. You can see from the photo having three items joined gives a much more realistic sized brake shoe.

So I didn't like the idea of taking them apart so I'm going to fabricate eight more so as to make them all the same, three thickness's wide.

So that was problem number one, here's problem number two. The brake hanger has a tab which is supposed to fit in a slot behind the solebar, but using these heavy duty W Iron castings the slot was covered up:rant:

To get the now extra thick brake shoes in the centre of the wheel treads the only option I could see was to cut/grind out part of the casting to be able to use the slots underneath. This wasn't quite as bad as I expected, using my Proxxon model drill hand held with a double track cutting discs I slowly cut out the shapes you can see in the photo. I then discovered the holes for the Sand Pipes were also covered up, I was able to drill down from the inside through the template hole and through the casting.

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So here's the brake hangers positioned in the slots waiting to be soldered in, but before I do that I will add the ones for the other wheel and check they ling up in the centre of the treads before soldering them in finally.

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I thought it was going too easily.

Dave
 
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Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
I've been working on the sand boxes and the brake shoes so here's some photos.

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Rear view first, what you get for the sand boxes is the top casting and a front panel, which is actually an end of an open wagon. To make it removable I've fixed a piece of hardwood under the back edge so now it's free standing.

You get the etched lever but the other fixings I've made up out of scrap parts. It's not totally accurate but it looks the part.

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Front view, as you can see the front's planked and riveted, after taking the photo I can see there is some cleaning up to do.
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Two views of the brake shoes and the shoe support brackets, all of the shoes now are of three thickness's.
The etched brackets come with a very thin flat spigot on the ends that the shoes fit onto. I thought these were too flimsy so I cut them off and replaced them with a piece of 1mm wire along the whole length.
For a vehicle that's going to be used on garden railway layouts it needs to be robust and not have any of it's parts falling off.

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This view is just to show the thickness of the shoes and the 1mm wire.

Dave
 

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Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Hi All

Having pondered on how I was going to solder the brake hangers onto the body without un-soldering anything else I found a miniature soldering/blowtorch (Toolzone) and it's worked better than I could have hoped for.

I shall be using this instead of the Cook's blow torch I've been using up till now. From now on all the items left to fit are small.

So here's a couple of photos, after it's been in the Ultrasonic Cleaner.
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Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
I've not done a lot more to the Toad for quite a while, too busy putting up a G1 garden railway. But I have produced the brake hangers. See the attached photos.

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I'm also including photos I took of the underframe of a Toad at the SVR that was being restored.

ToadUF_1.jpg ToadUF_2.jpg ToadUF_3.jpg ToadUF_4.jpg

I keep telling myself I must finish this build as every time I go out on a G1 GTG I have to borrow some one's Toad brake van. These are now coming to an end so I think it will be a winter job.

Dave
 
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Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
For more info on all things GWR see Brian Morgan designs Underframe PDF. This is downloadable from the Scalefour Socity Web Site under Downloads.
For the Toad brake details see P68, and as I stated in my first post #1 this is what I'm aiming to achieve.

Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Hi All

Here is some more information on brake details on Toad vans. First up is a page from a John Lewis article he wrote for Scale Trains in 1983. this was a 5 part article spread over several month. I have all of this article and I'm sure John wont mind if I offer it to anyone who might like it.

Part 1 - page 6.jpg
Next up is two figures from Brian Morgan's gwrunderframes.

Fig_025.jpg
Fig_026.jpg

If anyone would like either of these articles them PM me.

Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
I said earlier in the posting that I thought this would be a winter project, but having now realised I wouldn't be able to paint it over the Winter.

So I've restarted work on the Toad. First off I've fitted the cabin floor so as to enable the brake hangers to be soldered to it, I did originally think of having a wooded floor but that would have made it more difficult with the hangers and all the other fittings.

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So now all the brake hangers are fitted and it's been through the Ultra Sonic cleaner. I may decide now to put a coat of undercoat on it and at a later stage fit the remaing brake parts, most of these have got to be made from scratch. These I will paint by hand.

Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
Two photos of the Toad in Primer, I've also strengthened the top cross member on the end of the Veranda, this will give the roof more support.

Hopefully on Thursday the weather is going to be above 20 degs and I'll be able to give the van it's top coat.

Toad in Primer_1.jpg

Toad in Primer_2.jpg

Dave
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
The Toad van has now had it's top coat so here's three photos, I have a rolled brass roof but was holding off spraying it until I sort out the method of removing it. I may use rare earth magnets in which case I won't need to do any soldering. I wish to be able to remove the roof to add items at a later date, stove/furniture and paint the interior.

The rest of the parts still to fit I shall epoxy glue on and paint by hand.

Simon of Titfield fame told me about the paint and I'm well impressed.

Toad in Top Coat_1.jpg
Toad in Top Coat_3.jpg
Toad in Top Coat_2.jpg

Dave
 
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Stubby47

Western Thunderer
Slightly off topic, but can I ask what the sand boxes were for on a brake van?

I understand on a loco they feed sand under the wheels to proved extra grip, but what use is the sand at the end of a train?


Stu
 

Dave Bowden

Western Thunderer
I was going to post a photo of my AA19 Toad Van with now wooden foot boards.
I then realised there are quite a lot of build photos missing, so I shall add some later this evening
Toad Underframe.jpg
The brakes are still to be completed, I was still able to use it like this.
Toad Interia_1.jpg
Toad Interia_2.jpg
Toad Interia_3.jpg
Toad Interia_4.jpg
Toad Veranda View.jpg
Toad P19 with running boards.jpg
Toad Side View.jpg
The running number is correct for 'Bordesley Junction'.
As can be seen I shall have the hand rails to fit and paint at some time. I'm still looking to add a stove, chair & desk for the Guard's quarters in the future.

Dave
 
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