Having made good progress on the other coaches, aside from finalising bogie details here and there, it was time to tackle the BG. This had been purchased by my client as a partly-built kit. To be frank, when you look deeper, it’s more of a dog's breakfast than a good model.
The body was in one piece, so that’s a plus. My client had made a good effort at stripping the heavy coat of Banger Blue. It had been fitted with the later framed glazing, so that had to come out. I’m sure I’ve already covered some of this earlier in the thread. Anyway, top sides weren’t too bad. Where it got nasty was under the floor.
The list of remedial work grew as I looked around. As befits a 1970s BG, the end steps had been removed, so they’ll need to be replaced. I had new gangways to fit, so that’s a help. With the steps fitted, the left handrail needs replacing.
Below decks, things looked pretty nasty. Those brake cross shafts will have to go, and where's the cylinder shaft gone? An ABS cast dynamo has been fitted, which is a little too close to the frames, but not much I can do about that.
The other problem was someone in the past had fitted cast buffer housings - and one had gone AWOL. Now, in days of yore, I’d have picked up the phone and had a nice chat with a Scottish chap for some spare parts. Well, that avenue has gone. The beams are moulded integrally with the coach ends, but having a chat with Shawn at Reading last year, he suggested the beams from one of their DMU kits. Along with the other spare parts I thought I needed, these duly arrived. Out with the razor saw to remove the original beams, then.
After a bit of mild scraping and sanding, the replacement beams went in.
Initially, a simple styrene strip reinforcement was used behind. I will add some epoxy resin to make sure it’s really strong. We don’t want buffer beams coming adrift during heavy shunts, after all.
The original builder had neglected to cut the bottoms off the guard's doors. I marked the area out, and did my best to trim neatly. I think they'll tidy up with some care later.
Some of the body-to-end joins were a bit ropey, so I slapped some filler in the gaps.
Then I got a bit distracted by the arrival of this box. A new tooling from Airfix. More on that another day, I expect.
Now, to the brake rigging. With a little persuasion, the vee hangers came off. I cleaned things up, and decided there ought to be some representations of the handbrake linkage from the guard's compartment. A rummage in the Bits Box turned up a set of vees, and some odd brackets and so on. Without a proper drawing and only the BSK schematic arrangement in Parkin, I guesstimated where the arrangements ought to go. I took the precaution of adding an extra lever to each cross shaft. Each shaft was beefed up using some brass tube and 1.5mm wire.
With the operating rods added, lost in the gloom of each bogie, I think that's adequate. With the cylinder attachments done, I call that underneath complete: the access steps for the guard doors need doing, of course. I'll look at the rest of the upper works tomorrow. I might tidy my bench before I do that. I looked up at one point today and wondered how I was managing to work in the square thirty centimetres free at the front!
