airnimal

I have cut a recess in the end of the buffer beams ready to take the hoops made from 10 X 30 Evergreen strip. I did think I could get away with just marking with a small nick with the scalpel but decided to go the hole hog and cut back like the prototype and put proper hoops on.The men in white coats are waiting in the wings just in case ....

Krusty, that is a possible but I have made the decision to go with just a longer inside corner plate. I must have been mad to attempt this drilling hundreds of holes in 3 different sizes and putting all these rivets / nuts / bolts on a simple coal wagon. It's the sort of things lighthouse keepers or long term jail birds do. And when construction is finished I have got to paint it to look like the photos. I have done a couple of hours this morning so to preserve my sanity will do a couple of hours out on the bike today.

Must remember to keep my concentration sharp when applying all this detail because the sides are different. Case in point drilling for the bolts on the sides. I drilled for 4 bolts then realised I had got the wrong side and had to cut 2 off and plug the holes with plastic rod. The MasterClub bolts are coming into there own on the plates on the solebars.

Argos, not sure about your suggestion. I thought the capping strips were just screwed into the top plank or all the way through if the wagon was only a low sided one. Anyway I have taken a educated guess and made a long plate to go on the inside to match where the bolts / screws / rivets on the outside go. So we have a mixture of all 3 all over this wagon which will be fun. MRJ came today and in it is a beautiful N.E.R coach built by Barry Norman who says it took a long time to make , a very long time. I happy to report this wagon is going the same way.

Graham, it's the top bolt above the letter R on the side of this wagon that I am taking about. Is this connected to the end large bolt. Or is the large bolt only connected to the smaller bolts on the small corner plates.

Dave, when all this trouble is over i would be delighted to bring some wagons and a loco to around to run on you layout. If fact it would be a privilege to see your exquisite engines. I have just added these large bolts on the ends but what are they connected to ?

No matter how many times I look at the photographs I keep getting little things wrong. I did the brake gear but when I looked later in the day somethings were not right. I showed my better half and she pointed out to me the right hand push rod was not long enough or at the correct angle. I may use her observational skills again. I have started to add detail to the body like the drawbar plates which I think is a used old one lookin at the number of extra holes in it. I was hoping somebody would come up with a answer to my question about the large bolt on the end of the wagon and the relationship with the bolt on the top plank ? Perhaps no one has answers or theory's and I may have to guess.

Chris, thank you for the comments, I hope people find something of intrest. I have completed the brake gear that looks something like the photos so just the nuts and bolts and a bit more ironwork. My wife said will I finish this wagon today. My reply was it will not be this week.

First of all I'm am not a Historian but a model maker so my knowledge of all things Midland are not great so I am going to ask for help from those people with more experience than myself. Regarding the ironwork particular on the inside is puzzling me. I belive the line of bolts on the outside correspond with a strip of metal on the inside but on the end of the wagon there is a large bolt at the top of the wagon and a bolt along the top plank on the outside that I am unsure off and are they connected somehow ? I think all the other bolts I can figure out.

Compound, I was aware it wasn't a Midland design but with 3 photos and a drawing it was to good not to model. i will try an do it justice warts and all. I have been hacking one of my own brass castings taken from my brake van kit to produce the necessary brakes.

It looks like this is going to take a long time looking at the photos in Midland wagons Vol 1. There is so much detail like the top corner plates with little cutouts on the corners and the hinges on the doors never mind a mixture of different bolt and rivets sizes all mixed in together at random. I first did the brake handle with a round bar but looking again I see it has a square bar through it. So I replaced the rod with a square section turned down from .8mm brass. Both sides of the wagon are different with replacement planks on one side and the ends with a drawbar plate with extra holes in it. I would it imagine it has gone through a few rebuildings before the Midland got hold of it.

I will not be able hide on this one because there is photos of both sides and the ends of this wagon in Vol 1 of Midland Wagons by Bob Essery. They are plates No 18 / 20 on page 30. I have redone the brake handle because when I put it on the model it didn't look right first time. This the first Midland wagon I have made in about ten years.

Thank you gentlemen for the vote of confidence, sadly something lacking in myself. Marc, the drawing is in Railway Equipment Drawings by L. Tavender published by himself in 1985. Both these books are essential for anybody modelling pre-grouping rolling stock. The V hanger I am going to use came from my spares box but was the wrong angle so I did the same as the brake handle and put a small saw cut in it and re-shaped it. A quick dab with the soldering iron it now looks like the drawing.

I did think I wouldn't bother posting again because I am sure people will get fed up with seeing the same old wagons and my poor English skills. But the weather is so good and it it has lifted my mood some what. So I will continue for a little while longer.

Nearly there. Still all the loose ends to tie up. Couplings / tranfers / number plates / better weathering . Got more than enough when these are finished but I still haven't made any Dia 2 or 4 which I will have to address sometime.

I have the same punch set acquired many years ago when they were not as much but still expensive. Special tools are always going to be expensive with a limited market but we don't buy them very often and they do last along time. We are only here a short time so if I want something I need I forget the price and go for it.

Thanks for the information about 5 thou but I do have white in that thickness but not black. I am not sure if I would be able to use a bin bag but it is a thought. When I put the washers on I let them dry for a few hours and then rub them down with wet and dry so they are thinner but it has to be done carefully because they tend to disappear. I took advantage of the grand weather today to paint all the parts with rattle cans. I let them dry for a couple of hours before I put everything back together. I think I am on the home straight now with just the wood interior to do along with the diamonds and tare weight. When I have finished this pair I would like to do a couple of early G.W.R. wagons and a ex- private owner Midland dumb buffer one as well. But my heart tends to rule my head and I could be distracted by some obscure offering from anywhere.

Finished at last. I was lucky yesterday l found a couple of brake levers from Ambis that I don't remember buying and the came in useful because the end part of the handle is half etched. I removed this part which shortened the handle but was a perfect size for these small wagons. The last rivets and bolts have now gone on including a couple on the ends with very large washers. I punched out some washers from 5 thou black plasticard which is way over scale but what else could I use. This black plastic in 5 thou I bought from Slaters in about 1983 or 1984 and I have very little left. When I ask David White from Slaters about buying some more he say's they have never sold black 5 thou plasticard. I beg to differ because I only bought plasticard from them and no where else. I think I bought it at Blackburn exhibition when it use to be in the town hall there. I would like another sheet because I am running very short.

I did some more work detailing the solebars yesterday, so I am getting near the end now. I am glad I went back and started again with the smaller length wagons, I don't think I would have been happy building the longer version. I think the shorter ones are better balanced in the looks department.

Incidentally the Gauge 1 model you mention is not a Gauge 1 but Gauge 3. The link takes you to the L.N.W.R society web site where it's states it was built and painted by Mike Williams. Mike built it from one of his own kits and I painted it but Mike applied the transfers. I would dearly love to have a train of Mike's wagon kits but where would I put them. While we taking about these larger models, many years ago when I was in my twenties I was privileged to visit Eric Rayner who was the founder of the L.N.W.R society. He had a large Gauge 3 layout in the cellar of his home about one mile away from where I now live. Mike

O-Gauge-Phil, S & D models sell them. Listed on there web site at £7.50 for ten. But obviously they are closed at the moment. Mike

While my better half is having a lie in, I got up early and made the joining fixtures from some scrap etch and a small piece of brass tube. This matches the prototype way of fixing the pair of wagons together. I have used 14BA screws and nuts to screw them together but as yet I haven't dress them with a file to loose the slot in the screw head or shortened them to the correct length.

Slowly building up the details but still plenty more to do. I should crack on with these and take advantage of this fine weather to finish and paint them while we are in lock down.

If you want very smooth running have you tried PTFE bearings ? My good friend has a small layout that has a siding on a very shallow incline that holds a brake van. He draws a train into the station and places the brake van in the siding which is held by a small catch. The train is run around and then he releases the catch and the brake van runs down the gradient to be in the correct position. When he built the brake van with normal top hat brass bearings the van would not roll far enought. We had both been shown many years ago a wagon made with PTFE bearings that when given a slight push it rolled around a test track without stopping for a long time. We were both impressed. So I built him a brake van with these bearings and the transformation was amazing. This brake van went more than 4 times further than any other wagon. I think I obtained them from S & D models.

One small problem I had was with the buffers. These are a lot longer than the standard buffers on most L.N.W.R. wagons and Adrain Swain uses brass tube which you have to cut to the correct length and drawing pins for the heads. I tend to use turned steel buffer heads with PB coil springs but I could not find any long enough. So I tried the heads out of Peco G.W.R. kits because I have plenty in stock. They would work if I shortened the body at the back where it goes through the headstock which I did. Unfortunately after I filed the backs down there was insufficient clearance for the buffers to compress. Scratch head and mutter and curse ........... The only thing I could do was try to recess the backs to to accept the small turned collars to shorten the distance required. The next problem was the collars were nearly the same size as the buffer bodies. How was I going to turn down somethings so tiny ? Solution was to solder them to a small length of brass rod to hold them and reduce them with needle files in the mini drill. Once they were a good fit I unsolder them, and cleaned them up. Everything went back together and was a complete success. I find these little solutions to small problems one of the most rewarding aspects of our hobby. It makes up for the many disappointments when I drop one of my normal bloomers.