Adam's EM Workbench: Farewell for now

[Porcy Mane]

OK, I've just locked myself in my water closet (naked) and flogged myself with a bag full of broken red panda underframes. By way of compensation I went for a search through my negs and come up with this.

 

 

Possibly a Diagram 1808-Lot 672 according to my notes.

 

P

[Fat Controller]

... and it has an upright vacuum brake pipe. A post 1957 BR conversion would have a drop pipe.

 

These wagons don't have raised nuts (or bolts) to hold the boarding in place.

 

Paul

I'm not sure if it's a trick of the light, but the axle-box cover seems to be inclined rather than vertical; a bit like those on the MoT ore hoppers and the Warflats/Wells.

[Zero Gravitas]

OK, I've just locked myself in my water closet (naked) and flogged myself with a bag full of broken red panda underframes. By way of compensation I went for a search through my negs and come up with this.

 

Possibly a Diagram 1808-Lot 672 according to my notes.

 

P

1. Thank you so much for mental image, which I cannot now unthink...

2. So that’s what happened to all the Red Panda undeframes!

[jjnewitt]

I'm not sure if it's a trick of the light, but the axle-box cover seems to be inclined rather than vertical; a bit like those on the MoT ore hoppers and the Warflats/Wells.

 

The axlebox is inclined. It's an LMS platefont box, probably a 9" x 4 1/4" journal one. They were pretty common and a number can be seen in the LMS vans collection on Paul Bartlett's website. Looks something like this

 

 

Justin

[Adam]

While I await the buffers, something else. Again, it's a completion job, this time, the detailing of an ESSO anchor-mounted Bachmann compromise courtesy of etched components from Rumney Models. Following Pete Johnson's example (and noting that this is never going to be exactly right), the full collection of modifications can be seen below:

 

 

The etched ladder makes an enormous difference, the valve wheel perhaps less so but it's still very definitely worth doing. As noted, it's a compromise - the tank diameter is neither hither nor quite yon (and this one has been extended, proportionately, to look more or less like a proper B class vehicle). Still, it's not a bad approximation so long as you don't have an accurately scaled version alongside it...

 

 

Adam

[Enterprisingwestern]

I thought you were on with a margarine van!

 

Mike.

[Adam]

I'm going to have to find something else to make, the LMS van is now complete following the arrival of buffers in today's post (the replacement corner plate comes from a mismatched pair of sides being supplied). Paint will have to wait until it warms up a bit more. The chalkboards on the ends are from a Rumney etch per Ben Alder's picture and seem to have been a common enough retro-fit by BR(?) which suggests the BR-refit many of these vans seem to have had; the reason for wanting to do one of these was the surprising number of freshly repainted examples that appear in colour photos from the early '60s - the corrugated ends are quite distinctive so the combination of axleboxes and chalkboards hint at that.

 

 

 

Not bad at all, I reckon.

 

Adam

Edited March 3, 2018 by Adam

[ullypug]

Looks very nice too.

[Enterprisingwestern]

I don't wish to seem picky, but that coupling looks a bit "hefty", and maybe a tad low for pointwork.

Have you tried the Masokits version?

 

Mike.

[Adam]

I don't wish to seem picky, but that coupling looks a bit "hefty", and maybe a tad low for pointwork.

Have you tried the Masokits version?

 

Mike.

 

That *is* the Masokits version albeit the long version - I can't get on with the short version at all even with sprung buffers. It's clear of the railhead, just about, and the three-quarter view has not shown it to its best advantage.

 

Adam

Edited March 6, 2018 by Adam

[Adam]

The quick and the [very] slow, both ex-works. Only one is finished, however - I can't find my supply of overhead electrification flashes so I've had to order some.

 

First the quick, yet to be weathered:

 

 

Now the slow, with which I'm really rather pleased having got this far:

 

 

The difference is that one is the blend of two good kits and the other - while fundamentally sound - has some weird materials choices (whitemetal headstocks which shrank badly, and overthick brass, notably) and an appalling rendition of the (admittedly complex) brakegear. The lovely sprung buffers I've kept for something else where access to the rear of the buffer beam is possible. The unfitted version, that has much more simple brakes would be a much, much better kit.

 

Looks good though.

 

Adam

Edited March 6, 2018 by Adam

[Porcy Mane]

Only one is finished, however - I can't find my supply of overhead electrification flashes so I've had to order some.

 

 

No worries. The old ones will turn up the same day their replacements arrive.

[Enterprisingwestern]

That *is* the Masokits version albeit the long version - I can't get on with the short version at all even with sprung buffers. It's clear of the railhead, just about, and the three-quarter view has not shown it to its best advantage.

 

Adam

 

Apologies Adam, currently removing foot from mouth!

 

Mike.

[Adam]

Apologies Adam, currently removing foot from mouth!

 

Mike.

 

No worries Mike, it's one of the compromises of using oversize but practical and robust couplings; they don't always look amazing in pictures!

 

 

No worries. The old ones will turn up the same day their replacements arrive.

 

Of course... I'm looking forward to finding where I've put them!

 

Adam

[Adam]

Wagons rolling off the line, and this brace of vans I'm quite pleased with. The LMS van you'll be sick of the sight of by now, and consists of a modified Cambrian body on a Rumney Models chassis (state of the 4mm finescale art?). You could easily achieve a similar result using Parkside mouldings with BR W irons - as Porcy's image shows, some were re-equipped: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37002-adams-em-workbench-wagons-roll/?p=3063548) The LNER van, by contrast, is more or less straight Bachmann with new brakeshoes and safety loops.

 

 

 

There also follows the iron ore hopper and at this point I'm happy to call that complete:

 

 

Adam

Edited April 4, 2018 by Adam

[Adam]

It's all gone quiet! Well, not quite, but here's an update before I disappear off on holiday (Italy, in case you're wondering). A couple of things on the go. First, we have the reconstruction of an ancient Ratio GWR Open C. This, part of a collection acquired from a late, fondly remembered, club member has already been reworked once, with D&S w-irons but not a lot else. I rather like long opens - later pipe wagons included - because they weren't only use for the carriage of tubes but for anything that would fit - bulky but light(ish).

 

 

The chassis is vintage Ratio and not bad, considering the circumstances. As noted the W-irons are from D&S and will be recycled at some point since they're perfectly good. The Ratio kit represents a diagram O.8, apparently (GWR 4mm Wagon and Van Kits), and this has knock on effects for the conversion. The body needed replacement doors with a barrow plank and feathered top edge - it was straight up and down - and some new strapping on the ends and sides. Meanwhile, the chassis will go from lever brake to Dean Churchward.

 

 

Here's the body with replacement doors and floor (both 40 thou') prior to the fitting or offering up of the chassis. The latter comes from the Morgan Designs range sold through the Scalefour Society e-shop. Though labelled and marketed as a conversion from an Open C to a O.18, so far as I can tell it's good for all of the Open C designs which differ mainly in the arrangements of the body to floor ironwork. Here's the etch with the basic floor cut out:

 

 

The design is quite unusual since it is basically a form of three-point compensation but instead of a rocking W iron at one end, it uses transverse springs with a built-in height adjustment using a 10BA screw acting on a captive nut. This obviously means that all W irons are static removing the need for mucking about separating springs and axlebox mouldings with the consequent visual disruption. Fair enough, but the instructions miss the key drawing/photograph which shows how the complete set up should look... This caused a certain amount of head scratching, as did the separate W irons on one side. So far as I can work out these are rendered thus so as not to flex the W irons when putting the wheels in: while this is a sound engineering solution it is perhaps a bit much in the circumstances and needs more 10BA nuts than I currently have access to. Subsequently, I soldered the fixed end in retaining the sprung end as designed to make fettling the spring units that much easier (no, the instructions didn't really help here).

 

 

I can go into all of this in more depth if anyone wants? The system does work quite well, I think, but I have had to work out where a lot of the bits go according to how they fit rather than how the overly-wordy instructions state. The headstocks have been added now (but not photographed) in plastic sheet and strip so from here on it's about detailing.

 

 

Still, we're a long way down the road to a handsome wagon which will be, I think, an O.19. Much, much easier is this, an Airfix (now 'Kitmaster') Prestwin. Lovely mouldings, little bit of flash, very straightforward.

 

Adam

Edited February 4, 2023 by Adam

[ullypug]

Very nice. I've an open c awaiting painting, though I used Bill Bedford sprung W irons for that.

I think the Morgan toad instructions ran to 33 pages. They are very good at solving a problem that doesn't exist in my world, namely flexing w irons!

[Adam]

Very nice. I've an open c awaiting painting, though I used Bill Bedford sprung W irons for that.

I think the Morgan toad instructions ran to 33 pages. They are very good at solving a problem that doesn't exist in my world, namely flexing w irons!

 

Well yes - I think they're massively over-engineered but include the brakegear (and the solebars which are very nice indeed) which is what I was after. The advantage is that, having figured out how they're meant to work, I can go back to my usual approach to instructions, i.e., to read them after the event and find out what I should have done... Anything much shorter in its wheelbase and I'd have probably soldered the thing up solid. Philistinic? Yep!

 

Adam

Edited April 3, 2018 by Adam

[Adam]

After hols in Italy, more on the Prestwin - Airfix got so much of this right that all I'm really doing is finessing (Bachmann, take note):

 

 

On top, a smattering of handrails (Airfix moulded 'em as lumps) and some valve wheels will be replaced with etchings.

 

 

 

Missing from the Airfix moulding is an access panel which was present on both sides which I've added in 5 thou' together with vac' pipes and so on. I ought to think about brake levers...

 

Adam

 

 

[Zero Gravitas]

 

Missing from the Airfix moulding is an access panel which was present on both sides which I've added in 5 thou' together with vac' pipes and so on. I ought to think about brake levers...

Adam, I’m slightly ashamed to say I’ve had a part-completed Prestwin in a box for literally 25 years because I can’t work how how the brake gear actually all fits together... if you’ve got any clues, I’d be very grateful and might even celebrate by finishing the thing...

[Adam]

Adam, I’m slightly ashamed to say I’ve had a part-completed Prestwin in a box for literally 25 years because I can’t work how how the brake gear actually all fits together... if you’ve got any clues, I’d be very grateful and might even celebrate by finishing the thing...

 

Do you mean what Airfix give you or what the real thing did? If the former I have some sense - if the latter not a clue - and in the absence of drawings I'm unlikely to ever get one. These shots from Paul Bartlett show some sorts of linkages behind the multitude of V hangers:

 

https://goo.gl/ZuVCsB

 

https://goo.gl/1nkYYA

 

The brakeshoes definitely do not have connecting yokes and the springs hide the linkages either side of the wheels

 

https://goo.gl/JhWoid

 

I'm not sure how much, if any, of this I'm going to include at this point since even by my standards, this stuff is difficult to see...

 

Adam

Edited April 14, 2018 by Adam

[Adam]

A resurrection job, a Parkside 24 and a half tonner. It's had new buffers, axleboxes and v hangers and couplings - and EM wheels (it came with P4 ones) - this features detail upgrades and weathering to suit a late build of these curiously basic wagons: the final batches were built only a couple of years before the first few batches of HopABs (one has to wonder why, at that point, they bothered); they differed, for our purposes in having roller bearings and OLEO buffers (Rumney Models and Lanarkshire Models respectively).

 

 

And, with Somerset's inexorable progress to second place in the County Championship in the background, the 24 and a half tonner is now complete above the solebar and most of the way there below it. Done: commode handles, brake levers, guides, corner reinforcements. To do: complete brakes, safety loops, door springs (all eight of the blighters).

 

 

 

Adam

[Adam]

Two models of a pair of wagons, whose prototypes were built in the same year (1962) and so, so different. Well here's the first, ready for paint.The pesky door springs are pinned through the solebars so should prove durable - unlike the earlier version, I've represented the stiffening/fixings at the top in more brass strip; the rivets will be spotted in with PVA, I think.

 

 

The Prestwin, meanwhile, inches on with all those little details that are individually fun to do, but collectively start to drive you slightly crackers. Up top we have valve wheels (from a Mainly Trains etch for cab fittings), instruction board (the right shape) and stops for the manholes (staples); lower down we've got brake levers (modified from an etch Dave Bradwell does), some odds and sods of pipework and the like. I've got to work out what additional brake gear should go in and ladders, and, oh, I don't know what...

 

 

 

 

Still, it's coming on: is it really much better than what Airfix mastered 50 years ago? Not a lot.

 

Adam

Edited April 25, 2018 by Adam

[AJCT]

I'm looking forward to seeing how you do the ladders.  Mine still have the Airfix ones !  Fascinating thread - lots of inspiration.

 

Alasdair

[Enterprisingwestern]

I'm looking forward to seeing how you do the ladders.  Mine still have the Airfix ones !  Fascinating thread - lots of inspiration.

 

Alasdair

 

Stenson Models would be a good starting point.

 

Mike.