airnimal

Ian,  I agree that the buffers do look like Caledonian wagon ones because I do have a set of them. I am not sure what wagon they will be used on or when they will get used. 

I have more or less finished this pair of bolster wagons with used the axleboxes and springs to fit after painting.  I tried allsorts of ways of connecting the safety chains that link the wagons together including looping them through the pins, but trying to assemble them was a nightmare.  In the end I just soldered them to the connecting bars which is very unsightly and poor workmanship, but I was getting desperate. 

When mixing plastic and metal on a model I find that the plastic gets very grubby and dirty and will a good clean before I start painting.  

I have gone back and replaced the round rod holding the brake shaft with .9mm square brass bar to represent that fixing, I think It does look better.

Something that was puzzling me was the buffers but I couldn't see was was wrong. I went back to the wagon book and went through the drawings and photographs when it dawn on me that the web down the outside was to long. I then went and looked at my other L&Y wagons and they didn't have any webbing at all which I think is correct for early wagons. I went and checked my other stock of buffers incase I had used the wrong type or mixed them up, but they are the same. Now does this mean that the buffers are incorrect or have they been labelled incorrectly  ?

My last L&Y bolster wagon that I made last year I now believe to have the wrong buffers. I don't think I am going to change them now and if anyone mentioned them I will say they were replaced with with the older ones when having a overhaul.  

I will have to shorten the web on the ones I have already fitted which is easier than the other way around. 

Having the right tools for the job makes life easier. I have a metal guillotine which allows me cut the metal to size which just needs dressing with a file to smooth the edges before bending to shape. The boss on the end is round on the drawing and photographs so that was easy with a 14BA washer.  The shaft is shown to be square so I am going to change it sometime soon. 

I have cut the brake handles from 16 thou nickel sheet and filed them to size before adding a 14 BA  washer to act as a boss. The brake rack is from Ambis and fixed with a lace pin. I have just got to sort out the axleboxes to finish this pair off after painting of course.  

I forget to post the picture of the buffers that I turned the heads down on. The one in the foreground is the one before tickling with a file in the drill to reduce the head thickness. 

A start has been made of the brakegear which needs to be made from scratch because I don't know of any castings available that match the profile of the brake shoes. Luckily I only need a couple because there is only one on each wagon. 

I keep doing a bit at a time on this pair of wagons. I had cut the backing plates from 15 thou plasticard that go behind the buffer bodies that are missing from the castings. The buffer heads were turned down because they  were very heavy which spoiled there appearance. Still to make are the horse hooks and the capping strips on the body sides. Then I can get on to the brakegear which will all have to be scratch built because i don't know of any casting that match, but they look straight forward enough. 

We have had one offer on our house which we have rejected as it was very low. The housing market is very slow at present but we are not in a bad position because we don't have to move. 

I must admit I do have some patience when it comes to this sort of detail.  What I don't have is patience when trying to remove a rusty nut or something similar or replace a hard to get at component. 

Yes these nuts, bolts and rivets need to be applied individually in pre drilled holes which does take time and the tank wagon was an etched tank that I tried to punch out the rivets. Because I punched a couple to hard on one or two of them which was very noticeable I decided to drill through and apply the Masterclub rivets instead. All 692 of them all were dipped in superglue and dropped in with fine tweezers.  Mad I know !

As I have been mentioned by Dave John for using Masterclub nuts and bolts I thought a close up of one of my wagons might be of interest. Both the rivets and bolts here are from the Masterclub range.

Nuts, bolts and rivets.  I have added most of the small bits with just the horse hooks and a few small items to finish the bodywork.  I am still missing the handrail knobs to complete the bolsters but I have had a kind offer from a certain S7 fellow modeller who used to fly fighter jets to have some of his. I am trying to source some locally with one person supposedly going to phone me back to see if they have any in stock. But that was several hours ago and I am still waiting. You can see how I use handrail knobs on the loops of the bolsters from my previous LYR wagon. They have to be filed to shape but I can't think of any other way of making them. 

I wasn't going to do anything today because I was going out on my bike. I did venture out but i wasn't feeling very well so turned back after 5 miles.  

So I drilled the other pair of stanchions and fitted both pairs to the wagons.  I am now stuck on the bolsters because i don't have any handrail knobs of the correct size that i usually use to make the loops over the bolster. Once upon a time i could nip out to a model shop ( remember them ) and buy some more but i am not aware of any near where i live. I keep being told that the internet is the way forward but for a Luddite like myself that's a real pain. 

The brackets that I made from brass by filing a V in the material and then folding them to shape, and running solder in the joints didn't prove robust enough and the joints failed. So I have made replacements from plastic but they are over scale and I may return to metal when I can find suitable metal of the correct thickness.  Perhaps when painted and with the chains attached they may not be to noticeable but I will try and find an alternative. 

Still there is plenty of work on the rest of this pair to keep me going for a few weeks yet. I have noticed on the photograph and the drawings that there isn't any external crown plates only bolts through the solebar's. 

A first attempt at the securing chains between this pair of bolster wagons has been made but it will need modification to reduce the number of links. I still need to shorten the joining pins and  tidy up the brackets but it is showing promise.  It is all very fiddly trying to put it all together.  

The basic framework on this pair of bolster wagons is now complete,  so before I go any further I need to sort out the joining arrangements.  On the drawing there are a couple of cross hatch bars with pegs locating in holes in brackets underneath the the ends of both wagons. I am not sure if this is practical or feasible in model form but I will give it a  try and see how I get on.  I don't have any metal suitable in the correct size so I have soldered some scrap waste etch together that hopefully will be close enough. 

The brackets have been folded up from more scrap etch,  but this first lot are not nearly thick enough. 

One problem I can see is the need to be able to separate the wagons to paint them and rejoin them without to much fuss. 

Back in the workshop again and the start of the pair of L&Y bolster wagons.  The W-irons have already been made, so a start was made on the wagon themselves.  There isn't much to these wagons but it took me quite awhile to get the first one to the stage we have here. I think I need my eyes testing again plus

I think old age is taking its hold of me. I don't appear to have the accuracy I once had because I am having trouble marking everything out as well as cutting and drilling in the right place.

There may be a bit of movement on the house front because one person has been 3 times to view it and brought alone a builder with him to advise him on alterations that he would like. We also have several other people expressing an interest in it so with and luck there maybe light at the end of the tunnel. 

On 27/09/2023 at 19:10, BlueLightning said:

 

I have one of these attached to my coupling hook, seeing as I am doing it in 4mm, I don't think it would be possible without the extra light!

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diagnostic-Penlight-CAVN-Flashlight-Emergency/dp/B01HAXUHQ6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

 

Gary

Thanks for the information on pen touches. I spent Thursday morning walking around the shops looking for one without success.  It appears that everyone now uses the internet to buy most non food items. 

For someone like myself who doesn't buy on the internet it can be a problem,  but my eldest daughter came to the rescue and ordered one for me.  So I modified one pen by heat shrinking the hook using the largest pieces of heat shrink in my toolbox.  

I have packed with the wagons my coupling hook made from an old bicycle spoke. So I can see it, I have put a couple of pieces of shrink rap rubber tubing on in different colours. I know other people place torches on the end to see in difficult lighting and I may end up doing the same if I can find a small pen size torch.

I have just got back from 2 weeks cycling around  Northern Bulgaria with 6 of my cycling chums.  It was a typical chaotic ramble with misinformation and changing plans along the way.  I am not sure how long we can keep going on these crazy adventures with the average age being over 70, because climbing long mountain passes carrying  panniers is becoming hard work. And after a couple of beers at night, it takes about 2 minutes maximum to get to sleep every night.

So back to reality and the workshop.  The container will not be finished until I can find out about the door hinges. So I have been preparing the wheels for the wagon the container is going to sit on.