Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Edwardian]

They are also very useful as grounded bodies on layouts, being non-specific as to age and prototype.

 

A good way to avoid unintended howlers like the (otherwise excellent) mid-1950s branch terminus I remember seeing years ago that featured a grounded Vanwide in the yard (the prototype not even having been built until the early 1960s).

 

John

 

Ah, but all grounded coach bodies were specific prototypes!

[Compound2632]

Ah, but all grounded coach bodies were specific prototypes!

 

Too many modelled ones are too - either Ratio GWR 4-wheelers or Midland 48' clerestories...

[Compound2632]

Now you've let the cat out of the bag, you have no choice .

 

Very well, in due course - the first of the batch is in white primer awaiting an experiment with home-made transfers in the body colour (+ shading) with the white showing through.

[BG John]

Too many modelled ones are too - either Ratio GWR 4-wheelers or Midland 48' clerestories...

I bought the Ratio GWR 4 wheel grounded coach kit, as a fairly cheap way to get another body. When I get round to making a grounded body, I'll use the remaining bits of the kit with some other surplus coach body!

[Poor Old Bruce]

I don't know if it is based on a specific prototype but it seems fairly generic to me, and adaptable.

 

The Tri-ang (ex Pyramid/Trackmaster) van is actually not far off one of the smaller Lancs and Yorks vans.

 

As far as I can make out, the Hull and Barnsley vans mentioned by Compound2632 should really have a chassis with clasp brakes and 3ft 6in wheels. The Roche drawing shows 3ft wheels but the photos in Taplow's book shows different.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Poor Old Bruce

[Edwardian]

I bought the Ratio GWR 4 wheel grounded coach kit, as a fairly cheap way to get another body. When I get round to making a grounded body, I'll use the remaining bits of the kit with some other surplus coach body!

 

Going a bit OT, apologies to Nile, but even a freelance company should have history, and grounded coach and wagon bodies are part of that, as they need to be at least a generation earlier than the setting of the layout. 

 

So, for example, people modelling before WW1 are unlikely to need a founded Ratio 4-wheeler based on, what, a 1904 prototype? 

 

GE seemed to have lots of 1860s looking coaches, lasting as station buildings etc into the second half of the 20th Century!

[BG John]

Going a bit OT, apologies to Nile, but even a freelance company should have history, and grounded coach and wagon bodies are part of that, as they need to be at least a generation earlier than the setting of the layout. 

 

So, for example, people modelling before WW1 are unlikely to need a founded Ratio 4-wheeler based on, what, a 1904 prototype? 

 

GE seemed to have lots of 1860s looking coaches, lasting as station buildings etc into the second half of the 20th Century!

True, but I also have a part built late 1950s layout!

[Edwardian]

True, but I also have a part built late 1950s layout!

 

Of course you have  .... !

[Nile]

It's good to see this topic generating some interesting discussion.

To try and get things back on topic here are some more photos for you.

The coupling hook is from Ambis Engineering, blackened by me. The loops are Roger Smiths and come blackened.

 

The finished model, weathered.

As I'd fitted end vents I removed those on the roof.

 

Here is a preview of what's coming next, a Bachmann (ex-Mainline) cattle wagon.

[Nile]

I chose the old Bachmann cattle wagon for my next freelance conversion. It's meant to be a model of a LMS wagon but is several scale feet too short, so it already has a bit of a pre-grouping look.

The starting point is the recent Bachmann version which has a decent chassis, unlike the original Mainline one. Here it is in bits.

 

I removed the brake cylinder as I thought that would be a bit too fancy. It will go in the parts box.

 

The model comes with a steel chassis, which looks a bit too modern to me.

 

So I added strips of plastic card to make it look like a wooden chassis.

 

And with the body in place to see how it looks.

[Mike 84C]

Looks much better Nile are you going to replace the bars in the top openings? I'm interested how you will detail the underframes as I also have one to do!

[Nile]

In answer to your first question I've removed one of the bars. this is after a lick of paint.

 

The body after some more paint and transfers.

 

Not done anything to the chassis yet.

[Nile]

If you was wondering what I've done to the chassis, the answer is not a lot. I've not got the time or the parts to do much to this wagon. I have a cunning plan that will have to wait for the next lot, I have three more of these to do. What I have done is print some labels, or plates, for the sole bars.

 

Cut up and glued in place, I think I used matt varnish.

 

I kept the original coupling hooks, enlarged the openings slightly, and fitted 3 links (Roger Smiths).

 

Mostly finished and in one piece.

 

Proof that the couplings work.

 

The two completed (so far) together.

More to come.

[Nile]

And then there were more, Triang vans.

 

I replaced the chassis with 9ft wb ones from Cambrian, the wheels are from Romford.

 

A more normal view.

 

The three together. Two I've done as before, with vents added to the ends. As the third one had vents on the roof I haven't added any. This one will be painted differently. All will become clear eventually.

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

Amazing what you can do with old Triang trains.

 

manna

[phil_sutters]

Indeed I have, by the simple expedient of sawing out the panels between the windows! Some external gangways will be added too.

 

Smiffy2: Funnily enough I have an AM&SPHR wagon already! Please tell me there will be a PO "night soil" wagon marked up with the name of Harry King...

As someone who is getting back into railway modelling after 40+ years, I am amused that the very same Triang clerestories that I hacked up 50 years ago are still the favorite subject for a bit of butchery. I had a go at a corridor GWR tri-composite, on the basis that it might have been the sort of coach that would have been detached from an express and found its way up our branch line. Apart from a wooden bodied Exley? that was the only corridor coach we had. Both are still around - albeit in the garage! Most of my cut-and-shut jobs were SDJR types.

I dug out the tri-comp to show my teenage efforts.The orange toilet windows are the varnished tissue paper ones gone off over 40+ years.

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by phil_sutters

[Nile]

Nice work on the coach Phil, and more food for thought.

Here are the vans after painting and lettering.

 

And now complete.

 

The odd one out is lettered for the West Midland Railway. It has roof vents rather than end ones.

I've fitted these vans with Springside 3-link couplings. I've had a pack of them for some time, and they fit the hole in the buffer beam perfectly. But the hooks are whitemetal, which limits their strength.

[Compound2632]

I mentioned about a month ago that I am doing something similar with the "Hull & Barnsley" van bodies using the Cambrian Gloucester 9' underframe. I've not made any progress but, Nile, I hope you won't mind my posting a couple of pictures here. First, the trial version, which has been sitting in white primer for several months:

 

 

This has single-side brakes as befits my 1903-is time-frame. One refinement to the Cambrian solebars is to scrawk off the two pieces of diagonal strapping either side of the v-hanger - I believe these are only appropriate for a Gloucester 5/6/7 plank open wagon, being the end of the diagonal strapping that runs inside the side sheeting.

 

I have another three bodies to do:

 

 

Precision Superstrip doesn't remove all the Hornby printing. The middle body is from the Thomas range - you can see the whites of its eyes! Also, there's been a change to the mould with an extra lump on the underneath.

 

On the H&B body, unlike the bodies used by Nile, the end pillars extend down over the headstocks, which I think is rather more how the real thing would have been built. I'm not quite sure what the bit of pipework on the end is supposed to represent but I might make these vans through piped so they can run in passenger trains.

 

There have been previous discussions on here about this body though I've yet to see a photo of a genuine H&B van resembling it - though what I gleaned was that the originals had side sheeting flush with the framing rather than recessed and also that they were possibly fully fitted, maybe even 3'6" wheels? Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a model of a H&B van - it is, as I said in my original post, an entirely accurate model of a Derbyshire & Staffordshire Junction Railway biscuit van, one of a batch built by the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Co. in 1897 - see Plate 666 in the OPC book by Keith Montague. 

 

Bother! I've just noticed I've left the PO registration plate on - inside the left-hand crownplate. Also, in this "cruel enlargement" the total failure of the inner and outer V-irons and the piece that drives the push rods (what's that called?) to line up is painfully obvious.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Compound2632

[Nile]

A few more photos for you.

The three LMWR vans. Identical bodies with subtle variations in chassis and/or livery.

 

The cattle wagon and WMR van.

 

Putting them all together in a not very typical train.

 

At the back of the train is a van using a Hornby 'Hull & Barnsley' body like those seen in Compound's post above, on an unknown chassis.

[Nile]

Not much has been happening here recently, but the other day I bought a new Bachmann Wickham trolley and was struck by just how small it is, almost N gauge in size. Even next to a smallish 009 loco like the new Minitrains Bagnall it still looks small.

 

I thought it looked at home on the narrow gauge track. As I happened to have a spare Kato Portram in bits I had to see if the power bogie would fit. Removing the Bachmann chassis is simply a case of removing two screws and away it comes. The Portram bogie needs a protruding part to be removed (I was going to do that anyway).

 

A bit of luck, it's a perfect fit between the two pillars on the underside.

 

The ride height looks ok too.

 

This combination works, and so far hasn't needed any modification to the Bachmann model. But it is a bit light, so to improve this a bit I glued some lead sheet to the underside of the roof. I had to cut the lead in two to get it past the roof support.

 

I glued some bits of plastic strip to the power bogie so that it would locate more positively against the pillars.

 

There is enough friction to hold it in place.

 

The only figures I could get to fit were some Preiser HO ones. They will do until I find some OO ones that fit, preferably whitemetal.

 

Performance is similar to the original chassis, it should get a proper run this weekend.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Nile

[autocoach]

Not much has been happening here recently, but the other day I bought a new Bachmann Wickham trolley and was struck by just how small it is, almost N gauge in size. Even next to a smallish 009 loco like the new Minitrains Bagnal it still looks small.

W_009_01.JPG

 

I thought it looked at home on the narrow gauge track. As I happened to have a spare Kato Portram in bits I had to see if the power bogie would fit. Removing the Bachmann chassis is simply a case of removing two screws and away it comes. The Portram bogie needs a protruding part to be removed (I was going to do that anyway).

W_009_04.JPG

 

A bit of luck, it's a perfect fit between the two pillars on the underside.

W_009_03.JPG

 

The ride height looks ok too.

W_009_02.JPG

 

This combination works, and so far hasn't needed any modification to the Bachmann model. But it is a bit light, so to improve this a bit I glued some lead sheet to the underside of the roof. I had to cut the lead in two to get it past the roof support.

W_009_05.JPG

 

I glued some bits of plastic strip to the power bogie so that it would locate more positively against the pillars.

W_009_06.JPG

 

There is enough friction to hold it in place.

W_009_07.JPG

 

The only figures I could get to fit were some Preiser HO ones. They will do until I find some OO ones that fit, preferably whitemetal.

W_009_08.JPG

 

Performance is similar to the original chassis, it should get a proper run this weekend.

Bravo....

[Skinnylinny]

Looking good! My only concern would be that the Portram motor bogie has a 6V motor (voltage being stepped down bybthe circuit board that also powers the lights. If you can find space for a resistor (I used a 470R 1/4W one for a 009

loco) in line with the power wires, you can protect the motor from overvoltage. Soldering the wires to the pickup tabs was not a job for the faint-hearted, though!

[PenrithBeacon]

Brilliant! I wasn't going to buy one because of issues converting it to P4, but now I will and store it for a future 009 layout.

 

Next month I think.

 

Regards

[DCB]

Not much has been happening here recently, but the other day I bought a new Bachmann Wickham trolley and was struck by just how small it is, almost N gauge in size. Even next to a smallish 009 loco like the new Minitrains Bagnal it still looks small.

Is there any way to re gauge this power bogie to 00?   A wickhams trolley appeals but not the powered trailer.

[Nile]

No easy way I can see. The Kato power bogie uses stub axles, the motor is in the middle blocking the path of normal axles.

But it does prove that a OO version would be possible using Japanese technology.