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NIR Parcel Van


kirley

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Allen Doherty of Worsley Works is going to do an etch for me of a NIR Parcel Van.

 

These van were ex MED Trailers 508, 511 -513 and were re numbered in 1975 to 631-634.

 

I can only find two images of these vans.

 

nir073.jpg

 

NIRluggageVanNo511to634.jpg

 

Allen has asked if I can confirm the window positions on the opposite side and I can only assume they would be the mirror image. 

Can anyone confirm or otherwise please?

 

Any other pictures in circulation?

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You have certainly opened a can of worms here, Kirley. I have just been studying drawings of the MED trailers, and there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which windows have been blanked out. The nearest vehicle in your first picture is, in fact the opposite side to that in your second picture, which is number 634. The only picture I have is of the same side of number 633, and as you can see, the blanked out windows are different.

post-13499-0-12424300-1377722773_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

NIR Parcel Van.

 

IMG_2921.jpg

 

I finally got around to starting on my Worsley Works Parcel Van brass etchings.  I have to confess right away that I had help

in the form of a master class on how to soldier brass and it was my tutor who did all the hard bits leaving me to run the

soldering iron over the pieces.

 

IMG_2922.jpg

 

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I used an old Airfix coach as a donor and a good bit of it had to be cut away to allow the 3 doorways on either side.

 

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IMG_2926a.jpg

 

IMG_2939.jpg

 

A first coat of primer which showed any gaps to be filled.

 

IMG_2938.jpg

 

 

 

 

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K

Great stuff, looking forward to the finished coach

I remember hearing that they were not all converted at the same time and that there were some minor differences in which windows were blanked out

Some were broken at the time of conversion and then this dictated that they would be boarded up. Not gospel I know but it might give you some "licence! !

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks good, if a little too clean, lol.

From memory, the MED parcel vans had the corridor connections removed when converted, and a plate welded over the opening.

 

The board covering the corridor connection is incorrect for the 70's period, that style with the white diamond came into use in the mid to late 80's.

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Looks good, if a little too clean, lol.

From memory, the MED parcel vans had the corridor connections removed when converted, and a plate welded over the opening.

 

The board covering the corridor connection is incorrect for the 70's period, that style with the white diamond came into use in the mid to late 80's.

 

I'm waiting on decals before weathering the finished model. 

 

Thank you for the information on the corridor connections, back to the workshop.  As regard to the board style I based my quess on Maroon Driving Trailers. Can't find the photograph at the moment but a not dissimilar one in use in 1974.

 

80088.jpg

 

I always amazes me that when you make a request for information you don't get a great response but once you put up pictures of something that is not right then the information coming flowing in.  Not that I'm complaining, it's good to get things right.

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When you start to research any project - let alone an arcane one like the railways of NI,-  you have to start somewhere and build something. I have found out things wrong in many of my own models, usually shortly after completing models. My first "jeep" had many things incorrect (apart from the obvious ones of wheel sizes and gauge!) so later ones incorporated this new knowledge. But if we  were all to wait until we knew we could get every detail, then i suspect most of us would never bother building anything.

 

I find that when using Alan's etches you needn't keep much of the original sides, just enough at ends and under the roof, to allow them to be stuck - occasionally I have stiffened the etches with a 8mm strip of 030 plasticard along the lower edges and under the windows.

 

The excellent model kirley has made -is a  first, and will make life much easier for any other modellers of the NIR scene who want a van to stick on the end of a class 70 or even MPD set (though i haven;t yet seen a pic of one attached to anything other than DEs - now wait for the photos to emerge from hiding!)

 

If you're making a second one, Kirley, I think they did indeed have corridor connections removed and plated over, the ventilators were the type used on the original MED units, they were a kind of lozenge shape, similar to some used on some BR EMUs (e.g the class 303 though there were others too) and I have been able to get these from Charlie Petty of DC kits. And as regards the roof, I think most of these vehicles, if not all, were converted from late version MED trains - these had an almost flat roof profile(the photos #1 and #2 on the thread show this type).

 

. Some may have been converted from earlier MEDs which had the standard LMS pattern roof as you have modelled. The "elliptical" pattern was very similar to that of some LNER and GWR coaches as well as those of a number of pregrouping companies = there may be a spares supplier out there who can advise on them and where they could be got. There were also parcels vans made from redundant AEC railcars,and some BUT and MPD cars ended their life being hauled around by Class 70s as excursion coaches.until the early/mid eighties.

 

I'd love to see an exhibition layout specifically themed on the late 70's /early 80's NIR period - Hunslets, GMs, 80s 70s the odd remaining MPD - come on lads, what about it?  

 

Colm

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Parcel Van completed.

 

Took on board the advice on the gangways and "plated them up" I also took some of the height of the roof vents.

 

Railtec provided the decals and I must mention Steve was very helpful in getting them right.

 

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First run out on 'Kirley Junction'.

 

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