airnimal

After 2 days replacing floor tiles at my daughters house I have managed to get back to the workbench . The plate at the back of the well was drilled to accept 2 different sizes of MasterClub bolts. I drilled the plates away from the wagon before loading the bolts with a dab of superglue on the stem before pushing them home. Once dry the stems were filed off and the plates were glued to the wagon. Still a long way to go.

Dave, the hand wheel is from this etch. I don't have any idea where it came from but I have had these a few years in my bits box. As they stand they are a bit flat so I wound some .7 mm nickel wire around a former before cutting one from the loop. I then filed a flat on one side reducing the thickness by about a quarter before soldering on to the etch. I then spun it in the mini drill and cleaned it with a bit of wet and dry.

Very little progress to report because I've had my grandad hat on replacing floor tiles in my youngest daughters kitchen. This is her first house and we have uncovered so many things wrong with it but we are working our way through them. I have made a bracket to mount the hand wheel on. I have drilled a hole in the framework to accept a brass rod because I didn't want to rely on glue with the wheel being in such a vulnerable position.

Jim, that's a fine looking wagon. With the open framework you will not be able to fudge hiding the second pair of springs as I am doing on my build. I don't think it matters how we build our models as long we enjoy our hobby. There has always been more than one way to skin a cat. It's just that I don't have the skills to do the modern way to do drawings for etching. I could do the old fashion way with pen and ink but the modern world left me behind long ago. Mike

Tricky, I am sorry that the Masterclub hex bolts were to small. I hope they will come in useful in your 7mm modelling and will not be wasted. I am afraid I model by eye and if something looks right then I will use it. If something is a few thou out then provided it is not to obvious that's fine by me. I have only ever done a couple of things in Gauge 1 for myself plus I have built 5 or 6 etched kits for my friend Peter. I found the Gauge 1 / 10 mm scale a pain that's utterly bonkers. Have you looked at the nuts and bolts from the BA range. I don't know how 16 BA would scale out but it might be worth measuring a few ? Mike

Northroader, this is testing my patience but if I break this down in to small amounts of time doing the tedious jobs I could get to the end. Looking at the photos constantly I keep seeing things I missed first time around. One such item are the plates covering the well which I thought were the same thickness as the plates over the wheels. I have changed my mind and I think there were slightly thinner. They look flush at one end of the wagon but at the other end there is a step down. Obviously the camera angle plays tricks so I have removed the plates on the side of the well ( the blue ones ) which were 20 thou thick and replaced them with one from 15 thou ( white ones ). So I have made a start on the buffers. The backing plates have been built up and drilled to except modified Peco G.W.R buffers. The raised lip on the front of the body has been removed and holes drilled in the backing plates for the .6mm hexagonal bolts. The 2 bodies on the left have been modified while the 2 on the right are as bought. This is going to be a long job !

I have started to add the bolts / nuts and already I am losing the will to live. This is going to be a long and laborious and I think this is going to test my patience. I have only done one corner and I have broken one drill plus drilled a couple of holes in the wrong place. The good thing with plastic is the ease of repairing with a bit of plastic rod. I have found in my never ending spares box a small etched hand wheel with the correct pattern of curly spokes and about the right daimeter. This looked a little flat so I formed some loops of .7 mm wire. I cut one out and solderd it to the etch wheel before smoothing it out in the drill.

ScottW, the first attempt I cut a grove with a scrapper board knife before folding. I used Mek to glue it to the sides which may have been to strong. So I went back to separate pieces but used Limonene to glue it. This has done the trick with just a light sanding once dry. I am now at the stage of adding all the nuts and bolts. Not having a drawing with the sizes on there's going to be a lot of guesswork. Looking at the photos in Vol 2 there appears to be a mixture of both nuts and bolts. If your in to locos and become a rivet counter, what do you become when you are in to wagons ? A bolt counter ? Once I add all the bolts does this wagon becomes one of the rarer Midland spotted harlequin variety.

Dave, it is always good to have positive feedback on models that take quite a lot of time to construct. I was never any good at putting kits together either locos or rolling stock so I cut bits out of plastic. It was the introduction of Evergreen milled plastic section which elevated my modelling from c**p to somethings half decent. I don't get right all the time because I make most of it up as I go along. This wagon has had the overlays stripped of more than once because the first attempt I tried to fold the yellow plastic around the corner after cutting a V shaped grove in the back but when I got up the next morning the corner had cracked along the bend.The second attempt I forgot to allow a little extra so the plate at the front of the well would blend in. So this is the third attempt so I hope I have got right now otherwise I will have to take up drinking beer full time. As for cycling I can't do the very steepest hills nowadays. My brother is 3 years older than myself and he rides them all. He even road the steepest road listed in the Guinness book of records, he's never walked a hill in over 40 years and he smoke and drinks for Britain which is not bad for 72. With any luck when this virus is finally beaten we can get to back to New Zealand and finish where I left of in 2007.

Tricky, I can only point you in the direction of where I obtain my cosmetic nuts and bolts from. I don't know if they will be large enough but I get mine from Historex. I am not clever enough to put a link on here but if you go to Historex and click on brands at the top right hand side, then Masterclub rivets nuts and bolts on the left hand column you will be able to see all the sizes there. There mail order service is first class. Mike

Looking promising ! Just 3 more corners to do now.

Before I get any further I have decided to tackle the steel plates on the outsides because if I can't get these right it would be pointless continue with it. Compound estimates that they will be between 1/2" and 3/4" thick which scales down to 11.48 and 17.22 thou thick. Now if I take the thicker size and round it up I can use 20 thou coloured plastkard which will be easier to see. It will be a bit thicker than it should be but will better to work with. I don't have the finesse of the master Geoff Kent with thinner plastikard. So my first few pieces look promising. I have put a grove in to fold it round the corner. Did another 50 miles on the bike yesterday, was only suppose to be 40 but a couple of wrong turns from our leader added another 10 miles with a nasty climb at the end of the day. The experts tells this cycling lark is good for you and kits you fit. It makes me worn out and very tired so perhaps I am doing it wrong !

Finally figured out a way of mounting the wheels from a small etch of some unknown W-irons that I had in my bits box. I am not sure what they are from but they fit the bill perfectly. I cropped them down and soldered them to a strip of nickel which has a couple of slots cut in to them. At first I just drilled a central hole on which to screw them to the frames but because there is so little clearance and the bearings got in the way of the screw I had to move the holes which became slots to allow for adjustment. There is so little meat around the bearing hole but I am going to elongate this to allow a small amount of movement. I think will be necessary with such a long wheelbase.

I have replaced all the cross members with new timbers. I am still trying to work out how to mount the wheels which isn't easy with such an open framework. I need something that enables me to remove the wheels for painting and provides the correct ride height in the process. Answers on a postcard to .........

What can I say other than I got this horrible wrong again. I have said for many years I have very poor observation skills as well as poor memory. Couple the two together and add dyslexia and it's a wonder I ever got anywhere in life. I do wonder at time if dyslexia has a connection bebetween both these other conditions. When I was run down by lady motorist in 2005 and lost my memory for over six months I was sent to lots of specialist who concluded that my brain was wired up different to most other people. This amused my best friend who since then never fails to mention it when we are out in company. Thanks to Compound for his information which has enable me to correct this c*** up before I get to far.

Although I have mounted the wheels and they work well, I am not convinced this method is the way to go. In the mean time I have made the last couple of parts over the wheels and on the edge. Here's where I will have to ask for advice from those more knowledgeable than myself. Not being a Midland geek does anyone know if these wagons had a floor ? Page 24 of Vol 2 Midland wagons state that they had wood and metal floors. But there isn't any photos or a detail description. Not having any of the Midland record magazine or being a member of the Midland society I am short of information. Any help would be grateful.

Because of the ride height issues I have had to come up with a method of lowering the bearings and just use the axleboxes as cosmetic and not to carry the bearings. So I have come up with soldering a 12 BA screw across the end of the bearings and drilling a hole in the frames to take the 12 BA screws. This has worked out well but will need tweaking to take up the slack. I am not sure if I will be able to compensate using this method will I will keep on thinking as I progress. I have noticed that one end has pulled very slightly out of true by about 10 thou. This is probably my poor cutting out but it's to late now. I will put it down to a rough shunt.

The basic shape is now nearly finished with just a few internal spars over the wheels and on the ends. Even though I have made the width dead scale the axleboxes don't quite come out far enough, so I am going to increase them further apart and use some spacing washers on the ends of the axles. I think it will be easier to compensate one end rather than springing but that is not a firm conclusion yet. I may have to lower the axleboxes to get the ride height correct. I can't see any brakes in the photographs but they must be there because there is a hand wheel on one side. There are rather a lot of plates which go over the basic framework plus enough nuts and bolts to test my patience. I have taken about 12 hours on this so far but I think there is possible another 30 hours more yet.

Compound, I haven't had any issues with Evergreen strip warping but I have found the thickness and sizes does vary by a small amount on some I have had. I use Mek for most of the large parts and Limonene for overlays and thin plastic. The big issue with this build is cutting all the parts out square. It's so easy to file the ends out of true and on a build like this one is going to show up more than other wagons. I have been trying to think of a way to make repeated parts by way of jigs and things but as yet I have failed miserably. But I have found this aluminium saw cutting jig in my tool box which has a channel down both sides. My luck was in because the channel takes 2 pieces side by side, what a bonus. So I can cut out a couple and file them as one.

Pleasantly surprised how this is going but I am worried how strong this is going to be. I am also worried about warping and twisting. The brain is working hard on the springing but I think I have worked out in my mind how to do it. Time will tell !

Compound, if I succeed in building this I will be very surprised but I do like a challenge. I tried to cut the sides out in one piece but then decided this was too much trouble. So I have made a pair from Evergreen milled strip with block of nickel to act as a template. There are still a lot of working out to do but nothing ventured...........

John, 96 miles is brilliant. When this virus business is over I might get to go somewhere warm and put some more miles in. Not much to report today but i did get the floor levels right on the last break van. I have found some PTFE bearings in the spares box that I am going to use. My friend Philip asked me why I haven't made some of the longer wheelbase wagons that carried large loads. Mainly because I will never have the room on any layout that I am ever likely to build if I ever do ! He was saying he would like to build some of the Midland large 4 wheelers that figure in Vol 2 of Midland wagons. So I went and had a look and Dia 310 does appeal because of the unusual nature of the build. So I have cut out the basic frame shape and will attempt to knock up a shell to see if this is going to be a runner or not. This may not get any further if I can't work out how I will build this strange wagon but it will give the old brain cells a workout.

Not much progress over the weekend, I have only replaced the diamonds to there correct position on my brake van I built a couple of years ago. How I managed to place the diamonds in the wrong place is a mystery when I have a photograph in front of me to act as a guild. I can only assume I concentrate to hard and miss the obvious. Because of this i went and had a close look at some of my other wagons and have been horrified to notice some more glaring errors. Is this the result of getting old or have I always had poor observation skills ? I must keep riding my bike because keeping fit is good for us or so the experts tell us. Anway I did 65 miles on mine yesterday in the sunshine which hurt a bit but I'm glad I did it. I also went to some places I hadn't been before around Fiddlers Ferry power station and over the Runcorn bridge which is closed to motor traffic at present. It was good to see the old railway bridge which is next to at close quarters.

The brake van saga continues ! I have removed the diamonds on the completed van that I put in the wrong place and resprayed the top half of the body. I will put the diamonds back in the correct location and try and match the weathering. The second van that I removed the doors to make a van with the doors open before I realised that the doors would be to short, so I have made new doors to be fitted again. The third van has had the new floor and internal partition painted and new doors made. I will make all the new handrails and detail the body before fixing everything permanently together.

I have folded up a couple of the poorly etched W-irons to see how they will sit with the unequal floor height. I needed to reduce one end by the thickness of the lower floor which is made from 60 thou plastkard. So on one of the W-irons I soldered a section of milled brass T section on end before cutting them apart. I then cut off the lower part to leave a shorter height W-iron that matches the other end, if that all makes sense. I have cut out a new inner partition and glue it to the new floor. I need to make new doors before doing all the usual detailing of the body. I still need to find some 12 mm Dia 6 spoke hand wheels either cast or etched if anybody knows a source.