GER 10T Goods Van announced!

[The Johnster]

Toads aren’t that hard to deal with; mine are late GW and BR  livery, and most of the prototypes had boarded rear side windows by then.  One of mine is modelled with the rear hatch opened.   The cottage tea rooms windows are not only wrong (ISTR Ox took the information from an incorrectly restored example) but are very obvious on the layout; boarded infills are easy to make and look very effective. 
 

I’ve taken John Dunsignalling’s advice and ordered.  I was wrong about free postage, and the children must starve; just as well there aren’t any…
 

 

[Dunsignalling]

On 01/03/2022 at 09:26, Wickham Green too said:

Oxford don't have a great history with LNER running numbers ! 

 

The LNER didn't exactly have a great history with LNER running numbers.....😀😀😀

Edited April 2, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[autocoach]

I was just browsing new threads when I noticed the comment separating the van body from the underframe.  I would suggest every modeler these days obtain a "spudger" set of tools originally designed for opening mobile phones but highly useful for opening model trains bodies.  I've had a set for over 2 years and use it both on the railway and for opening %$^&%$ hard plastic packaging.

 

This is the US Amazon reference, your mileage may vary....

https://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Prying-Opening-Tool-Assortment/dp/B0762BVXDY/ref=asc_df_B0762BVXDY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416875525560&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17972203711892909601&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032056&hvtargid=pla-443016893748&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=100759324264&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416875525560&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17972203711892909601&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032056&hvtargid=pla-443016893748

[MarkSG]

11 minutes ago, autocoach said:

I was just browsing new threads when I noticed the comment separating the van body from the underframe.  I would suggest every modeler these days obtain a "spudger" set of tools originally designed for opening mobile phones but highly useful for opening model trains bodies.  I've had a set for over 2 years and use it both on the railway and for opening %$^&%$ hard plastic packaging.

 

This is the Amazon UK version: https://amzn.to/3NHoGKI

 

They do look useful. I've just ordered a set!

[Wickham Green too]

....... but then your favourite screwdriver will work equally well !

 

 

( Unless you prefer crossheads ! )

[Dunsignalling]

4 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

....... but then your favourite screwdriver will work equally well !

 

 

( Unless you prefer crossheads ! )

My go-to instrument of entry (as used in this case) is the narrow  X-Acto chisel blade in a No.1 handle. I find screwdriver blades are too thick in most instances.

 

John

[Steamport Southport]

Look in "bargain shops" such as Home & Bargain, B&M, ALDI, etc.

 

They sometimes have them on sale for under a fiver with some of those odd shaped screwdrivers and sometimes tweezers. Sold as Laptop or Mobile Repair Kit, or something.

 

 

Jason

[The Johnster]

I am a big fan of the idea of having sets of cheapo poundshop/Amazon Chinese rubbish tools on hand; often they are hopeless for their designed purpose but useful for exactly this sort of thing when you don't want to risk damaging your good tools and knife blades.

[MarkSG]

Well, my BR version arrived today, slightly surprisingly - I was expecting it to be tomorrow.

 

I haven't taken it out of the box yet as I'm about to leave the house and won't be back until the evening, but I'll give it a test run as soon as I've got time.

 

As I said before, it's in the same package as my Rapido SECR open wagon. Given the very different approaches of Oxford and Rapido to detail and accuracy (and different prices to match), it will be interesting to compare the two and see if the price difference is reflected in what's in the box. If I've got time, I may write that up as a separate post later in the week.

[stewartingram]

My BR Banana van and BR unfitted (grey) van arrived on Saturday, (along with the Oxford Invacar - a delightful little model). Interesting to note that , like the Pilchards, the grey van has a packet of 3 links enclosed, though the brown Banana van doesn't.

[Steamport Southport]

26 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

My BR Banana van and BR unfitted (grey) van arrived on Saturday, (along with the Oxford Invacar - a delightful little model). Interesting to note that , like the Pilchards, the grey van has a packet of 3 links enclosed, though the brown Banana van doesn't.

 

It should have a pair of screw links as I changed them on all my four straight away. One of each. 

 

It's only the BR grey van I haven't got yet. That's a case of when rather than if I get one.

 

 

 

Jason

Edited April 3, 2022 by Steamport Southport

[41516]

 

I feel dangerously cutting edge modifying something that's very recently come out (and RTR at that), but it's jumped to the head of the van build queue. Following the picture of E632313 in 1952 on page 16 of Cheona's British Railway Vans Volume 2, which, if I can read my Tatlows correctly, is a 19' Diagram 72 van.

 

Changes so far are, usual mod to the brakes to remove one clutch, new safety loops (Bill Bedford, set at the jaunty angle of the prototype), Rumney Models label clip and RCH type plate on the solebar. Axleboxes beefed up with resin copies of Parkside fronts, full length rainstrips, a couple of small plates on the sides to stop damage on the planks where the door fastenings would hit (also seen in LNER Wagons Volume 1) and changes to the door catches.  Wheels replaced with some 2nd hand Gibsons.

 

E632313 also has at least one replacement plywood vent. I filled in the planks on both vents at one end before realising the replacement is slightly steeper raked and also shorter, so they'll need further work or changing.  The Axlebox covers also need changing to the later type with the handle at the top.

 

The GE rachet brake guard is going into the 'thinking about it' phase...

 

Edit - the waft of primer missing the inner part of the rainstrip and uneven shadow doesn't half make it look wonky at this size!

 

Edit two: Also got the brakes the wrong way round - doh! - Post surgery picture below

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by 41516
Photos restored

[The Johnster]

All of which is whetting my appetite a bit!  Mine should be here in the next few days, Rails have dispatched it via RM.  Yay, GER van...

[The Johnster]

It has arrived. 

 

I'm every bit as pleased as I expected with it, crisp tooling and lovely finish.  One's eye is drawn (or at least mine is) to the separate ventilator bonnets, which are very well presented.  I'd agree that it seems a little lightweight and may need ballasting; we'll see how it fares in service.  I have a very minor moan, not particularly aimed at Oxford or this model, about the white paint on the ends of the handbrake levers, hardly ever modelled by the RTR producers and not beyond the wit of even the most hamfisted modeller, even me, to rectify, but it seems a bit like the ha'porth of tar that spoils the ship...

 

It runs superbly freely, and will be better than a spirit level for finding gradients.  I can't recall anything running as freely as this since my Trix 16ton minerals nearly 60 years ago.  9 out of 10, Oxford, perfection is for none but Allah (which is why master Persian carpet weavers always include one false stitch in their carpets).

[Dunsignalling]

Just finished fitting Kadee couplers to my two GER vans (one of each) using the #146 whisker type.

 

Removing the NEM gubbins from the grey van is the work of moments, but great care needs to be taken with the Banana van as the cutting has to be carried out within the highly detailed fitted brake gear without wrecking anything.

 

The operation took barely a minute per end on the grey van, but at least ten on the other one!

 

Photos in a day or two after I've cleared the mess away from my "studio". 

 

John

 

 

[The Johnster]

Here it is, up against the buffers on Cwmdimbath’s mileage road, brake handle end picked out and very light weathering!

[41516]

On 01/03/2022 at 09:26, Wickham Green too said:

Oxford don't have a great history with LNER running numbers ! 

 

Looking at Johnster's photo, they might well have managed to do it again..... Doesn't correspond to any of the 19' (or 19'3") sample number groups In LNER Wagons Volume 1.  At least it starts with a 6, being ex-GE in the LNER's renumbering scheme.

Edited April 7, 2022 by 41516

[31A]

3 hours ago, 41516 said:

 

Looking at Johnster's photo, they might well have managed to do it again..... Doesn't correspond to any of the 19' (or 19'3") sample number groups In LNER Wagons Volume 1.  At least it starts with a 6, being ex-GE in the LNER's renumbering scheme.

 

There is a picture of the real van which carried that number in circulation though; I don't know what the original source of the photo is but at the moment it is visible on the Gaugemaster web site:

 

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/oxford-rail-or76gegv003.html

 

Or is that a van of a different length?  It has wheelbase 10' 6" written on the right hand corner, if that's anything to go by.

 

[Dunsignalling]

7 hours ago, 31A said:

 

There is a picture of the real van which carried that number in circulation though; I don't know what the original source of the photo is but at the moment it is visible on the Gaugemaster web site:

 

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/oxford-rail-or76gegv003.html

 

Or is that a van of a different length?  It has wheelbase 10' 6" written on the right hand corner, if that's anything to go by.

 

AIUI, 10'6" wb is common to all subtypes and the two prototype/scale body lengths are 19' (76mm ) and 19'3" (77mm).

 

The Oxford model is 76mm, so represents the 19' version, though I had to take a ruler to it to know, as will any other normal mortal, IMHO!😇

 

Whether anybody (or more likely, some clever piece of optical technology) can accurately determine a 3-inch margin in the prototype van from the picture is (for me at least) speculative. 

 

Personally, I take the practical view that differences I can't spot from normal layout viewing/operating distances don't really matter. If I obsessed over the odd millimetre, I wouldn't be modelling in OO, would I?

 

I have long wondered if there's are elements in this hobby who grab any shortcoming, however tiny, as an excuse not to spend money. In what other field would we expect perfection for around fifteen quid?

 

John

Edited April 7, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[The Johnster]

The Oxford model’s wheelbase is, correctly, a scale 10’6”.  My disbelief suspension requirements are satisfied well enough by this model; am I able to convince myself that I am looking at a BR liveried van that is not a model, but the real thing, only small and in the 1950s?  Yes, I can to an extent that I can live with, and if I couldn’t I either wouldn’t have bought it or have bought it and worked it up until I could. 
 

Most RTR tooled in the last 30 years meets this standard, and some older toolings do as well.  Oxford models sometimes have failings but my van, and the XPO minerals I have from them are entirely satisfactory for my purposes and excellent value for money. 

[41516]

So, the evening after posting pictures, I was looking over things and thinking about blowing some more primer over things.  Then I saw that I'd got the brakes the wrong way round, having somehow missed the handing of each moulding..... blast...I might have said (or words to that effect)

 

That evening was spent making sure that brake arms correctly went over or under the connecting rod between the two sides and that the right levers went on the correct sides (although I think in time I am going to replace them with brass, depending on my lever guide solution).

 

Gold star for noticing goes to @Wickham Green too for not only noticing, but also sending descreet PM to also let me know of my public failings!

 

 

Numbering. Pictures of both E612630 & E612841 (Credited to the Wessex Collection) appear in The 4mm Wagon Part 2, which I'd looked at but not taken in.  Digging deeper into the sample van numbers given by Tatlow in LNER wagons Vol1, there are significant gaps in the numbering block compared to total wagons built for both diagram 47 and 72 in the 30xxx/31xxx/32xxx ranges.

 

For a bit of fun, I've had a look throught the GE section of LNER Wagons vol1 to see where things might fit in - I've obviously been spending too long reading that nice Mr @Compound2632's  threads...

 

(E6)12630 fits after known numbers of D30 bolsters. There are then more D30s numbers given before (E6)12841 fits in. Diagram 11s 2 plank wool wagons start at 13000, giving an upper limit.

 

The build dates for the bolsters seem to be pre-1910, so if we assume filling that range of numbers with the vans and bolsters is of roughly the same time period, it perhaps suggests that those in that range would be the slightly earlier D47 19'3" vans?  Comments about the extra 1mm above noted!

 

 

I was also unconvinced about the position of the vents for my chosen prototype, they seemed just a touch too low. So I've chopped the backs around a little, raising them up ~half a plank to match and added some .010"x.0.30" strip around the back.

 

I think I should have tweeked the profile a bit more to make them stick out further. Next time perhaps. (and doesn't that roof arc look different now I've posted this!)

 

 

Orginal position on the right.

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by 41516
More pictures

[Compound2632]

19 minutes ago, 41516 said:

For a bit of fun, I've had a look throught the GE section of LNER Wagons vol1 to see where things might fit in - I've obviously been spending too long reading that nice Mr @Compound2632's  threads...

 

This wagon numerology is an addictive game. I pity the Great Western wagon numerologists who have it all laid out on a plate* for them!

 

*Well, two plates, one at York and the other at Kew.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Compound2632
sp.

[Steamport Southport]

8 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

This wagon numerology is an addictive game. I pity the Great Western wagon numerologists who have it all laid out on a plate* for them!

 

*Well, two plates, one at York and the other at Kew.

 

Model a sensible era.

 

The numbers are all in one book!

 

 

 

😆

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Model a sensible era.

 

The numbers are all in one book!

 

 

Where's the fun in that!

[Steamport Southport]

Fun?

 

I didn't get where I am today without knowing there's no fun in getting where I am today.