William's Gauge 1 3D Workbench: SR and BR(S)

[Lacathedrale]

My first major project in 3D modelling with an end goal of printing, has been to model up the SECR / SR van to diagram 1426, from the Southern Wagons Vol. 3 book. I felt that this was a good prototype choice: the wagon was Maunsell-designed for the SECR and built by both the SECR and SR to Diagram 1426. Several of these vans were rebuilt with ventilated sides for use on London-Dover-Folkestone fruit traffic, subsequently labelled as Diagram 1427. This van survived into BR revenue-earning service, and several becoming departmental vans in the black livery. In addition to the livery and body variants, there were both unfitted and vacuum fitted versions.

 

 

As much as possible matches the drawings, and I leveraged some existing W-irons created by John Dixon, this is what the underframe looks like:

 

One of the more difficult components was the brake lever, since it bends and twists in all three axis, but with an extrude and intersect I got it working with thanks to the people in this subforum. Each side of the braking system is a single piece, including the brake handle and guide - the W-iron and rod hangers are attached to a plate which is inserted up into the recess of the floor.

 

The finished model is shown below:

 

There are always small tweaks to make for these things - setting the W-irons slightly lcoser together, thickening up the brake handles to make them more robust, etc.  which I'm slowly getting around to. I also have the vacuum-fitted, ventilated version coming together now. I'm sad to understand this ventilated version isn't in the stone-and-red livery of the insulated vehicles, but I'm sure I'll find something in due course.

 

The next item on the virtual workbench may end up being an SR Dia. 1349 10t 5-Plank - basically because it just requires a new body ontop of what I've already built!