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Industrial/light railway brake van


Neil
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My currently under construction main layout has a bit of a split personality; part is British Railways (ex NER) end of steam and part light railway serving a number of industries in town before heading off into green fields and a distant terminus. The light railway bit is hugely beneficial as it allows me to get in touch with my inner Ahern and conjure up all sorts of freelance improbabilities. The latest expression of this sits part finished on the workbench upstairs. My starting point was a pair of Bachmann GWR toad bodies bought from my mate Nick (he has lots of them) at a very keen price. 

 

The first step was to prise out the floor moulding and put to one side, the inner partition will fall out, we need to keep this to hand as the top half will become the end of the van. However before sticking in the cut down partition in formed backing pieces for the veranda sides and end with 40 thou plasticard.

 

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This makes it easy to locate the cut down inner partition in place.

 

1852293963_brake02.jpg.640ec2d251223acf7e4fff735641afb3.jpg

 

The side supports need packing out, 30 thou at the top 10thou at the bottom, as the inner sides slope which means that the supports do too. Note the support piece stops short of the door.

 

1088555754_brake03.jpg.49445ee9f5fd7fb66ff68714450a0b7b.jpg

 

Next 40 thou side panels are cut and fixed in place. Both van bodies receive identical treatment to this point.

 

998145521_brake04.jpg.68d2a1e9d359bb5193c20de35fa896d0.jpg

 

Cuts are marked out on both bodies with masking tape, one to include the veranda door the other  just to the side of the opening.

 

1874096649_brake05.jpg.ee06e36ecca2c779380fc4cfe673f7b1.jpg

 

635461850_brake06.jpg.37843be00a19a9da1c23a2156a3f8b34.jpg

 

The spare at each side is trimmed back until a good fit is achieved and the halves stuck together using plasticard splice plates on the inside of the sides and roof.

 

651144745_brake07.jpg.20feaec9e5a1650f771a28c8d3702d4c.jpg

 

Initially I had hoped to fit the body onto an old Mainline short brake van chassis but it became apparent at the planning stage that the body would be too short. Fortunately I had a spare Bachmann toad chassis left over from another project so this was shortened to fit. Again like the body the cuts were asymmetric to preserve the upper step. The footboards will have a splice plate fitted at the rear and made good with small inserts and filler once the joins are fully set.

 

336223669_brake08.jpg.cb7bbc1b5f4ee2ae3a4ce2e67c639400.jpg

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On 17/01/2020 at 20:35, LNWR18901910 said:

Nice brake van.

 

Thank you. There has been more progress. The top half of the doors were added using bits cut from the spare ends of a Southern Railway brake van kit. I also stuck on riveted strapping from an old pack of Kenline bits.

 

2012009007_brake09.jpg.20c0920c0b0898dc15776233057a04e3.jpg

 

This morning the upper works were sprayed with Halfords red oxide primer and plonked back on the chassis to see how it looked.

 

1577738730_brake10.jpg.4b3b22b68ea2a9b468d6d7fa868d14d9.jpg

 

Finally a comparison shot with my other light railway brake van.

 

104009103_brake11.jpg.90a9af645d20b969902e13e9e0199ea1.jpg

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6 minutes ago, Neil said:

 

Thank you. There has been more progress. The top half of the doors were added using bits cut from the spare ends of a Southern Railway brake van kit. I also stuck on riveted strapping from an old pack of Kenline bits.

 

2012009007_brake09.jpg.20c0920c0b0898dc15776233057a04e3.jpg

 

This morning the upper works were sprayed with Halfords red oxide primer and plonked back on the chassis to see how it looked.

 

1577738730_brake10.jpg.4b3b22b68ea2a9b468d6d7fa868d14d9.jpg

 

Finally a comparison shot with my other light railway brake van.

 

104009103_brake11.jpg.90a9af645d20b969902e13e9e0199ea1.jpg

Looks pretty fantastic. It looks like something from a novel.

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