My mentors taught me to build locos with split axle current collection and to spring those axles downwards. Its simple model engineering and is, in my view at least, easier than beams all over the place. So perhaps I can be said to be totally in favour of springing, certainly for locos.

Building locos is where I get the most pleasure and rolling stock tends to be “one of those things you need but……â€

None the less, as now, I occasionally go off into a rolling stock building spree just for a change. There tends to be less model engineering with wagons and things, particularly if one is building them based on plastic kits.

When I first started building to P4 standards the word was that all wagons needed compensation and there was much addo about three-legged-stools. So I used the rocking W iron system that had become available due to this then new-fangled etched brass system of parts production. This three-legged thing I saw as being brilliant, because with the old solid axle system it was difficult to ensure axles were level and parallel and that all wheels sat on the track. No vehicle will run well if those three conditions are not met.

The last condition occurs naturally with rockers, and the axles also find a position that is supposed to keep the body from rocking, however it is still down to the builder to get the axles parallel. Done well the idea is good, but doing it well does demand a rigorous skill level, particularly in ensuring parallelism, and, dependent on the quality of the track, compensation is not the must that was being inferred in those far off days. I have quite a good number of kit built wagons on which I arranged for the axles to be minutely sloppy between their bearings and they all perform admirably on my far from perfect track work; - wobbly wheel system!

The first springing system I used was ‘Masokits’. I used his system on one wagon and one coach. A bit complicated, a bid fiddly, but parallel axles are built-in and both vehicles run very well. Next, along came Mr Bedford, (are you there Bill?) and to compare with Masokits this design is quite simple and not quite as fiddly but leaves you to sort out the parallel axle bit and please believe me, without parallel axles, running will always be doubtful at very best.

I had decided to use Bill’s system on all future builds, mainly based of its simplicity, and I had done a few before my brain began thinking in terms of that parallel problem. Now in my early engineering training one thing seemed to crop up time and time again – the art of good engineering design is to copy but improve on a proven design; so why not apply Masokits method of achieving parallel axles to Bill’s simple, sprung W iron units?

I now mount Bill’s completed W iron units on a central spine of 0.018†nickel silver but the spine is jig drilled so as to allow dowel location of the W irons such that they are exactly on wheelbase centres and truly parallel to each other. When thus located the W irons are soldered to the spine. This has also been jig drilled for dowel location to the vehicle floor and for a central hole to allow screw fixing to the floor.

A friend at Manchester MRS (www.palatinemodels.co.uk) had some standardised spines etched for me to save on the jig drilling and these are now available to all. Starting the project to build five Toad Ds I found that I had no etched spines in stock so I fabricated some from 0.018 nickel-silver, using my original drilling jigs.

This series of photos should explain it all much better than words:-

This one shows the spine with two Bill Bedford sprung W irons soldered to it. The two smaller holes on Bill’s etches were used to dowel the W irons to the spine prior to soldering, ensuring all is square and on correct wheelbase due to the matching dowel holes in the spine.

The cosmetic chassis needs a flat bottom on which the kit’s under-frame will be mounted and, for the version with inside ballast weights, the top plate needs to be thinner than that provided in the kit, which represents the concrete slabs. This top is a 0.030†thick strip laminated to a 0.060†thick stiffener. Kit parts are welded to the top plate and the stiffener fits inside the solebar-headstock assembly. The steps have been shortened and while the kit MEK-welding points are used, strength is added by the 0.45†diameter rods araldited to the central vertical straps and pushed into holes drilled into the bottom of the solebars. The model’s ballast weight is also shown here. It also acts as a nut to hold all four parts together!

This one shows how the full model is assembled from four parts.

Here can be seen the 8BA screw which holds the spine to the running plate; to the body floor and to the ballast weight, clamping all three together after they are correctly located by dowels.

Looking from above and showing the ballast weight. In running condition the model weighs about 2.5 ounces

A side view of the near complete model is shown here

And finally a comparison of my version with the Bachmann version.