Buffers for Coopercraft 7mm GWR wagons

[hartleymartin]

Hi, I acquired some New-Old-Stock Coopercraft GWR wagon kits quite cheap a while back. I decided to assemble one of them. Can anyone point me in the direction of suitable replacement buffers?

[jim.snowdon]

What you want are Peco RO-3, described as GWR Tapered Shank Buffers & Couplings. The turned brass buffer quides are a dead fit into the holes in the Coopercraft headstocks, and nominally correct for all of the wagons that Coopercraft did. You don't even have to remove the base detail on the mouldings either.

 

Jim

[hartleymartin]

Do you know an online supplier who ships overseas? At the moment I can only find them on eBay and the buffers with shipping would cost more than what I paid for the kits.

 

I see that slatersplastikard list GWR wagon buffers are they suitable?

[LaScala]

What you want are Peco RO-3, described as GWR Tapered Shank Buffers & Couplings. The turned brass buffer quides are a dead fit into the holes in the Coopercraft headstocks, and nominally correct for all of the wagons that Coopercraft did. You don't even have to remove the base detail on the mouldings either.

 

Jim

I found this firm helpful and speedy when sending to Australia

 

http://www.normanwisenden.co.uk/

 

The big disadvantage of the Coopercraft kits is that upgrading them can cost more than you paid

[Hal Nail]

 

The big disadvantage of the Coopercraft kits is that upgrading them can cost more than you paid

I pulled out of some on Ebay recently when they got to more than the current Slaters price by the time you added wheels, let alone buffers!

[ROSSPOP]

Hi Martin

 

Gaugemaster has a website and ship overseas

 

I upgraded my 7mm Coopercraft stuff with peco buffers and wheels from them.

 

 

 

Well worth it, just get the brakegear the right way round....

 

 

John

 

 

[Gilbert]

Do you know an online supplier who ships overseas? At the moment I can only find them on eBay and the buffers with shipping would cost more than what I paid for the kits.

 

I see that slatersplastikard list GWR wagon buffers are they suitable?

 

Slaters now sell the kits with metal buffers so I think can supply the spares - I'm sure I got a set from them for the 1 plank wagon - will check  when next in my shed!

[Izzy]

These are some I put together quite a few years back, probably the original kits, but it does I hope show that they are worth any time/effort/money spent on them.

 

 

Izzy

[hartleymartin]

My two kits came with slaters wheel sets. In fact, I bought these kits because they were offered at a very good price including the wheels. They can build up into very nice wagons. The supplied coupling hooks are okay, but the chains are a little on the chunky side. I installed the supplied hooks and chains - though I think it would be better to use brass ones that are sprung.

 

The corners need a little filling and sanding to remove the seam, but since the seams are on the wagon ends, they are not that visible. If you wanted to go to town with the detail, I suppose that you would want to sand the insides flat and then scribe the planks as the original kits have raised lines, and then add some bolt detail, but as I would probably run these with semi-permanent loads, this won't be an issue. The insides of an open wagon are the hardest part to get right, and I lack the motivation since no-one notices this sort of detail anyway.

 

Instead of cutting off the brakes on the non-braked side, I glue a piece of plain plastic in its place - I like to save the extra bits for potential future scratch-build/kit-bash projects.

[hartleymartin]

I find the Dean-Churchward wagon brakes interesting. I believe that most of these wagons were fitted with regard drop-levers when they went into the general pool of wagons, though. I would be interested to know the rationale behind the DC design.

[jim.snowdon]

I find the Dean-Churchward wagon brakes interesting. I believe that most of these wagons were fitted with regard drop-levers when they went into the general pool of wagons, though. I would be interested to know the rationale behind the DC design.

The Dean-Churchward brake goes back to a period around the beginning of the 20th century when the Board of Trade was promoting the development of wagon brakes that could be applied from either side, resulting in quite a few patent designs being tried out on various railways, mostly with no particular success. The ancestor of the DC brake was an arrangement designed by the GWR's Carriage & Wagon Works Manager, L R Thomas, that used a cross-shaft and worm to actuate the brakes - theoretically sound, but not very practical unless the wagon was stationary to start with, as applying the brake required many turns of the handle. It was never used in any quantity, but what it did do was morph into the first version of the DC brake (DC1), where the cross shaft worked through an angle of about 90 degrees, applying the brake by using a small crank to lift the side lever, which is why the push rods to the brake shoes are arranged the opposite way up to convention. The brake shaft was fitted with a ratchet so that the brake would stay applied; the clever bit was that the ratchet and crank was free on the brake shaft, so that depressing the (short) brake handle would pull the ratchet and crank round, lifting the handle would do nothing, until it was lifted fully, when the ratchet pawl would be disengaged, releasing the brake. Very simple to use, but with the minor disadvantage that the brake handles were handed - what the BoT really wanted was a brake that was applied the same way whichever side of the wagon the user was on. One of the drivers for the BoT's urge for eitherside brakes was to reduce the number of accidents to shunters when applying the brakes to still moving wagons, and a problem with the DC1 brake was that if the brake handles were at the trailing end of the wagon, applying them was relatively simple, as all the shunter had to do was pull backwards and down, whilst still runing forwards. If it was the other way round, the shunter had to push forwards and downwards, which is not so easy.

 

The DC1 brake was not amenable to being fitted to longer wagons, or to wagons fitted with vacuum brakes, thus giving rise to the next step in development, the DC2 version, where the heavy side lever was replaced by a pull rod acting directly on the brake cross shaft, still with both operating handles at the same end. This could accommodate any length of wagon, and with the use of slotted links in the pull rod, adapted to work with vacuum operation.

 

The DC2 brake was not around for long before it was developed in what could be called the definitive version of the DC brake appeared (DC3), which retained the same operating principles, but was properly cross-cornered from the start, thereby meeting the BoT requirements for right-handed operation.

 

This was a purely GW way of doing things, although the DC brake did occasionally appear on non-GWR wagons, and was permitted for use on PO wagons. Such instances were rare, and th only example I have seen on a PO wagon was on an oil tank wagon. The other design that achieved the same ends was that designed and patented by Morton (an employee of the L&YR), which used dog clutches between the brake levels and the cross-shaft to allow either side's brake handle to be employed without affecting the other.

 

When the BoT finally published it requirements in the form of the Prevention of Accident Rules, 1911, they contained two key requirements - one, that the brake levers shall be of like pattern and placed so that they are "to the right of any man facing the side of the wagon", the other that they shall be "so fitted that the brakes can be released only from the side on which they have been applied". The Morton brake, in all its forms, complies with both requirements, whereas the DC brake does not - it can be released from either brake handle, so can be applied from one side and released from the other. Not surprisingly, the GWR, who had by now fitted quite a lot of wagons with their brake, was not amused and made representations to the BoT for their brake to be exempted, as it duly was, provided that the handles were cross-cornered. That effectively barred the use of the DC1 & DC2 brakes as built, with the result that these wagons were modified to be cross-cornered, the additional brake lever being linked to the original by pull rods and the original LH brake lever being removed. The issue of being able to release the brake from the opposite side to the one from which it had been applied remained a tolerated non-compliance, but is probably instrumental in the eventual abandonment of this brake for new stock.

 

The DC3 brake ceased to be used for general merchandise stock once the GW decided to adopt the RCH designs (in which they would have had a hand) for underframes, this also being the change in wagon lengths from 16' to 17' 6", although it was still used on other wagons until the end of 1939. Wagons already fitted with DC brakes remained thus and would continue to run long into BR days until they were scrapped as either surplus or no longer fit for use.

 

Jim

[hartleymartin]

Thanks for that history and explanation. I wonder how it influenced the design of brakes here in Australia. We did use the side drop-lever like the UK for the early days, but we also tried various sorts of brake-wheels.

Essentially, we used outside clasp brakes, and there was a ratcheted hand-wheel or often a cross (Spider-wheel?) which had a chain attached, would wind up through a couple of pulleys and levers. We also integrated these with the Westinghouse brakes. I did once figure out how this all worked, but I'll be blown over if I could remember how it was arranged!

[hartleymartin]

In the end I was able to acquire some Peco RO-3 buffer sets. However, I found that these needed to be assembled with the buffer beam *before* the assembly of the wagon as a certain amount of material from the longitudinal frame members needed to be removed for them to work properly. So, I decided to glue them in as solid, unsprung buffers. Next time I assemble any cooper craft wagons, I'll do it properly sprung. I do not anticipate that this will present any significant operational problems as I have checked that there is enough slack in the couplings to allow them to run around curves and they should not derail. They do look significantly better than the plastic buffers included with the moulded sprues.

[brossard]

There's a detailed discussion on the Coopercraft 3 plank here:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49132-dc01-brakes-after-1948/

 

I managed to do a reasonable job of modifying the plastic buffer housings for sprung operation using Slaters buffer heads.  Not easy and I would definitely use something from the trade if I did one again.

 

John