YKA Ospreys

[newbryford]

Hi,

How to make YKA Osprey track panel carriers.

These were YSA Salmons, but fitted with end and centre stanchions to enable full 60' track panels to be carried without the need for tying them down.

 

The prototype vehicles were YSA Salmons (originally dating from the 1950's) but since upgraded with new bogies and air brakes.

Last year, Cambrian released their Salmon kit in this form (C88) with the ASF bogies and I took the opportunity to do a similar conversion in model form.

 

The end stanchions are principally shallow "U" section and the centre goalpost is mainly square section.

[newbryford]

A trip to the NEC last year and wheels - Kadee 10.5 plain disc with a dished centre - IMO superior to Jackson/Romford/Gibson for anyone modelling 16.5mm - and cheaper, Plastruct for the stanchions and track loads were purchased.

 

The load presented a dilemma - although the wagons were destined for a 00 layout, do I load them with 00 panels, which would look too narrow when compared to the stanchions, or do I build the stanchions narrow to suit 16.5 track? In which case, they would look odd if unloaded.

 

In the end, I opted for P4 Track company components. Pics of the load later.

 

The stanchions were built in situ on the wagon. I have a drawing, but the dimensions of the stanchions are not clear, so I guesstimated the width and height using the track panel loads as a datum.

 

[newbryford]

Looking nice Mick, what were the kits like to build? Regards, bob

 

Hi Bob,

Just like a typical Cambrian kit Parts generally go together well. Sometimes the instructions can be a little vague - maybe an extra diagram or two wouldn't go amiss.

 

The outermost underframe trusses have been strengthened with a piece of round styrene inside the angle and thus invisible from normal viewing angles. These are fairly fragile and can easily be broken.

 

The buffers are not the best and I wanted to represent the different types fitted to them. I've fitted Appleby "Salmon", and "Blair 620mm oval" and MJT Oval Oleo.

 

"Normal" YSA Salmons are fitted with 5 bolsters, none are fitted to the YWA (flat bed) or the later YKA Osprey conversion. Incidentally, none carry the "Osprey" fishkind code and some still retain the "Salmon" legend.

 

The supplied handbrake wheels are also a little fragile and also the prototypes do have varaitions - these are sourced from the excellent Colin Craig range.

 

Pictures of the finished wagons. No two appear to be the same, with various amounts of yellow, black and engineers olive (virtually black).

Transfers are from a mix of Fox and Modelmasters.

 

 

 

 

 

If a track panel is loaded that isn't 60', it is tied down with ratchet straps and these are made with 1mm wide Tamiya masking tape. Spare straps are kept in the chain boxes below the solebar.

 

 

Weathering is track colour/rust/grey/black applied by airbrush, brush and airbrush as appropriate. Very vague instructions, I know!

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Melly]

Hi Mick - really, really nice. Are they the single cast bogies? Have found in the past that the 'fold and glue' type (BBA etc) to be the weakest part of Cambrian Bogie wagon kits.

 

 

 

 

It may be the photo - but the kit on the right seems to have a pronounced 'bow' - with such a long wagon is this something to be expected with the base Salmon kits.

 

Great work - thanks

[Kris]

I like the use of masking tape to make the ratchet straps, very inventive.

[Pete Harvey]

Mick

 

They look good will you have them with you next weekend?

 

Pete

[newbryford]

Hi Mick - really, really nice. Are they the single cast bogies? Have found in the past that the 'fold and glue' type (BBA etc) to be the weakest part of Cambrian Bogie wagon kits.It may be the photo - but the kit on the right seems to have a pronounced 'bow' - with such a long wagon is this something to be expected with the base Salmon kits.Great work - thanks

 

Thanks, yes, they are single piece moulded bogies. A trick of the light and camera creating the bow.

 

MickThey look good will you have them with you next weekend?Pete

 

Yes - see them on "Blackmill", stand F13 at the NEC.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[newbryford]

I've had a couple of PMs about the dimensions of the stanchions and the materials used.

 

So here's a cut and paste from the article I wrote for the DEMU Update magazine.

 

Building and converting:

The wagons were built to the instructions with the exception of the buffers and handbrake wheels. The Ospreys that I had photographed carried three types of buffers, from the original short stepped type to Dowty and Blair oval varieties. The kit buffers are lacking in detail, so I replaced them with whitemetal cast versions from MJT (2352 Oleo oval) and Appleby Models (original Salmon and Blair) on two wagons each. For reasons unknown, most of the Ospreys that I had seen had 4 or 6-spoke brake handwheels at one end and a four-spoke cutout version at the other. These were sourced from the excellent Colin Craig range and mounted on 1 x 1.5mm strips of plastic. One other modification I carried out was to reinforce the underframe trussing with round plastic rod glued inside the angle, as past experience of these wagons showed that this is a vulnerable area unless very carefully handled. I only reinforced the outer truss as this is the one that suffers the most.

 

Although the drawings provided via the DEMU forum were helpful, they didn’t show the actual dimensions of the stanchions, so I had to “guesstimate”, using my photographs and comparing them to the depth and width of the track panel load. By now, I had also decided that I would make the stanchions from plastic strip, as this would be easier to work with and due to their relatively small size and shouldn’t prove too fragile from handling at exhibitions. The ends stanchions are mainly constructed from Plastruct 3.2mm channel section, part number 90533. The prototype stanchions themselves are mounted upon a thick piece of steel plate which is bolted to the chassis. The plate is represented by 3mm x 30mm 5thou plastic card and I made the first test stanchion on the bench. Unfortunately, the solvent caused the thin sheet to curl up around the vertical sections, so the “production” stanchions were made in-situ upon the wagons themselves, with the mounting strip already fixed to the wagon, so that it remained flat. The vertical sections are 12mm high and 12mm apart on the inner edges. The 19mm long diagonal stiffener was made by filing back the channel section flanges at the ends and sliding it in between the uprights. The upper cross section is a 15mm piece of channel with the long edges rounded off with a file and the outer edges chamfered and fitted with 5 thou plastic card to represent the bevelled ends. The ends are completed with a strip of 1.0mm square (Plastruct 90740) at the outer edge.

 

The central support is made using 14mm long, 2.5mm square Plastruct 90770 for the uprights and 24mm long sections for the lower crosspiece. The crosspiece was filed down to about 2mm square as it is smaller in size than the upright. Small fillets of 5 thou plastic strips are fitted for the strengthening plates on the lower angled joint and also for the small triangular guides on the top of the posts. These centre stanchions were also made in-situ on mounting plates already fixed to the wagon floor. The central goalposts aren’t actually centrally mounted – they are offset from the centre by 6mm to the left when viewed from the side with the chain box. This is to allow for the sleeper spacing of the track

 

The Cambrian ASF bogies are of a one-piece moulding and very easy to assemble with brass bearings and outer cosmetic bearing covers fixed afterwards. I had a minor problem with the bogie pivot moulding, as the original one supplied with the kit (with a square arrangement of mounting pegs to fit the square moulded in underneath the floor) isn’t a snug fit in the coned hole of the one-piece bogie. There are pivots supplied with the new bogies that fit well within the coned hole but the base is rectangular, rather than square! This was cured by placing the rectangular base as centrally as possible on the edges of the square moulding on the underside of the floor. I did check that the buffer height wasn’t compromised as this would effectively make the wagons ride higher on the bogies.

 

Paint and Transfers:

There is no definitive paint scheme for the Salmons and Ospreys. The only common factor is the bright yellow of the new stanchions on the YKA, contrasting with the grime underneath. Most YKA’s are painted yellow, but there is a great variety of size and quantity of black patches under the white numbers and other painted data. Some still carry Engineers olive under the grunge, but these appear more black than anything else. And they’re also coated with 50 years of brake dust! In many cases, I had to confirm the numbers by looking at the builders plate. Within the 22 that I photographed, I found one with “Mainline” branding on the underframe trussing, along with “TLF South-East” and “EWS” on others. Transfers are from a mixture of Cambrian, Modelmaster and Fox. None (of those that I photographed) carry the “Osprey” code – some still carry the “Salmon” branding. There are a couple of variations of yellow at the ends – depending upon whether the section of the floor between the buffer beam and the stanchion has been repainted or not. Weathering was carried out using airbrush and dry-brushing methods.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Shaun66]

Hi Mick,

Would here be any chance that you could upload some pictures of the underside of the wagons showing the couplings etc.

Shaun

[newbryford]

Hi Mick,

Would here be any chance that you could upload some pictures of the underside of the wagons showing the couplings etc.

Shaun

 

 

Hi Shaun,

They're currently packed away. The coupling is a spare NEM type (not that it matters) that I had and I've simply glued them to the coupling bar from the bogie. You could easily use any type of coupling glued or screwed to the bar.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Shaun66]

Cheers, what do you use to store them in, not sure what to use.

Shaun

[newbryford]

Cheers, what do you use to store them in, not sure what to use.

Shaun

 

Most of my stock lives in Really Useful Boxes - 4 litre and 9 litre. They are roughly A4 sized. The 4 l box is usually used for locos and the 9l for rolling stock. You can get 3 layers of "low" stock in a 9l box. They are packed with bubble wrap dividers and cardboard "floors".

 

There are quite a few threads about rolling stock storage and transport elsewhere.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Shaun66]

Will probably use the same thing. One last question, I'm having trouble find transfers for the wagons, I've tried the companies listed but have been unsuccessful, wondering if you could help?

 

Many thanks

Shaun

[newbryford]

Will probably use the same thing. One last question, I'm having trouble find transfers for the wagons, I've tried the companies listed but have been unsuccessful, wondering if you could help?

 

Many thanks

Shaun

 

I'm not too sure if the Cambrian transfers are still available - it may be worth contacting them.

Modelmaster and Fox provide a few of the generic number sets.

 

Having said that,

there are now a number of other decal suppliers that have larger ranges than when the wagons were first built. Such as Cambridge Custom Transfers and Railtec.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Shaun66]

Hi Mick,

Regarding the Fox transfers would one of these three be suitable. F4262 Rail Alphabet and Numerals 75mm/white; F4263 100mm version or F4264 150mm version, there part of the departmental transfer.

 

Cheers

Shaun

[Fat Controller]

I'm not too sure if the Cambrian transfers are still available - it may be worth contacting them.

Modelmaster and Fox provide a few of the generic number sets.

 

Having said that,

there are now a number of other decal suppliers that have larger ranges than when the wagons were first built. Such as Cambridge Custom Transfers and Railtec.

 

Cheers,

Mick

The Cambrian transfers went to Modelmasters a long time ago, and were reissued as waterslide. Here's the relevant bit from the Modelmasters' site:-

http://www.modelmasterdecals.com/Wagons_BR_1964.php

[Shaun66]

The Cambrian transfers went to Modelmasters a long time ago, and were reissued as waterslide. Here's the relevant bit from the Modelmasters' site:-

http://www.modelmasterdecals.com/Wagons_BR_1964.php

Many thanks for the info, have checked them out and ordered some.

 

Shaun

[Shaun66]

Unfortunately I've been unable to source the transfers needed. Looks like I'll have to get the custom made.