West End Workbench

[micklner]

G'Day Gents

 

Liked the look of the modified circus vans, so I had a look on E-Bay, they varied in price from 14 pounds to 38 pounds, I thought 38 quid for a RTR wagon, that I still have to paint etc, I'll keep looking.

 

manna

 

There are lots of named variations of this van. One is with a picture of a large fish on the side Fine Fish wording thereon. Prime pork with a large pig is another one.  You can get them much cheaper than those prices.

Edited September 7, 2017 by micklner

[jwealleans]

Yep, what Mick said. They have done it as a refrigerated van, but as loads of other designs besides. I have one which is a hideous beige colour and had an orange roof. I also picked at least one up with no roof - not a problem if you're going to replace it. Rummage bins at shows are your best bet.

 

This, this and this are all the same moulding and so is this which was a new one on me. You'll find them fairly easily with a bit of digging.

[teaky]

There are lots of named variations of this van. One is with a picture of a large fish on the side Fine Fish wording thereon. Prime pork with a large pig is another one.  You can get them much cheaper than those prices.

I think you're mixing up your vans Mick.  The Fine Fish and Prime Pork vans used the ex Hull and Barnsley van.

 

The ex-H&B vans can be picked up for very little.  Vans like the one Jonathan has converted in his post above are often a bit more expensive but it is just a matter of biding your time and keeping your eyes peeled.  They crop up every now and again at reasonable prices, especially if there is some damage.  I picked up a couple a few years ago for very little (I can't remember what I paid but it wasn't much) and have them squirreled away for the same conversion.  One thing to look out for is that Hornby produced these vans with different chassis and some are better than others.

[Jesse Sim]

How come most of the photos dont come up??????

 

says photo unavailable       

[chris p bacon]

How come most of the photos dont come up??????

 

says photo unavailable       

 

They've probably been hosted on a 3rd party provider such as 'photobucket' which has now pulled access unless you pay.

[jwealleans]

That is exactly right. However all the last couple of years' photos should be there. What were you trying to look at, Jesse?

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

I managed to pick up a couple of wagons, so thank you Jonathon.

 

manna

[Jesse Sim]

H

 

That is exactly right. However all the last couple of years' photos should be there. What were you trying to look at, Jesse?i w

i was just starting from the beginning. 

[jwealleans]

I'm working back from the end. Patience will bring its reward.

[Jesse Sim]

I'm working back from the end. Patience will bring its reward.

Thats ok, i appreciate the help the lat couple of days! I really do!!

 

just purchased a the LNER carriages book on amazon. 

[Jesse Sim]

Morning,

 

what could be done with the old Hornby Clerestory coaches? i have a few, is it worth adding detailing and re painting them?

[micklner]

I think you're mixing up your vans Mick.  The Fine Fish and Prime Pork vans used the ex Hull and Barnsley van.

 

The ex-H&B vans can be picked up for very little.  Vans like the one Jonathan has converted in his post above are often a bit more expensive but it is just a matter of biding your time and keeping your eyes peeled.  They crop up every now and again at reasonable prices, especially if there is some damage.  I picked up a couple a few years ago for very little (I can't remember what I paid but it wasn't much) and have them squirreled away for the same conversion.  One thing to look out for is that Hornby produced these vans with different chassis and some are better than others.

 

Thought I was losing it !!  Just checked the LNER Forum and on there are the ones converted by Graeme King into their later use as Fish Vans . The difference is the Roof.

 

Info on LNER Forum "Atlantics works" page 52  (for some reason the copy link doesn't work) the thread shows how the Fridge version can be improved as well. I have just bought a Prime Pork version for a £1 so it will get bashed in due course.

 

One of Graeme's photos theron, excellent article/thread by Graeme all of which is recommended reading.

 

Edited September 15, 2017 by micklner

[teaky]

Thought I was losing it !!  Just checked the LNER Forum and on there are the ones converted by Graeme King into their later use as Fish Vans . The difference is the Roof.

 

Info on LNER Forum "Atlantics works" page 52  (for some reason the copy link doesn't work) the thread shows how the Fridge version can be improved as well. I have just bought a Prime Pork version for a £1 so it will get bashed in due course.

 

One of Graeme's photos theron, excellent article/thread by Graeme all of which is recommended reading.

 

1 STA76646v F10 fridge and fish downgrade.jpg

Morning Mick.

 

Since you've done the leg work to locate the relevant point in Graeme's extensive thread, here's a link to the page where he begins to dismantle the van:

https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2443&start=660

[gr.king]

I'm glad that my image restoration programme, après Imageshack and Photobucket, has progressed as far as the fridge vans section of that thread....

 

I'm afraid there's still a big hole between pages 60 and 213, or thereabouts.

[jwealleans]

Predictably, I suppose, now that I've deleted all my pictures from botophucket, there's an add-on for Firefox which will bypass their blocking and allow pictures to display. It might help viewers of Graeme's thread.

 

Rather than brood, I've been taking it out on some kits. I have some GW carriages to build for a friend:

 

 

These are a B set (both E147s, I think) and a non-gangwayed third of a diagram which totally escapes me at the moment. All are from Comet kits. I'm going to order the detailing packs and wheels for these today, so they may be moving on again by next week.

 

I also fancied some better coal wagons for Grantham - some of mine don't really bear close scrutiny - and i picked up a bundle of Ian Kirk RCH kits at Wakefield last year. Transfers are Powsides - I must have found untapped reserves of patience.

 

 

I discovered that Stephenson Clarke changed their livery during the 1930s, hence the mix. The grey and red is attractive, but a mixture of colours makes these more visually interesting, I think.

Edited May 4, 2018 by jwealleans

[Compound2632]

I discovered that Stephenson Clarke changed their livery during the 1930s, hence the mix. The grey and red is attractive, but a mixture of colours makes these more visually interesting, I think.

 

The darker livery being the later, I presume?

[Barry O]

Nice wagons!

 

Baz

[jwealleans]

The darker livery being the later, I presume?

Indeed. The details, such as they are, are in an appendix of Len Tavender's Coal Trade Wagons.

[Jon4470]

Jonathan

It was good to meet you today at Ormesby. Thanks for the chat and just wanted to let you know that runny Nitomors plus some judicious leverage with a craft knife removed the offending smokbox door! Thank you (and the others in the room) for the advice.

Jon

[jwealleans]

Grantham's next outing looms large as has been discussed elsewhere and so it's very much repairing and servicing time. I know some people do this immediately after a show - I tend to leave cleaning and servicing until just before the next one. Repairs I try to work through over the interval (I carry a notebook where they're entered during a show) but there are always things which are missed and come out when stock is inspected.

 

First up are coal loads for the new wagons. I almost always make these removable so they can be run full or empty.

 

 

Then the repairs - I went through the carriage boxes this week tightening coupling screws and inspecting generally and found a few needing attention:

 

 

This BFK has been moved between sets in a review of the carriage workings and needs a coupling at the other end. I hadn't fitted a captive nut at that end so one is being retrofitted now.

 

 

The coupling on the RTP had been bent - looked as if it might have been dropped or run into very hard - so it had to be reshaped and resoldered.

 

 

This is the BT from the triplet set and both gas tanks had come off. Rather than risk bubbling paintwork with a soldering iron I superglued them back on.

Edited May 4, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Well, 30 or so locos to service for Grantham today, so perhaps predictably I spent the morning messing about with wagons.

 

 

The LSWR van is the new Cambrian kit: I was demonstrating wagon building at Ormesby last weekend and this is the first vehicle I started there to be completed. One piece underframe and a decent fit all round, it doesn't take much building. Of perhaps more interest is the open, which is the Oxford Diecast one. I picked that up to see what they were like and found the faults which have already been discussed on other threads. Steve Pearce went through the necessary corrective modifications here. I can recommend his posts and have done pretty much exactly what he did. Paint on the buffers is Humbrol 140 - 64 was nowhere near the colour they've chosen, 140 will do once weathered. If I buy any more they'll inevitably be renumbered and so probably repainted as well.

 

 

The David Geen cattle van is done and weathered. The 3H open is one of the bag of wagons I brought away from Middlesbrough show and am still working my way through.

 

 

 

Some of the SC wagons weathered as well. Pretty though they are, they need to be dirty. I will be leaving some of them pristine for the moment - as some of you may have gathered, I find myself demonstrating weathering at Warley this year and will use these in a 'before and after' display.

Edited May 4, 2018 by jwealleans

[scottiedog]

See you at Hartlepool on Friday evening.  There might be something of interest to you on you know who's stand over the weekend!!!! If I remember I'll bring those MJT Gresley's with me for Mr Grantham to have a look at.

[drmditch]

Morning,

 

what could be done with the old Hornby Clerestory coaches? i have a few, is it worth adding detailing and re painting them?

 

Not meaning to hi-jack this thread, but if you look on my thread on the LNER Forum here:- https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6399&hilit=manke+do+and+mend&start=105, you will see my use of an old Hornby Clerestory. I do have more of them in progress but it will be a while before they get finished.

 

They will never look as good as the etched brass vehicles so beautifully made by Messrs Weallans/King/Nicholas and others and running superbly on the Grantham layout.

 

However, the plastic conversions probably do cost a lot less!

Edited October 25, 2017 by drmditch

[jwealleans]

Well, I have to say I'm glad those are all done. I can't manage enough concentration to do more than one an evening.

 

 

On balance, though, I'm pleased with the results and won't have to think quite so long about using Powsides lettering again. You certainly can't look much past them for a great many private owners.

 

Some of these will feature in the small display I'll be taking to Warley, as I mentioned. One other thing I'd like for that are 'before and after' weathered locomotives. I only have duplicates of a few locos and as this will be primarily a goods wagon display, the choice narrowed down even further. In the end it settled on the pair of Bachmann J39s, 1275 and 2696. These were tarted up for Barrow Hill all that time ago but have had nothing done to them since, not even real coal. They are nominally spare Grantham locos but always seem to end up being used (or they've developed a means of insinuating themselves onto shed over the weekend).

 

John Cockcroft did a detailing job on these way back when they first came out (BRM May 1995 and September 1998) and that was what I'd always had in mind for them both. So last night 2696 of Colwick became the first subject. This one will be more heavily weathered - there's a picture in the Arthur Cawston book we rely on so heavily of 1275 of Lincoln looking highly bulled up, so once 1275 has had the same detailing treatment it will be finished in a similar state.

 

I don't have the list of all the changes to hand, but you can see a number of them on the pictures.

 

 

 

Shorter loco to tender coupling, new rainstrips on cab, new cab handrails, separate operating rod for drop grate, remove seam along top of boiler, injector pipework both sides, sander operating rods (not yet fitted). I shan't be remaking all the boiler bands - far too much likelihood of irredeemable damage - and at the moment I'm not going to replace the boiler handrails.

 

 

There was a lot of work done on the tender in the original article. I had a spare tender top, from either a K3 or J39, which was much closer to the finished article and so I've used that. Some surgery was required on the chassis to make it fit, but it's on now. That has saved me much of the work to remake the front with the twin toolboxes (the original only had one). I will reuse the rear coal plate off the old tender as it bisects the filler dome where the newer one was forward of it.

Edited May 4, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

J39 is now in the paintshop (well, the airing cupboard, actually). I took some photos before painting so the modifications are more apparent.

 

 

 

 

Having remembered to bring my list downstairs, I can say with some authority that it has had the following done:

 

New loco to tender coupling

Boiler mould line removed

Separate drop grate operating rod

New lamp irons

New cabside handrails

Injector pipework

Fallplate (none was provided)

Replacment cab rainstrips (the originals curved too high)

Sandbox operating levers

Smokebox rivets removed (they were flush in LNER days)

Second Wakefield lubricator added.

Cross rods added to tender brake gear.

Rear tender coal plate moved back.

 

I did not replace the front buffers or boiler handrails as I can live with them as they are, nor did I fancy the complete rebuild of the tender brake gear to get the shoes in line. The tender coping sides should also be shorter for this batch of J39s (the second batch built, 2691 - 2710), but that was too much surgery and I'd never get a neat enough finish. Have Bachmann ever done a GS tender with the shorter coping plates? Edit - because I misread Yeadon and these are 3500 gallon tenders, not 4200.

 

I'll try to fit small approximations of the worksplates on the cabsides when the numbers have been done.

 

I should also mention that both these run on the original Bachmann split chassis mech and up to now I've had no adverse comments about their running. Once they do start to falter there are Comet chassis waiting, but so far, so good.

Edited May 4, 2018 by jwealleans