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Powered grampus wagon 041707


ColinK

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My work on Sunday was taking a group into Manchester, parking up for 8 hours, then taking them back. Made good use of my time, including a couple of hours working on the Grampus wagon. I made the shell of the cover for the power unit. It's the white 'box' in front of the wagon. Its not 100% accurate due to the lack of close up photos and the need to go over the motor. Hopefully it will look fine when finished.

 

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Many thanks Brushtype4. I did wonder what that was underneath. Hope to see more of your progress.

 

I've been away for three weeks so no progress on mine. Need to obtain some buffers and metal ladder next.

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A little progress.  I managed to get some Markits buffers from Roxey Mouldings who helpfully suggested Model Signal Engineering for the metal ladder. 

 

So here it is with the buffers fitted but not painted, and some crew which took a fair bit of painting. The cab and motor unit are not yet fixed in place.  Ladder next.

 

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The real grampus has a short ladder so the crew can get on board.  Sourcing this has been a problem.  First I got some plastic signal laddering, but that would have broken off at the first touch, something more durable was needed. 

 

As mentioned above, the helpful chap at Roxey Mouldings suggested I try Signal Engineering. I explained what I wanted and Andrew from MSE asked for a photo of the real wagon, then suggested which kit I bought.  This arrived quickly and was kit S7/09, 'jig built 30ft signal ladder kit'.  Opening the packet and in simple terms, its an etch of the signal ladder sides and some wire to make the rungs (there are other bits too). Quite a challenge for my soldering skills. I only needed a very short section, but given the clever way its designed, it made sense to build the whole ladder.  Here it is under construction.

 

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My attempt is by no means perfect, but it will be fine for what I need, with plenty left over for other projects.

 

 

 

 

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Looking forward to seeing the pics LNERGE.

 

Having sucessfully made the signal ladder (great kit by MSE) and painted it, I think it looks a bit narrow when placed by the model. Hence I've just ordered another ladder kit which I am going to try and modify with longer rungs. This is going to be quite a challenge as the very clever jig built into the kit will not work! Making this wagon is really pushing my modelling skills.

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A bit more progress. At the second attempt I've managed to make the access ladder using parts of a Model Signal Engineering signal ladder kit. It was just a case of dispensing with the jig (as it made a ladder too narrow for the wagon) and carefully soldering the rungs on. I've also used parts of two stays to make support brackets to fasten the ladder to the bottom of the solebar, hopefully that should stop it being damaged by rough handling.

 

I've also made the handrails from two staples. The ladder and handrails are in grey primer in the photo below.

 

 

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Its been a long time since my last post, but the powered grampus wagon is complete. The main delay was because I like to weather a batch of items together, rather than one at a time, so I waited until I had enough to do to warrant getting the airbrush out. I’m still not happy with the cab roof as paint and weathering powders refused to stick, so I’ll have another go at the roof sometime. No couplings have been fitted yet as I don’t have a O gauge layout, so I wasn’t sure what type to fit.

 

That said, I’ve managed to build it, I think it looks reasonably like the real thing, and it does actually run.

 

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Well done.

 

What amazes me is that someone within BR authorised time & money to be spent on such a non-standard conversion, when there must have been redundant 08's or smaller shunters available, even if 2nd hand.

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Makes me wonder if the conversion was actually formally approved? Maybe the works had a grampus wagon sitting in a siding in need of repair and the viaduct inspection unit (that provided the power unit) waiting for scrapping, so they did the conversion off their own back. Would be interesting to know what really happened.

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Any chance of a video of it moving? Purely for the novelty value of seeing a self-powered wagon. Wonder what the top speed of the original was.

When I find somewhere to run it. My model railway club sold its O gauge layout.

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