NewportRod
Western Thunderer
Building a PHFmodels 3d-printed wagon in S7
I first came across PHFmodels (or 3Dprintolutions, as they were called then) in September last year. They were advertising some early south Wales coal wagons in 4 mm scale on eBay. Well, this would’ve been right up my street a few years ago, but I now work in 7 mm so I asked if they’d be willing to produce them in the senior scale as well. They followed an exchange of photos and drawings of suitable wagons and then a number of trial prints, and cycles of improvements, both in 4mm and 7mm scale. Therefore, I feel I ought to declare an interest. Although I bought the kit with my own hard-earned; it wasn’t a freebie for review, I nevertheless have an emotional interest in the success of this venture but will make this as honest as I can.
The range of wagons that PHFmodels make mainly covers wagons built in the last three decades of the 19th century but some of them would certainly have survived until after the first world war and the steel-framed ones well after the grouping.
The wagon that I’m looking at now Is a Gloucester RC&WCo dead-buffered five-plank wagon of the type that was widely seen in southern England and Wales. The particular example I have chosen was an Edwin Baker wagon of Rhiwderin, which is a couple of miles from where I grew up. The village was served by the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, which is a definite double-plus-good point in my eyes.
In my discussions with Andrew of PHFmodels, I explained to him that I normally either spring or compensate my wagons partly because I prefer the way sprung wagons move along the track and to give scale flanges a chance with my track building, Thus I was expecting to use products from, say ,Slater’s, Prickley Pear or Ambis to provide the suspension.
On opening the cardboard box that the kit was sent in, and this is what I found:
A kit specifically designed for ScaleSeven, but equally suitable for various versions of 0 gauge finescale.
The floor and rocking W-irons are recent additions to the PHFmodels repertoire, And this means that you buy a complete, shake-the-box kit with all components provided apart from wheels, bearings and couplings. Thus, without any modifications. one can own a compensated wagon in around an hour.
The floor did receive a little filing, or, better for 3D-prints, emery board, to get a good fit
Looking at the prints one can immediately see a few faults: one of the brake rod assemblies broke in transit and a little nick was found on the top plank near one end. The broken brake rod assembly is a trivial matter as my prototype (and probably most other similar dead-buffered wagons too) had brakes acting on two wheels, not four. The nick in the top plank could pass for damage incurred in traffic, so I declined the offer of a replacement.
The w-irons did need a few moments in hot water to soften them sufficiently to remove the warp. Don’t be scared, even heavy handed me didn’t wreck them!
The w-irons had to be reamed out slightly to accept the bearings (and that’s OK, oversize holes are a pain).
The w-irons slipped in well, gaps sufficient to allow the (other) w-iron to rock but close enough to get the W-iron units parallel.
Note these are placeholder 0 gauge wheels, for use during assembly, these will be swapped for scale wheels later.
You can see here that the bearing spring shoes are proud of the solebar, they should, of course, lie directly under the solebar. This is area where I think the compromise chosen isn’t necessarily the best one. It looks as if Andrew has reduced the thickness of the solebar to allow w-irons to rock. Perhaps if the width of W iron units could be reduced slightly, the bearing spring shoes could sit properly under the solebar. I placed two 5BA washers on the axle outside each wheel to reduce slop and keep the wagon straight, so there may well be space available.
I could have reduced the thickness of the spring, but I think it would have looked too wimpy, and I would have lost the flanges on the inside of the axleboxes. Yer pays yer money …
In order to allow the pivoting end to, well, pivot, I cut the spring from the axlebox on that end, opened up a working clearance and glued the springs to the solebars and the axleboxes onto the Slater’s bearings, careful not to flood the kit with cyanoacrylate (this time!).
The wagon as it is now. There are a couple of things I need to sort out apart from decoration – a short piece of wire to join the lever to the brake rocker and thin down the brake blocks slightly so that they aren’t permanently on. I’d rather remove material here that have the huge gaps you see on some kits.
Looking afresh at the wagon in these views the mislocated bearing spring shoes don’t look so bad! Neither do I think that the gap between the axlebox and the springs, is too awful. Some people decline to use various types of flexible suspension because of this perceived problem.
I’m posting this without Andrew having seen the text – he bravely declined my offer to show him first, but he knows that I’m posting it here so he can write his own reply.
And, yes, it took me a lot longer to write this than assemble the kit.
I first came across PHFmodels (or 3Dprintolutions, as they were called then) in September last year. They were advertising some early south Wales coal wagons in 4 mm scale on eBay. Well, this would’ve been right up my street a few years ago, but I now work in 7 mm so I asked if they’d be willing to produce them in the senior scale as well. They followed an exchange of photos and drawings of suitable wagons and then a number of trial prints, and cycles of improvements, both in 4mm and 7mm scale. Therefore, I feel I ought to declare an interest. Although I bought the kit with my own hard-earned; it wasn’t a freebie for review, I nevertheless have an emotional interest in the success of this venture but will make this as honest as I can.
The range of wagons that PHFmodels make mainly covers wagons built in the last three decades of the 19th century but some of them would certainly have survived until after the first world war and the steel-framed ones well after the grouping.
The wagon that I’m looking at now Is a Gloucester RC&WCo dead-buffered five-plank wagon of the type that was widely seen in southern England and Wales. The particular example I have chosen was an Edwin Baker wagon of Rhiwderin, which is a couple of miles from where I grew up. The village was served by the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, which is a definite double-plus-good point in my eyes.
In my discussions with Andrew of PHFmodels, I explained to him that I normally either spring or compensate my wagons partly because I prefer the way sprung wagons move along the track and to give scale flanges a chance with my track building, Thus I was expecting to use products from, say ,Slater’s, Prickley Pear or Ambis to provide the suspension.
On opening the cardboard box that the kit was sent in, and this is what I found:
A kit specifically designed for ScaleSeven, but equally suitable for various versions of 0 gauge finescale.
The floor and rocking W-irons are recent additions to the PHFmodels repertoire, And this means that you buy a complete, shake-the-box kit with all components provided apart from wheels, bearings and couplings. Thus, without any modifications. one can own a compensated wagon in around an hour.
The floor did receive a little filing, or, better for 3D-prints, emery board, to get a good fit
Looking at the prints one can immediately see a few faults: one of the brake rod assemblies broke in transit and a little nick was found on the top plank near one end. The broken brake rod assembly is a trivial matter as my prototype (and probably most other similar dead-buffered wagons too) had brakes acting on two wheels, not four. The nick in the top plank could pass for damage incurred in traffic, so I declined the offer of a replacement.
The w-irons did need a few moments in hot water to soften them sufficiently to remove the warp. Don’t be scared, even heavy handed me didn’t wreck them!
The w-irons had to be reamed out slightly to accept the bearings (and that’s OK, oversize holes are a pain).
The w-irons slipped in well, gaps sufficient to allow the (other) w-iron to rock but close enough to get the W-iron units parallel.
Note these are placeholder 0 gauge wheels, for use during assembly, these will be swapped for scale wheels later.
You can see here that the bearing spring shoes are proud of the solebar, they should, of course, lie directly under the solebar. This is area where I think the compromise chosen isn’t necessarily the best one. It looks as if Andrew has reduced the thickness of the solebar to allow w-irons to rock. Perhaps if the width of W iron units could be reduced slightly, the bearing spring shoes could sit properly under the solebar. I placed two 5BA washers on the axle outside each wheel to reduce slop and keep the wagon straight, so there may well be space available.
I could have reduced the thickness of the spring, but I think it would have looked too wimpy, and I would have lost the flanges on the inside of the axleboxes. Yer pays yer money …
In order to allow the pivoting end to, well, pivot, I cut the spring from the axlebox on that end, opened up a working clearance and glued the springs to the solebars and the axleboxes onto the Slater’s bearings, careful not to flood the kit with cyanoacrylate (this time!).
The wagon as it is now. There are a couple of things I need to sort out apart from decoration – a short piece of wire to join the lever to the brake rocker and thin down the brake blocks slightly so that they aren’t permanently on. I’d rather remove material here that have the huge gaps you see on some kits.
Looking afresh at the wagon in these views the mislocated bearing spring shoes don’t look so bad! Neither do I think that the gap between the axlebox and the springs, is too awful. Some people decline to use various types of flexible suspension because of this perceived problem.
I’m posting this without Andrew having seen the text – he bravely declined my offer to show him first, but he knows that I’m posting it here so he can write his own reply.
And, yes, it took me a lot longer to write this than assemble the kit.