brian777999 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I am building the Coopercraft GWR 4 plank wagon (diagram 05). The instructions say to install the pairs of door drop springs on each side of the wagon inline with the rubbing strips... but there are no rubbing strips. However, there is a circular metal plate in the middle of the fourth plank on each side of the wagon. Perhaps these wagons only had a single door drop spring on each side ? I have looked through " A History of GWR Goods Wagons " but I can find no photographs of wagons with single door drop springs so I am not sure. I am also building the 5 plank wagon and this does have two rubbing strips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davknigh Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Brian, I just built the same wagon, I think the springs line up with the hinges. The round plate is to protect the door from the brake shaft (or vice versa) HTH David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian777999 Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 You could be right about the springs lining up with the hinges. That is what I was going to do at first but that would place the door springs very wide apart and I have never seen any photograps of springs placed in that position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaScala Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Refer Russell's "GWR Wagons Appendix" figure 20 showing 3 4 plank O5's and a nondescript older 4 planker. The right pair have two circular protectors on their doors lining up with two short springs on solebars. The third one (second from left has a central protector lining up with the bottom of the brake hanger. This suggests two springs two plates on side without brake gear, one central plate no springs on the side with brakes. No evidence of springs lining up with hinges anywhere. Fig 23 shows unbraked side very clearly, particularly shape of springs. Some later ones seem to have twin springs/circular plates on the same side as V hanger. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian777999 Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 But the model has one circular plate on each side. It looks like a case of having to take a bit of artistic licence as the model is probably not quite 100% accurate. I will wait and see what anybody else might have to say about it. These GWR open wagons have been giving me a lot of trouble. I thought they would be quite simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian777999 Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 Yes, I am building both the 4 plank and 5 plank with the lever brake ; one lever brake and one set of brake shoes on one side only. The 4 plank wagons were later given a lever brake on the other side (from 1927) but I will depict the earlier version. Kits from Somerset : So no door springs on the 4 plank wagon. Well, that solves that problem. When will the kits be available with the swan neck lever ? I really want to build the 5 plank wagons with DC1 brake gear in the future as this was the most common version. Also, can something be done about the 4 dimples on the floor of the wagons ? The Ratio kit has the same feature so I realise that this is part of the molding process and perhaps difficult to remove. I think it will still be visible after painting so I will have to cover it with a wagon load of some sort. I was thinking of filling them with araldite/glue but I am wary of damaging the plank molding on the inside of the wagon. LaScala : I thought the "GWR Wagon Appendix" by Russell was just a list of diagrams and numbers which is why I had never bothered to purchase it. Does it have photographs as well ? How many pages is it ? It sounds like a very useful GWR reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaScala Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Brian, "GWR Wagons Appendix" is indeed a pictorial book published in 1974. My copy was bought by my father in 1974 (!) and is well thumbed indeed. It has almost nothing but large plate B&W pics (mainly from Swindon archives no less) of very high resolution plus a few of Jim's snapshots. I can scan the pages showing the O4' & O5's if you like. It is much better at least in the standard of photos than the precursor 1971 "Pictorial record of GWR wagons" from the dawn of OPC. This does have drawings however, but by and large the pics are much poorer. Hugh (La Scala) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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