57xx

At the current pace, waiting for Hornby to do any combination might take forever....

A bit more progress to report.It took a while to slot the axle boxes. I have lots of cutters but surprised to find none of 2mm diameter. The conical one I ended up using kept clogging very quickly so I think I spent more time cleaning the cutter than grinding! One the partly slotted example below, you can also see the microstrip attached to the spring hangers to try and get everything the right height. With hindsight, I would try to keep the spring and hanger mouldings off the original kit and just replace the axleboxes themselves. The original hangers are actually of the correct type for this wagon, the MJT castings being of a differetn type. Once done, the two rocking axleboxes were parted from their springs and the whole lot glued onto the wagon. Buffers are again from Lanarkshire Models. Once the running gear is painted black, the small gap between spring and axlebox at the rocking end should be nicely hidden. Next up, deep breath and strapping time!

So had I, but whilst slightly disappointed, I am in no way surprised that they have gone down this route. Par for the course really, just look at the likes of the 14xx and 57xx rtr models. I guess this comes from copying locos in preservation that are not in their "as built" state. The classic example was the Mainline 57xx with it's nipple topped dome, which was a blind copy of a repair done to a preserved engine. I would suggest emailing Bachmann about your hopes (as I have done) and if they get enough feedback, they might look at catering for the pre-war GWR era with locos accurate to their livery.

Excellent work with the Pollens, Castle! There is a good picture in the Atkins et al book of the Pollen C and D sets carrying girders for Lillie Bridge in 1932.

I have two cats and waaay too many guitars and basses...

Hi Mark, The Brassmasters gauge is very simple but effective. I reckon I could have got the wheels on right without it but as I will have a few wagons to do, I thought I might as well make sure I take out all the variability (and bad luck) and get them all right. Unfortunately the POW is nothing so exotic, it's simply an old Bachmann wagon that I picked up off eBay. Here it is in all it's glory...

A little bit of progress on the D1839. The body parts have been stripped of redundant detail and been assembled. After gluing in the floor, the MJT units were place under the body to make sure the buffer height was in the ballpark. Once satisfied with that, the solebars were glued on to the floor and then the MJT W irons were glued inplace using the Brassmasters wheelbase gauge t oget them the right distance apart and, more importantly, parallel. When I plopped on the axle box moldings, it became apparant some work needed doing... Whilst a little bit of clearance will be needed for the rocking unit, the fixed end requires the hole in the back of the axle box to be elongated to enable the springs to sit on the solebar. I'll split the axle box and spring on the rocking end and have the gap in between them as the examples I've seen done this way seem more discrete. I'll also slot the axle box at the rocking end so both ends are the same height. The wonky bit of brass in the middle of the side is the first bit of detailing to go on. Hope I can get the strapping lined up more accurately!

Looking at the prototype pics of the SVR CC7, I think the strip of rivets at the top is to go on the body at the left side of the door, not part of the door runners. The upgraded DD5 kit includes an etch overlay for the solebar detail.The destructions say to file off the lower edge of the U. Kind of makes me think that a simple angle section rather than a U section would have better. I've got a hold & fold that I've used to do solebars on a Bedford GWR 10' underframe (didn't get much further due to lack of instructions...) and found it very easy so I think the solebars for this kit should be a doddle.

Here's the CC7 etch: I notice it has an excess of side strapping too. Two of the bits of strapping (towards top right above the trussing) are for the side door runners. There's no roof rivet detail either, luckily I have a load of the Mainly trains wagon detail etch too for my D1839 kit-bash.

That might take a while, I've yet to dip my toe into brass kit building! That said I have amassed 4 different kits to build now, it's a matter of choosing one to take the plunge with. The CC7 has the sliding door and only one set of buffer beams, the angle ended ones. Strangely, the instructions say to fit the square ended beams - that aren't included on the etch!The roof is as yours, not holes etched for the roof-light and no buffers were included. I will be emailing Falcon to query this as the instructions specifically mentions attaching the buffers in step 4. If the DD5 Cordon is anything to go by, the upgrade will be to use U section channel for the solebars and buffer beams and more underframe castings, specifically on the DD5; V hangers, brake shoes, brake levers.

Thanks for this excellent post Nick, most informative. My CC7 arrived today so this will help immensely. With the lack of any definitive evidence of these (and other PW vehicles) being painted black, I think your livery hits the spot perfectly. Just popping over to evilBay to find some square section brass....

Hi Michael, no I've not really considered it. I'm more of a kit builder/basher than a scratch-builder. I have tried to use it for structures in the past though. I built a wooden platform with wood sleepers, but unfortunately it warped and so got binned.

And the third main reason - never posted in the first place! (not saying that this selling would do that but I have encountered it in the past.)

Thanks for the comments chaps. Adam, The light grey vac' pipe was a one off, I usually paint them with Phoenix "dirty black" which is the colour you can see on the underframe of the SR open above, pretty much a charcoal black as you described. I agree about the white roofs, the first van actually started grey but then got repainted white for the "ex-works" photos while the paint work was still looking fresh. My idea is to start off white and weather it with soot, gunk and grime till it looks right. I'll be doing a big batch of weathering at some point with all the wagons getting treated. Good tip on the couplings, thank you. I have the blacking on the way so will probably do a session and make up the whole etch in one go. I think wagons are vastly overlooked given there were the mainstay of the railways for so long. Your workbench is one of those that has inspired me to get into these builds.

The current mission is to back-date the Parkside BR Hybar into an LMS D1839 open wagon. I've only got a couple of images to work on, the first a picture in Essery's "The LMS Wagon" which was where I first saw this diagram. The other is an online pic sample from a book that is out of print and rare as hen's teeth. If anyone knows if this diagram is covered in "An Illustrated History of LMS Wagons Part 1", then please let me know! So onto construction, or rather destruction. There are quite a few detail changes required to backdate the kit. Firstly on the underframe, the axle boxes and W irons both appear to be the wrong type.So out comes the scalpel and off comes the running gear. The W irons are to be replaced with MJT etched items and MJT Midlands axle boxes will complete the transformation. I was then looking at the floor to work out how to fit the W irons on. At first I was going to hack away the ribbing on the underside of the floor, but then though, why not save the floor for another project (as yet unknown) and make a new one from Plasticard. So some 1mm thick sheet was cut to size and planking was scored using a marking gauge, taking the dimensions from the original floor. The W irons should fit straight on the bottom, aided by the Brassmaster axle spacing gauge that has been ordered to make sure I get the wheels parallel and spaced correctly. I then tackled one of the sides. These have to be basically stripped of all strapping bar leaving only the corner plates. The D1839 has only 1 door bang plate vs 2 on the Hybar, the diagonal strapping is at a slightly different and and the door strapping differs. The sack truck plank at the bottom of the door was also absent on the original wagon so that have to be filed flat. The side at the bottom is marked out in pencil and ready for the Mainly Trains brass detailing to be applied. I didn't do too god a job with re-scoring the planking on the first side as the pointer on the marking gauge was a bit blunt (as can also be witnessed on the floor). That will be rectified for the other side!

A few extra parts are required for the next build....

Not a huge amount of progress in the last 3 months. Work stopped on the P15 ballast wagon when I got to doing the brake gear. I'd got Bill Bedford's DCIII brake gear etch for this job but then spotted that on the P15, the V hanger that the brake handles are mounted on are a different shape to most other DCIII equip wagons (a proper V rather than an asymmetric shape). Topped off with the fact the brake push rods on the etch are just a copy of RCH gear and not proper GWR pattern, I put the kit in "get round to it later" pile until I can find someone who does proper DCIII brakes and work out a solution for the lever hangers. So, moving on I recommenced construction of a part built Parkside LNER van. I'd only got as far as putting the body and floor together, so the underframe need attaching. I found that using the locating pips on the floor resulted in the solebars being too close together for the wheel to fit so some microstrip was used to space them out (the white bits on the back of the solebar). Buffers were replaced with some excellent Lanarkshire Models RCH buffers. The door grab handle was formed from brass wire bent to shape in a Bill Bedford handrail jig. I also used the jig as a drill template to make sure the holes were properly spaced. MJT vac pipes were attached and brake gear fitted. Once completed, the van was given a few wafts of Halfords Red Oxide primer. Finally HMRS pressfix transfers were used to letter up the van based on a picture in Tatlow's LNER Wagons book.The van was then given a coat of Klear to seal it all. As the van was being built I also tackled another Parkside kit of an LNER vac fitted open. Spraying and lettering was done concurrently seeming to make it less of a chore. Again this kit has Lanarkshire Models buffers and MJT vac pipes. Lettering was again referenced from the Taltow book. Unfortunately whilst brimming for of excellent detail, the book seems to be missing diagram numbers so I have no idea what diagrams this van and open actually are. Next up... what is this BR wagon doing in my pile of kits...? Any guesses?

Hi Ian, Paul Karau's Great Western Branchline Termini has a couple of good shots of the shed circa 1907-9. The doors are light stone with dark stone framing (framing being the outer planks on each door). There are no shots of the windows, but judging by the other period shots of the main building, they would be chocolate. Looking at the 1907 photo, yes. The ironwork hanging the doors to the runners (sliding doors at Moretonhampstead) appear darker than the dark stone, so entirely feasable it is black.

Rob, take a look at the offerings from Parkside and Cambrian. Between them you can get a good selection of LNER and LMS vans and opens.

Maybe they are just not showing their hand? I have asked them in the past about the 64xx always to be met with a "we can't discuss our plans but thanks for the feedback" type replies. Then look what turned up this year.

The T12 has been through the paintshop but the sign writers forget to get their hands on it! I don't seem to be able to find any pictures of the prototype to go off for this one. My "combined" Atkins et al book is the smaller version with no pics of this diagram at all and Google has not been kind to me so far. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated!

Love the pics, Castle. Forget the Bachy Hawksworth autocoach, I would love to see the No 92 and No 93 in model form! Actually seeing them in real life would be rather awesome too. I never realised the GWR had an engine called Albert Rooster...

Thanks Castle. I must admit filling the T12 with sleepers is not the most exciting prospect lol.

Some progress has been made on the Permanent Way train. In the Little Didcot thread I mentioned that the body of my first P15 being built up didn't seem to be sitting right on the chassis. To amend this I fixed the floor a little lower in the body with the aid of some microstrip so that the bottom of the solebars were level with the bottom of the buffer beams. I then fitted the buffers to the P15 and rolled it up next to another wagon and to my surprise it turned out ok and the buffers near enough lined up. However, the buffers just didn't look right when compared to prototype photos, they were to short and dumpy and the gussets seemed to big. So a quick order to Lanarkshire Models resulted in some rather tasty buffers for the P15s. On the left of the picture below you can see the original Cambrian buffers, with the very nice LM product on the right hand end. The bits of white plasticard sheet are to space out the etched brake gear that will be fitted to this wagon. Being one not to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time, I've also been building up the T12 sleeper wagon. This has gone together fairly smoothly, although the parts did require a lot of flash removal and squaring off. I've used a set of Bachmann wheels under it. At 12.7mm, they let the wagon ride a little bit higher, bringing the buffers in line. Again, the self-contained buffers used on here are from Lanarkshire Models, I didn't even bother to see what the plastic ones came out like and cut the base of them straight off the ends before assembly. The T12 is weighted up to 30g with some lead strip, there's plenty of room under the ends to pack it in. As this rake is suppoed to be fixed (e.g. I have no intention of shunting it), scale couplings are going to be used. For the T12 I have build up some Masokit screw links. They are not really that bad to build up, athough care is needed to stop you soldering the links up solid. All I need now is some blackening solution. The drawgear plate just visible on the hook is from the Bill Bedford DCIII brake gear etch.

Unless you go for a composite door, then UPVC doors are very easy to break in through. I think a sturdy wooden door would be a better bet.