Some notes on a Furness RWC NER P4 Hopper Wagon

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the tip, it will get filed away and used, but, FRWC kits buffers and housings are 3d printed plastic, so its out with the paint brush for them.

Mossy

 

Oops, meant to add I normally used Haywoods sprung buffers, they have 5 different patterns of NER buffers, but, I haven't been able to get any replies from Geoff Gill for about 6 months, does anyone know if he's ok?

 

Rob,

If possible can you find me the advert and send me the link please.

 

Morning Rob,

I spoke to Slaters on Wednesday, they are posting out a pair of 11' w/b Morton brakes, which I am going to try cut down to 10' 6" for the P4.
I can then decide if I use them on the new build or canabalise one my my other P4's for the etch and use the slaters brakes on it.
This is all a first for me, so it may well be an interesting experiment.

 

Rob
It wasn't a cheap solution I got 2 of these at £3.95 each! Just need to be careful when modifying them as I don't want another £2.95 bill!

 

Well I hope the surgery holds. Brake shoes and pushrods cut away from centre spindle, then taped to the brake etch as a template and the centre spindle glued back in.
Finally a small piece of etch super glued to the back to act as reinforcement. Its all be set aside to dry thoroughly, next job is to fiddle about and figure out to attach it to the underside of the wagon.

 

Last Friday I sent an entirely speculative email to Geoff Gill (Haywoods railways), not really expecting a reply, blow me today a parcel arrived containing wheels sets and NER Buffer sets plus the bill of course. I tried Rob Pulhams, cook the buffer head to red heat and plunge it into veg oil - wow it works a treat - thanks Rob.

The chopped up brakes have been fitted along with wheel sets (Markits not Haywoods) so the build is progressing nicely. Tomorrow is a family day (outdoors and socially distanced of course), we will finally get to see our 3 week old second grandchild, so hopefully more progress will be made on Wednesday. Its just dressing and painting things so hopefully there will soon be a new P4 for the fleet. The now redundant and spare etched brake gear is going to be retro fitted to one of my other P4's.

Mossy

 

Wednesday in Granny day care so the house to myself with peace and quite produces progress:
Its all assembled, buffers just posed (to be fitted after painting. Next job is a removable load of coal, a messy job with lots of dilute PVA glue,
then my least favourite task painting.

Anyway a NER P4 as would have been built pre 1887:

 

Tom is a bit sceptical about the FRWC wagon, he's had some where the parts haven't been square and queries the price, but they do come out nice with a bit of care, its just my painting that will spoil it!

No sign of the B1 etch coming from Steve Hoyle, so I'm going to make a start on a P5 next.

 

Whenever I have had a problem with his kits, usually missing parts (his quality control needs work) they have been replaced very promptly.
I have never had a problem with bits being out of square and I always check them on receipt of a kit.
All the kit instructions show the kits to contain Haywoods buffers, but, what is supplied are 3d printed plastic jobs,
I try to replace then with Haywoods, but that significantly adds to cost, however since my layout will be a branch terminus, I don't need huge rakes of wagons, so the extra cost doesn't hurt as much as it would.

 

After the success of the P4 build I started fiddling with it's buddy an NER P5, basically an updated old S&D design.
Rather than follow the usual logic of gluing the body to the chassis and then adding to it, I decided to try build the chassis first before joining the body to it.

Just a few comments:
The half etched rivets are larger and deep than on the P4 so rivet punching was significantly easier.
In order for the W irons to line up with the rivets, it is necessary to remove a corner of the etch so the whole thing (almost) lines up.
Even then the rivets do not quite line up correctly, but there nothing much that can be done about it.



Using the Peter Tatlow diagram, it is obvious there are shunting loops on all 4 corners of the chassis.


So the complete chassis looks like


But when I looked at the above pic, I realised the Monkey Tails were wrongly positioned (mea culpa) these will be taken off and repositioned correctly.


But all in all an enjoyable build so far with very few problems.

Mossy

 

Repositioned monkey tails! Next stick on the body and build the end brakes etc.