Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Compound2632]

To my shame I'm struggling to keep up - I actually have about sixteen D299s to build/rebuild/restore - new Mousa ones plus Slaters of various heritages. There was a photo in the last number of the Midland Railway Society's Journal, showing a Taff Vale yard in the early 20th century - mostly rakes of POs and Taff Vale loco coal wagons, but mixed in with these a solitary D299, loaded with coal. The question was posed, how did it come to be there? My answer would be that it is there of necessity, obeying the general rule that in any photo of a pre-pooling goods yard, there will be a D299 somewhere in shot.

 

Some statistics (degenerating into guestimates): 62,000 D299s built; total Midland wagon stock at grouping, about 124,000; total wagon stock of the LMS at grouping, about 305,000. Numbers will have been much the same pre-Great War; that's around one in five wagons of the future LMS constituents was a D299. I can't find anywhere a summary of wagon stock of the other groups but the LMS was undoubtedly the largest; say 1,000,000 company-owned wagons altogether. I read somewhere on here that at nationalisation there were around 500,000 each of 1923 and 1907 RCH spec ex-PO wagons in service; at a guess lets say the same in Edwardian days (allowing for smaller capacity). That's a total of around 2 million wagons. That's still one D299 for every thirty-two wagons...

[Spitfire2865]

Looks great. Wish I had such a rake.

[John Rich]

Damn and blast, having now seen these photos I think I am going to have to go back to my open wagons and retro fit the strapping and knees. Fortunately having not long returned to Railway Modelling my wagon fleet is tiny

 

John

[wagonman]

To my shame I'm struggling to keep up - I actually have about sixteen D299s to build/rebuild/restore - new Mousa ones plus Slaters of various heritages. There was a photo in the last number of the Midland Railway Society's Journal, showing a Taff Vale yard in the early 20th century - mostly rakes of POs and Taff Vale loco coal wagons, but mixed in with these a solitary D299, loaded with coal. The question was posed, how did it come to be there? My answer would be that it is there of necessity, obeying the general rule that in any photo of a pre-pooling goods yard, there will be a D299 somewhere in shot.

 

Some statistics (degenerating into guestimates): 62,000 D299s built; total Midland wagon stock at grouping, about 124,000; total wagon stock of the LMS at grouping, about 305,000. Numbers will have been much the same pre-Great War; that's around one in five wagons of the future LMS constituents was a D299. I can't find anywhere a summary of wagon stock of the other groups but the LMS was undoubtedly the largest; say 1,000,000 company-owned wagons altogether. I read somewhere on here that at nationalisation there were around 500,000 each of 1923 and 1907 RCH spec ex-PO wagons in service; at a guess lets say the same in Edwardian days (allowing for smaller capacity). That's a total of around 2 million wagons. That's still one D299 for every thirty-two wagons...

 

 

I think your overall numbers are a bit on the high side. The RCH figures for 31 January 1928 gave a grand total of all PO wagons in service of 638,215. As PO wagons were roughly half of the total stock most of the time that would mean your estimate of railway owned stock is also too high. Don Rowland gives a total figure for 1950 of 1.1 million which presumably includes the exPO wagons(?). All this of course means that the proportion of D299 wagons in Edwardian days is even higher.

[Compound2632]

I think your overall numbers are a bit on the high side. The RCH figures for 31 January 1928 gave a grand total of all PO wagons in service of 638,215. As PO wagons were roughly half of the total stock most of the time that would mean your estimate of railway owned stock is also too high. Don Rowland gives a total figure for 1950 of 1.1 million which presumably includes the exPO wagons(?). All this of course means that the proportion of D299 wagons in Edwardian days is even higher.

 

Thanks - I posted in hopes of eliciting more accurate information. The number 305,000 for LMS wagons at grouping is from the LMS Society's website (and so from the Essery books); on reflection saying this is less than a third of the total of company-owned wagons is clearly an underestimate. I believe I've read that only the North Eastern had more than the Midland but also around the 120,000 mark. Wikipedia cites Atkins for the Great Western: 59,000 in 1902, over 88,000 in 1928 (but including wagons absorbed at the grouping). So the 1923 total will be well less than a million but probably rather more than 600,000. That gives a lower bound of around 1.3 million including PO wagons, so one D299 for every twenty other wagons.

 

Of course my period of interest is pre-pooling, when the majority would be on Midland metals but even so, given the extensive reach of the Derby octopus, they could be consigned anywhere.

[wagonman]

 

Of course my period of interest is pre-pooling, when the majority would be on Midland metals but even so, given the extensive reach of the Derby octopus, they could be consigned anywhere.

 

 

Particularly as a good many of them were in coal traffic to 'replace' all the PO wagons the MR bought up! One of the weirder follies of MR management but photos of S Gloucester coal mines in pre-group/Edwardian days do show a lot of D299 wagons in the sidings – even the occasional D305.

[Compound2632]

One of the weirder follies of MR management

 

Not so, on the evidence of photos of decrepit four-plank dumb-buffered wagons they bought up, e.g. in Essery's Midland Wagons Vol. 1. As I recall reading somewhere a long while ago, one of the issues was the disruption of traffic due to frequent failures of low-spec, poorly maintained PO wagons. The replacement D299 wagons were state-of the art (sprung buffers, iron brake-blocks) high capacity (8 tons!) vehicles. 

[Spitfire2865]

Not so, on the evidence of photos of decrepit four-plank dumb-buffered wagons they bought up, e.g. in Essery's Midland Wagons Vol. 1. As I recall reading somewhere a long while ago, one of the issues was the disruption of traffic due to frequent failures of low-spec, poorly maintained PO wagons. The replacement D299 wagons were state-of the art (sprung buffers, iron brake-blocks) high capacity (8 tons!) vehicles.

 

So they realized there was a problem, and because it harmed them, it was more cost effecive to buy and replace them all instead of dealing with the issues continuously.

[wagonman]

Not so, on the evidence of photos of decrepit four-plank dumb-buffered wagons they bought up, e.g. in Essery's Midland Wagons Vol. 1. As I recall reading somewhere a long while ago, one of the issues was the disruption of traffic due to frequent failures of low-spec, poorly maintained PO wagons. The replacement D299 wagons were state-of the art (sprung buffers, iron brake-blocks) high capacity (8 tons!) vehicles. 

 

 

I'm not sure I would call 8 tons "high capacity" even in the 1880s! As for condition, figures compiled by the Board of Trade for the Railway Accident Returns in 1909 show that PO wagons were responsible for 61 (out of a total of 96) accidents due to broken tyres but only a third of the 2345 accidents caused by coupling failure. As there were almost as many PO wagons in use as company ones, I'd say that 'honours' were about even on that score. The MR argument was slightly undermined by their continuing to use many of the wagons in their own livery.

 

To be fair to the MR their buying spree did start in 1882, five years before the RCH introduced its 'New Specification' designed to alleviate just that problem. By the 20th century I would argue that any PO wagon operating with a standard repair contract would be better maintained than many company wagons.

[Nile]

It's not dead, merely sleeping. Time to wake it up.

With RTR SECR locos and coaches here and imminent my plan is to build some more stock for them.

The first one is simple enough, a Parkside kit of a Passenger Luggage Van in original condition as built by the SECR. This is the progress so far.

 

The body was sprayed with Halford's Vauxhall Brazil Brown before adding the chassis. The glossy finish is ready for transfers.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[PenrithBeacon]

It's not dead, merely sleeping. Time to wake it up.

With RTR SECR locos and coaches here and imminent my plan is to build some more stock for them.

The first one is simple enough, a Parkside kit of a Passenger Luggage Van in original condition as built by the SECR. This is the progress so far.

PLV_01.JPG

The body was sprayed with Halford's Vauxhall Brazil Brown before adding the chassis. The glossy finish is ready for transfers.

I hope you enjoyed breakfast!

[Corbs]

How was the Parkside kit to build, Nile?

[Nile]

A typical Parkside kit, goes together well. There is room for improvement, see later.

[Nile]

A bit more progress to report. Fox transfers have been applied, they have quite a few useful ones for the SECR. The buffers in the kit are generic ones from Romford, I've replaced these with the correct type from LMS. Also from LMS are the roof ventilators, much better than the kit ones. It wasn't until I looked at a Bachmann model of this van that I realised there were handrails on the ends, the kit has moulded on ones that are hardly visible. I've carved these off and made new ones from brass rod. The ends are going to be repainted black.

 

 

The roof is held on with pairs of tiny magnets at each end. One of the pair was glued to a piece of plastic rod, seen here.

 

 

That was glued inside the body end (while attached to the roof).

 

 

 

LMS = Lanarkshire Models & Supplies

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

After some delay I've sprayed some matt varnish on it to finish off.

 

As well as painting the ends black I've added vacuum pipes (Wizard) and screw link couplings (Bachmann). This particular van has commemorative plates on its sides, photos can be found online and I've printed some of those.  They aren't legible up close, they are more of an impression at normal viewing distance.

There is more SECR stuff to come, but there are lots of other things to distract me as well. This is a preview of something very different I'm working on.

It's in the early stages of development, more next year.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Tom Burnham]

After some delay I've sprayed some matt varnish on it to finish off.

PLV_05.JPG

As well as painting the ends black I've added vacuum pipes (Wizard) and screw link couplings (Bachmann). This particular van has commemorative plates on its sides, photos can be found online and I've printed some of those.  They aren't legible up close, they are more of an impression at normal viewing distance.

 

My photo of the plate for example at https://www.flickr.com/photos/21602076@N05/5317926864

[Nile]

Next on the bench is a brake van. I already have a dancehall van, which didn't appear until around 1920. Kits of earlier vans are few, this one is of a LCDR van by Chatham kits (from Roxey Mouldings).

The sides and ends are made up of three layers, plus detail bits I thought would be easier to fit now rather than later (they were rather fiddly).

 

 

All soldered together to form the basic body. So far so good.

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Guy Rixon]

I like the PLV and the paint choice is interesting. What undercoat did you use?

 

The LCDR brake is a nice kit but the brake parts are a little awkward; I shall be interested to see how you manage them. IIRC, the only extant photo of that kind of van shows it still in LCDR livery well into the SECR management-committee period.

[Nile]

Merry Christmas all.

 

Guy, I used Halford's grey primer on the PLV. I also have that photo of the brake van, it's a shame it only shows the body but there are some interesting details not present on the kit.

Fitting the brake gear was indeed a bit fiddly, could do with a few more hands. As this is OO I haven't bothered with compensation. I've left gaps in the rodding around the axles so the wheels can be removed.

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Now things get interesting. Looking at the fret I can clearly see the foorboards, but there is no mention of them in the instructions. Nor are there any supports for them. Time to get thinking.

I eventually worked out a cunning plan. I drilled holes in the floor above the solebars where the support brackets would be, large enough for the 0.7mm nickel silver bar I used for the brackets.

 

 

Brackets were made by bending the bar into a L and soldering to the footboard. They look too long at this stage, the tops will be inside the body. The white metal springs and axelboxes have been glued in place as the brackets will be in the way soon.

 

 

With the brackets inserted into the holes the footboard could be adjusted to the correct height before fixing. This shows that I got the wheelbase slightly wrong, too late to fix now so I enlarged the gaps on the boards.

 

 

The tops of the brackets were soldered to the inside of the body, fixing them in place.

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

With the last of the soldering done I could now get on with adding the details, which include some plastic strip. The kit includes these nice white metal castings for the uprights that go on the ends (not mentioned in the instructions). But they have a recess at the bottom that isn't needed, so I filled it with some microstrip.

 

 

The instructions do mention the missing horizontal framing on the end that needs to replicated with microstrip. I've also added diagonal framing to the doors, this can be seen in the photo of the real thing. Corner lamp irons were made from some etched fret leftovers. I've fitted full length upper footboards (20thou plastic) rather than the short ones provided. This is what the drawing shows, as do photos of similar SER vans.

 

 

The roof, trimmed to length with a few details added.

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[DLT]

Hi Neil,

I really like the look of chunky brake vans, and this one is a beauty.  Lovely job.

Are the footsteps on the end part of the kit?

All the best, Dave.

[Nile]

Yes, and they are placed as per the instructions.

[Nile]

As I'd rather not glue the roof on It's held in place with magnets.

 

 

At each end is a pair of 2mm magnets. One is glued to the roof, the other into a piece of 2mm square plastic with a recess drilled into the end. These hold the roof on quite securely.

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

I like the use of magnets for the removable roof; however, In have some doubt about not securing the roof to the sides - do you really get a tight fit; might not the roof bow with time? Do you curve the roof to a slightly tighter radius than the ends, to help with this?