Hornby Freightliner Flats

[hmrspaul]

11 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

... as containered out as a newt on all that !

 

Shouldn't that container be a large oak-lined barrel? 

 

Maybe Rails will commission it, like the Henderson's Relish wagon - complete with sample?

 

They would be a good model because they aren't part of the normal Freightliner fleet. Instead they were worked on the almost unique (2, later 3 off) Freightliner flats with buffers and couplings at both ends, so able to work with passenger trains in the far north. Also used on the more common 2 axle freightliner flats. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brwhiskycontainerfbbfja

 

Paul

[Darius43]

Happy to report that the new magnetic bogie-mounted couplings worked perfectly.  Full rake of Freightliner flats hauled up the helix with no derailment.

 

 

 

The whole train was then pushed back down the helix and back into the lower level sidings, again with no derailment.

 

Lovely jubbly 

 

Darius

 

[BluenGreyAnorak]

Hello chaps,

 

I haven't been on RMWeb in ages but after seeing all of these lovely Freightliners sets, I thought you might be interested to see a rake of five that I built from Hornby originals a couple of years ago.

 

The basis of the wagon upgrade was the S Kits kit, to which I added 10.5mm metal wheels, etched brake wheels and magnetic intermediate couplings, not dissimilar to the ones above but mounted to the wagons. I also chopped out the solid longitudinal bracing and replaced it with plastic 'L' section, with 'T' section droppers:

 

 

Each wagon was pinned to a wooden jig whilst the new bracing was installed, to keep them flat.

 

 

Once painted up, they were finished with Railtec transfers and they really look the part:

 

 

For loads, I have 11no. 20ft containers and 4no. opens. The containers were treated to new end doors and largely repainted (the original red stripes were retained) and all were individually numbered. A friend of mine built a rake at the same time and he produced the number transfers. We then made sure that all of our containers were different so that we can run them both as one train:

 

 

The bottoms of some of the containers were weighted with thin lead sheet (didn't think of it whilst the ends were still open ), which are then positioned over the bogies:

 

 

When all put together, they really look the part and it was a very satisfying little project. All that's left to do at some point is to weather them.

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

On 03/05/2021 at 21:41, BluenGreyAnorak said:

Hello chaps,

 

I haven't been on RMWeb in ages but after seeing all of these lovely Freightliners sets, I thought you might be interested to see a rake of five that I built from Hornby originals a couple of years ago.

 

The basis of the wagon upgrade was the S Kits kit, to which I added 10.5mm metal wheels, etched brake wheels and magnetic intermediate couplings, not dissimilar to the ones above but mounted to the wagons. I also chopped out the solid longitudinal bracing and replaced it with plastic 'L' section, with 'T' section droppers:

 

 

Each wagon was pinned to a wooden jig whilst the new bracing was installed, to keep them flat.

 

 

Once painted up, they were finished with Railtec transfers and they really look the part:

 

 

For loads, I have 11no. 20ft containers and 4no. opens. The containers were treated to new end doors and largely repainted (the original red stripes were retained) and all were individually numbered. A friend of mine built a rake at the same time and he produced the number transfers. We then made sure that all of our containers were different so that we can run them both as one train:

 

 

The bottoms of some of the containers were weighted with thin lead sheet (didn't think of it whilst the ends were still open ), which are then positioned over the bogies:

 

 

When all put together, they really look the part and it was a very satisfying little project. All that's left to do at some point is to weather them.

 

 

The jig is an excellent idea, given the number of these you've done.

 

I also like what you've done with the doors to the containers, far more convincing than the original.

 

John.

[BluenGreyAnorak]

Thanks, john. The idea for the jig came about because I used a small milling bit in a pillar drill to remove the bulk of the longitudinal webs and once a wagon was pinned down, it made sense to keep it like that. The doors were a bit of a labour of love but I'm really pleased with the way they came out. By having some opens in the consist, there's a surprising number of them visible, too 

[sandwich station]

4 hours ago, BluenGreyAnorak said:

The idea for the jig came about because I used a small milling bit in a pillar drill to remove the bulk of the longitudinal webs and once a wagon was pinned down, it made sense to keep it like that.

 

Milling machine, a great idea.  

[BluenGreyAnorak]

In case anybody is interested, the doors were made by filling in the original hole with a thick piece of plasticard, filling and sanding until flush and then overlaying very thin plasticard and microstrip to form the new doors and container edge. The locking bars and handles were formed with lengths of brass wire. Here's a cruel closeup prior to painting:

 

 

This was my main reference photo:

 

 

The rivets on the door strapping are represented by pencil dots 

[5D_Stoke]

To add variety, and as an alternative to just modifying the Tri-and Hornby 20ft and 30ft boxes, fellow modellers of Freightliners may have heard about the excellent 10ft and 20ft ISO type Freightliner containers kindly made available as free downloads for 3D printing by Jonny Duffett ("IronMink") on Thingyverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5234894
 

This week I have successfully printed the 10ft ISO container in UV-cured resin on an Anycubic Photon S printer having made some modifications to the wall thickness and added a cross brace underneath (complete with locating holes so it will, if necessary, fit on a Hornby container flat!) Here's a pair fresh off the printer before cleaning and curing. The first couple were slightly distorted so I won't show those, and there are a few more tiny modifications still to do. I'm now moving on to printing the 20ft ISO containers with smooth sides, which will be finished using Fox and Railtec transfers. Very pleased indeed with these as, while 20ft ISO containers can be made most easily by adding ISO fittings to Hornby ones and preserving the livery elements, these 3D prints give a quick route to plenty of variety in an early Freightliner train.
 

[5D_Stoke]

Freightliner Container (non-ISO type) - replacement doors for Hornby 4mm scale model

 

I've also made available for sale via Shapeways some easy and accurate replacement doors for Hornby containers if you are modelling the 20ft without ISO corner fittings, these will replace the Hornby opening doors (which are the crudest bit of a great moulding, and often broken or missing). They represent the type with three hinges per door and only two locking bolts, whereas the ISO type had (and still have) four hinges per door and four bolts. They can equally well be used on your cuts-and-shuts to produce 10ft or 30ft pre-ISO Freightliner containers. The cost per set may appear high but of course your containers can be arranged on the flats so that very few actually show the door detail... Unfortunately the production costs at Shapeways have increased a lot but this will enable anyone to purchase them anywhere in the world, as I've not got the capacity to manufacture and ship them. Not meant as a commercial, just trying to share them, the mark-up on these is a few pence each. The attached photo shows a home-produced test print in grey resin, the examples from Shapeways will be in their high quality translucent Smooth Fine Detail Plastic (previously known as Frosted Ultra Detail or "FUD").

https://www.shapeways.com/product/B5WEZ4FSX/freightliner-container-non-iso-doors-4mm-scale?optionId=252011647&li=shops
 

[jessy1692]

23 hours ago, 5D_Stoke said:

Freightliner Container (non-ISO type) - replacement doors for Hornby 4mm scale model

 

I've also made available for sale via Shapeways some easy and accurate replacement doors for Hornby containers if you are modelling the 20ft without ISO corner fittings, these will replace the Hornby opening doors (which are the crudest bit of a great moulding, and often broken or missing). They represent the type with three hinges per door and only two locking bolts, whereas the ISO type had (and still have) four hinges per door and four bolts. They can equally well be used on your cuts-and-shuts to produce 10ft or 30ft pre-ISO Freightliner containers. The cost per set may appear high but of course your containers can be arranged on the flats so that very few actually show the door detail... Unfortunately the production costs at Shapeways have increased a lot but this will enable anyone to purchase them anywhere in the world, as I've not got the capacity to manufacture and ship them. Not meant as a commercial, just trying to share them, the mark-up on these is a few pence each. The attached photo shows a home-produced test print in grey resin, the examples from Shapeways will be in their high quality translucent Smooth Fine Detail Plastic (previously known as Frosted Ultra Detail or "FUD").

https://www.shapeways.com/product/B5WEZ4FSX/freightliner-container-non-iso-doors-4mm-scale?optionId=252011647&li=shops
 

Very neat solution, beats my milliput castings hands down! Certainly will bear these in mind if I get back onto the Freightliner boxes again, great idea.

All the best 

James

[Darius43]

Now that we (finally) have continuous running in the shed, I tried out a rake of 10 modified Freightliner  flats behind a Bachmann 47.  Unfortunately, despite the metal wheels and brass bearings, the train is too draggy for the Hunt magnetic couplings and the train persistently separates into two 5-wagon rakes.

 

The solution is replacement fixed bar couplings made from black plasticard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

[Barry Ten]

My ones are also quite draggy, with bearings and Gibson wheels. It needs a beefy loco to shift a 9 unit rake.

[Darius43]

Modified couplings on test on the layout this morning - works successfully so far :)

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius