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Dan Pinnock GWR 6 ft 4 in bogie kit - progress!


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I am currently trying to assemble one of Dan Pinnock's GWR bogie parcels van kits which has the Dean bogie. The instructions for the bogie are very sparse with a very cluttered drawing I cannot make out. As a result I have all sorts of bits I can't identify including six castings.

Has anyone made one these bogies and can perhaps put up a photo which will tell me where the various bits go, especially the castings (not the axlebox/spring castings, and the means of arranging the attachment to the floor of the vehicle?

Also, there is a separate small sheet of etchings which has among other things the door grab handles but no door handles, but also four grilles. Are these meant to go behind the windows in the doors?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Jonathan

 

Edited by corneliuslundie
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I thought I should get as far as I could before photographing, and in fact have identified all the components, mainly with the aid of a photograph of a model in a book. The only bits not used have been identified as used only of springing or compensating the bogies. But it has been a challenge! Now to finish attaching the tiny bits and painting and lettering/lining it. I may live long enough. And if it looks at all decent I'll photograph it and post a picture.

Jonathan

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As there was no response to my first message, I thought it worth documenting my adventures in assembling the kit.

The body was no great problem, other than soldering the sides and ends together, just butt joints. The only glitch was discovering that the holes for some of the door grab handles had been covered by the etching behind them, solved with some careful drilling. The holes indicating where to fit the horizontal handrails needed enlarging a bit even for 0.35 mm wire. And at each end, between the doors and the ends there were three holes. I didn't know which was correct so the two sides have different length handrails. I shall wait for someone to point it out at an exhibition. The glazing has not yet been added, and there are neat little fold up pieces on the inner etches to hold the glazing material so it can be fitted after painting. Oh, and although there is an etch with plenty of grab handles (and other things I don't seem to need) I can find no door handles.

 

PICT0144.JPG

 

I goofed when drilling hoes to cut an opening for the dog box door and carefully measured and then turned the etching end for end, and drilled two holes in the upper side panel before noticing. Hopefully these have been filled with solder and smoothed off successfully.

The basic floor/chassis was not too much of a problem, though the first time I managed to fit the full length footboards the wrong way up, it not being clear which way up the chassis fret should be. Anyway, I sorted that out, but with all the handling one stepboard has come away – they are only held the solebar overlays by very narrow “hinges”. I still have to work out how to refix it.

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The only real issue with the vacuum assembly was how to mount it on the floor, since there was a hole in the fret but it was too small for the spigot, and there was no corresponding holes in the floor. Again, careful use of a drill solve the problem, after which the spigot was cut off level with the upper face of the floor. However, there is no indication of what to do with the brake linkages which are connected to the vacuum brake. As can be seen I have simply sloped them down and fixed the far end to the floor – probably not correct but out of the way of the bogies.

 

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Ah, the bogies. I did eventually identify all the parts, and realised that some were not needed if I was assembling them without springing or compensation. But they are extremely fiddly. One bogie simply pivots, but the other can also rock lengthways. I succeeded in this but it was very fiddly getting short pieces of wire in place to acts as pivots. I assume that I should not have added the cast white metal axlebox/spring castings until later but I didn't realise this until too late – in fact I hadn't at that stage worked out what some of the parts were for. I have therefore had to use superglue rather than solder for the latter stages – I had soldered the main frames up to give them strength.

 

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The really fiddly parts are the 16 small brass turnings and the etched parts which mount them to the bogie frames – two together in one etching in the centre and one at each end. I have tried to photograph one of the single mounts. As you can see from the millimetre scale behind they are small. And the holes needed to be opened out to about 0.7mm. It states in the instructions that flats will have to be filed on the turnings to make them fit. I assumed initially that it was so that they could be close enough to the bogie frame, but in fact it is so that those in the centre can both fit the etched mount. I filed them all but I think probably those at the ends of the bogies did not really need it, though it does give a small flat area for glue to take.

 

PICT0147.JPG

 

One problem which arose was that I had blocked a couple of the slits in the bogie sideframes when soldering them up. It was very fiddly to open them up with a small drill and a pointed craft knife blade.

Anyway, at this point the bogies are complete except for the lower steps and the castings shown laid out in another photo. I don't know what they are called on the prototype but the instructions call them suspension crossbeams and state “these should be mounted at 51,0 centres, position across the bogie by filing the mounting posts to clip inside the brake shoe tabs (dependant on gauge)” I have a feeling that some of this space may already be full of solder! I have not got this far yet, though it has made me realise that I need to add at least cross rods between the brake shoes on each side of the vehicle – scratch built pull rods will be a step too far!

 

PICT0146.JPG

 

As can be seen in the photos I have started adding the lower steps. There is not much surface on the bogie sideframes to attach them to, but the one in the photo seems to be firm enough at the second attempt. By the way, there are little etchings to provide the step supports, but no indication on them of where to fold them though there is a simple diagram which is intended mainly to indicate how far they need to be angled out from the bogie frames so that the steps will clear the gubbins already added.

 

PICT0150.JPG

 

That is as far as I have got. I'll report again when I have completed the bogies and fixed them to the underframe (which by the way is designed to be held by small bolts to the body).

I also have to work out what to do about the roof, having managed despite repeat measuring to cut it slightly short – and it is far too wide as well.

If you have got this far, well done.

By the way, what was a great help was the photo in the book in the background of some of the photos – a 4mm model vehicle built by Jim Whittaker and illustrated in “A pictorial record of Great Western Railway coaches Part 1” by Jim Russell. It shows far more detail of the bogies than any prototype photos I have come across.

Jonathan

Edited by corneliuslundie
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One more photo, as there was too much for one post.

This is the little fret containing among other things the door grab handles. Any suggestions for uses for the other parts will be most welcome. Perhaps they are for other D&S kits.

Jonathan

 

PICT0143.JPG

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The castings are the Dean suspension parts, they should line up with the whitemetal bits on the solebars. Dean bogies had no centre. The rectangles with the bars are the grilles that go behind the double door windows. The bits bottom centre are the lamp irons, see photos to place them as they did change. Not sure about the bits are top left. The chain like bits below the commode handles are the safety chains, they were dispensed with, so again check photos to see if they are required.

 

 

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Thanks. I thought the grilles were for behind the windows but none of the examples I can find in prototype photos seem to have them. visible

The lamp irons should have dawned on me as they are mentioned in the instructions but not which parts thjey are or where they go. I can find that out though.

I think safety chains had gone by 1912.

Anyway, upward and onward.

Jonathan

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I think that you have made a bit of a faux pas with the components of the vacuum brake.  The brake pull/push rods should run centrally along the coach underframe, not as you have them against the solebar.  By the looks of it you've got the vacuum brake/V hanger component the wrong way round, it needs to rotate 180 degrees, that will put the vacuum cylinder on the left of the V hangers (as you look at the photo) and automatically swap the brake rodding to the centre of the underframe in one fell swoop.

 

I imagine that if you are not familiar with Dean coaches, and are using the photo that your model is on as guidance, it is very easy to get confused.  The diagonal struts that you can see on the photo are the strengthening truss rods angling down to the end of a single queen post on a short coach - one truss rod and queen post each side (longer coaches had a pair of queen posts each side with a bit of horizontal trussing between them). The brake push/pull rods should be pretty horizontal to connect up with the various pull rods within the bogies to actuate the brake blocks.

 

I hope that helps.  As it happens I am currently building a 40'0" C4 All Third coach at the minute so have had to work out how the undergear goes together myself.

Ian

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I was not at all clear about the vacuum brake gear, and worked out when it was all too late that the pull rods should have been in the centre. However, I definitely put the etching/casting in the same way around as the diagram in the instructions! I'll see if I can remove it. Oddly, the instructions say to remove the spigot on the cylinder, though that is what gives the position of the vacuum cylinder. So I retained it and enlarged the hole in the floor.

Currently it is the bogie footboards which are giving me grief, as the contact area for fixing them to the bogies is very small, something less than 2 square millimetres, the supports have to be angled so that they clear both the axleboxes and the centre brass turnings.

I have managed to attach the upper footboard which came adrift by drilling a series of 0.5 mm holes in the solebar and inserting short pieces of straight wire, to which the footboard has been fixed. It is all a bit Heath-Robinson, but better than nothing and more or less invisible.

The other thing I did not realise until late on is that it is necessary to remove the downward projection from the eight castings fixed to the solebars, as they duplicate the upward pointing parts on the compensation castings shown above.

Jonathan

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3 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

bogie footboards which are giving me grief, as the contact area for fixing them to the bogies is very small, something less than 2 square millimetres

As a 2mm finescale modeller I sometimes long to have something as big as 2 sq mm to solder! :rolleyes:

Ian

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Having removed the brake gear etch and casting I realised that Dan Pinnock specifically designed the kit for them to go the way around I had them, so I have disassembled the whole thing and reassembled it with the brake pull rods on the centreline of the vehicle. All footboards are now successfully attached after many attempts followed by cleaning up ready for another try. I managed to get one of the centre ones slightly to one side so it fouled one bogie, but that too has been corrected.

But what no-one, including me, spotted, was that I had attached the solebar overlays/upper footboards upside down so the footboards were level with the vehicle floor!

As one footboard had already come adrift rather easily, and had been replaced (wrongly) with wire supports, it was easy enough to remove both and give them proper support brackets (soldered as there were no white metal castings near them), They have now been refixed so they are in line with the lower edge of the solebars.

So now the chassis/bogies are complete, the body awaits the arrival of etched door handles and the roof has been cut to length and width - not an easy job - and can have the lamp tops added.

Then the paint shop.

I have chronicled this in the hope that someone else with the same kit in the "to do" box can avoid some of my mistakes.

If you have got this far, well done.

Jonathan

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