LSWR/SR/BR 24 Ton Brake Van x 2

I have been looking at whether to make the veranda doors hinged. If they were for me I would but I don't want to make them too expensive to sell.

 

That's the sad bit, I do!

 

Modelling time has been a bit limited this week so I haven't made much progress on these but I have managed to get one of the basic bodies together and the ends soldered to one side on the other one.



That looks like I should have rinsed it a bit better...







The last shot will teach me not to sneak in a bit of modelling late at night when I am half asleep... I didn't have the energy to take it of again last night when I realised that I had rather neatly soldered it to the wrong end....

 

Last night I unsoldered the errant end and soldered it on at the right end and then made up the second body.

This morning I added the end platforms before looking at fitting the doors.

Although I had discussed with Kim the suggestion of adding opening doors I initially planned to solder at least some of them on. When it came to it, I did manage to get them soldered on one end but getting them in the right position was quite difficult and because they are laminated from two full thickness pieces they took a lot of heat from the microflame to get them the solder to melt and I wasn't really happy with them.

My main concern with making opening doors was how to get the pin in to retain them because the doors fit tight under the strip that runs across the veranda end which represents the timber framing. I thought about drilling a hole in the strip to insert the pin from the top but it was too close to the upright and would have been hard work so I inserted it from the bottom and soldered it in. It does mean that I can't take them off for painting but it was the only way to get them on.

Once I had the hang of how to do it I had the rest done in a couple of hours.

Just to prove that they do indeed open I took a short video.

 

Thanks Pete,

A couple more sessions in the workshop have seen the bodies almost complete. They just need the small cover plates that were fitted upon the removal of the side lamps in the early 1920's.

They are becoming increasingly more difficult to keep clean as the build progresses.

 

Thanks Paul,

It did make for an interesting time when soldering the overlay corner brackets and handrails on the corner posts to make sure that the hinges didn't come adrift....

 

It has taken going on for 6 hours to get the step boards assembled. I can see why Jim says that this is not an afternoon build. Even taking in to account that I am doing two at once, I reckon that it would take a long weekend at least, to build one of these.

 

More work on the workshop has reduced modelling time somewhat but a little progress has been made on the brake vans.
A lot of progress has been made on the workshop with my spray booth now fitted and vented externally and for the first time my Mini Formit (guillotine/folder/rolling bars) are permanently bolted to the bench and following Pete's post I had another look at the alignment of the blade and anvil and had a lightbulb moment. Unseen previously, underneath the front edge of the anvil are two adjustment screws which push the anvil against the blade. Once I slackened the retaining screws and then used the adjustment screws the blade now sits tight against the anvil and it will happily cut shim so although I haven't tested it yet it should cut the 10 thou nickel and brass sheets that it previously just bent down between anvil and blade.

To help with the location of the roofs I cut a strip of brass sheet (scrap etch) and then curved and scored it to represent the planking above the verandas. These were soldered to the underside of the roofs.

Next the roofs were covered in lense cleaning tissue to represent the canvas and finally the chimneys soldered on.

 

Wow, some time since I touched these.

For the last couple of weekends I have been demonstrating brass wagon building at a couple of shows so I took these along to see if I could make some progress on them. Surprisingly I did manage to make quite a bit of progress with both of these now up on their wheels with brake gear fitted. They still need brake rodding added and then details such as buffers etc. - I will take some photos once they are properly dry.

The plan for these was always to sell them when complete to fund something else and now that they are nearing completion I am starting to think about what livery to finish them in and this is the reason for this being in the questions and queries section.

For those Southern modellers amongst us. I will need to buy paint and transfers which ever livery I choose so I'm looking for a bit of advice. (without any kind of commitment I hasten to add).

As a "Southern" modeller, if you were looking to purchase a brake van would you prefer it in LSWR livery, Southern livery or BR Livery?

Many thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

 

Further to my last post both vans are now sold, one as is for the buyer to finish and the second one to be finished and painted in a yellow light railway livery.

Here's where I had got to by the end of Redcar show.

 

On Bank Holiday Monday I took the one to be finished along to Harrogate show and again made excellent progress despite chatting to lots of people.

What I hadn't realised at Redcar show is that although I had assembled parts 23,24, 25 and 26 into a sub unit and dry fitted fitted them I hadn't actually soldered them in the second van. Sadly when I piked the van up to pack it away the sub assembly must have dropped off asI couldn't find it at home when I discovered it's was missing.


So I ended up scratch building a new sub assembly to replace the missing one.

I fitted a floor and then fitted the subassembly before fitting the rodding. Having prepared the parts before I went to Harrogate I did all the assembly during the show so didn't get any photos of the subassembly after I put it together or without the rods in place. I replaced the two part etched crank with a piece of 10ba threaded rod (I have a number of short lengths from where I have shortened 1" screws) with a wrap around that better represents the real thing.








Although there is a plan view of how the brake rods fit the small fitting that fits the upper rod to the bottom of the van isn't provided so I knocked a couple up from scrap etch. Bending and soldering those last two short upper sections of rodding in place really challenged the patience and it's a good job I was in public or I may have expanded my Anglo Saxon dictionary...

 

After all that I forgot to add that I also turned some replacement buffer stocks. Those familiar with Jim's kits will know that to keep costs down Jim provides whitemetal buffers which can be sprung but it involves fitting a piece of spring wire through the back of the coupling hook and then to the rear of the buffers. Although I used this method on a few of my early builds having broke one of the cast heads of a buffer rather put me off the idea so now I add sprung buffers and I usually solder the coupling hook solid.

I had some spare buffer heads (kindly supplied by our very own Mr Moss as when received from NER Days they were unusable without further machining which Mossy isn't equipped to do) which are fitted with 10ba nuts so the shank is a bit thicker than the 12 or 14ba that most comercial wagon buffers are fitted with. I did drill out one of the white metal buffer stocks and I did make it ft but the walls were very thin. I decided to turn replacements from some 14" nickel rod. Although the finished dimensions were the same as the whitemetal examples the nickel replacements are much more substantial.




So now The van just needs these fitting, some sand pipes and coupling chains and a good clean up before painting.