Hornby MGR fettling.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

With the impending arrival of the new version of this wagon, as good as it might well be, I can't afford another 64 to replace my existing stock, so I decided to give my current models a coat of looking at.

There seem to be 3 types of Hornby MGR from my observations, the original wobbly wheeled model, (Mk1 for reference purposes), made in either the UK or China, and the re-tooled rigid chassis, (Mk2), of recent years.

Whilst both have their issues, the Mk1 needs the most doing to it, so I'll start with it. The main failings IMHO are;

 

1. The body tub.

a. It sits a couple of mm too high in the cradle.

b. The top rim is too thick.

c. The ends of the top rim aren't chamfered.

 

2. The cradle.

a. The vertical supports at the bottom of the cradle have a horizontal moulding joining them up instead of being in 3 separate pieces.

b. There is a baseplate which helps cause 1a.

c. The end verticals are too thick, but whether this is a worthwhile issue to address is debatable, as they will be somewhat obscured when in a rake and weathered.

 

3. The chassis.

a. The wobbly wheels and axleguards.

b. 12mm wheels instead of 14mm.

c. No discs on the disc braked wheels.

d. No brake shoes on the non disc braked wheels.

e. Underframe detail, door bangers etc, are moulded in 2D on the solebars instead of inboard.

f. Brake levers and rigging are thick mouldings.

g. Buffers are a work of fiction.

h. No pipework on the bufferbeam.

i. Lamp brackets are moulded blobs.

 

That basically is a list of things I will be having a bash at improving, other things may be wrong, but there's a limit to how far it's worth going.

The project is a work in progress, so postings might be a bit random, but here are a few pics to be going on with;

 

I have a liking for jigs, nothing complicated, basically lumps of wood and/or plastic card, but they help make the job a tad more straightforward and easier.

 

 

Before and after.

 

I have a liking for jigs, nothing complicated, basically lumps of wood and/or plastic card, but they help make the job a tad more straightforward and easier.

 

 

Chassis holding jig, and a chassis ready for the milling machine, but don't panic, it can be done without one!

 

 

For final trimming of the cradle.

 

 

For clamping the cradle in the vice for trimming purposes.

 

Hopefully I've whetted your appetite, and if anyone might be vaguely interested I'll post some step by step information.

 

Mike.

[cheesysmith]

Bring it on, let's see what can be done. After all, we can always choose what to use.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

As a caveat, I have not had the ruler out over the various components, so I don't know of their accuracy or otherwise, so I'm going on the theory of it looks OK then it probably is, I'm only an EM modeller and life is too short for P4.

One thing missing to help the bodging along are good close up pictures of the various nether regions of these wagons, I've got the HMRS bible which is an excellent book on not only the wagons but the whole concept and scope of MGR working, but if anyone can point me in the direction of other pics I'd appreciate it.

 

Generally speaking, the Mk1 MGR's are made from a curious type of plastic, Probably a derivative of Teflon!, which defies all logical attempts to carefully mill, cut or glue to. To this end, I've got some UV glue in the post and will be experimenting in the new year when it arrives.

I'm assuming everyone knows that to dismantle these wagons the clips holding the tub through to the chassis have to be broken off, trying to spring them out causes damage in my experience, and anyway, they are not wanted on voyage as you will see later on.

 

Right, so let's get serious and start damaging plastic.

The order I do things in is not necessarily the only or best way to do it, but from experience of hacking a few unsuspecting test pieces I find it's the most practical.

The first bit to come under the knife is the cradle.

What we are aiming for is the removal of the large baseplate, attached in 8 places to the cradle proper.

 

 

Using the cradle clamp, (2 bits of ply the same size as the inside and outside of the baseplate to give support to the cradle whilst under the knife), cut the framing where indicated, i use gentle passes with a scalpel but you may have your own method.

The end stanchions can be snipped off flush with side cutters along with the little diamond piece left at the side.

 

 

After all that chopping you should now be left with this.

Because the baseplate is joined to the cradle with rounded strengthening fillets you will now be left with the remnants of these which need removing, which brings us on to the next jig.

 

 

The cradle filing jig.

All that remains now to do on the cradle is to remove these aforementioned protrusions carefully by chiselling or sanding, whichever your favourite method is, and you should finish up with a smooth sided interior to the cradle, like this;

 

 

 

The use of jigs isn't mandatory, but I find they help with holding awkward shaped items for cutting, especially in case of the Mickey Mouse plastic used by Hornby on this wagon, my first attempt at sorting the cradle out without a jig ended in a break on one of the horizontal ribs.

 

Any comments/observations most welcome, I've got a thick skin!

 

Mike.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Enterprisingwestern
Missing picture added.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

That is not quite the end of the work on the cradle.

Basic maths comes in and thwacks you round the back of the head now, once the tub base is filed shorter it will need to sit further down into the cradle, but the cradle is made for the existing dimension and location of the tub, so we need to provide a little more elbow room for the new tub to prevent it distorting the cradle.

Technically, a few thou needs to come off all four inside edges of the cradle, but the horizontal side rails are too finely moulded to lose any plastic, so the the only option is the end stanchions. As I have mentioned before, these are a little on the heavy side so will, with care, be able to lose a bit of thickness;

 

 

That is not quite the end of the work on the cradle, but now we move on to the tub.

As I mentioned in the pre-amble, there are "only" 3 issues to remedy with the tub, all of which are do-able without a jig you'll be relieved to know,

 

 

Thinning the top rim and angling the ends.

It's noticeable that the older tub has a thicker riveted strip under the lip compared to the retooled version which gets in the way a tad when filing the angles.

 

 

Then, on a sheet of your favourite abrasive, rub your tub bottom, ooer missus, and remove approximately 1mm. I say approximately because as you will see later on in this saga, it's not a specific dimension, more of a file a bit off and see if it fits exercise.

Apologies for the jaunty angle, but this will hopefully show the difference when done.

 

Jumping on a little, this is what you should approximately finish up with;

 

 

Work on the chassis to follow, I need to to take some pics of the various blind alleys/experimentations I've been down!

 

Mike.

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

Fascinating thread, many thanks for posting.

 

Surprisingly really that after all these years no one has done a proper RTR version, then again how long was it before we had an accurate model of their predecessor, the 16t mineral!

 

John.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

One other thing about the cradle I omitted to mention in the last pre-amble, is that as the tub is sitting further down inside it, the tops of the end stanchions need to be trimmed to prevent them interfering with the underside of the tub top lip, and if it bothers you, the two small stanchion extensions on the underside of the lip are in the wrong place and could be trimmed of and replaced at a later date in line with the stanchions.

 

At this point I was going to do the chassis modifications, but as useless Windows 10 has lost the pictures I need to go on a voyage of discovery!

 

Mike.

 

 

[wirey33]

Great stuff. Look forward to the next installment.