4mm An EM Workbench: Mini-Signwriting (rough)

[Yorkshire Dave]

Returning to the cross channel ferry variant (diag 1430) they were converted from diag 1428 with the 9' wheelbase. Additions were: axle guard tie bars, vacuum brakes, through Air Brake line, additional side vents, two lamp irons on the ends, different style screw couplers and buffers.

The hardest part will be finding post WWII photos of them.

 

[AJC]

The hardest part will be finding post WWII photos of them.

I've only ever seen one, ex-works, from the very early '50s, but as you say, the work in creating one is not hard. Being 9' wb, I would be surprised if they made it much past the very early '60s, but I must ask Mike King next time I see him. Lettering is the other hard bit (EDIT: actually, it isn't, the Ratio kit includes the transfers and the extra vents are on the sprues), but not impossible. That said, I did find two pictures of the pent-roofed van(s) in normal service in the early '60s - both vanished from Flickr now - and that was good enough for me to model one/it.

This plywood van is the bland balance to such exotica.

Adam

 

[AJC]

And here’s the van, post-primer and ready for top coats.



The yellow roof is down to remedial work needed on the cut and shut I carried out on the moulding in order to make it the correct width. A second pass fill (superglue!), rubbed back and filler primed (Halfords).

Adam

 

[AJC]

Thank you, Mike, and everyone. Since I don’t feel like painting, another project from the shelf, the D&S GNR opens, now back on their wheels, with coupling hooks and the last of the original paint consigned to history.



Just one buffer head lost, but that’s ok. I’ve replaced the horse loops with 0.3mm nickel silver wire.



And floors, from hand scribed 40 thou’. The brakes will be mounted to these - soldering to the back of the solebars, as designed, would have been good for Irish standard gauge, I reckon.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Oh, and there’s always one more thing, isn’t there? In this case, the appearance of Captain Cock-Up's detective cousin. I’ve re sprayed the SECR brake, but only then spotted that my chosen prototype had gained rainstrips. So out with the Evergreen and the Plasticweld.



The tare weight is the masked up original, all the other lettering will have to be new.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Both the GNR opens are at the end of soldering, capping strips from 5 thou’ will be added tomorrow and maybe, if the rain holds off, primer. Since they look exactly the same, one photo will suffice. Masokits provided the levers and guides, but I resisted weakening the already tired brake fittings by cutting the safety loops away.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Looking around the workbench, it was obvious that I had a host of things lacking coupling hooks so I’ve assembled and fitted a batch to as an esoteric combination as a pre-group mineral, an RTR coil carrier, an etched LNER tube, and these two:



Geen oil tank (part of a selection acquired from eBay - this was worth what I paid for the lot), which is a long term project, missing, among other things, brakes, buffers and the usual domed ends. Second, a quickie, an LNER open from Oxford Rail. Not a bad body, shame about the brakes. These should have single-sided Morton, I think. The brakes are modelled as independent, so are the wrong way about, the levers aren’t right for independent brakes as they’re missing a vee hanger. The one that is there is inset too far (all this is well known) but should be easy enough to put right.





Adam

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Hello Adam,
It's a nice moulding, that Oxford Open. And the representation of the brakes looks good. 'Tis a pity that one more ha’p’orth wasn't spent in the underpinnings.

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

Hello Adam,
It's a nice moulding, that Oxford Open. And the representation of the brakes looks good. 'Tis a pity that one more ha’p’orth wasn't spent in the underpinnings.

Cheers

Jan

It's one of those things - I can't understand why they failed to do them right, but at least the brakegear as modelled is more or less workable (and the levers and guides are good) and I can simply turn the mouldings around, or I could, if all the detail wasn't on one side only. It's not a big deal, really, I have the bits in stock.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Stripped out and on the way to being rebuilt. The new vee hangers are from Rumney Models and the chunk out of the solebar is a visit from Captain Cock Up: I tried to melt it into the gap between the body moulding and the chassis moulding using the soldering iron. This could have been more effective… Never mind. They’re in the right place now.



A note on regauging to EM and P4 - the axles are longer than standard and slightly shy of 2mm diameter. If you were to simply press the existing wheels out to EM back to back then it’s easy (they’re a bit wide over the treads for my tastes but the flanges are fine). If you replace the wheels then reusing the original axles is possible if you knurl them with a large file.

Door chains added, a decision about whether this is another ‘30s vehicle or one in BR condition needs to be made as the capping strips need clips for the latter.

The brake moulding needs a bit more detail because it’s been reversed. First, however, I’ve added a bit of 20 thou’ on the back in order that the tumbler can be drilled out to accept a cross shaft. Might take the safety loops off before reinstatement.

Adam

 

[Suffolk Dave]

A note on regauging to EM and P4

Thanks for sharing this Adam. I have some of these Oxford wagons tucked away and will need to converting to P4 at some point.

 

[Lyndhurstman]

A note on regauging to EM and P4 - the axles are longer than standard and slightly shy of 2mm diameter.

Another - known - issue with Oxford products. Again, the question has to be asked; how did they let it become (their )standard?
I guess the 'edge of two files sandwich' is a good way to knurl these beasts. If I can pick one up cheaply enough, I may let my intrigue see what flows from it.
Thanks for sharing. Adam

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

Another - known - issue with Oxford products. Again, the question has to be asked; how did they let it become (their )standard?
I guess the 'edge of two files sandwich' is a good way to knurl these beasts. If I can pick one up cheaply enough, I may let my intrigue see what flows from it.
Thanks for sharing. Adam

Cheers

Jan

They're not even all the same... Anyway, I just use the one file and rest the axle on the cutting mat: the file need not be anything good (mine is a Draper no. 3 cut from the local hardware shop when I lived in Southampton which I use for levelling the tops of plastic solebars and so on: it's sped lots of modelling tasks up, but it's not the highest quality tool).

Adam

EDIT - PS: the wide treads of the original wheels have some advantages. It means that the brake gear moulding only needs moving outwards by about 0.5mm. I filed that much of the spigots and stuck a wedge of 20 thou' in to secure them in place.

 

[AJC]

While I was waving the soldering iron about to fix brake levers, I did a little to start on replacing the brakes on the oil tank wagon. The original was 1. Battered; 2. Made from some sort of margarine metal; 3. Not awfully close to the wheels (and sort of stuck in with superglue).



Masokits to the rescue. Just the vees so far, suitable for independent each side brakes, pinned through the solebars. The cross shaft shown here is very much temporary!



I’m not sure whether the kit is meant to follow the 1907 or 1911 RCH drawings, but there’s plenty more to do, those flat ends, for a start.

Adam

 

[AJC]

I’ve not - surprisingly - used Masokits bits for push rod brakes before. State of the finescale art 30 years ago! As with all of Mike Clark’s bits, the design is sound and the bits fit, even if not with ultimate scale fidelity. Obviously, this tank doesn’t have a ‘normal’ wheelbase, it’s 10’ 6”, so they’ll be a certain amount of bodging to get that.

So it’s all self jigging, using brake shoes and vees as fixed points. I’ve stuck the shoes to some brass strip, which is both a spacer and a locator. I’ve also filed off the ‘ears’ since I don’t think this spec’ allowed for reversible brake shoes.



Tumblers added too, and here we are:



Adam

EDIT - the vees turn out to be in not quite the right place (vertically), so a couple of steps forward, backwards, and sideways…

 

[AJC]

Downing tools for a week of conferences and holiday. Underframe metalwork mostly completed (the outlet pipe will be made and added later - it's pretty obvious that the tank isn't on properly). The combination of quite soft whitemetal, and brass components not designed for the purpose has not made this a terribly enjoyable experience thus far and as you can see some of the fixings have suffered. This is all repairable but irritating.



It’s a bit untidy, to be honest. I might well park this for a bit and do something less fraught!

Adam

 

[AJC]

A diversion, and hopefully a quick one. Some time ago I scratchbuilt a pair of steel cool carriers that had been (in reality) converted from Bogie Bolster Es, and had meant to get hold of a Lima version of the latter to improve. I only got as far as a set of Colin Craig (Stenson Models) bogies and forgot about it. A month or so ago, I saw some silly reductions on the Dapol model of these short, vac-fitted bolsters and succumbed. Now the bogies supplied are far too narrow for EM wheels and so I fished the Stenson version from their hiding place.

EDIT - the Stenson bits (though not these specific bogies, Davis and Lloyd 5' 6", which are currently(?) sold out) can be had here: Shop — Will's Workbench Model Railways.

An hour later:



Compare and contrast:



One note - I thought, initially, that the etched frames might be a bit flimsy. Not when the cosmetic sideframes were soldered on they weren't: I had to take one off to get the wheels in... The result is exceptionally free running, which is great.

Adam

 

[AJC]

And now on those bogies. Fitting was fairly simple: I sawed off the bogie pivots on the chassis casting so about 1mm was left. At one end there are some bearers to keep the body level and these were filed to match the pivot.



Pop the screws back in and job done. Now to stick the loose fittings on properly and add couplings, vac’ pipes, etc.

Adam

 

[AJC]

And one more, the SR design, BR built ply’ van which exhibits patch painting, including a characteristic feature of SR vans in the BR period - overpainting the roof edges in livery colour. I’ve added a couple of labels: one worn and weathered (carpets) and another fresh (BOCM - animal feed). I rather like this one.



Adam

 

[AJC]

A pair of kits from the drawer, these two were picked up at EXPO EM last year, both LNER standards from Parkside retrofitted with a purchase from this year’s edition, ABS brakegear.



The van will be modelled as new, and despatched to the ‘30s, the conflat, well, the container is a clue.



Adam