Entry posted by Ian Smith
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I am going to try to move my 2mm ramblings from my original Trefallion blog (which is my P4 layout) to this new blog, firstly with my entry on a GWR 4 Plank Open wagon :
2mm Scale GWR O5 4 Plank Open
Sunday afternoon, Wifey out, what to do?
Well having located some of my old 2mm scale bits and bobs I decided to have a crack at putting together the 9'0" rigid underframe chassis that I had in my box of bits. The chassis had been purchased to go under a 4 plank open wagon body that I had built (the part number on the bag is S5-065, the etch has Mike Bryant 1985 etched on it so I have no idea if it is still available from the 2mm Association). The etch itself came with no instructions so I had to make my own up as I went along.
First I bent up the floor and solebars, and then soldered in the top hat bearings. A quick check of the wheelsets showed that the pin-point axle was a good 1mm short! After a bit of fettling I moved the top hats in until the wheelsets stopped falling out, and just as importantly the whole chassis sat level. Next I decided to fit the one-side Morton brakes, checking that the brake shoes lined up fairly well with the wheels (a little bend up bit helped with the alignment), to also assist with the alignment I used a length of wire to line up the V irons. The next items to be attached were the cosmetic solebars, which were tinned (along with the functional solebars that were formed when the chassis was bent up), and simply sweated on.
The next item I decided to fit was the brake handle, this is in the form of an L shape with a couple of small tails where the long and short "arms" come together. Both "arms" were overly long, so I decided to double up the shorter one so that the bent up tail was on the inside (when eventually attached to the solebar), this was to allow the handle to stand a little further off the solebar than would have occurred had I not done it - the aim was to give a little more room for the spring and axlebox casting as this would lie behind the handle. Before fitting the handle, I bent the long arm of the L so that there was a shallow angle (the L was now at about 75-80 degrees) such that the long arm could connect with the tip of the V iron, and the double thickness short arm hang down vertically. Once happy I soldered it in place on the solebar, and carefully bent the joggle in the arm that on the prototype allowed the handle to navigate over the spring and axlebox. The long arm was then soldered to the bottom of the V iron, and carefully trimmed to length.
The next items to be fitted were the headstocks, I bent up the little tabs and when tried in place thought that they just didn't fit properly. In a moment of brilliance on my part I decided to turn the headstocks full circle so that the tabs were outside the chassis (and when it was slid up to the headstocks they were at the right height). I tack soldered the middle of the headstock to the chassis underside, and once happy with the fit completed the join. After fitting the little tabs were simply snapped off and the resultant pips sanded smooth. That completed all of the solderwork.
Next I super-glued the cast white metal GWR axleboxes that I am lucky enough to have in my 2mm bits box, and finally the cast white metal plain buffers were super-glued into the holes in headstocks (after re-drilling to clear the solder that now filled them 
)
Lastly, the plasticard body that I built many years ago was fitted, this was done by having the body upside down on the bench, the chassis was aligned and super-glue dribbled into the holes in the etched chassis where the fold-ups for the brakes were.
Here are a couple of photos of the finished wagon (not quite complete as I still have to fit some L section end stanchion ironwork, and obviously paint and letter the little fellow).
Very nice, Ian. The Mike Bryant chassis use wheels on 13mm axles hence your little problem. If you have any more of the MB chassis it may be worth buying some appropriate wheels from the Association shop.
Very nice. Does it also need a sheet rail too?
The chassis, axlebox/spring castings, and buffers have been replaced with updated or revised components. On the plus side the body is available as a plastic kit now!
I'm not sure that the O5 wagons had sheet rails, I'll have to check some of my library :-) I know some of the 5 plankers did. I was not going to fit one, but I am going to fill it with a load of some sort (which is why I didn't scribe the plank detail on the inside of the wagon).
Hopefully in the new year I'll re-join the 2mm Scale Association, I have the bug back for this scale again. I can't believe how things have moved on since I last modelled in the smaller scale (I had a small N Gauge layout many years ago (early '80s), and always intended building a 2mm Finescale one - hence the Iron Minks and this O5 wagon - but my love is for small GWR engines, and motors in the late '80s early 90's were generally too big (unless you made your own). Modern technology seems to really make the scale very viable (even if my eye-sight doesn't) ;-)
Another very nice looking wagon.
Minor point of pedantry here. According to Atkins (or to give it the full title, A History of GWR Goods Wagons, by Atkins, Beard, Hyde and Tourret), O5 should have DC I brakegear, and applies to about 200 wagons built in 1902. Something over 20,000 wagons of similar four-plank design, but with conventional single-sided brake gear had been built earlier, but were not given a diagram number until in 1927-30 the remaining 18,000+ were refitted with either-side brakes and given diagram number O21. So I think your wagon as built is an undiagrammed four plank, which would have become O21 at some future date.
How do I know all this? Because earlier today I started to write a future article for my blog, covering the various options for making GWR opens in 2mm. One nice feature of the four-plank wagon in plastic kit form is that it's easy to file it down by a plank and create a three-plank version (no diagonal bracing to worry about).
Some carried sheet rails, but I think that most four-plankers didn't - and in later years I think they were removed, as the GWR disliked putting wagons into the Common User Pool with sheet rails, and receiving wagons back without them.
David
David,
Thanks for the info - I had forgotton most of that. I have both volumes of A History of GWR Goods Wagons, and the Russell books that were published by OPC. If I remember correctly, when I built the body (over 15 years ago) it was based on a photo in one of the Russell books (and if I'm honest I assumed that being a 4 planker that I had started building an O5). I will have to retreive the various volumes from the loft and start reading again.
The reason I built it in the first place was because I didn't fancy trying to make DC I brake gear in 2mm scale :-). I now see that the Association shop has far more on offer than it did all those years ago, including chassis that have the Dean Churchward brake gear.
One of the first things I need to build if I return to 2mm is a loco. I have wheels for a Dean Goods, 45xx and an 0-4-2/2-4-0. Looking at some of the motors available from Nigel Lawton, I think my first project will be a Metro tank or a 517 (complete with shiney brass dome and safety valve) :-)
Thanks very much for the comments though.
Ian
Ian
DC brake gear is still difficult, but I'm not sure it's any worse than bending the long brake lever to the right shape.
Locomotive chassis kits suitable for GWR are under development as follows:
0-6-0 (principally for Farish Pannier) - etched chassis expected to be available early next year from 2mm Association
0-6-0 (principally for Farish Pannier) - brass block chassis under development by Alan Smith
0-4-2 (principally for Dapol 14xx, but should also serve for a '517) - etched chassis expected to be available early next year from 2mm Association
0-6-0 tender (principally for Peco Collet goods, but probably also suitable for Dean goods) - etched chassis expected to be available early next year from 2mm Association
Ixion Manor conversion kit - brass block chassis under development by Wealden Group/Alan Smith, expected to be available next year
2-6-2 (principally for Dapol 45xx) - etched chassis available now from David Eveleigh
With the exception of the David Eveleigh 2-6-2 kit, they are intended to be at the "easy" end of the difficulty scale.
I am in a similar situation - I have the 2-6-2 chassis kit, but it's not really suitable for my location/era (and I would like to try something easier first), and am looking forward to the various chassis to allow me to build 0-6-0 saddle tanks (with a Dean Sidings body available), '517 0-4-2 tank (again Dean Sidings body available) and 0-6-0 Dean goods (with NBrass body kit promised "sometime soon").
David
My appetite is well and truly whetted now!!!
I was thinking of scratchbuilding loco's but if there are kits out there (or on their way) for chassis and or bodies so much the better. I will have to take a photo of the 45xx chassis that I have that is part built (phosphor bronze, tufnol spacers, and cylinders that I carved from a lump of tufnol).
Ian
Nice little wagon even if it isn't an O5 the GWR seemed to have quite a lot of early 4 plankers with one sided brake gear. I have kits to build for those locos in 0 I was planning to do some SR in 2mm but you keep tempting me.
Don
Nice work Ian...glad to see you have been bitten by the 2mmFS bug again!
I managed to get up in the loft last night to find the History of GWR Goods Wagons (Vols 1 & 2) and also Russell's Great Western Wagons Appendix. The latter has the photograph of the wagon that I based my model on - (no. 632), according to the caption it is an O5, however I checked in Atkins, and David is quite correct the O5 wagons only had DC brakes (not that I doubted him), and 632 is no where near the range of numbers given to the O5's.
So what I have built is one of the many 4 plank wagons owned by the GWR that were built in their 1000's in the 19th Century.
My only real problem is how to model the cast number plates that were fitted to this wagon (the photograph shows it in that condition, and was taken at Swindon in a newly painted condition in 1894) and my modelling period is circa 1905 so the assumption is that the wagon would probably still be carrying the plates then - I had thought of little pieces of styrene with the "G.W.R" and "632" painted on, anyone else any ideas?
Ian
I think that most of the undiagrammed four-plank wagons would have their numbers painted on rather than cast on - from what I recall, cast numbers were used for a couple of years either side of 1900.
However, I was actually proposing to use cast plates to my advantage, by printing the numbers onto thick paper (to be pedantic, printing the black background of the cast plate onto white paper), then affixing the paper to the wagon sides. I hope this will be easier than applying transfers for white numbering/lettering on grey/red sides (finding transfers small enough or matching background colour for the do-it-yourself version). I certainly don't think my painting skills are adequate for letters about 0.8mm in height 
David
Gingerbread, on 13 December 2011 - 19:19 , said:
I think that most of the undiagrammed four-plank wagons would have their numbers painted on rather than cast on - from what I recall, cast numbers were used for a couple of years either side of 1900. However, I was actually proposing to use cast plates to my advantage, by printing the numbers onto thick paper (to be pedantic, printing the black background of the cast plate onto white paper), then affixing the paper to the wagon sides. I hope this will be easier than applying transfers for white numbering/lettering on grey/red sides (finding transfers small enough or matching background colour for the do-it-yourself version). I certainly don't think my painting skills are adequate for letters about 0.8mm in height David
Rather stupidly I hadn't thought of using the tool of my trade to do the plates!! I'll have to have a root around to see if I can find a suitable font.
From what I remember of Great Western Way published by HMRS, the background colour of the plates was always grey (although they don't have the period of red wagons quite right, so that may not be correct either - although I suspect evidence came to light after the book was published).
Either way, when complete I intend to paint this as a red wagon with cast plates (just got to decide on the right colour red - I picked up a tinlet of Humbrol No 132 (satin) from the local model shop to try as I believe the wagons were painted in an orangey-red colour - I liked Mikkel's colouring of a similar wagon in 4mm - but didn't want to try to mix my own shade as I doubt my ability to match a made up colour repeatedly.
Ian
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