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Poggy1165

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  1. Poggy1165
    This is one of my first attempts and it taught me a few things. One is that these etches are really best used for new construction. With retro fitting there are all sorts of difficulties to overcome and any slight fault in the original construction - for example if it has been assembled out of square - are cruelly highlighted. In this particular case the etches project ever so slightly above the wagon sides, and they should not. I hope to disguise this once the capping pieces are in place.
     
    Recommended approach for retro fitting: Put the floor in first. You will probably find that even if you don't use glue you won't get it out again once it's in place. Some gentle filing may be necessary and it's better to have it fit easily - a force fit will cause the edges to distort which you do not want. Trust me on that one.
     
    Next put in a side. If it projects above the wagon side, trim gently at the bottom with scissors. Preferably not your wife's favourite crafting scissors if you want to live. Better to to take off too little than too much, as you can't very well put it back once it's cut. Repeat with ends and sides, not applying glue until you are entirely happy that everything is as good as you can get. Patience and care is advised. Did I mention how thin these etchings are?
     
    If anyone's interested the August Marshall livery was copied from a photo. Not sure who August Marshall was, or whether his wagons would have been seen west of Woodhead, but I couldn't resist it. It's certainly more likely that an Burtts Beehives wagon or whatever.
  2. Poggy1165

    The etches

    By Poggy1165,

    This is what the MMP etches look like before anyone has had a chance to spoil them. They include not just the (interior) floor, sides and ends but also capping pieces and the tiny capping brackets, wagon label holders and so on.
     
    There is an awful lot of punching out of bolt heads to be done. Whether you find this frustrating or relaxing is down to you.
  3. Poggy1165
    This will be a slow blog, because I am a slow worker. There are all sorts of reasons for this, health mostly. Any road, I am trying to improve my stock of wagons. Some will be sold on (some already have been) to make room as I don't have nearly enough siding space. (My ideal layout would probably be a model of Dewsnap, except I'd need arms like a gibbon to reach over it, since no one has yet invented a 7mm scale working shunter.)
     
    One of my first jobs is to make use of the etched brass wagon interiors produced by MMP.
  4. Poggy1165
    I have now started my first attempt at using the MMP etched interiors are they were intended, for new construction. Unsurprisingly perhaps I find it is a lot easier to use them this way. I would go so far as to say that instead of trying to retrofit them it's probably a better policy to sell your old wagons on Ebay (or here) and use the proceeds to fund new kits. It might cost a few bob along the way but it will save on frustration and produce (I strongly suspect) better models.
     
    The first wagon kit I am building in this way is a Slaters Gloucester 7 plank which I hope to finish as a reasonable approximation of the GC wagon shown on p117 of LNER Wagons Volume 1 by Peter Tatlow. Yes, I know it says it's a Cravens-built job but it has all the Gloucester features to my eye, including at least one set of Gloucester axleboxes. Anyway I did say an approximation as it's intended for my layout as a working wagon, not York Museum.
     
    The white diagonal stripe shown in the photo will not be represented as I believe that's a post-grouping feature, despite the livery.
     
    My way of building Slaters' kits is to start with the ends, including the fitting of buffers and couplings. This avoids a lot of fiddling later, and possibly tears. The latest kits are much better than the old ones and feature such advances as lost wax buffer bodies. I had to ease two of these out with a reamer before the buffer shaft would enter them properly. I mention this because a beginner might be puzzled at this point, and maybe not even have the tool for the job. The coupling hooks are also lost wax (I think) and certainly more sturdy than the old etched ones that used to come with these kits. I am happy to use these whereas in days gone I might have chucked the etched jobs in the bin and substituted Premier Components 3 links, which are my default choice.
     
    I stuck the etches to the interior of the wagon sides with Evostick, which is the glue MMP recommend for the job. Previously I used UHU, but I agree with MMP, Evostick is better. I think superglue would be a mistake and I doubt whether MEK would do the job at all. The etched floor is stuck to the plastic floor in the same way. Obviously everything has to be carefully lined up and positioned, but a dry fit suggests it will all go together nicely. No untidy trimming of these etches.
     
    So far so good. Photos will follow, but I'm too lazy to take any tonight.
  5. Poggy1165
    The photos show some of the progress described in the last post.
     
    Another advantage of using these for new build is it's possible to give them a thorough clean while still in the flat. I was having some trouble getting the brass-blackening chemicals to work properly on the retro jobs. Then it dawned on me (it should have been obvious!) that they weren't clean enough. It's not impossible, but a lot harder, to clean the interior of a completed wagon with a fibre glass brush.
     
    The Evo-stick tends to work between the planks and spill out onto the etches. I don't think this is avoidable, but it's a lot more straightforward to get rid of it when working on a flat side.
     
    The wagon sides and ends glued together round the floor rather better than I expected. Well done MMP and Slater's! To be honest I did have to shave a sliver off the end of the etched floor with a file, but it wasn't exactly hard to do this.
     
    I don't have any etched V irons in stock suitable for Gloucester wagons, so I have used the plastic ones which aren't too bad. I did think of using the plastic brakes too, but having looked at it and thought about it I shall probably fit etched brakes, brake lever and brake lever guide.
     
    I decided not to spring this particular wagon. Someone was saying the other day that if he worked in 7mm he would spring all his vehicles. Well, if he was working in S7 this would probably be essential but in 7mm FS it isn't. Some object to the bumping and banging of rigid wagons over crossings, but to be honest I don't think the first reaction of anyone watching a real train of loose coupled wagons moving at speed was 'Wow, how smoothly those wagons went through that crossing!' There was usually a fair bit of clatter to say the least. Anyway, I think the main culprit in this regard is the sloppiness of 7mm FS standards, not the lack of springing/compensation.
     
    By the way, what is more realistic? An rigid wagon which has all its cosmetic detail in place, including the underframe; or a sprung wagon that uses non-prototypical parts and looks quite wrong if you tip it on its back? In medieval Provence there were Courts of Love which settled abtruse issues relating to love affairs. Perhaps we need something similar in railway modelling. Of course the judges in the Courts of Love were ladies with nothing else to do. They didn't even dress themselves. Perhaps the only available judges for the Court of Railway Abtruseness would be the armchair brigade.
     
    By the way, I am not anti spring/compensation. I have built many wagons in that way, and one more may shortly be described. It's just that I don't make a religion of it, and the advantages, in 7mm FS, seem quite minimal. Iain Rice used to argue that the simplest way to get a wagon to run properly was to fit three point compensation. He was probably right. Getting a rigid wagon to run true can be difficult. (It's all too easy to get three wheels on the rail and one in the air.) However, dear reader, I managed to get it right this time, and there wasn't a sheet of plate glass in sight. Nothing but a simpile jig to ensure the axles were parallel.
  6. Poggy1165
    I am sorry, but I am having to give priority to the writing side at the moment - after all, it pays me! - and the model railway work has taken a back seat. I have actually made progress with the wagons and (I think) there are several that look quite respectable. I will try to get around to posting a pic. However they all, or nearly all, need proper brake gear adding, and at the moment I haven't the time or energy to fire up the soldering iron.
     
    The next phase will be to build one or two from the base kit with Exactoscale springing - this is quite a challenge and not really necessary for plebs like me who work in 7mm FS as opposed to S7. However, I fancy having a go.
     
    On another note, my life is in flux at the moment. The missus and I have been talking about downsizing and moving to a coastal town, and in the process getting rid of most or all of our mortgage. This will mean more cash, but less space. The fact is there may not be room for a model railway. This does not faze me half as much as it would have done even five years ago, but it does make me think twice about working on models until we decide what we are going to do. Fact is I don't have the energy I used to have, and even if the Lottery came up (big style) I'm not sure I'd actually want the kind of layout I used to dream about. Something very simple may do. Or even nothing. It's all in the air.
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