A sort of cut and shut Vanfit build

This morning I had to complete a job on a small farmstead, yes I know its a Sunday but the sun was shining and the job was up in the hills and I had spotted this in the field below.................




So being the inquisitive sort I asked the old farmer woman if I could go and take a look at this van body, of course she said but was totally mystified as to the reason why anyone would be interested in her old bale shed which was in her words was as rotten as a pear... she must have though I was quite batty but then it takes one to know one I guess and she was about as mad as a March hare.

So on closer inspection this van body offered up its real identity... most interestingly it turns out to be.............. B786491... yes I know the one has been eaten away by rats but it shows clearly on the other side which I couldn't get to photograph because of tree saplings and scrub.



Well B 786491 was built by Pressed Steel Ltd in 1962 to diagram 1/224 under Lot 3398 and is or should I say was a 12 Ton plywood sided Vanfit fitted from new with Oleo wagon buffers, extended drawbar plate and eight shoe clasp brakes.

Here is some more info...





This van had had a Pad Exam on the 18th September 1981 and a brake overhaul on the 22nd November 1978, batty farm woman told me the van was there when she purchased the land in 1984 so withdrawal of this final batch of fitted vans was sometime in the early 1980's. The wooden body has now well rotten out but clearly shows its later brown oxide paintwork which was applied at works to these last surviving wagons. I'll just mention that by the mid 1970's freight bauxite as the standard colour for fitted rolling stock had long since ceased to be used. Interesting the door catches are still in evidence and so was a cast Inter Repair plate dated 1968 at York. Note that I said was.

 

So this sad sight got me thinking I needed to do something as the batty old farm woman was threatening to set fire to this old soldier, obviously I don't want a rotten old van body in my garden as I have a bus parked there as well AND SWMBO wouldn't be best impressed and potentially get a little with me, the answer was to make a model... and I think I know how.

So with this kit...




and this kit...well actually the ply sided version



i'm going to cut and shut these two kits together to make B 786491, no I'm not going to glue a van body on top of a Lowfit instead I shall use the Slater's Lowfit frames, lost wax Oleo buffers and etch brake gear as the underframe and mate that with the Slater's Fruitvan bodyshell (minus the side air louvers) to make an accurate representation of the Pressed Steel vanfit.

Here are the lost wax buffer castings from the Lowfit kit along with some outside motion being built up for 75030




and here is the etch of the clasp brake rigging...




So now I'm off to order up a BR Standard 12 ton Fruit van kit from Slaters and when it arrives the cut and shut shall commence, the end result hopefully will be B 786491 living on immortalized in 7mm model form .

 

And here is how a Pressed Steel Vanfit looks in real life, somewhat different from the standard Slaters offering because the running gear and buffing equipment is not the same, the picture shows Class 24 D5018 departing from Leek station with an evening van train for Stoke. D5018 later traveled north being reallocated to the Scottish Region. Picture by the late John Burgess copywrite with kind permission from Ian Burgess.

 

The corugated ends with vents, the angle framework and struts are all very good... it even has the four drop hook door catches still in place. There is even all the door furniture and hinges still in place, this body would yeald a lot of spares for someone elses project.

Funnily enough SWMBO did show some interest abate in joking form but to be honest it needs a new roof, floor, internal end and side panelling and outer ply sheeting plus new doors. A stab in the dark including the cost of re canvassing the roof plus paint would be around £5K... its not for me I have way too much on my plate already and anyway SWMBO would only want to go and paint the thing some insipid shade of pink.

 

... if you did want it for the CVR as spare then road access onto the field from the lane is not an issue either.

 

My pleasure Toto as I know how much members here like reading about these rare finds... such items are always a great source of information for our modelling.

BTW don't suppose you would know if that NSR lavatory first bogie carriage body used as a boatyard bothy is still around on the wharf at Banff would you ? It is a very long shot but a picture of it taken years ago shows it was painted in BR maroon livery numbered
as M 18595 M

 

Thanks Toto I doubt it still exists now... but then you never know.