brossard Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 I only oil bearings if they need it. Most of the time the wheels roll freely. In this case I scored an own goal. I felt that there might be excessive slop at the bearings so added brass washers. In the event that was wrong so the washers made things a bit tight. I tried to get the wheels out but the brake shoes fouled the flanges so I decided to leave things alone. I didn't do it this time but you can scrape some jewellers rouge into a few drops of oil to make an abrasive slurry. Apply with a small brush and run the wagon back and forth on some track. The stuff does a good job. Be sure to wash the slurry off when done. I used lighter fluid in the past. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hal Nail Posted February 9, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2020 Did you see a weathered Dapol mineral wagon fetched 80 quid on eBay today?! Staggering. I'm tempted to put all my stock on there and see who bites! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 52 minutes ago, Hal Nail said: Did you see a weathered Dapol mineral wagon fetched 80 quid on eBay today?! Staggering. I'm tempted to put all my stock on there and see who bites! Likewise, ready to run has lost a little of its attraction when you can make something more individual. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 Well, a Dapol wagon is still RTR even if weathered. Wonder what it looked like. These Precision kits are very time consuming in that I have to make a lot of the parts myself. That makes them very individual and probably priceless by that logic. John 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 (edited) Well, I fell for it again, a mate of mine (whose basement is a veritable Aladdin's cave of railwayana) gave me three Parkside wagons. These were in dreadful shape, having coarse wheels and stonking great autocouplers. I gave the wheels away here, and binned the couplers. Buffers and couplings were mostly seized. Build plan was to get Bill Bedford sprung W irons, better buffers, couplings and vacuum pipes (Slater's). These would be built for the mid 50s/early 60s era. Dia. V33. Brakes are Bill Bedford and on this side only. The other side has a lever with Morton clutch. Buffers are LMS van which match the photos to a tee. Door catches are also Slater's. These are not listed separately but a note in your next order will get them included. Dia O33, fitted. Originally fitted with a sheet rail but in BR ownership this was frequently removed. I fitted a brass strip tie bar, plastic is quite useless. Again, LMS van buffers. Dia V36. Not much more to say. I am delighted with these. So satisfying to rescue wagons. John Edited July 23, 2022 by brossard 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WM183 Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 HI John, Those wagons turned out great! You also have to like the price. Whose couplings are you using on the two fitted ones? Amanda Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
37114 Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Some lovely wagon modelling and agree there is definitely much greater satisfaction out of building these kits than just using RTR. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hal Nail Posted June 7, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 7, 2020 10 hours ago, brossard said: Door catches are also Slater's. These are not listed separately but a note in your next order will get them included. Now that is a very useful tip. Cracking work. Making something "new", by restoring or a conversion is usually the most satisfying modelling for me. I have always opted for no sheet rail but have to be honest that's largely because fixing a brass rail to a small plastic plate looks like hassle! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 Thanks Hal. It is indeed very satisfying to rescue wagons. Sheet rails are a hassle, I've done two wagons with them, one is pictured in this thread. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 (edited) A friend of mine gave me a couple of wagon kits to do: Parkside NBR Jubilee 8T open: Slaters Rectangular Tank: Quite refreshing to work on pre group stock for a change. John Edited July 23, 2022 by brossard 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 (edited) Over the last couple of weeks I did a blitz on some wagon kits in my "to do" box: Parkside LMS Dia 1832A built from 1923 on. 3450 were made. These had steel corrugated ends. Brakes one side only with the Morton clutch on the brake side. I replaced the RCH buffers supplied with Slaters LMS van buffers. I also added the strut for the brake lever guide. For weathering, I now use black enamel wash to start with. This gets brushed on all over and allowed to dry overnight. Then most of it is removed with Qtips and mineral or white spirit. Enamel thinners may attack the underlying paint (I use acrylic) so not a good idea. Thanks to Jinty for the tip. Parkside LMS D1828 all steel van. These were built in 1929 and 1000 were made. Again, brakes one side only. This pic show the non Morton side. Van is equipped with split spoke wheels. I need to take a file to coupling hook, the link keeps getting hung up. Slaters ex MR/LMS Cattle Van. These were built from 1923 to 1927. Most had independent manual brakes on both sides. I fitted mine with a through vacuum pipe. These were straight instead of joggled as AVB fitted wagons were. The vacuum pipes on the ends has opposite angles as a result. W irons are the Slaters sprung type. Dapol screw link couplings. John Edited July 23, 2022 by brossard 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 (edited) I spent probably the last two weeks building the LMS 20T Brake from Slaters. A lovely multimedia kit, primarily plastic but with etched brass parts and lots of lost wax brass castings. It was a matter of do a bit, paint it and see what's next. I did do the interior although not to a ridiculous extent. The most you will see is a glimpse through the windows. I thought I would show the interior: The inside paint job is not exactly pristine. In LMS times the interior was done in Brunswick green while BR painted it in bauxite to a height of 3' 6" and above that was stone. The roof was stone as well. Floors were unpainted. The floor moulding supplied was a bit anemic in the plank groove department so I enhanced that by scribing. The kit comes with a stove and brake standard. Note the lamp tray, the kit includes 4 nice cast lamps. All finished and weathered. The van is not fitted but has a through pipe. This is straight, not joggled, so the vac pipes come out on opposite sides of the couplings. Sprung W irons have been used. This is recommended due to the long wheelbase. Dapol screw link couplings are installed. John Edited July 23, 2022 by brossard 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 5, 2020 Author Share Posted December 5, 2020 I made a start on the McGeordie Palbrick kit. The thread is here: The kit, or more accurately, set of etches comes with a DVD containing the well written instructions and a plethora of build photos. The builder needs to source the non etched components. For me the choice was as follows: wheels (Slaters, 3 hole disc), couplings (Dapol screw link), RCH buffers (Slaters) and vacuum pipes (Slaters). My vacuum cylinder came out of my spares box. The instructions provide other suggestions. I will document phases of build and highlight things that stood out to me. So far, things have gone well. The parts fit together very well and appear to have been well with slots and tabs to ease assembly. This mornings session get me here: Note the vac cylinder trunnion and three bolts on the sole bar. You need to be careful to get the solebar on the correct side. Also note the direction of the outer bolts. The solebar overlay is sweated onto the base solebar. A shot of the underneath. Not as neat as Ian's but paint hides a multitude of sins. John 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 6, 2020 Author Share Posted December 6, 2020 Todays session was to add the sides: All very straightforward. I had no trouble sweating on the center supports. John 4 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 8, 2020 Author Share Posted December 8, 2020 I got the ends on today: The rods sticking out represent screws that push pressure plates to the inside and secure the pallet load. They will receive hand wheels. The other end. You can make out a pressure plate at the opposite end. Yesterday was spent making up the sub-assemblies for the ends. John 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Adrian Stevenson Posted December 8, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 8, 2020 Hi John, nice clean work as ever. Cheers, Ade. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 8, 2020 Author Share Posted December 8, 2020 Thanks Ade. I've been pretty sparing with the solder. There always seems to be something to clean though. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 Yesterday I made a start on the brakes. OMG what a fiddle! To be fair they are authentic with two layer pull rods sandwiching the brake shoes and cranks. What you have to do is thread the cranks and vac cylinder lever on the central rod. Then, temporarily thread a wire through the pull rods and cranks. This is easier said than done. I used my third hand to hold the cranks while my other hands did the threading. After I had done that I needed a lie down because my brain hurt. This morning I attached the brakes, using a wheel set to get the brake shoe spacing right. Threading the wire through the brake and pull rod was much easier. After this I soldered everything together and trimmed. Finished brakes. I am paranoid about brakes, having got them backwards on more than one occasion. I referred to a known correct wagon in my collection to make sure things were right. The instructions do explain how things go and the kit does include photos. I next need to install the vacuum cylinder. It needs shimming up from the floor. John 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 More progress from the last couple of days: Vacuum cylinder installed. This needed to be shimmed up from the floor by 2mm or so. Lever secured. The big thing is the false floor and trussing. Floor is 0.5mm sheet plastic glued on with a multi purpose glue (LiquiSilk to be precise. It is proving elusive to get more though). Trusses are 0.156 x 0.030 plastic strip with thin strip glued to the tops to represent C channel. John 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 Moving down the instructions, I have come to the springs. Normally these are WM or plastic. The springs in this case are sets of individual leafs threaded onto brass wire. I was leery about this system but got the springs assembled OK, although I did have to re-do the top two leafs. The picture shows my final result. I wanted to highlight this because, while the words in the instructions tell you the right way of things (we're mostly guys here, who reads the words? ), the sketch is wrong. It is a subtle detail but you need to note that the second leaf is longer than the top one. This provides a support for part 41. The intent I think is to thread the buckle and leafs onto the wire. This was a fiddle too far for me so I threaded the leafs and soldered at the ends. Then I snipped off the wire and filed flush. The buckles then slide over. You need to take particular care to center the buckles. Finish with solder. John 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WM183 Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 I read the instructions, often multiple times, and still get stuff wrong! Gorgeous work as usual John. Your soldering is fantastic! Amanda Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 (edited) Ha ha, yes. The instructions in this case tend to have rather a lot of words. Give me a picture. TBF, there are a lot of build progress photos on the CD. I really don't have an excuse I just made an incorrect assumption. I really appreciate the chance to get to know details like these springs. I suspect most of us don't give them much thought. John Edited December 16, 2020 by brossard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium macgeordie Posted December 17, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 17, 2020 On 16/12/2020 at 17:41, brossard said: Moving down the instructions, I have come to the springs. Normally these are WM or plastic. The springs in this case are sets of individual leafs threaded onto brass wire. I was leery about this system but got the springs assembled OK, although I did have to re-do the top two leafs. The picture shows my final result. I wanted to highlight this because, while the words in the instructions tell you the right way of things (we're mostly guys here, who reads the words? ), the sketch is wrong. It is a subtle detail but you need to note that the second leaf is longer than the top one. This provides a support for part 41. The intent I think is to thread the buckle and leafs onto the wire. This was a fiddle too far for me so I threaded the leafs and soldered at the ends. Then I snipped off the wire and filed flush. The buckles then slide over. You need to take particular care to center the buckles. Finish with solder. John My sincere apologies for the error in the instructions, I just hadn't spotted it. It's the old 'familiarity breeds contempt' syndrome, having assembled so many of the things you just do it without checking. Thanks for the 'heads up', I have rectified the mistake in the instructions so nobody else should have the same problem. Nice work though, keep it up Ian 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 17, 2020 Author Share Posted December 17, 2020 No need to apologize Ian, mistakes will happen. I wanted to alert other builders to the issue. I am really delighted with the kit and loving the build experience despite my frequent blue language. So where are all the other builders? There were a couple dozen I thought and it would be good to compare notes. I really hope you take on another 7mm wagon kit. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted December 17, 2020 Author Share Posted December 17, 2020 Today's work consisted of getting the springs finished and installed along with the axle boxes. Axleboxes are a fold up fret with overlay. Getting them on was tricky. I used a wheel bearing to ensure that the bearing slots lined up. Springs are cosmetic. I did a trial fit of the wheels. Some fettling of the bearing slots was needed. Also the brake shoes needed some filing to clear the tyres. I added two washers to the bearings to center the wheel sets and eliminate slop. Happy to report that the wagon is flat. John 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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