LNER Banana Van announced!!

[57xx]

On 22/12/2021 at 20:44, Garethp8873 said:

Sad to say but it looks like another load of repaints for me. The lettering font Oxford Rail have used is disappointing...

As is garish orange oxide colour.

[2750Papyrus]

We're looking at a printed illustration reproduced on a computer screen, so perhaps not authoritative.  Having said that, it doesn't look too dissimilar to Precision LNER wagon oxide.  Were you expecting a bauxite shade? That wasn't introduced till 1938, with the change to small lettering.

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, 2750Papyrus said:

We're looking at a printed illustration reproduced on a computer screen, so perhaps not authoritative.  Having said that, it doesn't look too dissimilar to Precision LNER wagon oxide.  Were you expecting a bauxite shade? That wasn't introduced till 1938, with the change to small lettering.

 

They're on the Hattons website....

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail?id=1018

 

Going by previous Oxford releases where they've shown "samples" that's what you will be getting.

 

 

 

Jason

[Wickham Green too]

Very confusing with an 'LNER brown' colour patch that MIGHT approximate to the Teak Paint used on second rate passenger stock ! 

[Bishdurham]

2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Very confusing with an 'LNER brown' colour patch that MIGHT approximate to the Teak Paint used on second rate passenger stock ! 

Well I thought that train I caught to Chingford smelt a bit like bananas! 

[Steamport Southport]

Looks spot on for LNER Bauxite to me. Or as they called it Freight Oxide.

 

Source, the tin of Phoenix P67 paint I'm looking at that is later going on some Parkside kits.

 

 

 

Jason

[MartinTrucks]

The LNER version is now advertised as in stock at Oxford Rail:

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/new-in/products/great-eastern-banana-van-lner-livery-632882-or76ban001

 

Regards,

Martin

[Garethp8873]

Hattons have listed the Banana Vans on their website.

 

 

[gwrrob]

[Garethp8873]

36 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

Is it me or does the V hanger look rather narrow?

[Wickham Green too]

12 hours ago, Garethp8873 said:

Is it me or does the V hanger look rather narrow?

It does ! .............................. but compared with the photos and drawing on page 1, 'rather narrow' is how it should be.

 

( Looks like the brake levers are correctly handed on this example. )

[markw]

11 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

It does ! .............................. but compared with the photos and drawing on page 1, 'rather narrow' is how it should be.

 

( Looks like the brake levers are correctly handed on this example. )

No this side with the brake cylinder on the right should have a Morton clutch visible.

[Dunsignalling]

It is to be hoped that it will only be necessary to swap over the metal brake levers and racks. 

 

Previous Oxford wagon underframes have been made from plastics that proved impervious to all the solvents and adhesives in my "armoury"  so rearranging any sections of that may be problematic.  

 

John

[Wickham Green too]

18 minutes ago, markw said:

No this side with the brake cylinder on the right should have a Morton clutch visible.

Apologies - I was thinking of the push-rod brakes on the non-banana vans !

[MarkC]

On 31/01/2021 at 22:05, The Johnster said:

No, they are not quite the same as fruit vans.  Banana vans have steam heating and no ventilation, as the bendy things were cropped green and ripened aboard the ships and on the trains to be palatable at sale, whereas fruit is usually picked ripe and needs to be kept cool and unheated, but well ventilated, to stop it going overripe in transit.

 

Bit late to this thread, but not quite right. 35 years ago I was serving on banana boats, including a period as the Frostie, or Refrigeration Engineer. We used the methods perfected by the United Fruit Company, which included Fyffes. The idea on board ship is to prevent the fruit from ripening. From memory, you set off with the circulating air in the holds being admitted at 11.1 Deg.C., until the return temperature was 12.2 Deg.C., then you lifted the air delivery temperature to 13.3 Deg.C. until the end of the voyage & started discharging. For the first 36-48 hours after sailing from the load port, the Frostie also spent a lot of time pumping out the hold bilges, as there was a lot of moisture coming from the cargo!

 

The idea, as I say, was that you arrived at your discharge port with as much of the cargo as possible still green. After that, yes, ripening was done en route to final destinations.

[MarkC]

On 11/04/2021 at 23:50, Steamport Southport said:

 

Probably would have died en route if any did manage to get on board.

 

Never heard any tales of big spiders from any relatives working on the ships or docks. And most of those relatives were the type to scare the living daylights out of any kids.

It was a regular thing on banana boats to find spiders whilst discharging - the best was always when the last lift of boxes of fruit was hoisted - any wildlife still on board tended to lurk at the bottom - the dockies down the hatch would scatter as fast as the critters!

[TrevorP1]

12 minutes ago, MarkC said:

It was a regular thing on banana boats to find spiders whilst discharging - the best was always when the last lift of boxes of fruit was hoisted - any wildlife still on board tended to lurk at the bottom - the dockies down the hatch would scatter as fast as the critters!

Agreed. I was born in Southampton where some of the banana boats docked and such stories were common knowledge. Some of the smaller wildlife even got to the local greengrocers. 

[Steamport Southport]

Managed to sling one in my trunk.

 

Seems they are going in and out of stock like the Hokey Cokey. Thought I'd missed them and then back in stock, then gone again.

 

So if you think you've missed out. Look again.

 

 

 

Jason

[Dominion]

First foray to swap the brake lever from the side that should have a Morton clutch on the banana van with the side of the GE van that should not have the Morton clutch looked promising. The lever has a small hole in the back, and the V hanger has a small pin in line with the cross the shaft. So far so good.

 

However, the brake lever from the GE van does not have both parts of the clutch molded with it. It has the top boss and amazingly its drive cog molded on it, (and so is slightly different than the one that comes with the banana van.)

But the lower boss and its matching drive cog seem to be molded with the V hanger. Sorry that is slightly out of focus below.

The upper of the 2 loose levers below the van is from the GE van, the lower is from the banana van. That upper lever is not badly cut from the sprue, it is actually a representation of the Morton drive cog.

I may as well swap the levers over between the vans now that they are both off, and will reposition them. But no need to buy vans in pairs to make the swap easy.  I may try to slice the lower cog off the GE V hanger to try to reuse it on the banana van, but if that does work I will represent it on that van with a  bit of stripped wire insulation, like I believe Niles did with the LNER 6 planks.

PS the vans behaved like the opposite of falling buttered toast. The first side I looked at to start work was always the correct side that didn't need work. I guess the opposite will be true when placed on the track for any vans I don't do the conversion on !

[markw]

The V hangers look as if they are a separately fitted part, would it be possible to swap them as well as the brake levers.

[Dominion]

You are right they are separate. However, on the GE van I think they are molded as one part with the brake push-rod, brake shoe, and stay, and the rest of that "assembly" needs to stay on the GE van.

[Dominion]

A little crude, but will look ok out of the bright lights. Morton representation on one side of the banana van. I hope I did the correct side. (Oops, this was the WRONG side on the Banana van - corrected version 3 posts below) 

 

And clutch removed on one side of the GE general purpose van. 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Dominion
First attempt was wrong side !

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Dominion said:

A little crude, but will look ok out of the bright lights. Morton representation on one side of the banana van. I hope I did the correct side.

 

And clutch removed on one side of the GE general purpose van. 

 

 

 

The GE one is right - push the lever down on either side and the push rods will push the brake blocks on.

 

I think, however, that the NE one is the wrong way round since for clasp brakes the rods are usually pull rods rather than push rods, so from the side you've photographed, the cross shaft should rotate clockwise, which needs a plain lever on this side and the cam on the other. I think that must be right for this case since when the vacuum brake is applied (air admitted to the brake pipe), the pressure difference pulls the vac cylinder piston inwards, i.e. up, causing clockwise (from this side) rotation of the cross-shaft.

[Dominion]

Thank you. I was afraid of that. I knew the general van was correct but I wasn't certain how the rods behaved behind the wheels on the fitted one.  Swapping sides should be easy enough provided there is not more factory glue on the other side. Thank you for the feedback.

[Dominion]

Now it is on the correct side. Thank you Compound.

 

 

There is a picture showing the vacuum cylinder clearly and the non-clutch side in Tatlow 1 (NOT4A) pg. 205 of a fitted GE van.

I also looked at the drawing on page 7 of Tatlow 4A and can see how the levers and vacuum cylinder interact and the central rods pull on the far yoke of a clasp brake set up, so I can now see how the mechanism works. 

Murphy's law dictated that there was indeed more factory glue on this side and the pin broke off the V hanger.  However my fake clutch boss (wire-insulation) seems to sit close enough to the correct position anyway. As the far side was intact I was able to put that lever back in the correct spot easily.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Dominion
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