Another Rhymney Railway 6 ton Brake Van

[5050]

Yesterday I dug out my still unopened kit for the very small Rhymney Railway (henceforth known as 'RR') which I purchased at ScaleWells in 2008 when I exhibited 'Enigma Engineering' there.  At the time I thought it would make a nice 'industrial' style brake and its short length would be ideal for Enigma.  Well, it has sat in a drawer for over 8 years now and Enigma has managed with its original and still one and only brake, the heavily modified Midland one.  In the meantime I have built most of my American HO layout, 4 locos, 3 coaches, a double slip and 4 points, buildings for 'Woodsville' and various other assorted items.  When rooting through my Heinz 57 variety of unbuilt kits for the 'next big project' I found the RR brake and decided that, as it would in all probablility be a relative 'quickie', I would start it.

 

A Google trawl showed that there wasn't all that much information on the net about the real thing.  The main results of the search ended up here on RMWeb with Barry Ten's model.  MRJ has a short article in issue 239 by Paul Tasker about building 3 Dragon Models kits - but nowhere can I find a photo of the real thing.  However, I fished the etch out of the packet along with the instructions and had a good look and a read.  It all seemed reasonably straightforward - although the advice on the packing saying that experience in etched kit building would be useful should have made me a bit wary. 

 

The most awkward and time consuming element so far seems to be the fitting of the decorative beading around each panel of the sides and ends.  This is made from 0.5mm wire soldered into an etched groove.  Sounds easy enough - but the corners should really be neatly mitred at 90 degrees and an excess of solder should be avoided to stop plank grooves from filling up.  After a couple of 'trials' (actually abortive efforts!) I decided on a method of attack.  This involves fitting two 90 degree pieces (ie, a long and a short side each) rather than 4 individual pieces or 1 complete 'loop'.  If care is taken on cutting to length the ends can be filed to 45 degrees and a reasonable mitre results.  A spot of solder can fill any gaps, filed down afterwards.

 

Some time ago I purchased a syringe of solder paste from Hobby Holidays which comes with a very fine nozzle.  This allowed me to lay an intermittent 'bead' of solder along the grooves which, with an application of flux and a chisel shape bit, was made to flow along the length of the groove.  A fine round needle file was then used to clean out any excess solder leaving a fine tinned surface with very little 'overflow' onto the planking.  More flux was then applied to the grooves and the wire 'L's (pretinned) were laid into the grooves and a hot clean solder bit run along the edges, sweating all together. 

 

A small amount of cleaning up may be necessary once all the wires have been fitted, a process that I estimate may well take 5-6 hours to finish.  After that it should be plain sailing (ha, ha, ha..................)

 

Here's an overview of the fret with the first side 'beaded' -

 

And a close up of the beaded side -

 

I am going to try and complete as much work as I can before detaching parts from the fret.  I am also going to compensate the chassis using a set of Colin Waite 'W' irons etc. along with 'beefing up' the brake gear which looks very anaemic on the fret.  The MRJ article by Paul Tasker mentions that the inner doorways were sliding doors and therefore set back into the inner end.  I have cut this door out using a scrawker and, in due course, will refit it with a spacing piece of 20thou material which may be brass or even plastic.

 

If anyone can point me in the direction of any photos of the atual vans in service I would be much obliged!

[Darwinian]

I have had exactly the same issues as you. I replaced the brakes too but as I model in OO I left the w-irons fixed.

Watch out for the capping strips that go on the veranda end and sides. They might be easier to fit before assembling the body. I forgot them and they were a right pain to get lined up.

Mine is awaiting its GWR grey and lettering.

[5050]

I have had exactly the same issues as you. I replaced the brakes too but as I model in OO I left the w-irons fixed.

Watch out for the capping strips that go on the veranda end and sides. They might be easier to fit before assembling the body. I forgot them and they were a right pain to get lined up.

Mine is awaiting its GWR grey and lettering.

I was considering using some small section angle brass rather than the etched strips onn the fret.  This might be easier to locate and solder?

 

Also, I was thinking about adding the same angle to the inside of the body side to end joints, both to reinforce and to aid location.  Butt joints on very thin sheets can be a bit awkward and potentially weak.

 

Mine will be painted in 'Neville Edwards' blue like the small diesels on 'Enigma'.  Airfix very kindly supplied me with a train of steel hopper wagons already lettered for the company with their initials.

[Penrhos1920]

Not even the WRRC could find a photo of one when they published their book of RR rolling stock !!

[Darwinian]

I was considering using some small section angle brass rather than the etched strips onn the fret.  This might be easier to locate and solder?

 

Also, I was thinking about adding the same angle to the inside of the body side to end joints, both to reinforce and to aid location.  Butt joints on very thin sheets can be a bit awkward and potentially weak.

 

Mine will be painted in 'Neville Edwards' blue like the small diesels on 'Enigma'.  Airfix very kindly supplied me with a train of steel hopper wagons already lettered for the company with their initials.

 

Using some brass angle for the veranda capping sounds like a very sensible idea to me.  I think I did also use angle in the corners of the van to help get everything square, as you say the etch is on quite thin brass.

On looking at mine again a day or two ago I noticed that there is a slight gap between the sides and the roof so that will have to be addressed.

 

I must get mine painted too, perhaps it can be used as a test for using "Vallejo Air" paint, I think I've about matched the GWR grey coour. 

[5050]

Significant progress has been made over the past couple of weeks and the van is now virtually complete, only needing a coat of paint and the coupling links.

 

Here are some photos showing how it went -

 

The ends soldered to the floor using a wooden mitre block for support.  As there is no 'inbuilt' location points for the sides and ends it was a bit awkward getting parts lined up and held whilst soldering.

 

Ends and sides now attached.  Getting the sides in the right position and holding them whilst applying the iron resulted in scorched finger tips!  I reckon the sides went on a bit to low resulting in some filing required across the ends to bring the levels back.  The Colin Waite w-irons await fitting.  The door has been cut out from the inner end to inset it slightly.

 

W-Irons and the inner end fitted.  Fine brass angle around the edges of the veranda and in the corner joints to reinforce them.  The cast axleguards and springs ready for attachment.  I soldered in a support of brass angle between the outer and inner veranda ends as I was finding the thin outer end roof support was constantly getting bent with handling.

 

Now virtually completed with the brakes, footboards etc. fitted.  I didn't use the etched kit brake gear as I felt it was a bit anaemic and lacked brake shoes.  I found a spare set of plastic brake gear in a wagon chassis kit and used that, cutting it down in length to fit the 7'6"  of the van.  The V-hangers were also very feeble so again I used some plastic ones from my 'stash' of assorted parts.  Footboards were made using brass angle with supports from 0.7mm nickel wire as I didn't think the thin etched kit versions would be substantial enough.  I blanked off the ducket positions using the 2 LMS notice boards included on the etch (an industrial line with no signals wouldn't need them I reckon) and also blanked the 2 small circular holes in the ends with a couple of bits of etch scrap.  The kit roof was discarded and a new one made from a cylindrical card container that once held some 'After Eight' chocolate sticks.  It is exactly the right radius.  The canvas effect is tissue held in place with a coat of 'Kleer'.  Buffers and coupling hook fitted.  I still use the Smiths hooks as they are easy to use, especially when under pressure at exhibitions!

 

View from the other end.  The chimney was an afterthought, there isn't one in the kit - but it is probably a bit to tall to fit the loading gauge and might need a saw taking to it.  Door also fitted to the inner end with a loop handle.  I will add some thin glazing once it is painted in corporate blue.  I added some scrap whitemetal inside the compartment floor to add a bit of weight as it is very light without.

 

I will post a couple of photos once it is painted