You may recall last Christmas I took advantage of a Skytrex offer ad bought various wagon loads? Ones of these loads was some pipes which I originally painted to look like ceramic pipes but then after being advised otherwise I repainted to represent black iron pipes. After a brief discussion on a suitable wagon to carry them Jim Snowdon suggested that I might backdate a Parkside 12 ton pipe wagon. An email to Parkside sorted a kit and the relevant extra bits for LNER clasp brakes to be collected at Telford.

Having collected it the desire to build it got the better of me so last weekend I built the basic body and then I did a bit of research to get the details correct. In his collection Paul Bartlett has by good fortune shots of both sides of DE187868 so digital copies were duly purchased. These in hand I did a little more this weekend in between adding further details to the Colin Ashby opens.

Parkside 12 ton Pipe Wagon being backdated to LNER

I had to remove the plates where the dropside supports were located on the body because in LNER days the supports were located against the some of the hinges.

Parkside 12 ton Pipe Wagon being backdated to LNER

Parkside 12 ton Pipe Wagon being backdated to LNER

Next I had to add some extra washer plates in the middle of the dropsides and some triangular support gussets under the body from the solebars. Imagined that making 8 identical would prove challenging but by making use of my “Chopper” and it’s ability to cut angles it was much simpler than I thought. I still need to add the plates to one side top and bottom to replicate the ‘C’ section that these were made from.

Lastly I had to modify one part of the LNER brake mechanism to accommodate the extended wheelbase

As you can see I did this by splicing a section into the middle of the shaft and then added a thin overlay to increase it’s strength finally drilling through and adding a piece of styrene rod to represent the pin.