Class 104 dmu kit build

Well Hanle

Hanley box wasn't so tall and didn't have large locking room windows but I suspect it was a 10 foot x 10 foot foundation size ... same as Tutbury Crossing box and Froghall Junction.

 

Believe it or not constructing this buffer assembly took me most of a day when putting all the time together, its massively fiddly dealing with the various components and needed to be correct in every way. First off the white metal beam had to be filed clean of flash so it would sit vertically when fitted to the under bulkhead area. Next the buffer spindle holes needed to be enlarged and the angled buffer stocks glued into placeon the beam... these are very fine pieces and I opted to glue inside of joining with low melt solder, once the industrail grade Stik2 cyano had cured it was now time pass the drill bit through the spindle hole again. The lamp bracket plate is a small brass etch which can be glued to either the buffer collar first or the now glued in place stocks, I opted for the stocks as alignment was easier, again a check to see if all parts allowed the buffer to depress without resistance, finally the ABS plastic stocks were glued onto the assembly.

So the buffers depressed nicely but the buffer shafts were a mill or so too short when the spring wire was attached and that made the buffer head fully depressed into the stocks... I needed to extend the shafts. Having thought about a best way to do this I eventually opted to solder tiny lengths of 0.07mm microtubing onto the end of each buffer spindle, this gave me that extra 1mm or so extension needed to spring the buffers correctly and the spring wire slide through the microtube without issue.

The couplings were made up in the normal way and the drawbar shaft formed the central anchor spring wire.




Now I have purposfully omitted fitting any vacuum pipes at this stage as I have a cunning plan where the pipes will actually be the circuit wires for the marker lights. On DMU's there is a high vacuum and a low vacuum pipe, the reason being that the high vacuum admits the whole brake system along the length of the train to atmosphere and the low vacuum applies a graduated brake on all bogies at the same time thus preventing an uncomformable jerking for passengers sitting in the rear carriages.

So all that is needed now is to make up the other beam and fit them to the bulkhead undersides.

 

well yes there are but I am only completing the TCL right now as the other cars have more complex arrangements

 

Whilst quietly continuing with the centre car build and diligently following the instructions there seems to be something not quite correct with the buffer beam width, instructions say that the kit enclosed 5mm deep x 0.5mm thick plasticard strip has to be glued over the top of the sideframes on either side of each solebar, this is to create a deeper solebar representation which the 104 units had. Now that is great as a modification to a standard Easybuild chassis normally reserved for Mark 1 carriages but the overlay throws up an inconsistent gap between the solebar end and the angles cyt back of the buffer beam. This is something I'm not happy with. The problem I suspect is that the overlay creates an additional width and against the white metal buffer beam which is too short anyway... may well have to add some tiny pieces in here but for the driving cars this is not an option. On the driving cars the existing moulded chassis solebar will have to have lengths of 1mm square rod glued in to extend the depth down to 5mm and the angle end of the beam increased, anyway with luck if I do some sort of "mod" on the centre car it won't be so noticable.




The footsteps have been added and the other buffer beam is ready to be fitted in place.




Finally for today the water tank vent pipes have been added, they were made from 0.4mm wire, this final detailing for the roof will be creating the weld lines to represent the roof sheets, there are 25 weld lines on a 104 roof and they intersect with the vent positions on each side the length of the roof... may well have to do some juggling here. I've ordered in several packets of 0.3mm plastic rod from Plastruct which should be here in a day or two... in the mean time I need to make a form tool from brass to score line the positions of the weld lines on the roof. This is all in the cause of authenticity.

 

A bit of an update on the above posting re the solebar overlay ... its a non starter so I removed both overlays before the glue hardened, reason being it gave a totally incorrect appearance which I am not at all happy with. Having studied photos of the 104 units solebar arrangement a much better and more authentic look is to add a 1mm x 1mm square section Plastruct piece to the underside edge of the existing moulded solebar on the chassis, this will result in the correct depth making a better join with the buffer beam. The footsteps need attention to... when done it will be a totally better finish. More pictures tomorrow when I have done this alteration.

 

Reworking the solebars into something more authentic looking made me feel a whole lot happier about this kit construction, Easybuild kits are very good actually as they offer the oportunity to build them to whatever level of detail and accuracy a build chooses... I just aim to make stuff look as they were in real life. So lengths of 1mm square rod were glued onto the solebar bottom edge each side and this tool the depth to the correct scale 5mm but more importantly made them fall in line with the buffer beam. Now the buffer beam needed widening by 1mm on each side along the end corners next to the buffer stocks, a bit fiddly but now the buffer beam ends overhang the solebars as they should and indeed did do on the real thing. I also reworked the footboards in black plastic strips cut at 4mm depth x 25mm in length so as to extend just behind the door openings.




The next couple of pictures show the other beam ends dealt with in the same way. The corridor concertina bellows will be detailed once a second car is complete since fixing the etch scissor supports.

 

With the car sitting on bogies its time to dress the underframes with dynamo, barry boxes, switch boxes and regulator box... the kit also includes a fuel tank and bracket set for the space heaters.

 

The plan was to fit the interior partitions and paint the inside saloons until I realised that the exterior needed paint before glazing windows, glazing would have made fitting the partitions awkward and internal painting impossible, so a change of dirrection was called for. The exterior has been given a light priming before full painting and lining, this will be in the early green applied to multiple units... the later dark green with half yellow cab ends was Loco Green and applied on the first repaint around 1962.

So MU jumper cables have been fitted and the high and low vacuum pipes along with the EP air pipe will be added later once the other cars have been built up to this stage. My old friend Kev Dowd and Chris Moxon from Railcar Group advised that there was a wide step plate fitted over the corridor gangway at the water tank fitter end, this item was scratch made as it isn't included in the Easybuild kit and the cover over the corridor bellows is made from thin plastic packaging. The MU jumper cables are also fitted and these will connect with the other car ends as a fixed coupled set. Roof weld seams are from 0.3mm plastic rod and are spaced at every 14.5 mm. I have also added a fourth bulkhead end step as this set will run in pre electrification days so there won't be any electrical danger stickers added.

 

The underframe is reasonably detailed now and anything extra would only be small wiring runs and switches so I shall draw a line here and leave it as this. When the brass strengthening bars were fitted to prevent sag in the underfloor it seems to have worked well as a nice tight fit is achieved between body and chassis. In the power cars I shall modify these bars in order to take the extra casting weight of the engines, gearboxes and final drive units.

 

One thing I hadn't realised and learned the other day from the Railcar Group was that the BRCW Class 104 units as delivered from new had different bogie suspension which involved lateral leaf springs and bogie dampers, this detail is not included in the Easybuild kit because the bogie side pieces come with the later coil springs. The coil springs were a modification to improve ride quality when the units each went into works for overhaul around 1969, so bogie coil springs are compatible with the Rail Blue era but not for the previous green livery era. Ah well so it was back to scratch building items again and now I have enough leaf spring and damper units for all six bogies. This is the result of working with tiny bits of plastic rod 1mm dia or so.




Now with underfloor items painted to show some detailing.

 

Last night was spent marking out the roof weld lines on both power cars, the next job will be to score the lines with a blade using the shaped former I made some weeks ago now then inlaying 0.3mm rod into the score line. This will give the effect of the weld seams which on the 104 units are quite feint when compared to Derby built 108's, 121's and 122 bubble car units. Here are the two power cars which are the Driving Motor Brake Second (nearest in picture) and the Driving Motor Composite Lavatory.



I shall start building up these two cars now, its a bit like a game of chess because certain tasks have to be completed before moving on to the next, for example before I fit LED marker lights I need to prime the inside saloons and drill a hole through the rear builkhead to take the wire connectors... that's the next job after doing the weld lines, the cab desk can then be fitted which determins the wire route from the cab up into the ceilings. Once that is done the buffer beams can be fitted then the exterior can be primer painted and once that is done the insides can be painted and interior bulkheads fitted... oh and the route boxes need fitting as well.



The buffer beam assemblies have previously been made and these are sprung with piano wire, the kit suggests the front beams are removable as they form some sort of clip to hold the sub floor down... I'm not a massive fan of that idea and think something better to get the same result can be achieved. I intend to glue the end assemblies to the underside of the cab floor giving a better hold retention... we shall see.

The etches contain the underfloor brake hangers, the window vents and corridor connector scissors.

 

Thanks Andy... wiring stuff up is a pain to me

 

I wasn't totally happy when the weld lines on the centre car were made using 0.3mm rod as it looked too harsh for my liking, funnily enough the same looked good on the Cravens 129 DPU but is a big no no on the BRCW 104, so having scribed the Motor brake car and removing the tape, the roof looks so much better without the 0.3mm rod. So for anyone building the Easybuild Class 104 DMU kit I'd recomend just scoring the roof weld lines using a shape Stanley blade... I now need to remove the 0.3mm rod off the centre car.



The back plate for the two digit route box is fitted in place.. I don't think I'll bother to back light this feature as I can spend my time more productively elsewhere with other detailing tasks. The curved pieces of bras etch are the formers used as guides in scoring weld lines.

 

Ooh thank you Paul, it was a lovey surprise to see the 104 make POTW. Now I am so very sorry for breaking the forum and I apologise most sincerely to all our group for such an inexcusable action... I blame the Russians ... they are most likely jealous because they couldn't get Kestral HS4000 to work properly

The 104 will very soon go into paint there are a few detailing bits such as exhaust stacks, tank filler pipes and bulkhead steps to add yet. The bodies have to be brought to gloss varnish and transfer lining before a final flat varnish can be applied, once that is done then glazing units can be fitted along with their window trims... so a bit of work to be done still.

 

I'm just working out a wiring route for the LED marker lights... I'm using coated nano wire at the LED end and think thin gauge wire along the carriage roof to male female connectors hidden in the corridor bellows. This build will have to be a normally coupled three car set due to all the connections and accessability to them. The three car set when coupled together will measure four feet in length... so it needs a purpose built carry box.