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Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench


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Given that I now have a few in the to do pile I thought I would start a thread just for the building of plastic wagon kit's.

Starting with a 14 ton cylindrical tank wagon that I received from my son at Christmas that has beckoned this last week when I haven't been able to do much due to having new windows fitted but having time on my hands between moving things about. I wasn't too impressed with the body of the wagon itself although I do believe that with some filler and a it of patience a decent job could be made. I chose to rivet and roll a replacement from brass.

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More to follow.

Edited by Rob Pulham
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That's coming together quite nicely, I've never been a big fan of Slaters tank bodies, and I must say that the brass overlay makes a very good alternative.

 

Hi Boris, I certainly agree with that one. Its probably worth mentioning that I replaced the Slaters body rather than making overlays for it.

 

I am enjoying your MMP build, I have a glass wagon on the go that this pushed to one side, but I will be back on with it when I have stuck back the loose stayrolleyes.gif (that I didn't notice while photographing itblink.gif but someone kindly pointed it out of forum).

 

 

 

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Hi Kristian,

 

I used a mixture of both. I soldered where I could - the tank barrel and the castings are soldered, The tank ends are just pushed in (a really tight fit), the chassis is plastic so I glued that and I soldered the cables into their castings.

 

The tank straps I soldered at one side while the tank was off and glued he other once it was in place and the nut's on the end stays are solder the rest is glued. I used a mixture of polystyrene cement, loctite multi surface gel and superglue.

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Great work, Rob! I've recently built one of these and have another to do so it's interesting to see that you've gone about the general construction in a different way. The brass tank is a great improvement. What did you use to emboss the rivets and how did you manage to get them so straight?

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Great work, Rob! I've recently built one of these and have another to do so it's interesting to see that you've gone about the general construction in a different way. The brass tank is a great improvement. What did you use to emboss the rivets and how did you manage to get them so straight?

 

If you don't want to do rivets, Roberts of Wakefield apparently started welding some tanks quite early on (WW2ish?).

 

If I remember i'll go out and take some photos of some Roberts tanks like this one for referance tomorrow, failing that feel free to swear at me.

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Great work, Rob! I've recently built one of these and have another to do so it's interesting to see that you've gone about the general construction in a different way. The brass tank is a great improvement. What did you use to emboss the rivets and how did you manage to get them so straight?

Hi Dave, I used a GW Models Rivet press and to get them straight I scribed a line to follow (it is on the reverse so not seen on the finished tank) I then taped a ruler adjacent to the line and followed the line using the edge of the ruler to ensure I didn't stray from the line. There is a cross slide with the rivet press that gives accurate spacing etc. but the piece of brass sheet I was using was a little big to use this.

 

If you don't want to do rivets, Roberts of Wakefield apparently started welding some tanks quite early on (WW2ish?).

 

If I remember i'll go out and take some photos of some Roberts tanks like this one for referance tomorrow, failing that feel free to swear at me.

 

That would be really useful for future builds Boris. Thanks.

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Here you go!

 

If you want any photos of anything specific on these tanks, just let me know.

 

Superb Boris thanks and most appreciated.

 

What I would like a photo of if you have one, is the bottom discharge arrangement on the class B tank? I did the Slaters one as class A but I have a rather nice casting left over for the bottom discharge pipe which I plan to use on my scratch built effort.

 

There are some shots of this on the Esso tanks that you posted but not how it attaches to the bottom of the barrel itself.

 

Thanks.

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Looking at these photos reminded me of an issue I had when I reworked one of these tank wagons that I had bought (already built) at an exhibition. As far as I can see, tank wagons with this kind of mounting (four cross-ways baulks) almost always had flat fronted axleboxes when they were built. I left mine as they were, as I just wanted to tidy up the wagon and get it running, but if I did another one I'd find my prototype photo first and expect to have to change the axleboxes.

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That's an easy one, here you go:

 

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From what I can tell, the discharge pipe sits pretty much directly below the wheel on the top of the tank, IIRC there is a rod that run down through the tank body and as you turn the wheel at the top it lifts a plug like valve in the bottom of the tank body. There is also a stop valve behind the solebar on either side of the T fitting:

 

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Looking at these photos reminded me of an issue I had when I reworked one of these tank wagons that I had bought (already built) at an exhibition. As far as I can see, tank wagons with this kind of mounting (four cross-ways baulks) almost always had flat fronted axleboxes when they were built. I left mine as they were, as I just wanted to tidy up the wagon and get it running, but if I did another one I'd find my prototype photo first and expect to have to change the axleboxes.

 

Thanks for this note Rambler, I have to confess I spent that much time making sure I improved the tank details I never looked at the axle boxes. I will make sure I consider it on future builds.

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  • 1 month later...

Besides getting back to the A3 I have also just completed this Parkside Dundas fitted LNER Cattle wagon - I do need to swap the couplings for screw ones though these are what came with the kit and I haven't others in stock at the moment.

 

it's the first 7mm Parkside Kit I have done and I am impressed especially with the brakes.

 

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Cheers Boris,

 

It's a nice kit. I have only ever done Parkside 4mm kit's before. I liked it that much I have bought one of the unfitted ones to go with it. The only bits that mildly let it down are the supply of plastic rod instead of brass and that the castings are whitemetal as opposed to Slaters brass ones.

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That is one thing I have noticed with Parkside kits, they tend to be fairly good, but occasionally do the most bizarre things, like supplying plastic rod where you would expect a bit of brass, I am building a BR 21t hopper and have been supplied with a 3 inch piece of plastic rod with no explanation as to where it goes and nowhere obvious to put it! I'm going to use it as part of my conversion of this vehicle into a vacuum braked example, but it does seem a bit weird.

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