4mm Life in a Northern Town - back to back(scene)

76043

Western Thunderer
The van bodies are as Dublo/Wrenn/Dapol intended apart from the weird raised panel where the van number and designation would go; this I filed off.

I'm sure you know this, the raised panel was there to allow Hornby to print the wagon number on the flat as it was probably either impossible or highly costly to print over differing levels.

I had a slightly odd conversation with Dapol at the NEC, they denied all knowledge that these vans, along with some other wagons they sell, were ex Dublo/Wrenn, claiming they sold the tooling and these are their own creations.

Nice to see these wagons are still worth bashing, they were pretty good for their time and are not too bad even now.

Tony
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
That's very interesting to hear Tony. My first thought would be if it's new then why copy the incorrect raised panel but I also know (because I have one of each) that there are differences in the Dublo and Dapol Fruit D bodies.

fruit d comparison.jpg
Apart from the underframe, where we would expect an updated version, there are differences in the step boards and label clip at the right hand end of the body. However the banana van appears identical in both Dublo and Dapol versions.
 

76043

Western Thunderer
I don't doubt the Fruit D is all new tooling, but if you look on the Dapol website here and dig around various pages, you'll find the Dublo BR 16t mineral, BR banana, standard BR vent, BR cattle, Grain, 5 plank open and possibly the salt wagon as they have two versions, one of which has a smooth roof. Even the Wrenn ale van and retooled Presflo are here.

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/oo-gauge/wagons-OO-Gauge

All on new chassis of course.

They also sell the Dublo coal load insert as a pack of 4, I bought two packs at the NEC and the tooling is identical to the Dublo ones from 60 years ago.

I have a Dapol Insulfish that still has the Dublo coupling boss on it, so I retrofitted the Dublo coupling. I thought the SR CCT was still knocking around too....

A bit strange they are still in production but there you go.

Tony
 
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Neil

Western Thunderer
The bananas now have buffers and the remains of the brake gear fitted and await gloss varnish patches where the transfers will go. In the meantime a quick win has appeared on the workbench in the shape of an old Lima CCT. I've had it for years, first in OO where it was repainted from Lima's Tartan Arrow colours into BR maroon, three linked and Gibson wheeled, then in EM with the wheels pulled out and now back in not very finescale OO with the Lima wheels back in.

How it started, deeply inset windows and poorly fitting roof.

van 002.jpg

First stage, remove the one piece roof /window moulding and cut out the windows.

van 001.jpg
Stage two and three, cut around the raised lip of each window in turn and reset as flush as possible into the body. Replace the roof vents with cast whitemetal examples. Paint, refix and weather.

van 003.jpg
You should also note that the three links have been replaced by Bachmann tension locks fitted using Parkside mounting blocks. The windows have had a typical coat of filth applied. While it's nowhere near a prize winner I'm pleased that for very little effort and cost there's been an improvement over the original.
 

steve1

Western Thunderer
Must try that window trick on a couple I have lurking in the stock boxes.

I did do replacement vents on my Compressor Van version. And then someone pointed out that version didn't have any vents at all....
So I swapped it with one of the other ones and smoothed the roof off altogether.

steve
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
With little on the telly yesterday I managed to weather the trio of banana vans. Here they are on the layout.

van 006.jpg
Also receiving attention over the last couple of weeks has been the J72 yard pilot. My initial confidence that I'd got it running well proved to be misplaced. It's now had a full strip down, the commutator has been cleaned and I've tweaked the quartering a touch to rid it of it's last bit of hesitancy. It now runs just about as well as my Heljan 05, the alternative yard pilot.

pilot 001.jpg
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
Despite all the improvements in proprietary track, I still think vintage Peco holds a certain attraction.

The station throat at Paddington always looks likes a dead-ringer for Streamline in this (my favourite) video

Or at least I think so :)

Did I read that Peco have narrowed the crossing gaps in latter years in an attempt to eliminate wheel-drop?

Coming along nicely, Neil.

Jonte
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
.... Did I read that Peco have narrowed the crossing gaps in latter years in an attempt to eliminate wheel-drop? ....

I haven't heard this but when sorting out my mix of second hand Peco points I thought that there was something a bit finer in appearance with the newer ones. I'll take my verniers out to the garage tomorrow and measure up.
 

ColPeake

Member
I haven't heard this but when sorting out my mix of second hand Peco points I thought that there was something a bit finer in appearance with the newer ones. I'll take my verniers out to the garage tomorrow and measure up.

Rummaging through trays of second hand Peco points at a toy fair earlier in the week confirmed there are many variants of crossing within them, older ones designed to take Triang style wheels through to much fiber modern ones.

Good to see progress on this Neil, looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Colin
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
First of all a quick update on the new vs old Peco code 100 points. This photo should illustrate that the crossing gap is narrower, around 15thou if I've managed to measure correctly.

code 100 a.jpg
Most of my modelmaking time has been taken up with scratchbuilding a signal box for Northern Town, more on this later on. As light relief I've also been spending time tarting up some more vintage products. On Wednesday I picked up an old Triang NER coke wagon for a couple of quid and set about seeing what I could make of it.

The body parted from the chassis easily enough.

coke 02.jpg
You'll see that the lettering came off easily with some light abrasion. Looking at the few photos I could find of the real thing it appears as though the brakes were operated by levers on the ends and only worked on the outer sides of the wheels, very different to the Triang chassis. Undeterred I set about seeing what I could do to the Triang under-bits.

coke 03.jpg

I think we can all agree that the answer is, not a lot. There are still ugly scars round the springs and I'd have to fillin the front face of the solbar to turn it from channel steel to solid wood. Time for a rethink. Whilst rummaging to see if I had anything suitable I came across a set of antique Trackmaster and early Triang opens given to me by a late friend. One of the wagon bodies had become parted from its chassis. I thought it had promise. The chassis comes in two halves pushed together, trapping wheels and axles.

coke 04.jpg
After a couple of minutes with piercing saw and files.

coke 05.jpg
On the rear face I gently recessed the axleguard rear face so that the brass pinpoint bearings would lie flush.

coke 06.jpg
The body went to the paint shop for a quick blast of Halfords grey primer, while the bearings were fixed into the axleboxes with a dab of Bostik. On putting all together everything fitted perfectly, the stubs on the chassis halves locating in the holes in the wagon floor and the new Hornby wheels held in place and free to rotate in their bearings.

coke 07.jpg

coke 08.jpg
The gap you'll have noticed in the headstocks is there I believe to hold the original style of Trackmaster/Triang coupling. Though not at all finescale (I seem to be saying this lots these days) I'm very pleased with how it's all shaping up. One unforseen bonus of using these old chassis components is that the buffers end up at the right height, not the normal Triang Hornby 2mm too high.

Further reading/info on the Trackmaster/Triang early wagons here.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Crumbs, I haven't see an old Triang chassis like that for ages - metal with a steel rod through the axleboxes for the axles and split plastic wheels.

Very clean casting though - better than some of today's offerings I dare say.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
I've now filled in the axleboxes and the gaps in the bufferbeams with Milliput.

coke 09.jpg

coke 10.jpg

Actually I've done a little bit more since the photos were taken. The underframe and and the wagon interior have had a coat of paint. It'll be the outside of the body next, followed by a wait and then some weathering. Couplings will have to appear at some stage too.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
The coke wagon now looks like this ....

coke 11.jpg

Once the rather scruffy coat of light grey has had about a week to set hard I'll be at it with some Humbrol in shades of grunge. Meantime while waiting for paint to dry I've been on a creative binge with a pair of GWR toad bodies. Starting point.

brake 01.jpg

Where I'm at now.

brake 11.jpg

It's dreadfully freelance though I like to think that there are hints of L&Y tin tab in there somewhere. It's destined for the light railway part of Northern Town and while the inspirational DVLR had in reality several brake vans I believe that only one was in use at any one time. However you can never have too many brake vans.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Since I was last here both the coke wagon and brake van have moved on some more to the all but done stage.

brake 12.jpg

brake 13.jpg

I noticed during the weathering stage that the red oxide primer was lifted off the brake van's handrails to reveal the original white underneath. Since the photos were taken I've encouraged a little more of it to grin through by gently rubbing away with a small blunt screwdriver.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Latest efforts have drifted away from stock towards layout infrastructure, specifically a set of coal drops. I felt it better to construct these off layout and plug them in later. The basic carcass is a mix of mdf, ply and softwood strips.

yk 098.jpg
The rails are code 100 steel, recovered from old set track. They should be the special deep section stuff of the prototype but I want to make it easy to join to the rest of the layout. Speaking of which the track over the drops will be physically but not electrically joined as it seems locos were not permitted on the drops.

yk 097.jpg
Originally I thought I would solder the rails to brass pins set into the piers but in the end I've ended up spiking the rails in place using cut down sewing pins. I worried that too rigid a fixing might cause problems if the different materials expanded and contracted at different rates as the garage went from cold to hot and back again.

yk 099.jpg
 

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jonte

Western Thunderer
Latest efforts have drifted away from stock towards layout infrastructure, specifically a set of coal drops. I felt it better to construct these off layout and plug them in later. The basic carcass is a mix of mdf, ply and softwood strips.

View attachment 117329
The rails are code 100 steel, recovered from old set track. They should be the special deep section stuff of the prototype but I want to make it easy to join to the rest of the layout. Speaking of which the track over the drops will be physically but not electrically joined as it seems locos were not permitted on the drops.

View attachment 117331
Originally I thought I would solder the rails to brass pins set into the piers but in the end I've ended up spiking the rails in place using cut down sewing pins. I worried that too rigid a fixing might cause problems if the different materials expanded and contracted at different rates as the garage went from cold to hot and back again.

View attachment 117330

Great idea, Neil.

My sort of modelling.

Jonte
 

Rob R

Western Thunderer
The rails are code 100 steel, recovered from old set track. They should be the special deep section stuff of the prototype but I want to make it easy to join to the rest of the layout.

Could you not use a length of Triang Super 4 set track with a Super 4 to System 6 adaptor piece?
Rob ( with tongue firmly in cheek...)
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Could you not use a length of Triang Super 4 set track with a Super 4 to System 6 adaptor piece?
Rob ( with tongue firmly in cheek...)

I'll have to admit that I was tempted by this but decided that I'd take the easy way out. Plasticard supplies arrived yesterday dinnertime and I've pressed on with cutting and sticking it into place. The wood is treated to a coat of Evo-stick impact adhesive which once dry allows the plasticard to be solvent welded to it. You can use the same process to stick plasticard to metal too.

yk 100.jpg

yk 101.jpg
 
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