7mm On Heather's Workbench - North Eastern interlude

[Heather Kay]

I must be mad. As if I didn’t already have enough going on, I’m after starting another project!

Ages ago I made a snap purchase of three part-built Sparmac Gresley coaches. The price they were being offered at was very good, and I thought they’d make a nice project to complete and sell on to a new home. One of our WT inmates said he would like them, so the deal was done.

They slipped on to the back burner due to various things, but I did some research, got some excellent reference material together, and was inclined to purchase a set of Kemilway bogies for them. There followed a further hiatus while production difficulties at the Kemilway end held things up.

Eventually, the bogies appeared. I then proceeded to bungle wheelset orders from Slater's, and it was a further while before I had sufficient wheels for all three coaches. Then I discovered I was short of a pair of lightweight 8ft 6in bogie kits, so I got on to Peter at Kemilway. They duly arrived, had a cursory inspection and were safely stashed with the coaches.

Today, spring sunshine made me feel it was time to take a look at the kits properly. I selected the 8ft heavyweight as my starting point - only to discover the pack contained one 8ft and one 8ft 6in set of etches.

This project appears to be jinxed.

So, while I chase up the Big K again to sort out the muddle once and for all, I intend to make a start with one of the 8ft 6in bogie kits. Yes, I have checked the other to make sure it has the right bits in it, and the errant eight-footer wasn’t mixed somewhere. All is sweetness and light as far as the lightweights are concerned.

So, here’s what I’m presented with:



One pair of Kemilway/Pring BF5 8ft 6in bogie kits, not forgetting the 19 page construction manual. I may be a while. Send tea and cake.

 

[Heather Kay]

That’s the basic carcasses done.

The hardest part so far has been to follow the instruction that the half-etch crease line is OUTSIDE the fold. Having built any number of etched kits over the years, the traditional, nay standard, is for the crease inside the fold. Fighting this instinctive reaction takes a lot of effort, I can tell you!

 

[Heather Kay]

The next couple of stages are done. I only forgot about the folding regime twice, but I think I got away with it.



Upper flanges, spring profiles, shock absorbers all done. I always think the signs of a well thought-out etched kit is parts click into place and only limited tidying of etched cusps is required. This issue of the kit, by the way, provides turned brass shock absorbers to be used instead of the original cast versions.



I managed to get a little rounded edge done, but there’s limited material available for a larger radius. At least it’s not flat and square any more.

The 'structions reckon it’s axleboxes tomorrow. I might be advised to sort out the wheels and get them blackened.

 

[Heather Kay]

I was sort dreading the intricate origami of the axleboxes, but I needn’t have worried. Like all good kit designers, a spare axlebox, covers and handle are provided in case of catastrophe.



I was going to take some before, during and after shots, but got carried away. You’ll have to make do with the finished articles. I found I needed to depart from the instructions slightly. The main bearing hole is better opened out before assembly, as you can’t get a broach in there otherwise. The tiny holes for the door handles are better opened out using a 0.4mm bit, and the swivel pin hole is better with 0.75mm if you want to keep any metal around it.

Otherwise, so far so good. What's next? Working springs. Right-ho.

 

[Heather Kay]

Does it play a tune?

Only when it gets very hot. It makes a sort of sizzling noise for a short while.



Looking like a small fleet of tiny mechanoids, the axleboxes are now sprung.

 

[Heather Kay]

All good bogie kits include a dynamo.



This one is two circular plates and a strip that is formed to fit into half-etched slots. The only problem is the axle hole is larger than Slater's axle diameter.



However, chance would have it that I have brass tube of suitable diameter to fit the dynamo axle hole, tube that fits inside the tube in the hole, which then fits over the axle. I’d like to say I’d planned it, but I happened to buy some Albion Alloys tube over the weekend which was exactly the right size for the first part of the exercise.

Apparently, the next job is fitting axleboxes, using various supplied shim washers if needed.

 

[Heather Kay]

I rather skipped over the first bolster, and didn’t document it. The reason was, stupidly, I managed to fold the parts the wrong way. Thankfully, as the relevant parts were actually symmetrical, I could save the day. I’ll get it right on the second one, promise.



Things are designed so the bolster can be installed rigid or rocking. The idea is one bogie has the rocking bolster, while the other doesn’t, as a way to prevent the coach from wobbling. To make the bolster rock, it needs to be a free fit in the bogie. This one wasn’t, and I don’t think some of the bits being the wrong way up was the cause. I rather think, the next pair of these I build, I shall pay better attention to the first folds done right at the start! Equally, I could chop off the curved bearing pads on the bolster instead. Hopefully, that might come clearer when I document the second bolster's construction.



Anyway, as I said before, these bogies are really very sweet runners. It’s fun just shoving the things up and down the test plank and watching them glide through the pointwork effortlessly.

 

[Heather Kay]

My plan for today - what do you mean it’s supposed to be a holiday‽ Whoever heard of anyone self-employed taking holidays! - is to finish and fit the remaining bolster. Before getting into the intricacies of the brake gear, I thought it might be prudent to find out how to fit the bogies to the intended coach.



First up, the constituent parts for a bolster. I have already folded the bearing pads over and secured them with a dab of solder.



Remembering, although actually painful, to fold with the crease OUTSIDE the fold, here’s everything formed up. Again, dabs of solder securing parts that have been folded through 180°.



The spring castings are soldered in their places. It’s a mark of someone actually having built the kit before they wrote the instructions that it is explained how best to fit the castings. Solder is used sparingly elsewhere just to hold parts together. It is sufficient.



Attempting to install the bolster in the bogie, and again I found it a tight fit. The problem area is where the bearing pads fit against the crossmember in the main structure. The crossmembers are quite literally the first folds made in the construction sequence, but it is only at this point does it become obvious you have to be really careful making the fold. Even then, I don’t think it would make a lot of difference. Tolerances here are virtually nil. Anyway, as this bolster is the fixed one, a tight fit is an advantage, where it’s not so good for the rocking one.



In, and two 0.8mm wires run across and fixed in place.



From the top. Now to find the coach and see what needs to be done to install these rather neat little models to it.

 

[Heather Kay]

That’s a bonus!



I need to sort out some packing for ride height and general support of the bolster, but otherwise it’s a straight swap for the original Way-Oh bogies. Definite improvement, I think.

What I mean by "improvement"…

 

[Heather Kay]

And here we are in 2021! Doesn’t time fly?



I dug the coaches out from storage, and spent a while going through all the bits and pieces. Everything’s now been matched to each coach, and assigned a storage tub. I suspect there will be one or two odds and ends that will need to be sourced, if I haven’t got anything suitable in the stores already. The first job, really, is to make up the remaining bogies, while digging into the reference material for a refresher.

 

[Heather Kay]

Brake rigging is installed. It’s a fiddle, but with well-written instructions it’s more or less a case of following each step.



Here’s a dead one to show the fiddly stuff. The kite-shaped rod is the pull rod set-up that sits on top of the bogie and connects to the vacuum rod system. The problem I see is it interferes with the rocking bolster. I might concoct a truncated version for that bogie, because it seems a shame not to actually fit it. Then again, I doubt it’s visible most of the time.

Right, these two are for the US bath. There are step boards I could fit, but I need to check whether they were still a thing for the 1960s. Anyone know, to save me actually reading in a book?

 

[Heather Kay]

Deep breath…



Here we go again!

 

[Heather Kay]

I haven’t started the brake gear, but that’s a job for tomorrow. I have, however, installed the bolsters.

I didn’t take photos because I’ve already done it once earlier in the thread. Suffice to say, things are designed so the bolster can rock or be fitted rigid in the bogie. It is recommended that one bogie has a rocking bolster, and since it’s the dynamo end on the brake third, I’ve done the same on the all third.

Time for a test.



This is the first time I’ve been able to properly couple a pair of these together. These two have been fitted with Kadees by the previous owner, and I have no reason to change them. Anyway, a swift prod…



…and off they trundle. Very nice and smooth, negotiating my purposely dire P&C without a hitch (at least, after a little fettling of the bolt tightness).

Happy with that, I will take the rest of the afternoon off as a reward. Brake rigging tomorrow.

 

[Mike Trice]

Some of the info needs a fair bit of image editing before I would consider uploading it here. Try these:

 

[Heather Kay]

Armed with more reference material than I ever dreamed possible, time to take a look at the battlefield and make plans.



Here’s a closeup of the Sparmac underframe. You can see it is intended the builder fits full length footboard along the solebars. I don’t intend doing that. I will need to plug the holes and decide whether to make new brackets after the ones in the wrong places have been removed.



The previous owner had actually made the vac pipes that run along the corridor side of the chassis. It is supposed to sit aligned with the top of the bottom edge - yes, that does make sense. I must refer to more photos, because it must sit proud of the bottom edge to let the footboard fit. I rather think a container-load of split pins might be in order!



I've been so fixated on the bogies I have never really done the guided tour of the actual coaches in this game. Here are the truss-rod underframes of the D.113 full brake (front) and D.114 brake third. I’m going to get confused by naming conventions. Having become used to the shorthand codes used by BR, the full LNER format is awkward to use. I hope, therefore, you don’t mind if I use the BR conventions in future, so the brake third becomes a BTK, rather than Four-compartment Vestibule Brake Third!



The kits were designed to accept Kadee couplers without modification. This is the BTK. Both passenger vehicles are already equipped, while the full brake will get Kadee one end and the dropped cosmetic coupler at the other so it can be coupled to a loco. Lost wax brass clipped buffers are provided. I’m not sure they have the collars, so that might need looking into.



This is the full brake showing how the slot of the Kadee box is moulded into the frame. A cursory glance at these models would have you think they were ex-JLTRT. The design, materials and fixings are very similar, but I don’t believe they are related in any way - save one perhaps giving inspiration to the other. The Sparmac kits date from the early 1990s.



A wider view of the BTK and full brake. It looks like the FB is longer, but that’s an accident of setting up and photography!



The kits came with nice long and thin strips of copper clad with which to form the step boards. As I have to make up numerous short boards, I plundered my Bits Box to see whether I had anything suitable. A selection of JLTRT etched boards may well be very handy.

Thanks to Mike's generosity I have been giving much thought to underframe and headstock detailing. To be honest, not a lot is required on the underframes, though both passenger vehicles need the brake rigging to be completed. While it would be nice to fit the steam heat pipe run and drain valve, it wouldn’t be visible behind the battery boxes. Some wiring around the dynamos might be worth adding. The headstocks need the various brackets for pipe and emergency coupling stowage. One end of the BG will get the full Monty, while the rest will get cosmetic work and some representation of the connected pipework between vehicles. After putting together the Slater's Pullman gangways for those Maunsells, I have been quite impressed with them. I need to check they will actually fit the Gresleys - why wouldn’t they? - and get some ordered up. I do have the original floppy rubber mouldings, but they’re not exactly nice, and definitely need a rigid plate to hold them to shape.

So, although the basic construction is done, I still have my work cut out on these. I need to stop faffing about and get on with it!

 

[Heather Kay]

A decision was made. Full length step boards on the compartment side. Chopping the brackets off was a mistake, then.





Anyway, pleased with the corridor side steps. Pegs of 0.7mm wire were soldered to each step. I carefully marked out height from the bottom of the solebar angle and distance between pegs, drilling right through the solebar. Each step was carefully pushed into place, and will be held with a drop of cyano glue inside the solebar.





The other side involved drilling out the holes I’d filled the other day. I transferred spacing to the copperclad strip and soldered wire pegs as for the other side. A little bit of tweaking was needed here and there, involved carefully applying the soldering iron to the peg joint to let the strip settle in place to avoid excessive waviness. I think it worked okay.

I don’t think I’ll worry over cosmetic bracket strips that ought to be visible above each step. Perhaps short lengths of styrene strip dropped in will give enough of a hint.

I am waiting on the container load of brass split pins, and then I can tackle the vacuum pipe run.

My overall mood seems to have gone the way of the warm sunshine - clouded over. I think I’ll give the cat a cuddle.

 

[Heather Kay]

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?



Armed with dozens of these, courtesy of Eileen's Emporium, I set about fitting a vacuum pipe along one solebar.



Eight clips per pipe, according to the drawings from Mr T. Yes, they should be bracketed from the flat face of the bar, but there are limits to technology. I was aiming for the appearance of sitting just above and to the outside of the bottom bulb on the solebar U-channel.



I think that works. With plenty of gunge and a bit of weathering it’ll look good enough. The next step is working out and fitting the little pipes that run across the frames to the vac cylinders and reservoirs, and deciding how much extra to fit to the ends to meet with putative hose connectors under the headstocks.

I have to admit, that’s perked my mood up a notch. The weekend was terrible for old Muttley mooching about.

 

[Heather Kay]

And before I know it, the brake gear is fitted.



This is the BTK van end. The pull rods ought to go in for the bogie gear, and some form of link to the handbrake. However, under normal circumstance nothing would be seen, so I’ll leave them out. You can also see the various pipes from the outside vac pipe to the cylinder and reservoir. Good enough for government work, as they say.



This is the passenger compartment end. I was expecting a rod between both weighshaft, but it seems the LNER didn’t go in for that sort of thing. The only link between both ends is the vacuum pipework.

Pleased with that on the whole. I’ll get the all third steps and gear done tomorrow, and then rework the BG gear. It’s not quite aligned properly compared to the drawings.

 

[Heather Kay]

Meanwhile, back at the bench!



Both passenger vehicles are now equipped with stopping equipment and footboards. I shall now review full brakes, though I suspect the underframes are much the same as the other coaches, with added albeit invisible to most people extra brake rodding from the guard's area.

I know we’ve been seeing biblical amounts of precipitation this year, but I have to say this particular set of Slater's coach wheels have a definitely increased propensity to rust. A little surface oxidisation can be expected, even after chemical blackening, but I’ve not seen anything this bad after simply sitting on the bench for a few days.

 

[Heather Kay]

My attention turns to titivating the full brake.

As far as I can tell, and I hope to be corrected if needs be, the underframe is identical to the standard 61ft 6in turnbuckle frames as used on the other two coaches I'm working on. So, the step boards and vacuum pipe arrangements will be the same as I've already done.

Mike was kind enough to send me some images off list last week. I have cropped one of them, a works photo of a full brake destined for the Flying Scotsman train. I hope Mike doesn't mind me reworking the image for the purposes of asking questions.



First up, there's a nice extra step below the guard's door, presumably repeated on the other side. While this vehicle sports the original full length step boards, it is possible to make out on the original uncropped image the vac pipe runs on the ducket side of the coach.



At the other end, as it were, there's an intriguing box hanging there by the dynamo. Does anyone have any idea what that might be, and whether it remained a fixture until the full brakes were withdrawn in the late 1960s?

While I leave those questions to be pondered, I shall get on and fit the steps and rearranged the brake rigging on the FB.