Countdown to Christmas - an Australian Advent Challenge

[Sithlord75]

Inspired by @Nick Mitchell I have decided to try and get a few projects finished off whilst I await the arrival of the first turnouts for St Alban's (which have been ordered, paid for and posted - now up to Royal Mail and Aussie Post - I've probably got until Chinese New Year...).  Unlike Nick, I'm not going to build a loco in 24 steps by the 25th but will rather attempt to build 24 wagons in 24 days.  Fortunately, Summer Holidays start on the 9th which will help if I fall behind and enable painting to be completed assuming it finally stops raining in sub-tropical Brisbane.

 

Being the First of December, this evening I tackled one of the collection of Midland Railway etches I obtained in Derby at the DJ.  The D362 required the now out of stock 2-341 10' MR chassis.  Fortunately I remembered that at some point either I inadvertently or Shop 2 inadvertently - I'll blame me as it would be the only time Rod got an order wrong in my experience - ended up with a pair of 2-341 etches (normally I get the 2-342 9' ones).  I found the built one in my chassis collection and applied it to the D362 body which built up very nicely.

 

 

One issue I have is the chassis was prebuilt - not having any idea what I was going to do with it, I built it up so I could use it for test purposes for 3D printing.  Now I fitted the brakes as they were on the etch - double sided.  The drawing I have of the D362 has single sided brakes.  Whilst some may say who cares, the answer is I do.  So if anyone knows if the D362s ended up with double sided brakes at some point (ideally post 1918 and prior to 1930) that would be handy.  @nebnoswalhas the Essery book but was unhelpfully at work tonight so couldn't look for me.

 

Day 2 is planned to be the D294 MR Medium Cattle Wagon - similar issue with the brakes so again, any advice would be welcome.

[richbrummitt]

@Compound2632 is the person who I think would know the last detail about MR wagons and in the event that he does not he would know where to find the answer. 

[65179]

10 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Inspired by @Nick Mitchell I have decided to try and get a few projects finished off whilst I await the arrival of the first turnouts for St Alban's (which have been ordered, paid for and posted - now up to Royal Mail and Aussie Post - I've probably got until Chinese New Year...).  Unlike Nick, I'm not going to build a loco in 24 steps by the 25th but will rather attempt to build 24 wagons in 24 days.  Fortunately, Summer Holidays start on the 9th which will help if I fall behind and enable painting to be completed assuming it finally stops raining in sub-tropical Brisbane.

 

Being the First of December, this evening I tackled one of the collection of Midland Railway etches I obtained in Derby at the DJ.  The D362 required the now out of stock 2-341 10' MR chassis.  Fortunately I remembered that at some point either I inadvertently or Shop 2 inadvertently - I'll blame me as it would be the only time Rod got an order wrong in my experience - ended up with a pair of 2-341 etches (normally I get the 2-342 9' ones).  I found the built one in my chassis collection and applied it to the D362 body which built up very nicely.

 

 

One issue I have is the chassis was prebuilt - not having any idea what I was going to do with it, I built it up so I could use it for test purposes for 3D printing.  Now I fitted the brakes as they were on the etch - double sided.  The drawing I have of the D362 has single sided brakes.  Whilst some may say who cares, the answer is I do.  So if anyone knows if the D362s ended up with double sided brakes at some point (ideally post 1918 and prior to 1930) that would be handy.  @nebnoswalhas the Essery book but was unhelpfully at work tonight so couldn't look for me.

 

Day 2 is planned to be the D294 MR Medium Cattle Wagon - similar issue with the brakes so again, any advice would be welcome.

 

You appear to be fine with double side brakes Kevin. If I read Midland Wagons Vol.1 correctly then the switch to double brakes as you've modelled occurred during the production of the D362 (8T) and the essentially identical for our purposes 363 (10T) vans. 

 

Simon

[Sithlord75]

Thanks Simon - and also thanks for the emailed information.  

[nick_bastable]

Kevin I implore you to forget such foolish things and open your  Advent calander every morning and scoff the chocolate inside  😁

 

well its a thought anyway 🤣

 

(struggling with a 2HAL rooves been on my  to do list for 4 years )

[Sithlord75]

Given the temperature down here Nick, the chocolate tends to run out the bottom of the door...

[nick_bastable]

1 minute ago, Sithlord75 said:

Given the temperature down here Nick, the chocolate tends to run out the bottom of the door...

what a deprived  childhood you must have had   any way good luck with the build

 

hows the N6.5  builds going?

[Caley Jim]

9 hours ago, nick_bastable said:

...... scoff the chocolate inside  

Chocolate is always the answer! Now, what was the question? Never mind, the answer is the same! 

 

9 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Given the temperature down here Nick, the chocolate tends to run out the bottom of the door...

Stick it in the fridge! 😁 

 

Jim 

Edited December 2, 2022 by Caley Jim

[Compound2632]

11 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

@Compound2632 is the person who I think would know the last detail about MR wagons and in the event that he does not he would know where to find the answer. 

 

21 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

One issue I have is the chassis was prebuilt - not having any idea what I was going to do with it, I built it up so I could use it for test purposes for 3D printing.  Now I fitted the brakes as they were on the etch - double sided.  The drawing I have of the D362 has single sided brakes.  Whilst some may say who cares, the answer is I do.  So if anyone knows if the D362s ended up with double sided brakes at some point (ideally post 1918 and prior to 1930) that would be handy.  @nebnoswalhas the Essery book but was unhelpfully at work tonight so couldn't look for me.

 

Day 2 is planned to be the D294 MR Medium Cattle Wagon - similar issue with the brakes so again, any advice would be welcome.

 

@richbrummitt is most kind. Drawing 3190 of 3 May 1909 is for "Independent Brake for Covered Goods Wagon" [No copy in Midland Railway Study Centre collection]; this chimes with the adoption of independent either side brakes for other types of Midland wagon, notably the lowside wagons, D305. The lot list first mentions this drawing in relation to lot 824, entered on 21 Feb 1913, but the Midland Railway study Centre has a copy of Drg. 1642, originally prepared for lot 543, that has been annotated up to lot 824 [MRSC item 88-D0886]. This is annotated "(Lot 716) For Brakework see Drawing No. 3190 3.5.09". Lot 716 was entered in the lot list on 5 Mar 1909 and was for just 50 vehicles, so it is possible that Drg. 3190 was made to reflect current practice. The brake lever is annotated 3127; in the Drawing Rigister, Drg. 3127 of 18 Jan 1909 is for "Hand Lever for 12 Ton Coal Wagon". There is no copy of this in the MRSC collection but I think this marks the introduction of long brake levers, in place of the short levers that had been in vogue since the early 1880s. The first 12 ton coal wagons, D352, certainly had the short lever. I would postulate that the last lot of these, lot 720, entered on 14 Jul 1909, had these; the D204 loco coal wagons of lot 731, entered on 2 Nov 1909, certainly did and their drawing, 3255, shows the long lever, labelled 3127 [MRSC item 88-D1426]. it is possible that the change occurred during construction of lot 701; I have yet to examin the Study Centre's copy of Drg. 2156 [MRSC item 88-D0533]. 

 

I notice that your model features a brake cross-shaft, so it should have the Morton cam arrangement on the other side. Vans built in the period 1903-7 - lots 614, 643, 658, and 695 - may have been built with Morton cam brake levers, however for this they were given only one V-hanger on each side, mounted behind the solebar, brake blocks on one side only, and on the off-side not the familiar Morton reversing cam arrangement but the earlier arrangement with the simple Morton cam and the lever facing towards the left hand end of the wagon. However, I don't know when or how these were rebuilt to conform with the Board of Trade's 1911 Rules, requiring levers to face to the right. 

 

However, I think you will be all right with your model if it has independent brakes with short lever on both sides, as many vans built with brakes on one side only, e.g. lot 503 for 1,734 vehicles, evidently had similar brakes added on the off-side to bring them into conformity with the 1911 Rules; certainly many would have been done by your post-Great War period, see for example Midland Wagons Vol. 1 plate 187. Just snip out that cross-shaft!

 

I'm afraid, though, I have to be the bearer of bad news in relation to your D294 medium cattle wagon. There were 100 of these built to lot 323 of 1893, built as renewals of older cattle trucks. The Midland's stock of cattle wagons in 1912, immediately prior to the absorption of the LT&SR wagon stock, which included 200 cattle wagons, was 1,664. Of these, 1,430 had been built since 1895, all but 200 of which were renewals - lot 352 onwards; thus at this date there were still 234 older cattle wagons, which would probably include the 80 large cattle wagons of lot 336 of 1894; it's a question whether this would include the medium cattle wagons of lot 323; I'm inclined to think it might, if preference was given renewing to large wagons from the mid-1880s over medium wagons from the early 1890s. However, in the period 1913-1917 a further 350 large cattle wagons were built as renewals. In July 1913, it was decided that the additional LT&SR cattle wagons made the total stock of cattle wagons too large, so the next 190 cattle wagons coming in for renewal were to be replaced by covered goods wagons; in other words by the completion of Lot 928, i.e. by the end of 1917, 540 old cattle wagons had been broken up since the end of 1912; this undoubtedly included any remaining medium cattle wagons. [This discussion draws on the MR Carriage & Wagon Committee minutes and the Returns of Working Stock included in the company's half-yearly Reports and Accounts (annual after 1912), all material held at The National Archives.]

[Sithlord75]

Thanks for the very comprehensive answer @Compound2632.  I shall snip the offending bit away forthwith!

 

In the event, I didn't end up doing the D294 but rather a Victorian Railways IA wagon for @VRBroadgauge.  This is because I decided a while ago, I should do one for me, one for someone else.  The someone else can be drawn from the collection of VR wagons I'm doing for Bruce, or LMS ones for @2mm Dabbler, some LMS wagons for of the LAG members and some wagons I am doing for one of the NMAG members.  So Odd days shall be for me, and Evens for the Someones.  So either the MR Cattle wagon tomorrow or possibly some LNWR D84s. 

 

[Sithlord75]

3rd December (I thought I should go with the colour theme too).

 

First Saturday of December and ordinarily I would have gone to the local MERG AG meeting but not having had a great night's sleep and having been up early doing things with my eldest daughter and one of her friends I went back to bed.  All was not lost however as this garnered some sympathy with Management and I was allowed to spend the afternoon building a wagon from scratch whilst having the 1st Test v West Indies on (as far as the match goes, we need 7 wickets, they need to bat 3 sessions.  The runs to win are irrelevant at this point I think).

 

So, I got organized and found the D84 print and the appropriate chassis, paint and decals and a few hours later:

 

Somewhat annoyingly I noticed once I blew up the photo the back end seems to have banana'd upwards.  Typically it wasn't particularly noticable until I noticed and now I can't not notice it.  Closer inspection shows the hole drilled for the buffer spigot to go into wasn't as straight as I thought and as a result the buffer isn't in square - not sure why this has resulted in a bulge upwards as the buffer should be below the chassis, but I am sure it is going to be something trivial but annoying to fix.  At least it's Sunday tomorrow so I can do this, finish the MR van from December 1, possibly paint the wagon from December 2, and build another...

 

Management is going out for the morning so depending on the list of chores left, there is a good chance.

[VRBroadgauge]

On 02/12/2022 at 23:23, Sithlord75 said:

Thanks for the very comprehensive answer @Compound2632.  I shall snip the offending bit away forthwith!

 

In the event, I didn't end up doing the D294 but rather a Victorian Railways IA wagon for @VRBroadgauge.  This is because I decided a while ago, I should do one for me, one for someone else.  The someone else can be drawn from the collection of VR wagons I'm doing for Bruce, or LMS ones for @2mm Dabbler, some LMS wagons for of the LAG members and some wagons I am doing for one of the NMAG members.  So Odd days shall be for me, and Evens for the Someones.  So either the MR Cattle wagon tomorrow or possibly some LNWR D84s. 

 

I probably should send up those wheels.

[Sithlord75]

4th December

 

Even numbered day and so a day for building something for Someone.  The winner in today's lottery for getting something built is from the NMAG - I'll leave others to identify whom.  Suffice today, the West Indies came to the party given the well-known love of cricket of the NMAG member and hung on well into the Second Session before succumbing to the inevitable enabling the whole wagon to be built, painted and decalled.

 

 

NB: The errant buffer has been straightened.  It's one of the collection of cast ones I have - can't say I'm a fan even if they are "correct".  I'm going to stick with the turned ones in future and those with flash DSLR cameras who can blow them up to full size can just have a moan about the lack of accuracy!

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Sithlord75

[Sithlord75]

5th December

 

Home early enough from work today to get a second LNWR D84 wagon completed.  I have to confess the body was printed with the other on Saturday so not a whole wagon in a day however, given I was able to get it painted before losing the last of the sun and warmth, it'll do.  

 

 

The two of them together - not a great pic I realised a bit too late to get another so shall do something about that.  The wagons are numbered correctly for D84s although I'm not entirely sure all the details are correct for each one!!

[Sithlord75]

6th December 

 

 @VRBroadgauge got the lucky number tonight again - only a short amount of time this evening owing to Dad duty so it was handy.

 

VR K type flat this time - basically build a chassis and put an etched lid on it.  As there are no buffers (automatic couplings from the 1920s) probably the easiest thing to build.

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Sithlord75
Spelling

[Sithlord75]

7th December

 

I decided tonight to make a start on the LNWR Diagram 13 twin timber wagon (Page 151 of Vol 1 of the LNWR Wagons by the LNWR Society).  I had etches for these from the set David Eveleigh did back in 2012 but on closer inspection these were only kind of useful.  The picture showed quite clearly the rivets and number plate but the bits on the etch were missing all this detail.  An inspection of what I had from other LNWR kits suggested I would be able to cobble something together but there was no top - just the chassis.  I opted to use a spare VR K type wagon deck from @VRBroadgauge for this but this required some packing.

 

In the end, I put bearings in the basic chassis former from David, as this gave the correct wheel base.  The sole bars were built up using strip and then a spare sole bar from a 9' wheel base kit was trimmed to fit.  Headstocks came from spares on the Dia. 88 chassis from Shop 2.  I trimmed the K deck to suit and added a piece of scrap etch under it to thicken it.  Once happy with this I soldered the deck to the chassis and then used some square brass to put the frame around the deck.

 

As David's springs and axle boxes leave a little to be desired in terms of detail (which prior to the dreaded digital photo wouldn't have been an issue), I opted to put some 3DP springs  and axle boxes on rather than faff about trying to make a silk purse etc.

 

All in all, a very satisfying build considering I only kept one part out of the "kit" and made the rest up out of the spares box!  I'll have to do the second one and then work out how to hinge them.  

 

The photos have 8 spoked wheels in - the photo in Vol one has split spoked.  I'll put the correct wheels in after painting!

 

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

So does the pair count as two days?

[Sithlord75]

8 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

So does the pair count as two days?

Well I had originally planned on doing the pair as one day, but that was when I thought it was a complete kit rather than a scratch aid!  So I'm going to plead that as the LNWR numbered the pair separately, I'll build them as separate wagons on separate days.   

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

So I'm going to plead that as the LNWR numbered the pair separately, I'll build them as separate wagons on separate days.   

 

Irrefutable logic!

[Sithlord75]

8th December

 

I know I said even days would be building for someone but I decided to do the second of the D13 pair tonight.  Same approach as last night with the same result!  I did find the correct wheels for this one - it’s the one on the left below.  Shouldn’t have watched as much of the test as I’ll be up for the NMAG zoom in a few hours hence the brevity.
 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Sithlord75

[Sithlord75]

9th December 

 

I really should have done something for someone but as I was up early for the NMAG zoom meeting, I took the lazy option and finished this LNWR Dia 1 open (page 62 of Vol 1 of the LNWR wagon books for those following along).  The body is a @Chris Higgs design I got from Shapeways on one of David Eveleigh’s chassis.  Home brew decals.

 

In the background are somethings started for Someone - in this case @2mm Dabbler but more anon.  As I’m now on summer holidays until the third week of January I’m hoping to get these all sorted.

 

[Caley Jim]

That brake block looks a h**l of a long way from the wheel!  The lever is going to be right down at the bottom of the guide before it makes any contact with wheel at all!

 

Jim

[Chris Higgs]

5 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

That brake block looks a h**l of a long way from the wheel!  The lever is going to be right down at the bottom of the guide before it makes any contact with wheel at all!

 

Jim

 

With that brake lever I would have half-expected the brake block to be one of the original massive wooden ones.

 

Having said that, this diagram 4 wagon has the brake arrangement you have modelled.

 

https://www.lnwrs.org.uk/Wagons/open/Diag004.php 

 

Chris

[Sithlord75]

10th December

 

Back to making something for someone today.  In this case a LMS D1663 van for @2mm Dabbler.  I drew the CAD for the .stl file following some suggestions by @65179 and Michael asked what would he need to do to get some prints. I said he’d need some chassis - what I meant was he could have the prints but what Michael did was get twice as many chassis!  So I’m going ten chassis and prints for him in BR livery and ten for me in LMS.  Other vans to be done are some D1808, D1812, D1814, D1828 and D1832As.  
 

No decals as yet as I haven’t designed the BR ones.

 

[Compound2632]

18 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

That brake block looks a h**l of a long way from the wheel!  The lever is going to be right down at the bottom of the guide before it makes any contact with wheel at all!

 

I'm afraid I looked at it with my 4 mm eyes and subconsciously assumed the wheelsets were 00 but the brake block had been positioned for P4!