And finally, the roof “canvas” is added along with a couple of the plates that adorn each side of the van were knocked up from scrap etch.
Next stop the spray booth.
D&S NER Bogie Road Van – Construction finished and ready for painting
Category Archives: Model Builds
D&S NER Bogie Road Van
I have had a few of Dan’s kits over time and one thing that I find odd is that some come with roofs and some come without. Sadly, the road van came without (yet an NER horsebox that I bought at the same time had one). I can only guess that it depends on whether Dan has roof material to hand when he packs the kit.
A suitable piece of sheet was obtained and cut to size. It was just too long for either of my sets of rolling bars so I had to resort to rolling it by hand but I got there in the end.
When built these vans were fitted with sliding roof hatches over the left hand set of doors on each side. Later these were replaced with canvas or just boarded over so lots of permutations are possible depending on the period being modelled. This van was to have roof doors so I cut an offcut of thicker brass sheet to size (my guillotine needed a bit of muscle to cut through it). This time it did go through the rolling bars…
The photos that I have seen with roof hatches had a curved strip across them which is possibly a rainstrip? I represented this with a short length of 1mm square rod.
The roof was still loose at this point.
The kit does provide the runners in the form of whitemetal castings so these were duly soldered on. And finally the roof was soldered on to the body.
I had got this far, then while studying photos noted that there was a turnbuckle in the middle truss rod. I made some up using tube and 14ba nuts and then cut the truss rod to allow them to be eased aside and slipped on.
D&S NER Bogie Road Van
I forgot to add in the last post that the Couplings, vac and Westinghouse pipes are Laurie Griffin.
The kit comes with nice cast brake cylinders which have cast on mounting brackets. The odd thing is that they come with a separate domed end but you can’t fit them unless you make the mounting brackets longer. I elected to file them off and replace them with brass strip. This makes them sit a bit lower and I had to put a slight bend in the brake rods to get them to pass over the cylinder.
With it being quite a long van, I added some supports for the middle of the roof from scrap etch.
D&S Models NER Bogie Road Van
Almost before adding much more under frame detail I couldn’t resist trying the bogies underneath it for an idea of how the finished van would look.
The outer truss rods are quite interesting on that they have two rod one on the outside and the second on the inside of the solebar. The instructions have you add these in two pieces I did them in one with a square U bending in the middle. This proved a bit tricky to get sitting right on the front face and I suspect that doing it in two pieces wouldn’t have proved equally tricky.
D&S Models NER Road Van
Moving rapidly on with the Road van body, the instructions suggest that you fit the ends first and once I filed of an offending etching cusp, the ends fit nicely.
My recently acquired RSU has come into its own on this build. Using it allows me to use the probe to hold pieces in place while tacking them. After tinning the edges of the ends, sides and the fold down on the floor pan, tacking it together with the RSU became a breeze. I ran the microflame gently down the joints to join up the dots and hey presto.
It may just be me but it seemed so much easier than my previous efforts with van bodies. In fairness, the kit is well designed and that helps too.
D&S Models NER Bogie Road Van
Before going any further I took the time to detail the sides while they were flat. One of the features that I love about many North Eastern Railway vans is the doors and their variations of the locking mechanisms.
Much of this detail is provided in the etches and I only added the locking rods and some thin half etched strip to create the staples that the locking rods and lower locking bar fit into.
Once the various grab handles and pins for the drop doors were added they were ready for fitting.
D&S Models NER Bogie Road Van
Like many I suffered a bit of a mojo loss recently so I decided to take a short break from loco building to tackle a couple of wagons in the hope that the enthusiasm was rekindled.
The first of these is a D&S Kit for a North Eastern Railway Bogie Road Van. Although I have had one of these kits for about 3 years, this one is for a gent who lives in Scotland who models the North Eastern Railway so I rang Dan Pinnock to enquire as to availability last year. Dan said he could do a kit but he would have to order the etches.
And so, onto the build.
I started with the basic floor pan and solebars. Like many kits the floor pan has fold down strips down the long edges. what is unusual is that these are not the solebars. The solebars have a full thickness rear section and a half etched overlay. The rear has a narrow fold along the bottom edge to represent the C section of a steel solebar. When put together the solebars fit into slots behind the fold down strips on the floor pan. To this floor pan is added a pair of queen posts
Next, I made up the bogies, these are simple in design. A pair of really nice brass castings fit onto the ends of a fold up central bolster. Each bolster has a fold up strip on the top which either allows for and aft rocking or side to side.
The brakes are simple affairs which fit nicely between the wheels on each side.
Getting Jiggy with Eccentric Sheaves
A post on a few forums by Nick Dunhill on his build of a Rhymney Railway R class on preparing the eccentric sheaves couldn’t have been timelier.
I am just at that point so the night before last I made up a similar jig from a couple of bits of wood that I had on the bench and having consulted the GA for the length of the sheave I marked up and drilled a hole for the pin (a 0.8mm drill bit). Finally, I filed and soldered up the first sheave. Last night I managed a couple more.
Gladiator J6 Home Brewed Inside Motion Parts
Although I haven’t posted an update since before Christmas, I have been doing a bit here and there. Mostly this has been making the additional bits and pieces needed for the inside motion. The motion for the J6 differs from other versions of Stephenson’s motion in that it has four valves rather than the more usual two. There are two between the cylinders and two above them. Although I have the full LG Stephenson’s motion set, in the end I doubt that I will be able to use much more than the connecting rods, eccentric rods and the slide bars and cross heads. The other bits will go in the spares box for a future build.
The arms that fit to the lower linkages still need to be shortened to 5.5mm between hole centres.
The expansion links in the motion kit are a couple of millimetres longer than the GA and have a lug on one side which I would have to cut off for this particular application.
As I am making all the other parts to match the dimensions on the GA, I opted to make a pair of expansion links to match. Working on the theory that I always have the LG castings as a fall back, if my home brewed ones don’t fit for any reason.
A Little Bit Of Motion on the Gladiator J6
I have been distracted for the last few days by teaching myself to draw in QCAD with a view to getting a few things etched. Before that I had made some progress on the rest of the inside valve gear.
Early in the week Tony Geary kindly pointed me at a photo of the inside valve gear on a 7 ½” gauge N2. Armed with this as a starting point I searched online and found a Facebook page chronicling the guy’s build. In his photo section I found loads of photos which have gone a long way to clarify in my mind what I was struggling to interpret from the GA.
I have a few photos of the full sized N2 valve gear which again are great for showing how things fit together above the slide bars but not below which is the area that I was struggling with. The build photos have clarified things now I just need to make up all the parts. Unfortunately, most of mine will need to be made from scratch as my spares box is nowhere near as comprehensive as Tony’s.
The sections are just resting in place for the photos I have a lot more to attach to both the motion plate and cylinder front before finally joining them.
Gladiator J6 – New Frame Spacers
After reading Tony’s struggle to fit all the inside motion in his J6 and observations made on a couple of forums by Ian Middleditch and Jim Snowdon. I decided to take the plunge and cut some new frame spacers to give me more room to play with. With the new spacers I have given myself a couple more millimetres. The downside is that I need to make a new motion bracket but I am sure it will be worth it.
Gladiator J6 More work on the chassis
Not a great deal to show for this week’s efforts on the J6.
I filled in the lightening holes in the front of the frames as the photo that I am working from doesn’t show any. I also cut away the bottom of the etched ashpan sides and fitted a representation of the bottom. This may need a bit of trimming to clear the gear wheel once finally fitted.
The rest of the time has been spent patiently filing the hornblocks, hornguides and the cranks to enable the cranks and eccentrics to fit between the centre hornguides and rotate freely.
Due to the need to get the loco around 5’6” curves the frames are a bit narrower than they might have been if I had been building for myself.
So far, so good.
Gladiator J6 – Bodywork almost completed
Although it hasn’t been without its trials, I have made good progress this week and the bodywork is almost complete.
The left side handrail caused a few problems because the etched hole in the cab front, to which I had soldered the tube for the handrail proved to be slightly out of position. I am not sure whether it was a vagary of the hand drawn art work which I have then exacerbated as I have opened the hole with a broach or that my positioning of the boiler was slightly low.
To make it all line up I had to remove the stub of tube, fill the hole with brass rod and file flush then redrilling the hole slightly lower.
I also drilled the rims of the buffer stocks and inserted some scale hardware fittings the collar of the buffer stocks is quite small so it was a bit nerve wracking drilling with a 0.4mm drill bit, but it came out okay.
All the boiler fittings are soldered in place with the exception of the smokebox door which it just resting in place for the photos.
The front steps come with an interesting fold up support which makes them fairly rigid but before I had finished fitting the front one’s, I had managed to bend the rear ones so I soldered some 2x1mm bar behind them to give some strength.
The only things left to fit, are a pair of globe lubricators that sit on the front of the sandboxes either side of the smokebox. The reason that I haven’t fitted them yet is that I have lost them. I bought them at the same time as the backhead and some additional valve rods so I know that they are here somewhere but can I find them….
Of course, the moment I order some more to replace them they will pop out from where they are hiding so I am holding off for the minute.
Starting to look like a J6 at last
This week has seen the lubricators fitted along with the firebox/ashpan sides. Then I fitted all the main components together and fitted it to the chassis. I needed to file a bit of the undersides at both ends to get the chassis to mate with the body. This is because I have used the narrowest frame spacer due to the need to get the loco around 5’ curves.
But it all fits now; I have just rested the chimney and dome on for the photo.
I have also fitted the splashers and cab floor and fitted a couple of short lengths of tube through the front of the cab for the hand rails. On the GA and on internal shots of the C1 cab the right side handrail has a handwheel attached to it so I have added that too.
Once I had the cab floor fitted I could determine the fit of the backhead. The Laurie Griffin castings although quoted as being for a J6 among other locos was a little short so I added a strip to the bottom. I suppose that makes a change from hacking bit of the sides to make them fit in cabs.
Gladiator J6 Scratch built Wakefield Mechanical Lubricators
The latest bit of modelling madness is a couple of Wakefield mechanical lubricators.
The kit provides a couple of nice but generic lubricator castings which have a lid and a hand wheel but no pipework. The lubricators fitted to 64206 are a little unusual to my eyes at least in that the pipes all come out of the bottom whereas I am more used to then coming out at the bottom of one or both sides. Now I could have followed Tony’s example and gone for some Ragstone castings but where would be the fun in that.
Cutting out and drilling all the parts (18 each not including the pipes) was relatively easy the fun part was soldering them all together without it all collapsing in a heap.
Not the easiest thing in the world to photograph but after taking the earlier shots I remembered the quite prominent wingnut on the top holding the lid shut.
I made it from a 16 ba cheese head screw with the head squashed in a pair of pliers and then filed to shape.
Gladiator J6 Footplate and cab interior details
Although I am working in the general direction of getting the footplate complete so that I can attach the cab/boiler etc. to it. I am not ding things in any particular order so when I glanced at the sketch in the instructions for the cab floor I thought I would have a go at that before fitting the splasher tops.
The sketch only shows the rear of the cab splashers/floor and at first, I took the etched lines at the rear for fold lines. Having folded it I couldn’t get the floor to fit so I ended up straightening it out and soldering it up. Surprise, surprise, it now was too long for the cab. I surmised that I would have to cut along the half etched lines to get it to it. However after a bit of head scratching I emailed David Hill (Gladiator) to ask how he had done it on his before doing something that while not irreversible would make a good bit more work. David replied very quickly and advised that the cab floor did indeed need cutting at the half etched line because the kit has options for both the 521 536 series locos with the 521 series having a much deeper cab. A point that I had completely missed!!
You can see the half etch lines in the shot above. What isn’t apparent is that the half etched lines in the splasher tops are approx. 3mm different from those on the floor etch. I cut at the splasher lines first but needed to cut at the floor lines to get it to fit so anyone else building one of these as a 536 series you need to ignore the lines on the splasher tops and use those on the floor etch.
Once I had it a good fit in the cab, I added the splasher top sandbox filler plates and the fillers themselves. Curiously the splasher tops and the half etched sandbox top plates have a recess/hole for the top which I can only assume is for location purposes as the filler cap needs to be slightly proud of the splasher top. Like those on the front I cut a slice of tube and gently squashed it into an oval with pliers before soldering the top on.
I made up the reverser and fitted it to the cab.
After having a look at the reverser in the C1 I added a couple of bits of scrap etch to give a little more detail – not very clear in the shot below. Strictly speaking the lever should be on the outside of the ratchet plate not in between as shown in the instructions
I decided to leave it as is, as it will be lot in the gloom of the cab.
It was probably a sign that I should have left it alone at this point but for the life of me I could only find two of the four splasher tops. I decided to cut some replacements out of 10 thou sheet on my “Mini Formit” guillotine (which I have used extensively throughout this build). Parts duly cut, the first front sandbox/splasher went on easily then it took over two hours to fit the rest and, in the end, I cut it off the cradle to make it easier to solder from the back.
For whatever reason they sorely tested my patience. It was even more frustrating when trying to fit the ashpan sides as again one went on easily without issue to the second was a nightmare which resulted in the splasher top coming adrift several times before I had both in place to my satisfaction. On the back of that I had an evening off last night.
But here is the state of play.
Still a bit of detailing to go on before I fix things together but I am getting there.
Gladiator J6 – final details before fitting the castings and pipe runs on the boiler/smokebox and cab front
Still working on the detail from my photo of 64206 and I noted that there was a semicircle of rivets/bolt heads on the left side of the smokebox just above the handrail surrounding the bottom half of an oval patch.
The patch is made from some very thin brass shim that I bought from china via eBay several years ago. It’s just under 0.1mm thick
Next up I fitted the internal window frames and the associated rivets/bolt heads on the cab front.
Hopefully that should be it for the boiler/smokebox and external cab details until I start fitting the castings pipe runs etc.
Gladiator J6 Boiler and Smokebox Details
I am still beavering away at the J6. The boiler bands are on but despite having Tony’s build as a guide I added two 0.7mm infill pieces down the side of the smokebox as Tony had but initially made them too deep thankfully this was all done before attaching it to the smokebox so it was a simple matter to take it of and adjust it.
I made a new mounting plate for the snifting valve which it now fixed in place and I have made a start on fitting the very prominent set of bolt/rivet heads bellow it on the photo that I am working to. – They still need a bit more work with files to make them a bit shallower and more even.
Again, I followed Tony’s lead and started to drill out the chimney in my little lathe. Sadly I don’t have Tony’s touch because I had only got to a 4.5mm drill when I must have gone a little too deep and the spigot came away from the chimney. I attempted to make a collet from wood as suggested by Davis Smith (DLOS) but my chimney casting was ever so slightly misshapen and I couldn’t manage to get it to centre in my 3 jaw chuck (I don’t have a four jaw at present).
I did the rest, the old-fashioned way and set to with a 2nd cut round file. In all honesty I think that it took less time to file it out than I had spent messing about trying to hold the casting to use a drill. I am just glad that I had drilled the base for the bolt heads before starting on drilling the inside or I may not have had the patience for it at that point.
Like the chimney casting the dome comes with a cast threaded spigot I suppose the original idea being that you would screw it to the boiler top. I opted to cut the spigot away and then using some emery paper wrapped around the boiler. I rubbed away at the dome until I got a good fit before cutting a couple of slots for the boiler band with a slitting disk in my Dremel.
Not really much to show for all that work… as you will note it’s all just propped in place for the photo.
Gladiator J6 Cab Details Continued
Having sorted out the additional bolt/rivet heads on the left side of the cab I drill out the punched version on the right side and made them match. I also fitted all the hand rail knobs but I will fit the rails themselves a bit nearer the finish line.
Gladiator J6 Cab Details
Modelling took a bit of a back seat last week because everything I touched turned pear shaped so I didn’t risk it.
This week I have made more progress with the cab adding al the additional bolt heads that are visible in the photos and replacing those already pressed out on the right hand side of the loco to match. A couple of weeks or so ago I was given an RSU which was surplus to requirements by a neighbour who was moving house and I got around to setting it up and trying it out on these bolt heads/rivets. I have to say that it doesn’t look much (I was told that it was made eons ago by Bernard Weller) but it does what it says on the tin and I am converted. I just need to get used to it’s vagaries and how little solder I can get away with now.
After seeing that Tony Geary had done a proper job on fitting the rather shapely rain strips above the cab cut out’s I bit the bullet, took them off and fitted them as correct as I can. They say practice makes perfect and so it did the first one was a right pain to get somewhere near right but the second one almost fell into place.
