richard carr
Western Thunderer
I have bought a lot of these wagons as I think they are really nice and they managed to keep going in service until into the 1990s.
I asked Malcolm Fisher at Peartree to do some replacement wheelsets for me to make converting them to S7 fairly easy. They have taken a while to get here, but I now have some to try and they are just perfect.
So this is how you do it.
The wagons come well packed and protected in a good box.
A buffer fell off this one as I removed it from the packaging, it just pushes back in but I'm not sure if it will just fall out again so it might need a drop of super glue.
The black wheels are the new ones from Peartree and the shiny ones are the finescale wheels that the wagon comes with.
The first thing to say is that there are a lot of small delicate parts on thee wagons and it is very easy to knock them off if you are not careful. You can see that part of the brakes is falling off here as it wasn't glued on too well.
The first thing is to remove the cross beams linking the W irons, these can be prised off carefully with a pair of tweezers.
Start at the no brake handle end and push them off from the centre.
It's off and so is the brake, fortunately these do glue back on quite easily.
You can now lift off the axle box, do not lose the spring, they might look the same as a slaters buffer spring but they are not, don't ask how I know !
You can then lift up the other axle box and put the new wheelset in and then carefully replace them.
These hold the axle boxes in place so once both wheel sets are in you can gently push these back on.
Everything back in place now and ready to be used.
The brakes have the correct spacing for S7 so there is no hacking away at brake blocks to get the wheels to turn smoothly. In fact if anything the spacing maybe too wide.
The finished wagon, I have done 10 now and it takes about 5 minutes a wagon plus anytime needed to stick bits back on.
I asked Malcolm Fisher at Peartree to do some replacement wheelsets for me to make converting them to S7 fairly easy. They have taken a while to get here, but I now have some to try and they are just perfect.
So this is how you do it.
The wagons come well packed and protected in a good box.
A buffer fell off this one as I removed it from the packaging, it just pushes back in but I'm not sure if it will just fall out again so it might need a drop of super glue.
The black wheels are the new ones from Peartree and the shiny ones are the finescale wheels that the wagon comes with.
The first thing to say is that there are a lot of small delicate parts on thee wagons and it is very easy to knock them off if you are not careful. You can see that part of the brakes is falling off here as it wasn't glued on too well.
The first thing is to remove the cross beams linking the W irons, these can be prised off carefully with a pair of tweezers.
Start at the no brake handle end and push them off from the centre.
It's off and so is the brake, fortunately these do glue back on quite easily.
You can now lift off the axle box, do not lose the spring, they might look the same as a slaters buffer spring but they are not, don't ask how I know !
You can then lift up the other axle box and put the new wheelset in and then carefully replace them.
These hold the axle boxes in place so once both wheel sets are in you can gently push these back on.
Everything back in place now and ready to be used.
The brakes have the correct spacing for S7 so there is no hacking away at brake blocks to get the wheels to turn smoothly. In fact if anything the spacing maybe too wide.
The finished wagon, I have done 10 now and it takes about 5 minutes a wagon plus anytime needed to stick bits back on.
