Category Archives: Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake Vans
NER Birdcage Brake Van – the second one coming along nicely.
A decent session at the bench yesterday saw the 2nd NER Birdcage brake well on it’s way.
At the suggestion of a friend I looked at the photo to determine whether there were frames in the windows that I cut in the end.
There isn’t a frame as such on the photo but I decided to try to replicate the etched frame that’s etched in the other end.
Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake Van – final details
Not much modelling done over the weekend due to a combination of not feeling well on Saturday and a trip to Pontefract show on Sunday. Which was very enjoyable even if I did come back with etches for 4 Pullman coaches which Chris spotted and encouraged me to buy that I hadn’t planned on…
A few hours last night had the first van almost complete (I had thought it complete until I remembered that I hadn’t fitted a couple of hand rails or any guard irons under the brake yokes.
The hand rails that are missing are the two small ones above the wrap around rails in this view – the other end should have similar fitted about a quarter of the way up the windows.
I didn’t fancy trying to drill out the rather nice cast chimney because it’s very slender so I scratched a pair of replacements from telescoping tube and a cover plate from the spares box, completed them.
I also noted on the drawing that the sliding doors had a hasp so I made a couple from scrap etch.
Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake with Side Cotes
Last night, the procrastination was over and I got on with removing the end from the other van.
Like a lot of things that you worry yourself about it was really quiet an easy job in the end.
Using a few aluminium hair grips and self locking tweezers as heat sinks for the steps and lamp irons I managed to get the end off, remove the offending bits of metal (with a combination of piercing saw/ rotary sanding drum and a cylindrical burr grinder in the dremel finished off with files) and subsequently soldered back on without anything coming adrift, Yeay!!!
And for completeness these are the photos of progress on the other van that I forgot to post last night….
Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake Van – Hand rails fitted
The last couple of evenings have seen further work on the Birdcage brakes.
Monday saw some of the hand rails and the end posts fitted. – Chris bought me a Proxxon Mini Pillar drill and a Proxxon Bench Vice for Christmas and they have been invaluable in doing these especially drilling out the cast end posts for the handrails.
Then last night saw the remaining body side handrails fitted along with the upper ones on one end. The drawing and photo from the Sadler book that I am working from has a different layout of the hand rails on the end than Jim shows in his instructions with the end rails passing through the end posts rather than attaching to the outer face of them.
The interested may wonder why I am just working on this one at the moment. That because I think that the only way to be happy with the one with duckets is going to be to remove the end with the birdcage and then cut out the intrusive sides of the ducket and I am still building up the courage to have a go at it….
More work on the Aviaries…..
Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake Vans
Connoisseur NER Birdcage Brake Vans.
First a bit of preamble. Back in 2011 for Christmas Chris bought me a few of Jim McGeown’s van kits. At the time I built an LNER Refrigerator van but didn’t get to the others, which were an NER Birdcage Brake, a Perishables van, and a 6 wheeled brake coach.
Around the same time we were sat having lunch in a little cafe in the village of Rosedale Abbey on the North Yorkshire Moors when I saw a picture of one of the NER Birdcage brake van’s at Rosedale but this one had “Side Cotes” (duckets to me and much of the world I suspect) as well as the birdcage on top. I decided that I would like to build one so a couple of years later at a show I bought a second kit and asked Jim if he by any chance had any duff etches that contained the duckets from his NER V4 brake van and he said that he did and duly sent me them.
Having been up north for Christmas we planned a week at home before I go back to work so I dug out both of the brake van kits and modified the sides on one to take the duckets. The duckets were too tall to fit directly so I had to modify those too.
Here’s where I got to the night before last.
A bit more done yesterday, alas nothing done today…