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GWR Fruit D in 7mm


brossard
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Back from an extended leave of absence from modelling.  I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle some projects.

 

I bought this JLTRT GWR Fruit D kit second hand.  It was a good price so I couldn't say no.

 

I really only just opened the box today and plan to make a start shortly.

 

Here are some pics of the kit contents:

 

 

P1010004.JPG

 

P1010005.JPG

 

A plethora of bits to delight any modeller.  One of the springs is broken, perhaps I can mend it by drilling and pinning.

 

P1010006.JPG

 

Resin castings do have a lovely crispness to them.  This complete body should help to speed the job along.

 

Has anyone done this kit?  Any pitfalls or words to the wise?

 

Cheers

 

John

 

Edited by brossard
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I built one of these a couple of years back - coincidentally one of the springs in my kit was also broken.  The kit went together O.K. but the body appears to be for the gas lit G.W. design whilst the chassis is for the electrically lit B.R. version. I got around it by making up a set of switchgear for the end so converting the body into an electrically lit one in the W92xxx series. If you want to portray a GWR one leave off the battery boxes, dynamo etc and add gas tanks piping etc. 

The buffers centres were well out - around half a hole IIRC. The cast w/m footstep brackets are very fragile (I found out the hard way) and would have been better in lost wax brass even if it added a couple of quid to the price. As you say the body is a lovely moulding - pity JLRT didn't 'do their homework' at the design stage.

I'm sure there has been a previous construction thread on here.  Best of luck.

Ray.

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Thanks for the heads up about the buffers.  I'm thinking the van will be portrayed in early 1950s condition.  I will need to study the kit more.  I am no expert on GWR vehicles (no expert on anything really, truth be told).  I do have some books.

 

John

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A quick note.  Right out of the gate I ran into trouble with the axleboxes and W irons.  Theh bearings seemed to slip nicely into the axleboxes, so I glued them in.  When I went to check the fit with the installed W irons, the bearings were too far apart.  I think I should have rebated the axle boxes so that the bearing flange is flush to the back of the axlebox.  I fixed things by drilling out the bearings.  Ah well, the joys of modelling.

 

Ray you mentioned that the GWR body and BR body are different.  Do you have a pic of the BR van?  I've been through Russell's Great Big Book but there isn't much in there.

 

John

 

Just to say, Ray, that I found a good set of pics on Paul B's site:  https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/fruitd

 

I have to confess, I don't know what the switchgear looks like.

Edited by brossard
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Thanks for the reply Ray.  I'm thinking the device is about midway up the end with a box thingy and rod.  Only one end or both?  If so that is easy to do.  I don't see any other significant differences in the bodies.

 

Cheers

 

John

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Hi John,

I had one of the later JLTRT Fruit D from eBay. The buffer centres were wider that previously, but you will be able to tell because when you offer the chassis up to the body you will see that either side of the buffer holes have been milled away to allow the buffers to fit now.

I found this on YouTube, which helped enormously with the build. 

 

 

This is part one, there are another 2 there as well. 

Good luck with build. I have to say it was the first JLTRT kit I have built and it was an enjoyable build, with no real snags.

 

Robin

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Thanks for the vid Robin.  I just finished the fiddly bits on the brake gear so I hope that vid doesn't tell me I did it all wrong.

 

Anyway, here is latest progress:

 

P1010001.JPG.e28bb704dc63365392f3d4ab203673b6.JPG

 

P1010002.JPG.1f8e6647a407abca448e99df89b89196.JPG

 

Brake gear mostly done.  I assume that center link is located at the center of the van.  I didn't glue it yet.  The instructions make reference to plastic rod, but I didn't see any.  I used brass rod from my materials hoard.

 

One of the V hangers lost a leg so I'll fill the gap with some plastic strip.  One the safety loops broke as well, an easy fix.

 

The dodgy thing was getting the brake hangers oriented correctly.  Studying the instructions set me right.

 

I fixed the leaf spring by drilling and pinning with some 0.020" wire.

 

No real compliants, everything fits well enough and it looks good.  I'm not a fan of whitemetal but this is going well.

 

Wheelsets are in loose so I can check brake fit.

 

Cheers

 

John

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Looking good John.  AFAIK the switchgear is at one end only.  I made mine from bits of wire and a small block of Plastikard - by guesswork from a photo. IIRC the kit supplied strips of black plastic for the axlebox tie bars but I used strips of scrap etch with soldered brass 'pins' that located in the holes in the bottom of the W irons.  I chemically blackened these and only fitted them (with a dab of cyano) after I had finished painting.  Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Ray.

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Hi Ray, thanks, I thought the switchgear would be at the one end only.  You described exactly how I would go about making it.

 

I noticed in some pics that the tie bar looks a bit crooked.  I was again thinking like you and scrounging up some brass strip.

 

BTW, to follow on from Robin's post, the other two videos in the series are: 

 

 

and:

 

 

Hope to get more done tomorrow.  It is going fast.

 

John

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About 3 hrs this morning saw the underframe completed:

 

P1010001-001.JPG.8f6c68ceb2a89c7a816af6820e0c01c7.JPG

 

P1010002-001.JPG.e18a127bc980595df0e708ee5d650b15.JPG

 

No real drama apart from a few minor issues with parts breaking.  In the upper picture you can see my V hanger bodge.  The small steps seem awfully fragile and I won't put money on their longevity.  They should have been etched or cast brass.

 

I just washed the whole thing and once that is dry, I will prime.

 

On to the body next.  That should be less stressful.

 

John

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Unfortunately the chap in the video has fallen into JLRT's 'trap' of a G.W. brown body on a B.R. built chassis.  A great shame as a few notes in the instructions could avoid this error.  I did advise Laurie of this problem when I built mine but was accused of being "a rivet-counter" - and, yes, I still have his e-mail. Pity.

Ray.

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Hi Ray, that is a good point as I will be tackling the body next.  Pauls pics don't give any guidance.  I know BR painted these crimson and blue in later years after they were relegated to general purpose parcels.  So what is the correct colour for when BR initailly built theirs in the 1950s?  I doubt the roof would be white.

 

John

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Hi John, When new (in1955? - I'm in the U.S. at the moment so can't check my books) they would be painted crimson with cream/yellow lettering and progressively repainted in maroon from 1957 on.  Blue would have begun c.1966.  Roofs would have been B.R. roof grey but the vehicles were usually so filthy that the whole colour thing is all academic!  There was considerable discussion on whether the ends were black or crimson/maroon last this came up on RMWeb.  The specs for NPCS generally stated black ends so my feeling is "why would the Fruit D's be any different?"  Possibly the confusion results from people remembering the old Hornby Dublo Fruit D (same applies to the utility van) where, for ease of production, the ends were body coloured. I painted mine maroon with black ends anyway - rule 1 applied!

Cheers,

Ray.

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The underframe has been primed and I will leave that for a bit to cure.

 

This mornings job was to assemble the couplings.  Very nice cast brass bits but oh so much fettling required.  I think I was at it for welll nigh 3 hours.

 

Here's the result:  P1010002-002.JPG.9f50af60612b3ab80b7ea441d8afb1c0.JPG

 

Dapol do a pack of very serviceable screw link couplings for a good price.  :rolleyes_mini:

 

As the video above says, these could be made to work, but I'm not going there.

 

John

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Many thanks for the pictures Grumpy.  They will be a great help for finishing.

 

I was trying to recall the trader who did such nice GWR details - CPL.  Now found and bookmarked.

 

However, the couplings are done now, so we'll go with that. 

 

John

 

 

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Going into rant mode:

 

Build is on hold because the whitemetal vac and steam pipes are simply not fit for purpose.  Extremely fragile and quite useless.  :angry: They broke when I tried to tweak them.   I will be getting on to Slaters on the morrow to order some proper ones.

 

The buffer install should have been straighforward but the shanks fouled the solebars so material had to be cut away and damaging the buffer beam.  :rolleyes_mini: The damage is not visible but annoying none the less.  Easier to do before the body is glued to the underframe.

 

Couplings are nice enough and robust being cast brass (and they did take 3 hours to put together).  However the spring supplied was too short so I had to faff about making a shim.

 

Rant over.

Edited by brossard
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  • 1 month later...

I lost about 2 weeks as I waited for my Slaters vac pipes.  I initially bought the wrong ones (I wish Slaters would put pictures on the site).

 

Van is done:

 

P1010018.JPG.0d6e9539350083cabddca609ee8b8699.JPGP1010019.JPG.3d98e1713f168509dcba3bab69bb2fcd.JPGP1010021.JPG.09824649759e121dfad8a99ae37321c7.JPG

 

I was right about the whitemetal steps, during handling one came off spontaneously.  I replaced them with steps made from scrap brass strip and the original step casting.   Much better.

 

Note the switch gear in the top picture.  I scratch made it.

 

John

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