Dapol Stove R Brake van replacement chassis

[macgeordie]

When the Hornby magazine announced that they were going to produce a model of the LMS Stove R in conjunction with Dapol I was very keen to have one. When I got my hands on a model I was a bit disappointed to find that although the body was a beautiful job, the chassis was a poor compromise to allow the van to run on very tight radius track and also the wheels were undersize being 3' rather than the correct 3'6".

 

Not long ago another forum member modified one of my other 6 wheel van kits to use the chassis on his own Dapol Stove R and it appears to have worked well so I decided to produce a chassis dedicated to this vehicle.

 

Here is a photo of one of the test builds.

  

 

I have produced two sheets of etch for this, the main one is in 15 thou nickel silver for the chassis with an additional etch in 12 thou brass for the battery boxes.

 

 

 

The body can be easily removed from the original chassis by carefully pulling the two apart releasing the pegs at each corner.

Once the chassis is partly assembled the mounting holes can be marked on the floor and drilled out with a 1.5mm drill ready to take a couple of small self tapping screws.

 

 

I'm currently working on the final test build so I'll post more photos as the build progresses.

 

Ian

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by macgeordie
Typo corrected

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Very nice as ever, don't suppose you fancy doing a body kit too to address the faults in the Dapol version?

I reckon that one up to your usual standard will easily eclipse the existing kits on the market.

 

Mike.

[Roger Sunderland]

I am that man who modified a Dapol Stove with your excellent 6 wheel chassis some time ago. Well done for doing this Ian, I suspect there are many Dapol Stoves that either do not see the light of day or lie idle because of that appalling chassis. My “prototype “ continues to run superbly - what’s next?

[iak]

Excellent! 

More tempting goodness Ian, bravo...

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Another thought Ian, can this be easily adapted, by us or you, to fit the Five79 cell truck?

 

Mike.

[macgeordie]

47 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Very nice as ever, don't suppose you fancy doing a body kit too to address the faults in the Dapol version?

I reckon that one up to your usual standard will easily eclipse the existing kits on the market.

 

Mike.

Hi Mike

I don't think there is really much point producing yet another kit for the Stove. The Comet one which Andrew sells is not at all bad apart from the chassis, but you could always use this chassis on the Comet body with a few small modifications. 

The Hornby bodyshell depicts the earlier Dia 1796 van of 1932, which had horizontal beading above and below the windows – a total of 75 were built. The Comet kit is for a Dia 2000 vehicle with 45 being built 1938-40.

 

Ian

[macgeordie]

43 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Another thought Ian, can this be easily adapted, by us or you, to fit the Five79 cell truck?

 

Mike.

 

If I knew what a Five79 cell truck was I might be able to tell you 😂

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, macgeordie said:

 

If I knew what a Five79 cell truck was I might be able to tell you 😂

Do you mean the 6-wheel Fish Van? The chassis for that should be available as a separate kit. See here:-

https://www.five79.co.uk/4mm-Standard-Gauge-Kits/

[cctransuk]

2 hours ago, macgeordie said:

 

If I knew what a Five79 cell truck was I might be able to tell you 😂

 

It is indeed the Five79 LMS fish van, and the chassis is available separately; and is suitable for the STOVE R.

 

CJI.

[macgeordie]

13 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

It is indeed the Five79 LMS fish van, and the chassis is available separately; and is suitable for the STOVE R.

 

CJI.

 

The only 6 wheel LMS Fish van I know of is this one https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/152343-6-wheel-express-fish-van-lmsbr-4mm-scale/&tab=comments#comment-3869279 which I have already done but the photos are still missing from the thread so here is photo of the van I made. If this isn't the van in question does anybody have a photo of the said vehicle?

 

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, macgeordie said:

 

The only 6 wheel LMS Fish van I know of is this one https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/152343-6-wheel-express-fish-van-lmsbr-4mm-scale/&tab=comments#comment-3869279 which I have already done but the photos are still missing from the thread so here is photo of the van I made. If this isn't the van in question does anybody have a photo of the said vehicle?

 

 

Nope, that's it - Five79 do a decent plastic kit.

 

The chassis can be adapted for a STOVE R.

 

CJI.

[micklner]

Never seen one only adverts.

The ex Chivers/Five 79  kit comes with a dummy centre plastic wheel with a flat bottom . It does'nt read like the chassis can actually go around any bends, when fitted with normal centre flanged wheel ?.

 

https://www.five79.co.uk/gallery/RC436 Freehand instructions PC.pdf

 

Not even close to the etched kit.

 

I have built his LNER Steel Full Brake a superb kit, I am sure this kit will be just as good.

Edited September 25, 2022 by micklner

[Enterprisingwestern]

My apologies for the confusion, I only know of the LMS vans in their BR departmental days as battery carriers.

My query related to replacing the plastic four and two 2/3rds wheel chassis of the five79 kit.

More research required,

 

Mike.

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, micklner said:

Never seen one only adverts. I believe the ex Chivers/Five 79  kit comes with a centre plastic wheel with a flat bottom . It does'nt read like the  the chassis can actually go around any bends, when fitted with normal centre flanged wheel ?.

 

My STOVE R has one; though I fitted simple equalised, inside-bearing running gear of my own design.

 

As supplied, the chassis is indeed designed with dummy centre wheels.

 

Chivers / Five79 kits are, IMHO, the best of their genre.

 

CJI.

 

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

The underside of the Five79 LMS Fish Van floor is flush bar a few locating ridges, so I doubt it would need much alteration to accept a chassis designed for the Hornby Mag/Dapol Stove R.

 

The body mouldings are very good IIRC.

 

John

Edited September 25, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[ianLMS]

Jidenco made a 6-wheel lms fish van. Just finished building it. Downside is that they have a fixed chassis. I wanted to use one of your chassis that u built for the Palethorpes vans but didnt know how to get hold of one so i built a modified version of yours, using parts from the comet w-iron kits, and doing a bit of cut n shunt. Seems to work.

 

 

[macgeordie]

Just to get the thread back onto the original theme, here are a couple of photos of the stuff I did yesterday.

 

The chassis basic frame and headstock overlays fitted.

 

 

Preparing to fit the solebars

 

 

Solebars and Axleguards now in place. The gap between the two is the space where the cast 'J' hanger springs fit in a similar fashion to the Fish van photo and the earlier test build of the Stove shown above.

 

 

It should be possible to use this chassis as a conversion for the plastic fish van mentioned above but you would probably need to make some provision for fixing the body to the chassis. Also you wouldn't need the battery box etch or the dynamo castings as the fish vans didn't have any electrical equipment fitted.

 

Ian

[brossard]

Very useful project Ian.  I futzed about with these things and got the BR running reliably by cobbling up modified axle units from the Comet parts.  The small wheels were simply unacceptable.

 

I did try to update the LMS version with the Comet underframe kit.  From what I can see, your kit looks better than the Comet.  However I found the body cantrail stripe to be in the wrong position.  In trying to fix that I ended up with a dogs breakfast.  In the end I took Coachman's (Larry Goddard) advice and did the entire Comet kit which turned out well.

 

John

[macgeordie]

Yesterdays work.

 

Solebar overlays and long footstep fitted.

 

 

Running chassis parts prepared.

 

 

Running chassis assembled.

 

 

I need to fit the brake shoes and yokes to the individual sections next. The shoes fit into the small square holes on the carrier so I have as usual provided holes suitable for OO or EM/P4 wheelsets.

 

Ian

[macgeordie]

A bit more progress, not as much as I would like but I'm still getting over a dose of Covid which has slowed me down.

 

Brake shoes and brake yokes now in place.

 

 

Vacuum cylinder and associated bits added.

 

 

Battery boxes and regulator box next.

 

Ian

[macgeordie]

A bit more done.

 

Battery box components

 

 

Battery box carrier frame assembly.

 

 

Battery box in place.

 

 

and finally the regulator box also in place

 

 

The next job is the Guards footsteps. There is a longer one on one side and three smaller ones which need to be fitted. 

 

Ian

[macgeordie]

Footsteps now assembled and in place.

 

The components

 

 

Steps assembled

 

 

Steps fitted to the van

 

 

 

Next job is the castings; buffers, springs and axleboxes.

 

Ian

[Zero Gravitas]

I’ve seen enough - please just take my money!

 

Seriously - is the order book open for this yet?  I’ve got a Five79 fish van chassis I’ve been working up to putting on my Stove R, but this will be a better solution (with all due respect to Roger Chivers, whose 4mm kits I like very much indeed).

[macgeordie]

13 hours ago, Zero Gravitas said:

I’ve seen enough - please just take my money!

 

Seriously - is the order book open for this yet?  I’ve got a Five79 fish van chassis I’ve been working up to putting on my Stove R, but this will be a better solution (with all due respect to Roger Chivers, whose 4mm kits I like very much indeed).

 

😂  O.K. Mark I've put you on the list. I'm going to order the etches for those members who have requested one of these on Monday so if anybody else wants one, please message me before then.

 

I fitted the castings yesterday as you can see in the photos below.

The little slots on the top edge of the castings are to clear the pegs which are the mounting for the solebar footsteps.

 

 

 

Buffers and pipes in place

 

 

I need to get a coat of paint onto it now and a little bit of weathering to finish it off.

I fitted the NEM pocket to this one as you can see but if you don't need it just leave it off and fit a working coupling hook instead. There are parts on the etch to make a screw link coupling if you need one.

 

 

Ian

[Bluebell Model Railway]

This etched solution looks great, hardly run mine due to its inability to actually run... I remember the prototype ran faultlessly at the club I attended then they released the carriage then it wouldn't run at all...  Weird. 

 

Great kit, certainly a much needed solution if it was available to people.