N C Keyser 7 plank private owner wagon, GWR Bogie coal wagon

[Il Grifone]

AFAIK the white metal K's GWR van was always a banana van. In the 70s the EMGS supplied a kit to members of a GWR MINK, which consisted of the K's kit with replacement ends without the the central shutter (I bought two at the time). The end casting appear to be thicker than the K's ends. Then the Kirk plastic kit appeared which IMHO was better (and cheaper) (except for the curious omission of the curb rail). The plastic kit was described as a meat van, but is a standard 17' 6" MINK (Are these actually MINKs as MINK was the code for a 16' 0" van?)

 

There was also an EMGS GER open kit, based on the sand wagon. (This was a curious choice for a kit, with an appeal about equalled by Wills' LTSR bullion van (I must get one of these seeing where I now live!) I acquired a second GER open recently, but it needs rebuilding as 'out of square is a serious understatement.

 

I'll post some photos, as soon as I can.

 

EDIT: Corrected 16' 6" to 16' 0" - I must have been confused by the mineral wagons I'm working on at the moment!

[Fat Controller]

AFAIK the white metal K's GWR van was always a banana van. In the 70s the EMGS supplied a kit to members of a GWR MINK, which consisted of the K's kit with replacement ends without the the central shutter (I bought two at the time). The end casting appear to be thicker than the K's ends. Then the Kirk plastic kit appeared which IMHO was better (and cheaper) (except for the curious omission of the curb rail). The plastic kit was described as a meat van but is a standard 17' 6" MINK (Are these actually MINKs as MINK was the code for a 16' 6" van?)

 

There was also an EMGS GER open kit, based on the sand wagon. (This was a curious choice for a kit, with an appeal about equalled by Wills' LTSR bullion van (I must get one of these seeing where I now live!) I acquired a second GER open recently, but it needs rebuilding as 'out of square is a serious understatement.

 

I'll post some photos, as soon as I can.

MINK was the general code for general merchandise vans; there would be a letter to indicate a specific sub-type. 17'6" vans were MINK A, IIRC.

[Coach bogie]

AFAIK the white metal K's GWR van was always a banana van.

 

I agree it was always sold as a banana van but the kit has been supplied with two different ends over the years, with and without the sliding centre louvred ventilator. The original kit was basically a V14/6/8 mink. The later versions with centre ventilator was to Y4 now making it a banana van.

 

There was an excellent series of articles in Raliway Modeller by Brian Huxley in the late 70's that went into considerable detail regarding the two variations by K's which were used as a basis for other many other conversions. Huxley stated that he had corrected the original K's V14 kit, sold as a banana van, to produce the ends with centre ventilator to produce a Y4 'Steam Bannana' van, then K's changed the ends to feature the centre louvred vent.

 

The hybrid plastic body, cast underframe is a 'van that never was', as K's lengthened the van to 17'6" but retained the outside framed doors, a variation that did not exist to mine and other knowledge. The moulding was corrcted to inside framed doors by the time it became an all plastic kit.

 

 

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Il Grifone]

I wasn't aware of a K's kit without the sliding ventilator. It must have been quite short lived, as the one I bought in the late fifties (58?) definitely had the ventilator. K's ads of the time were short of photos of the wagon kits - the first I remember was the milk tank. (The EMGS kit dates from the 70s.)

I'll try and sneak the time for the photos - there are all sorts of redecorating etc. projects being discussed which will waste much valuable modelling time.

[Il Grifone]

Managed it!




K's banana van and EMGS MINK



Second EMGS MINK and K's banana



EMGS MINK and GER open

The MINKs were built by me about 35 years ago and are in need of freshening up, though I have recently got around to fitting them with Hornby wheels (regauged to EM) and pinpoint bearings. The other three are as bought and are as yet untouched apart from fitting new wheels and bearings (the ERG 3 links and the strange brown colour have to go!)

The track is EM gauge SMP and is contemporary with the MINKs.

Incidently, according to Atkins et al, MINK and MINK A are listed in the 1939 GWR code book as 16' (not 16' 6" as I stated earlier) vans and ventilated vans respectively.
I suspect, however that was an omitted revision as the non fitted vans had been in the common user pool for a considerable time by then and presumably the code would refer to any van, not just GWR vehicles (OPENs as well).

[hayfield]

Now finishing off my coach collection, as I have just got a LNWR Brake 3rd. Had two all 3rds and a full brake for some time but had no luck for some time with this one. As at the club we might be building a small LNWR station I thought I better had get the brake 3rd, as far as I know these never ran on the branch but goes with the Webb coal tank

 

Only missing two LBSCR 4 wheelers now for the full set

 

 

Just a quick update on the coach front. As said I obtained 2 SR/SECR brake coaches and had a 4 compartment 1st class coach but all the beading had been filed off. Some time ago I managed to get the all 3rd but the 1st class evaded me. About 6 months ago, i bought both first and third class coaches. So I have my rake. This week I won another 2 thirds and a first (in LMS colours) so I am now on my second rake or will have a large rake of eight 4 wheelers. I was a bit concerned about the 4 wheelers as the description stated they had plastic roofs, thankfully they were metal and all had screw couplings

 

Also 4 more wagons arrived, very mangled Coral A, a Toad, NE Lowmac and a plastic SR utility van, these came with 6 other wagons 4 Slaters and an old CCW wooden cattle van needing a bit of restoration (one for the wooden wagon page)

[5050]

This is the earliest K's advert I've found as yet from the Oct '52 Model Railway News.  Are there any earlier ones in other mags?

[Prometheus]

I have been looking for a K's bogie coal wagon for ages: they are extremely scarce and eBay prices fly as soon as they are posted. I'll be patient though...

 

In the meantime, I built the Cambrian equivalent the other day. It went together well enough although there was a great deal of flashing to remove from the four truss rods and obtaining a square fit overall was not easy. It runs very freely though.

 

 

I know that the running numbers are too small - I did not have any of the correct size in Pressfix to apply. It doesn't jar too much though.

 

I'm assuming that the Cambrian kit is superior to the K's one. Can anyone advise otherwise?

 

Tony

[Il Grifone]

From what I remember (it's many years since I saw one), the K's version is rather chunkier. Likely as this is a generally the case with K's kits. At the time I didn't buy one as I didn't need a 40T loco coal wagon. My bad!

 

I still haven't finished refurbishing the MINKS and BANANAS*. The GER open is now square however. I've also added a few K's 20T mineral wagons to the fleet. These are all the later type with a separate axleguard unit (luckily - my first one has Peco axleguards due to the axles being rather out of true. I've mounted these on tinplate cross members as they are a bit too far apart if built as intended. This wouldn't matter too much with the supplied plain axles, but pin points need rather more precision and stability.

 

Incidently does any know if these were uprated during WW II like the 12 ton wagons?

 

* The latter now do have pin point axles and a coat of BR bauxite, but need lettering. (A job needing a good light and strong glasses (the eyes aren't what they used to be - the MINKS were done without). An extensive vocabulary helps too....