4mm An EM Workbench: plastic steels

[AJC]

And then three more. The most numerous pre-Nationalisation wagon design and its cousin. I'm making two of the former - LMS diagram 1666 - from the Cambrian kit, with modifications. This was a 9' wheelbase 17' 6" over headstocks unfitted open with independent brakes and the LMS built some 55,000 of the things from 1923 onwards: every post-Grouping layout should probably have one or two.



The internal planks are represented by raised lines and I've replaced the ends on this one, along with the headstocks. Nothing wrong with the kit ends, but since I was scribing sides and ends for another wagon and had some strip left over I used some of that. What of the other wagon? A rarer bird, but a similar type. Diagram 1895 was quite varied: the 1200 wagons in three lots, one with double brakes and two more with Morton brakes. Mine is one of the latter, based on a Ratio underframe with the steel solebar infilled to represent the real wagon's wooden underframe. The latter is a bit odd as the LMS wasn't really building all wood vehicles by the mid-30s, but is makes an interesting variation, along with the barrow plank on the doors.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Yes, it would have been easier to have just modified another Cambrian body.



But where would be the fun in that?

Adam

 

[Overseer]

Yes, it would have been easier to have just modified another Cambrian body.

View attachment 155244

But where would be the fun in that?

Adam

Looking good. After you have built a few dozen more Diagram 1666 opens to keep the fleet proportions right you need to build a Diagram 1896 - like a Diag 1895 but with angle iron external knees instead of the forged outside knees. Bob Essery has caused some confusion by claiming in LMS Wagons that the lot 1118 wagons were D.1895 rather than D.1896 as the LMS recorded them. The lot 1118 wagons reverted to having curb rails which did not appear on the earlier lot 809 of D.1896 but the ironwork was the same for both lots and quite different to the D.1895 wagons. So there were 1,500 diagram 1896 wagons and 1,200 diagram 1895 wagons.

 

[AJC]

Thanks Fraser - and thank you for making sense of the relevant pages of Essery's LMS Wagons: invaluable book, but the scrapbook layout is occasionally unhelpful - the 1896 is quite a distinctive-looking wagon, but you're quite right to say that more dia. 1666s should be the balance (the LMS had 70 or so of the things for each 4F so, if you have a 4F, get building ), as - having spent a bit of time looking for them on Flickr last night - they are as ubiquitous as the raw figures suggest. I was slightly surprised in the same trawl how common the LNER equivalent was: I should probably build another one of those.

Adam

PS - having found a rough number for the LMS loco fleet, you need about eight dia. 1666s for each loco: achievable!

 

[AJC]

In a recent MRJ, @Gerry Beale suggested the world and his wife had one of these (rather nice) small oil tanks from Oxford Rail. I've now finished the modifications to mine by replacing the two part RCH-type axleboxes with some slope-fronted examples a bit more typical of the post-First World War, pre-Grouping vehicle the model represents.



I obviously have to touch in the paintwork, renumber and weather it, but that can wait for a bit.

Adam

 

[LarryG]

Some very helpful information in this thread for when my thoughts tuner to adding more wagons. Thanks. Oxford produce some neat looking wagons, but they are sometimes accompanied by criticism. Does the tank wagon pass muster?

 

[AJC]

Some very helpful information in this thread for when my thoughts tuner to adding more wagons. Thanks. Oxford produce some neat looking wagons, but they are sometimes accompanied by criticism. Does the tank wagon pass muster?

Thank you, Larry.

The tank wagon is by far and away the best 4mm scale RTR tank wagon, it's as simple as that. However, it does not represent the most common designs (in the post-Second World War period, the majority of wagons were the 14 ton wagons built to Air Ministry spec': they're noticeably bigger). That said, most country goods yards probably only merit one or two.

The LNER cattle wagon has some silly errors (but the version modelled was not long-lived in BR ownership so I haven't got one) and, as I recall the brakegear on the LNER open is back to front. Fixable, however (I think in the latter case you can just remove it and turn it round...).

Adam

 

[AJC]

It’s grant writing season, so not much time for wagons. Enough to have completed the diagram 1895 and to have painted it, however:



This one is modelled as a ‘proper’ repaint so with a black solebar and headstocks with tidy grey paint and number patches. The 1666s won’t be like that.

Thanks to the kindness of a forum member I’ve received a large bag of 4mm wagon kits and it would be rude not to have started one, in this case a BR steel medfit. I’ve added axleboxes and springs from Rumney Models but otherwise it’s one of Parkside’s very best - the body moulding is superb - which I’m just improving a little. Simple things like taking a slice out of the brakeshoe mouldings to bring them closer to the treads and, underneath, a decent amount of brake detail.



Adam

 

[AJC]

A birthday gift (just a small one), in the form of an Oxford Rail model of a GER 10 ton van. These just about made it into my modelling period, and fundamentally it's a nice model at a very reasonable price.



Regauging to EM is simple enough: I reused the Oxford axles - they're longer than usual - with Gibson wheels slid on (this required a bit of knurling with a large file and a spot of threadlock), but the original wheels are so wide that the brakes aligned with the wheels perfectly. The buffers are very nice indeed so I left them alone, new coupling hooks and links were fitted by drilling into the headstocks and then fixing with epoxy. By my period the vans had gained RCH type number plates and 'modern' label clips for which some Rumney Models etches serve.

Improvements? Well the axleboxes are a little 'flat' - quite a common RTR thing - the W irons are a bit think of course so I trimmed off the detail and added some spare axlebox covers left over from a Parkside LNER hopper. The issue with this model is the brake levers. For some reason Oxford supply two levers with Morton clutches. that's simple to sort out, but should we have to? More pragmatically, I can readily forgive the provision of 'normal' lever guides with holes for a pin. The correct GER pattern with a ratchet doesn't really work in moulded plastic so I've replaced it with a modified Masokits etch for a GWR pattern guide. Job done, it's now in the painting queue.

Adam

EDIT: in one of those circular, inter forum references, there's a useful note on the type here: Oxford Rail ex-GER 10t covered wagon - Scalefour Forum (and yes, I was aware that AMBIS do the correct type of lever guide, but this is very likely to be the second, and last, GER type I'll ever build (reworking an Airfix Lowmac was the other!), so the rest of the etch would sit in the box of doom forever...

 

[Rob R]

A birthday gift (just a small one), in the form of an Oxford Rail model of a GER 10 ton van. These just about made it into my modelling period, and fundamentally it's a nice model at a very reasonable price.

View attachment 158439

Regauging to EM is simple enough: I reused the Oxford axles - they're longer than usual - with Gibson wheels slid on (this required a bit of knurling with a large file and a spot of threadlock), but the original wheels are so wide that the brakes aligned with the wheels perfectly. The buffers are very nice indeed so I left them alone, new coupling hooks and links were fitted by drilling into the headstocks and then fixing with epoxy. By my period the vans had gained RCH type number plates and 'modern' label clips for which some Rumney Models etches serve.

Improvements? Well the axleboxes are a little 'flat' - quite a common RTR thing - the W irons are a bit think of course so I trimmed off the detail and added some spare axlebox covers left over from a Parkside LNER hopper. The issue with this model is the brake levers. For some reason Oxford supply two levers with Morton clutches. that's simple to sort out, but should we have to? More pragmatically, I can readily forgive the provision of 'normal' lever guides with holes for a pin. The correct GER pattern with a ratchet doesn't really work in moulded plastic so I've replaced it with a modified Masokits etch for a GWR pattern guide. Job done, it's now in the painting queue.

Adam

Happy Birthday Adam

Rob

 

[AJC]

Happy Birthday Adam

Rob

Thanks Rob - ‘twas last weekend now!

Adam

 

[AJC]

Something else ready for paint - which we've seen before, here - now that I've finished the brake gear.



This one will be in ex-PO decay rather than neatish BR grey.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Another wagon completed, the second BR steel Medfit I’ve done, this one a bit better detailed than the original which lives in a rake of SR spoil carriers down in Somerset. This one will be a traffic vehicle, and is ready to paint.



The brake gear is probably the most ‘interesting’ bit, but the new lamp irons and associated twiddly bits are what makes the model.



Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

With all of these wonderfully detailed wagons and vans being built it has crossed my mind whether your Podimore (and still cannot help thinking of Dave Podmore - with apologies ) layout can accommodate all of them.

 

[AJC]

With all of these wonderfully detailed wagons and vans being built it has crossed my mind whether your Podimore (and still cannot help thinking of Dave Podmore - with apologies ) layout can accommodate all of them.

Ha! It can't, but that's not the point: that's just to allow - legitimately - a fair range, including some specialists (tar tanks, milk tanks, stone hoppers) and even if only a sample show up on it that's fine. If I get bored I can just swap them about.

All that said, I must do some more wiring now it's warmer and get it running which will allow me to get to the more interesting scenic bits. And to play with shunting of course. Really all these wagons are a stress reduction exercise.

Adam

 

[Intercity126]

The brake gear is probably the most ‘interesting’ bit

Can't disagree with that - any chance of a picture of the brake gubbins, Adam?

 

[AJC]

Can't disagree with that - any chance of a picture of the brake gubbins, Adam?

Sure, here you go - it’s simplified, but what’s there is what’s visible. I have the vac’ cylinder arms as a spare, but I’d otherwise have made them from a bit of 40 thou’.



Adam

PS - And thanks for the Kit, Andrew, much appreciated.

 

[Intercity126]

Excellent work. Your additions really lift the underframe to a completely different level.

 

[matto21]

Excellent. I always like the detailing work you do to the underframes and brakegear. Puts my plastic rod efforts to shame!

 

[AJC]

Excellent. I always like the detailing work you do to the underframes and brakegear. Puts my plastic rod efforts to shame!

I don’t know about that, Matt, almost no one notices these things after a coat of paint - and you do that very nicely. Here’s one more, the first of the pair of dia. 1666.



This one has replacement W irons (Ambis) headstocks and brakes (a multitude) which sounds like more work than it was. It’s now in the queue for painting (bare metal and wood).

Adam