macgeordie

March 13

One of our sharp eyed modellers has spotted a typo in the instructions on the CD's I have sent out and a couple of photos are missing as well.

Here are the missing photos, they are numbers 95 and 100 on the cd.

The typo is that the little bracket in the photo is labelled in the instructions as item 27 and it should be item 25.

Here is an updated copy of the instructions just in case anybody wants one.

Armour plate wagon.pdf

Sorry about the error, but that's what happens when you try to do something in a hurry.

Ian

March 1

On 14/02/2024 at 00:29, Wheatley said:

Fox and Cambridge Custom Transfers. Previously Modelmaster as well but see long running thread on here and caveat emptor.

What is happening with Modelmaster, I ordered and paid for some transfers three years ago and only received part of the order, the rest were on 'back order' and I am still waiting for them to be delivered. What is the long running thread you mention above, I did a search but couldn't find anything.

February 8

If you want to start out with a wagon kit or two I produce a few and a lot of our Forum members have purchased and made them so they can report on how well they got on with them.

With regards to soldering, I would always use 145 degree solder with a good liquid flux such as the one from the 7mmlocomotives society. Carrs do a range of fluxes but I can't get away with them, I am slightly asthmatic and the Carrs fluxes really affect my chest. I've attached my list if you are interested.

Kits price list public.pdf

February 5

Just a quick update for those who have requested one of these kits. The etches are ordered and I should get them in about four weeks. The kit cost has worked out at £29.45 plus p&p

Ian

January 31

1 hour ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Hi Ian,

Just found out about this wagon!

Are you still able to offer this kit, or are you up for a further batch, if not now maybe sometime in the next couple of years. I could be interested in 4 of them?

Also reading this thread, I have the impression you have done/do other 4mm kits. If so, where can I find details?

Many thanks and kind regards

Paul

You have mail

Ian

January 28

The buffers are now in place so the wagon is ready for the paint shop. The wooden floor can be glued in place after the basic colour has been applied and then the whole lot can be weathered to suit your own needs.

I will be ordering the etches for those who have requested one of these in a couple of days so if anybody else want one let me know.

Ian

January 26

Springs and axleboxes are now in place as well as the suspension cushion pads.

Just need to fit the buffers now and the wagon will be more or less complete.

Ian

January 25

The brake gear is now in place, I've removed the sections of 0.9mm wire next to the brake shoes as this allows a bit more flexibility to the frames so it is easier to fit the wheels later in the build and ideally after painting. I left the outer wires in place to give the frame a bit more strength but I might remove them later.

Next job is the castings and parts associated with the springs and axleboxes.

I'm at Pontefract show on Saturday, demonstrating on the Scale Four society stand if anyone fancies a chat.

Ian

January 24

I've not got a lot done on the wagon since my last post, 'Life' keeps getting in the way.

I have however managed to get the overlay for the axlebox mounting and the strengthener on the side frame above the axleguards fitted. I've also fitted the wires for the wagon spring hangers.

Next job is the brake shoes etc.

January 23

The bogie frame is a one piece 'fold up' item. There are two rivets (bolt heads) to press out at the base of the axleguards but some of these wagons had a tie bar fitted in later life so if you want to model that version don't bother pressing out the rivets or you will just have to file them off again to get the tie bar to fit neatly.

There are two variants of the beam across the ends of the bogie, one has an NEM box built into it and the other is plain, If you want to fit a working coupling just fit the plain version at both ends.

The next job is fitting some 0.9mm wire across the bogie above each axlebox, this will represent the spring mounting point later in the build. The wires can be left in place if you wish which significantly stiffens the bogie but it makes it more difficult to fit the wheels later. The pin point bearings are also now in place and the bogie pivot points are folded up. These allow one bogie to rock in a linear direction and the other axially giving some compensation to the wagon.

A number of members have now asked for one of the kits so if anybody else wants one please message me.

Ian

January 22

A number of members have already asked for one of these kits as can be seen above and that is much appreciated. If anybody else wants to go onto the list please message me rather than make the request in the thread as it is a lot easier for me to keep track of who wants what that way.

Ian

January 22

On 21/01/2024 at 23:00, Jub45565 said:

Interesting - is any more known about when they entered the concrete pool? Was this all in later life, or may it have been at build/by the late 50s?

A friend of mine, Steve Carter has done some research into the wagons and he has produced a spreadsheet with information on the Beam carriers which is attached.

ARM Wagons compressed.xlsx

He has also given me some explanatory text which is:-

According to Dave Larkin the concrete beam sets were formed circa 1968 .

On the spreadsheet you'll see that I've colour coded the various concrete beam wagons as they were formed into sets according to their loading height from rail level, their load weight and the type of bolsters they were fitted with (high / low). So Type A (Yellows) comprised of a single set of two vehicles, Type B (Pink) was two sets formed from four vehicles whilst Types C (Blue) and D (Green) numbered as four sets each from eight vehicles. I think that the vehicles from each set could only work with others from within that set which makes sense if the bolsters were different. I've also added the types of vehicles used as spacers (not runners!) and I think that each consist could be made longer / shorter by using more / less of both Arm wagons and spacers according to the shape of each beam.

I'm not sure as to the type designations for the bolsters themselves but there's a few useful pictures in "British Railways Wagons - Their Loads and Loading" by Brian Grant & Bill Taylor from which it seems they were more like fabricated steel plinths, one per wagon on the centre line between the two bogies. There's also a few good images on Paul Bartlett's site showing them, especially on ARM EL 2/001 wagons (these too were made into concrete beam sets).

I hope members find this helpful. I haven't produced a kit for the bolsters as they are outside of my normal timescale but if there is sufficient interest I'll take a look at producing a kit for a typical bolster as well.

Ian

January 21

The shackles are now in place, they are a bit fiddly to install but they look the part once they are in place and they work so you can flip the ones you need to tie down the load into the 'up' position leaving the rest down.

I have also fitted the bogie mounting parts, buffer beam overlay, coupling hook and the brake handwheels. There were two different styles of handwheels judging by the photographic evidence and they seem to have been interchanged at random, probably after one got broken or damaged in use. If you want to fit a functional hook rather than have a coupling in the NEM pocket the slot is big enough to take the Smiths ones. These wagons had Instanter couplings so I have put a couple of the Instanter links on the fret just in case.

Next job is to assemble the bogies themselves.

Ian

January 20

I was looking through some of my wagon books last year and saw some photos of the Armour Plate wagons which were initially built for the LMS and the LNER. The BR 55 ton wagon is pretty much identical, there was a 40 ton version as well but that was obviously smaller.

As a result I decided to develop a kit for the BR diagram 2/002 which as I mentioned above is more or less identical to the LMS ones apart from the livery colour. The kit can also be used to produce the diagram 2/003 wagon which is the same except for having oval buffers and a 'through pipe'.

Here is a photo of one of the test builds.

The wooden floor is a laser cut item produced for me by Mark Seward.

A friend of mine has produced some prototype information for me and here is a copy of it.

By the 1930s, extra-thick steel plate was increasingly being used as defensive armour in warships and other naval vessels, as well as in structural engineering generally. In terms of transporting it between steelworks and shipyard, such material was beyond the capacity of existing rolling stock and designs were prepared for a heavy-duty bogie wagon with the necessary reinforcement to enable them to handle loads of fifty tons-plus. Allocated to the revenue fleet and classified as Specially Constructed Vehicles (SCVs) such stock could also be used for carrying bulky steel castings and ingots, especially in and around the steel-producing areas of the north of England.

As a type, armour plate wagons were never very numerous, and the LMS and LNER chose to share a common design of 55 ton wagons built in two Lots to drawing 13/2528, Lot 1065 in 1937 and Lot 1144 in 1939. Both batches were built at Wolverton, the first being allocated to the LMS and numbered 700201-3, the second to the LNER and numbered 217329-31 and 217295. To cope with the exceptional loads these wagons were meant to carry, the flat steel bed of the wagon was sheathed with 3” x 9” hardwood planks and this feature was perpetuated in the BR builds. Photographic evidence suggests that, when loaded, armour plate wagons would be marshalled directly behind the locomotive or next to the guard’s van so a watchful eye could be kept on proceedings in case the load started to shift.

British Railways followed suit with their diagram 2/002 wagons of 1955, which were almost identical to the earlier LMS/LNER builds and not to be confused with ARM EL of Dia 2/001, which had emerged from Derby C&W in 1950 and was just 24ft long, rated at 40 tons. Extra carrying capacity was clearly required and the outcome was four 55T wagons in Lot 2174 coded ARM ET and numbered B908000 to B908003, with a further five in the same Lot coded ARM MD and numbered B908004 to B908008. Seven more were subsequently built to Lot 2622 numbered 908009 to 908015 and a further four to Lot 2651, 908016 to 908019. Like many wagon types designed specifically for heavy loads, they had two foot eight and a half inch diameter disc wheels rather than the usual three feet diameter. According to the GA drawing all these wagons were fitted with round 18” buffers, the same as the LMS design. They were not fitted with continuous braking but had parking brakes on each bogie, operated by a handwheel at each end of the solebar. Many survived into the mid 1980s and three of this small fleet were even transferred to the Continental Ferry stock although I don’t have a date for when this happened. By this time some of the wagons from both ARM ET/MD diagrams had been fitted with a single centrally-mounted bolster so they could be used (presumably in pairs) to transport heavy concrete beams and similar long loads – some were marked CONCRETE BEAM.

The final BR armour plate wagons to diagram 2/003 had oval buffers and were fitted with a through vacuum pipe. There were six of these built in the late 1950’s to Lot 3171, numbered 908022 to 908027 and again coded ARM ET. The inference is that, like all through-piped vehicles, these six wagons were painted bauxite, as the LMS wagons had been when new (brake pipes would have been white). The previous 20 BR-built wagons were in grey as they were unfitted. Bogies and underframe fittings were black.

I've started on the final test build for the kit so here are a couple of photos of the progress so far.

The floor is assembled and the solebar overlays are in place.

The sides of the wagon have shackles to allow fixing down of the load, the ribs which carry these are now in place.

I'll post some more photos as the build progresses.

September 9, 2023

I'm going to order more stuff from the etchers this week so if anybody else want to go on the list for one of these kits, please message me.

Ian

September 9, 2023

I'm ordering more stuff from the etchers this week so if anybody else would like one of these please message me.

Ian

September 1, 2023

Hi David

I’ll put you on the list, I’m not sure when I will get the etches but it will probably be around a month.
I still have the kit the other forum member wanted but he hasn’t responded yet. I’m away for the next week so if he hasn’t responded by the time I get back you can have the kit I already have in stock. I’ll let you know next week.

Cheers

Ian

August 31, 2023

8 hours ago, Mad McCann said:

I'm guessing I missed the boat for these, Ian. That's what I get for being an infrequent visitor.

Please let me know if you do them again as I could use one.

Thanks.

Davy.

I've got one left in stock, if you want it, please message me. I will be ordering more stuff from the etchers in a couple of weeks as well so if anybody wants one, let me know and I will put you on the list.

Ian

August 15, 2023

3 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

Ian,

What colour were the two models that you built painted? (See above).

CJI.

All of the Siphons I have built from my own kits, Mallard kits and George Alan kits have been painted Brown with yellow lettering. This is a photo of one of my O.11 kits.

Ian

August 15, 2023

3 hours ago, cctransuk said:

Since Ian Macdonald is a member here, I thought he might wish to settle the matter.

Hopefully he will intervene in due course.

As a matter of interest, I supplied the transfers for these models, as I do for most of Ian's excellent kits.

John Isherwood.

According to the GWR Siphons book by Slinn & Clarke the Siphons were still considered as passenger stock by BR so if they were ever repainted they would have received Crimson livery with yellow lettering. The vast majority however would probably never have received a repaint as they were used a parcels vans and these were rarely if ever repainted. The types which survived into the 1970's were used as newspaper vans and would have received blue livery and the BR 'Arrows of indecision' logo.

Ian

August 13, 2023

The Baulk assemblies are made from parts on the etch plus some 0.45mm wire along with some 4mm x 5mm wood and some 5mm x 3mm wood. The mounting Baulk needs cutting to shape before attaching the brass angle iron. This is actually part of the etch so needs to be folded but has all of the necessary holes in it.

The fully assembled unit can be glued to the wagon after it's been painted. As I have said above, very few of these wagons seem to have carried the Baulks for very long so this will probably be the last one I make with the baulks in place.

I'm going to place an order with the etchers this week, so if anybody else wants one please pm me.

Ian

August 9, 2023

Springs and axleboxes now in place,

Next job is the Baulks, but I won't get onto those till the weekend, too many other things to do just now, that's what my wife says anyway !!!

Ian

August 7, 2023

The brake shoes are a simple fold up with a central layer so that the legs have the prototypical gap.

Once the carrier has been folded to the basic shape the washers to form the bearing can be fitted along with a piece of 0.9mm wire to strengthen the leg.

Brake shoes added.

And the optional NEM coupling box, if it's not needed then just leave it off. The brake Yoke is also in position. The bearings have been reamed out with a small broach which gives a much better final finish than a round file.

Next job is the axle boxes and springs.

Ian

August 6, 2023

The main bodywork is now assembled and the well ends are fitted. The holes are to enable soldering of the overlay from underneath so no solder shows and you don't need an RSU.

I found the best way to hold the overlays in place is with a piece of wood to hold the bottom edge down once the front edge along the headstock has been secured.

The next job is the axle carriers, I'll post a few more photos tomorrow.

Ian

August 5, 2023

Nine years ago I produced a kit for the BR Flatrol MVV, it looked the part but having a fairly long wheelbase and like most of these special wagons, only having 2'6" (10mm) wheels the running qualities could be a bit 'iffy' when the trackwork wasn't up to scratch.

I decided to have another look at it and I have now modified the ends so that one end has a compensated wheel carrier. I have tested the wagons (I've built a few) on my own layout and on the club layouts and the running qualities are much improved.

Here's a few photos of one of them.

I'm currently building the final test build so I'll post some photo's as the build progresses. The Baulks mounted on top of the wagon are shown on the G.A. drawing but I've only seen one photo of the wagon in use with them actually in place. The parts needed to produce the Baulk version are on the etch if needed.

The side frames of the wagon have ribs where the shackles for securing the load are situated but the shackles on the real thing sit below the floor and can't be easily seen unless they are lifted out to secure the load.

I've only fitted four shackles per side on this wagon.

The overlay for the suspension arrangement is now in place.

I'll post a few more photos tomorrow.

Ian

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