airnimal

I think that Slaters Manning Wardle buffers may be the ones you want. I have a set in my bits box if they are any good to you ? If you want them, send me a PM with you details and I will put them in the post. Graham Jones from NHRS has sadly died.

I have spent several hours applying nuts to most of the ironwork. There are large washers with coach bolts on the lower body side which I am going to do next before I get on on to the underframe and running gear.

I am following this thread because my wife is from Salford. She was born in Weaste and lived there until she was 24 very near Mode Wheel. Her grandfather was a timber carrier on the canal and died in a accident at work before she was born. I am also interested in the canal and its railways and your unusual models of wagons. Mike

The St Peter's cream stout appeals to me but I haven't seen it in any of of supermarkets around where we live. Bought a can of Deucebox citrus double IPA. It's a heavy 8.4 which I found to have quite a kick followed by another of my favourite beers McEwan's champion that use to be called No 1. I can't drink large amounts of ale nowadays so a couple of beers with a bit of clout does it for me.

Graham, I don't need anything challenging in my life at present, there is more than enough going on in the world as it is. As for patience, having a wife and 3 daughters in the household with only one bathroom patience comes as second nature. Wasn't there a resin kit for the early GWR brake van from Meteor models ? As for making stuff for other people, I have built lots of models over the years for other people but when I retired I said I would only build for myself. Carrying on with the ironwork, most has been applied but the top brackets at the non verandah end have left off until I work out how to make the lamp irons. I think I know how to make them but I don't have the right brass T section in stock. A bit more forward thinking would have foreseen this discrepancy because I have sent a big order to Eilleen's for material that could have included the necessary items. I am pleased with the fit of the plastic roof which just clips in . I think I also need a new brush for my liquid glue. My old one must be over 30 years old and I always thought that the Slaters mex brush was expensive, but at £3.85 at the present price I think it has been good value. If I buy a new one and it last as long I will be 99 !

A couple of new doors have been made along with another floor because the doors are thinner leaving a gap behind them. All the frames have there chamfer applied and the start of new ironwork. The corner ironwork at the bottom of the body is wider than are the others. There is still a heck of a way to go but I am glad I started again.

I think the reason people perceive my work as " crisp, sharp, parallel and perpendicular edges " is down to the material and less to my workmanship. Evergreen plastic is so brilliant with its square edges almost guaranteed that when building up to a known size like the top of the headstock I can pick up a piece of 60 thou strip and it fits in place perfectly. Evergreen don't do any triangle sizes so I had to modify a strip of quarter round and file the the curved part off. This was achieved by placing it in an upturned brass 2mm x 2mm angle and drawing a scalpel blade along the protruding top edge to leave a triangle strip which when gone over which microfine or ultrafine polishing clothes gives a smooth finish. This then fits perfectly the top edge of the headstock leaving the results you see here. Before Evergreen came out I was spending so much time trying to achieve straight edges on plastic sheets by filing and sanding and the results were never as good.

Thanks Dave, I'm sure I will have forgotten about this small fault when its finished. I was woken up at 1 ' o'clock this morning an unable to get back to sleep I got up and had a small beer and looked at doing a bit to the brake van. I have put the end stanchion on and the wooden packing pieces behind the buffers. I also found a plastic roof of the right profile in my bits box. I had to cut it down to length but it's a bonus finding one that fits nearly perfect. I find roofs one of the hardest parts to get right.

Will the added slow down and concentration being improved I have put the angles on the frames for the water to run off and not rot the timbers.

I had a good day today with the second end made and fixed in place. Just the small doors to do and fit. I feel more confident that this one will succeed and I have corrected the faults on the first one, There is still a long way to go but the basic shell looks right to me.

I have assembled the body with the parts I have so far because I still have the verandah end to make. I have taken into account my interpretation of the drawing on the first build and looking more thoroughly at both the drawings and the photographs for my second build. On the first model I have 5 .25 planks and on the second build I have 6. Unfortunately for me I have managed to get a slight bow in the framing on one side by a few thou. Will anyone notice or care, but I am mad with myself after trying hard to not make mistakes. My wife thinks I am daft for caring over something so small and has been giving me lots of suggestions on future builds. I know she trying to be helpful and I am grateful for her interest but ........

Patience is something I have when things go wrong otherwise I wouldn't be able to start again after spending 40 hours only to scrap the first or second attempt. Taking in all the details in when looking at something like a drawing or photograph is where I fall down. Having so many things going around my head at the same time is a problem to. Getting into trouble with the house authority can also be distracting like when I got a Black line from a permanent marker down the Cream curtains. I have only myself to blame. The sides have been laid out and hopefully I have it right this time. This is unusual because I do not normally put the framing on until I build the body.

I have cut the sides out but this time I have cut out where the half doors are going to be rather than do an overlay on the body side. This will make the door thinner by 60 thou which I hope will give a better appearance. The 2 sides are made slightly oversize by about 10 thou so I can file them back to size once they are glued on to the frame. The brass footboard hangers have been made and bent to shape but left overlong until I get to the underframe stage. I am taking my time this time and hopefully not making any mistakes. My wife says I rush things and that is the reason I scrap so much of my work. Fair comment i suppose.

After a lot of thinking about what to do and several attempts at rescuing the brake van I have decided to start afresh with a new build taking account of the various mistakes from the last one. A new frame has been cut out and glued together and then marked out for the foot board hangers. Because the struts have a curve at the top where it enters the body I had to come up with a way for them to be removable without causing damage to the frame. So I have drilled 4 holes in each side of the solebars and glued a small offcut of brass tube in the frames. The hangers will be made from .8mm brass wire which is very tight fit in the brass tube but a quick rub with a file puts a slight taper on them allowing to be a perfect fit.

Graham, I couldn't live with a fault that would have caught my eye everytime I looked at the model. So the only thing to do was try and correct the fault. I was doing well removing the chamfer part above the buffer beam when I caught one of the diagonal frame members with my scalpel. Nothing I could do now but remove the complete end. The inevitable wisdom has kick in and binned the lot. I am sure I could have ignored the fault or even sold or given it away but it's not the way I work. Start again with the knowledge I have learned but this time I will not be counting the hours spent.

I have spent the best 4 hours taking off most of the nuts and replacing them with the small variety and putting on the ironwork on one side. I had to take off and replace the top panels because the ironwork wouldn't fit the space because I had made the panel material parts oversize. Now I have found another problem with this ironwork. On the corner ironwork at the bottom of the body, mine sits at the bottom of the frame instead of in the middle. Where did I go wrong ? Taking a straight edge to the drawing I have found that the drawing of the ironwork doesn't line up with each other which I have followed to the letter. I also missed in the photograph of No 459 that it has packing blocks behind the buffers. Looking at the photograph of No 60 the chamfer part does have a small flat part under the chamfer which would account for the discrepancy around the corner with the ironwork. So where do I go from here. The obvious answer is to remove the chamfer piece over the buffers and place a small piece in and replace the chamfer part and made the buffer packing pieces. I have mentioned before observation and I have only myself to blame for this extra work if I wish to make an accurate model.

I am not sure using 10 x 30 to make nuts is the right thing to use. 30 thou works out at a scale 1 5/16" were as 10 x 20 works out as 7/8" I seem to remember many years ago reading that it is better to make small details a bit undersize than a bit oversize. So I have removed the larger size nuts and replaced with the smaller size on the centre ironwork in the middle of the end. I think it does look better so I may remove the others before I get to far with the build.

Looking at the photographs in the NSR wagon book, wagon No 459 appears to have very heavy ironwork and bolts. I have spent a couple more hours putting on the first of these on one end to see if it looks right. I have increased the size of the square nuts from 10 x 20 thou to 10 x 30 thou. Without knowing what size nuts they used I am having to guess from the few photographs we have of these vans which appear to all be different. I will attempt to drill the buffer bodies later on for the bolt heads. . If I make a hash of it, it will not matter a great deal because I a few spare.

Wow thanks to everyone for the thumbs up. I have used some buffer castings from my brake van kit. I had a few sets left over that were nearly the right shape so I put them in the lathe and turned them down. It is going to be interesting trying to drill the base of them for the 3 bolts holding them in place. I am planning on using my own castings for the axle boxes again from the brake van kit but I will have to modify them by adding a small extension on to the spring hanger and remove the middle of the bracing bar. The face of the axle box will also be altered to represent more closely the NSR one. Add another 3 hours with all the messing about and the second side frame chamfering . That's 34.5 hours with about 12 of those wasted.

Sorry if this is boring but I have made the other locker and the sand box.

Just a small detail that will not be seen very clearly are the lockers on the veranda. It is a bit of light relief after trying to chamfer all the framing. I always find the first side goes well and the I struggle to get the second side as good.

Thanks Neil. Cracked on with the chamfer on the timbers and it didn't take more then 30 minutes for one side that included making the nickel parts. It is hard to see on the White bits but where the Blue plastic is I think is easier to see.

I have put a couple of hours in this morning and completed the framing on the second side including the top panels. Now I have to chamfer all the framing, so I have cut some scraps of nickel to sit in the frames to rest the blades so I don't damage the panels with a slipped scalpel. We keep try to stay fit each day with a couple of miles walk and I even managed 15 miles on the bike yesterday. Not very far at all but it's better than nothing.

Graham, many thanks for the link. I haven't heard of Hobbies but that looks a very interesting trader. I agree if the right size is available it would make life a lot easier but at the time I had to improvise and it keeps the old grey matter working.

Lying in bed this morning I was thinking about the little fillets to prevent rain water collecting between the frames. I had filed the ones on the first side from 60 thou square Evergreen strip. But I found it hard to hold and file accurately. Light bulb moment and bingo ! Hold it steady in a length of milled brass angle and file and scrape it with a scalpel blade.