Carboard Wagons

[relaxinghobby]

So I found a couple of printed paper sides and ends for 50p at a model show. A grey brake van for the London and North western and printed with LMS markings. A

 

An example of an earlier generation of model kits. A piece of thin paper really. It's in 4mm or 00. No chassis, a far cry from modern highly detailed plastic kits we are now used to.

 

So I stuck them to some cereal packet card with Prit-stick dry rub on glue or similar, a supermarket brand version and so this bit of ancient card kit archaeology began.

 

Layer by layer I cut out window holes and stuck on the next layer of cardboard. Fruit and Fibre I think again the supermarket brand version.

 

One side I've modified to add windows and side access van doors. I'm modelling a light railway which would have acquired older rolling-stock. Any self respecting small railway buying second hand equipment would not hesitate to modify their new second hand stock to suit their own needs.

 

This is a model of a London and North Western Railway van, Diagram 17 six wheeler.

For the side doors I looked at at various internet posted pictures of old LNWR vans. And worked them in between the two diagonal reinforcement timbers.

 

 

I don't know how wide this body should be? The North Western Society's website shows side elevations mostly. Or how thick the timber framing should be. So I've used whatever card I had which is about 0.75 mm thick. It's that grey stuff you find on the back of note pads. It looks about right, casts enough of a shadow to look right.

 

Over all it is going to be a van body about 35 mm wide or 8 foot 9 inch scaled.

 

Painting was first some knotting which soaks into the card stiffening it then some coats of Humbrol enamel grey,

 

 

The big screw is a temporary handle during painting. Another screw was in the end of the roof, you can just see the hole.

You can just make out the L and S of LMS by the left hand corner and before the half door on the right.

 

 

Card is weaker than Plasticard so I've reinfoced the body with cross pieces and cubes of balsa wood.

The roof is made to plug in between the ends, it's card bent over a sanded balsa former.

You can see an earlier coat of grey on the inside, far too light a shade for the LMS ?

 

Problems so far;

 

I'm not sure how wide this van should be, now the body is complete it seems over wide and over scale, I cant find a source of end diagrams.

 

The 6 wheel chassis needs to be designed and made some how, no ideas yet.

I have some 10 foot wheel base Mainline van chassis but the middle set of wheels will have to be added, again somehow?

 

Cutting out cardboard compared to plasticard always seems to leave a slightly raged edge. In the past assembling Alphagraphics card kits I added framing details from pre-cut plastic strip from Greenscene or home cut plastic which is almost as good as super square Greenscene strips and much better than home cut cardboard because you get sharper edges and corners.

 

Cardboard is good for buildings where the slightly almost unnoticeable fuzziness adds a little bit of texture that suits building. Rolling stock needs to be super smooth, especially locos, my cardboard cutting skills is OK for ancient old vans and wagons which would have become rough and ragged over the years.

[roythebus1]

Try using a round-edge craft knife blade for cutting cardboard, then you won't get the ragged edge effect.

[relaxinghobby]

Thanks for the tip Roythebus these photos show up the ragged look. I am definitely getting less smooth in my old age.

 

 

About finished for now with this trad cardboard model but it sits on a plastic frame.

Only had some of the latest large Hornby couplings so stuck them on for testing my 6 wheel chassis bodge-up.

As a whole this model seems very tall and too wide but then I never found a drawing with an end elevation of one of these and most photos are three-quarter views from which it is very hard to judge the width. So I don’t know. I guess the original printed sheet was 4mm scale ?

 

 

Here it is with a 10 ton coal wagon which it seems to dwarf and stands above a brake-saloon made from a hollowed out Mainline brake van.

 

Six wheel construction very crude or as I like to think basic engineering, just some brass

W irons and cup bearings resting on top of the Bachmann brake chassis with two holes cut for the wheel tops. It just rattles about there with just enough movement to ease it around tight curves.

My points are 2 foot, small PECO. My tightest curve on this plank layout.

 

 

 

The green plasticard is just a thin strip to reduce the amount of movement of the W iron has to flop around. Just superglued together. the pin-point axles in their bearings stop it dropping of off the top.

 

The other side is as the makers intended, this side is fantasy, supposing the modifications a small country railway would make by adding doors to make it into a road van for small goods on a country branch and the six wheels help it ride over the low grade lightly laid rack.

 

 

 

I prefer to make my roofs removable, the curved card top is held ridged over a balsa wood former sanded to shape and pushes into the body. there is enough friction to hold it there.

The body has card and balsa wood cross pieces to stop it from crushing when it is picked up.

A metal lump in the middle for ballast weight.

Edited December 1, 2023 by relaxinghobby
editing

[sleeper]

I'm really interested in your post. I have in the past made quite convincing 4mm models out of the grey card you mentioned earlier, I particularly like your idea for the roof, I laminated several layers of card reducing gradually in size and then sanded these to shape, it's surprising how resilient this material is when it comes to sanding the roof.

I sprayed mine using acrylic model paints with a coating of plastic bumper primer from Halfords to seal the card first. This was some years ago and I'm just getting back in to this with an SR droplight coach in 7mm scale so good luck with this particular medium.

[relaxinghobby]

Hi Sleeper

Yes cardboard is an overlooked material for rolling stock. Once it was all we had along with wood and thin veneer ply.

The wood and card does not have the hard shinny surface of plasticard and is vulnerable to damp.

It can be hardened and made more resistant to water with knotting, not a thing I have tried  or the more modern superglue, the cheap variety from Poundland, it just soaks in. Thinned down enamel paint can also be used for the first coat as it will soak in a bit and help harden the surface.

 

This kit was printed on very thin card, barely thicker than paper. You can see that here on the photo I've attached. But the photo is really there to show I've got the width of the kit to match the drawing. I still feel the kit comes out as a bit over scale.

 

 

Finished kit matches printed width of end. I had to cut the ends down to allow for the thickness of the sides. A guess but does not give very neat corners.

 

 

 

The grey is the original thin kit sheet.

The brown card is a handy packet box.

Gosh that coupling is wonky.

Edited December 26, 2023 by relaxinghobby