Looking back over the short period of this blog its strange to find that my main project has received no coverage. So to redress the balance!

The little van which i have recently been working on is technically a sideline and afterthought to a pair of 3 plank dropside wagons like the ones shown and mentioned earlier. The project is for two more MET ballast wagons commonly used from 1896 uptill around 1980, when the last two were retired.

My two are BD704, a wagon adapted from BW251 for carrying equipment variously associated with the breakdwon train too large to run in the covered vans allocated to the task. Most often it carried a bogie for supporting damaged vehicles during recovery. Its almost certain there was two of these vehicles, one later than the other. My one will be through vacum piped, probably an earlierone, though the one i have a photo of has a vacum cylinder.

The other is SC631, a stores wagon that like the van would have run in the acton depot stores train, carrying everything from building materials to brake blocks and other consumables like oils. One or other of these wagons was regulaly seen between two tools vans on trains all around the Met system.

Wagon frames are made almost exactly as per original, only i have dowelled mine togther with cocktail sticks and have not morticed joints, mostly because my skills are up to nice clean joints needed but also because i have not the will or patience to do such a thing! Frames are hardwood with brass tie rods, all the members cut by hand but in many cases machined to ensure a square edge, and sides drilled as a pair to ensure exact alignment and the wagon doesnt end up crabing down the track!

So, to the wagons. they are still at frames stage, awaiting iron work, but the majority of the bits are made for them. They really await asembly once i have the other wheelsets, axle boxes and iron work from the laser cutter.

Yesterdays efforts were little, amongst them being the making of back plates for the door knees. These are wooden knees that support the 3 plank dropside doors when they are dropped down. They are an incredibly complex shape as can be seen from the pics from the last round of wagons, the current ones have no doors yet! Today i finished them off and now await access to either a printer or cnc router to make up the knees themselves.

Most of todays efforts, after the customary exam revision and general tidy up of the work tables, went on buffers for the van. They are of the self contained type, i solder a piece of round steel bar onto some 3mm plate, then put it in the lathe to produce a convex round face. The stocks are turned from solid inch brass with backing plates carefully drilled on a milling machine, before being soldered together. Because this project was inherited from someone else (frames and a few bits for buffers), i had to make some plugs for the buffer shanks as not enough material ha been left to drill to provide enough support for the threaded rod which attaches the buffer and housing or stock together and holds the spring in place. So several hours were went on that, and i have litterally just finished soldering them all together, leaving them in the cleaning acid till tomorrow morning.

Elsewhere on the 3 plank wagons the buffer beams have been drilled to take the bolts that secure on the buffer stocks, and they are now bolted on.

On coaches, footboard brackets are being prepped to be put on the frame so that the whole frame can they be sprayed black in the coming week.

A can be seen below the mould for the lighting control boxes has just been made, hopefully we can cast the boxes soon and add them to all five coaches.

So, till i do a bit more, progress remains as usual visually slow until i start assembling everything. Perhaps next couple post i shall reveal the next projects, especially as modelling will slow down next few weeks as i prepare for my end of year exams.

Cheers all

Mark