Jump to content
 
  • entries
    297
  • comments
    368
  • views
    83,955

Some Covered Vans- I

James Harrison

Entry posted by James Harrison

537 views

 Share

Over the last few years I have accrued a short rake of the Bachmann LNER covered vans.... three of the fish type and two ventilated. When I received Peter Tatlow's GN/ GC/ GE wagons book as a gift last Christmas, it occured to me how much the LNER design takes after the GCR pattern, what with the vertical side panelling and the slide doors. Granted, with the ventilated vans the end panelling is wrong, and there are differences in detail, but it got me wondering whether the Bachmann model would be a suitable starting point for an easy conversion project.

 

Of course, the result is not going to be 100% right- but given my broad strokes approach, whatever differences are likely to be small and of an order that I can live with.

 

Well, so far I have dismantled three of them and replaced the tension locks with 3 link couplings. I'm not intending to perform any major surgery on these wagons. Even with that small change and a repaint I think they pass muster as layout stock.

 

vT3n5oU.jpg?1

 

It occurs to me that with these two models I could get potentially eight variations of covered van. The two bodies are subtly different in end panelling and door detail, but then also there are two different underframes- one is timber (?) and the other metal channel. So putting body type 1 on chassis type 2 and vice-versa would make four different types of van. And then removing the vacuum brake equipment on some as well....

 

As an aside, does anybody know the thinking behind the brakes on freight stock? It seems rather haphazard and random as to whether a covered van was vacuum braked, vacuum piped or handbrake only.

  • Like 2
 Share

3 Comments

Recommended Comments

MikeOxon

I always enjoy making these small changes to produce my own 'bespoke' variants. 

 

Regarding brakes, I think it's tied up with British railway history.  In the early days, making the trains move at all was the priority and brakes received little consideration, even on passenger trains!  It took a long time and some serious accidents for the various companies to agree on continuous braking systems (and Government intervention was needed, too).  Goods trailed a long way behind passenger stock, so loose-coupled un-braked trains continued to be the norm for an extraordinarily long time!

Link to comment
James Harrison

I'd imagine that was potentially quite a hair-raising experience trying to stop a loose-coupled goods train (I've already found pretty quickly that a sudden stop even with model loose-coupled wagons leads to them all bunching up- I think goods trains on Red Lion Square will only be worked at a crawl....)

Link to comment
MikeOxon

............... I think goods trains on Red Lion Square will only be worked at a crawl....)

 

very prototypical :)

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...