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LMS Palethorpes 6 wheel van


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Thanks for the kind comments John. I got a bit more done today, the body is now assembled and the doors have been fitted.

 

This is the etches before I started apart from the fact I have pre-rolled the roof.

 

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This is the basic bodyshell

 

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The doors before and after forming the bolt heads with a riveting tool

 

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And finally the door when fitted in place

 

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The doors are held in place using the hinge pieces but due to the fact the etching process isn't an exact science I had to open out the holes with a 0.45mm drill first. Fortunately very little solder leached through to the front which can be a problem when the mounting hole is too big. The reason that there is no rivet at the ends of the rhs door is simply that they are not seen when the latch arm is in place and also the raised area gets in the way of the wire which forms the latch arm.

 

Ian

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I've not got a lot done over the last couple of days, 'Life' keeps getting in the way.

 

I did manage to get the basic chassis done today, I'll try to do a bit on the running chassis tomorrow.

 

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Ian

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21 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Assuming the solebars are channel section inside shouldn't the axleguards be closer in to the centre of the vehicle?

Hi Mike

 

Strictly speaking you are probably right, but the reason I put them where they are is that this van will be running on a Cleminson truck type of chassis. I have put slots for the brake shoes at OO and EM/P4 spacing and I was concerned that at the wider wheel spacing the space between the axleguards might be a bit tight when the van is going round a tighter curve. With hindsight ( a wonderful thing, if you could bottle it you'd make a fortune) it probably wasn't necessary as the EM/P4 guys don't tend to have tight curves on the layouts. If you really wanted to, the axleguards could be spaced off the solebar by about 0.7mm on each side using a few bits of 0.7 wire soldered to the back of the solebar, but once the van is painted it is hardly noticeable anyway.

 

I'm not going to be able to get any more done on this project for a few days, we are off to Milton Keynes tomorrow with the layout.

 

Ian

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The ladder is part of the brass etch. If you look at the photos above the ladder is at the bottom left corner of the roof section. 

I’m not at home at the moment, but I’ll post a photo later so you can see how it is assembled. 

 

Ian

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Paul, here are some photos of the ladder assembly as promised.

 

First stage, fold up the sides and fit a couple of pieces of 0.3mm wire.

Photo510b.jpg.b9edda3101020aa024871a84730d8b8d.jpg

 

Fit more wires in between the frames

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File the corners off the spacers then cut off the rest of the spacers

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Fit the remaining wires

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Carefully file off the remainder of the spacers and the cusp then repeat for the surplus wire and solder from the outside of the frames. Fit the ladder to the van, all done.

 

Photo530b.jpg.29f27fcea35eecf96687e3a365020ea0.jpg

 

Ian

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The chassis is now virtually complete. I still need to fit the castings and the brake rodding but I will leave that till last so nothing gets damaged. I haven't fitted the NEM boxes to this one as I am going to fit working couplings when it is painted.

 

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Time to do a bit more on the van body now.

 

Ian

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This is really coming along nicely.  You're soldering is much cleaner than mine.  I spend an awful lot of time scraping and polishing my work.  I just love detailed underframes.  Will you be adding vacuum and steam pipe runs?

 

John

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Hi John

 

Thanks for the kind comments once again. I will be adding the pipes to the buffer beam but not on the underside of the van as they will probably interfere with the operation of the Cleminson truck.

With regards to the soldering, I have designed the van so most of the soldering can be done from the inside so very little solder shows. I find I only have problems with solder going in places I don't want it to go when I have put on too much flux. The solder will always flow naturally where the flux is lying so if you put too much on it spreads and the solder follows it. I usually apply the flux with a cocktail stick as it is more controllable.

Ian

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The rain strips and lamp irons are now in place so the body is more or less completed. I have left the door latch levers off till the van is painted and the decals applied as this makes it easier to apply them. Once the decals are on the levers can be fitted into place and fixed with a drop of superglue.

 

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I've got the grandkids coming today for a few days so that will be the job stopped till the end of the week.

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The castings are now fitted and I have temporarily fitted the door latch operating levers just for the photograph. I will remove them and paint them separately then fit them permanently after the decals are applied as it is difficult to work around them. 

I will be ordering the etches for those members who have requested one of these vans tomorrow, so if anybody else wants one, let me know asap.

 

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I had a bit of spare time (a rare thing for me) so I decided to build one of the Cream van versions from these etches. In view the comment by Mike earlier in the thread I spaced the axleguards off the solebar with some 0.9mm wire so the spring and J hangers will sit in the gap between the two.

 

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The principle differences between this and the Palethorpes van is that this one had no 'electrics' so there are no battery boxes, dynamo or switch and socket (on the van end). The Ice box cooling wasn't fitted to these vans either so there was no ladder to the roof and no end platforms either.

As there are slots to fit these parts I simply filled them with solder and filed of the surplus material.

After I had done the end I discovered that if you fill from the back rather than the front and lay the component on a piece of wood covered in kitchen foil, the outer surface remains solder free with the slots neatly filled. The kitchen foil is there to stop the wood burning onto the surface of the brass as you do the soldering.

 

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Once that was done I managed to get it sprayed with etch primer #8 after masking off the areas which need to move freely.

 

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I just need a bit of warmer weather now so I can spray it in the final livery. 

The vans were only used for a couple of years as Cream vans according to the Essey and Jenkinsons book after which they reverted to being used as parcels vans so I think I shall paint this one in BR Maroon with heavy weathering to match the state of most parcels stock in the 1950's and 60's

 

Ian

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I decided to treat myself to another spray booth over Christmas and bought one which has an active carbon filter in it so I can spray in a warm room without the fumes killing me. As a result I have been able to get a coat of paint onto the Cream/Milk van and added some transfers from John Isherwood (Cambridge Custom Transfers) the final result is quite good.

 

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Ian

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