Steve's Caledonian coaches & wagon work bench

[drduncan]

Excellent work and a very informative post.

Duncan

[Mikkel]

Very nice. The design seems close to the LNWR D32: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113035-more-pre-grouping-wagons-in-4mm-whitemetal-soldering-success/?p=2394361

 

 I plan to build a third one this time I will model it with the doors and roof hatch open so it can be posed in a yard scene being unloaded or something

 

Sounds good - the roof hatch would give you a rare chance to show a crane unloading through the roof, a rarely modelled scene I think?

 

I'd like to do something similar, the only problem is that it takes up valuable track space.

[Ben Alder]

Hi, a very Happy New Year to you. I hope this coming year is kinder to you both than 2016, I trust you both will recover fully soon. I am shocked to read that some unkind post on this site have caused you hurt, can I try to do the opposite.  I find your approach to model making inspiring, you take unpromising materials and magic up a model that captures the spirit of the original. Your latest  early Scottish Road Van nails the prototype. My best pal knows that  "Not bad" is my greatest compliment (He has had to put up with me, and I with him for the last 40 years of model making. ( The pal is the chief model maker for one of our greatest museums and I dabble with a cottage business which you might look at - www.wrightscale.co.uk)

Your models do a rare thing - they capture the essence.  They are in their way the equal of the finest assembled kit we often see in these posts.  As a maker myself I feel that the fact that you research, design ,make and assemble your models, they are more than equal.  So carry on the work, I look forward to seeing  a CR express pulling up the bank south of Carstairs on a dreich January day.  A shaft of blue, carmine ,and crimson against the windswept moor.

 

Wot 'e said....A shining example to those far too many here who whine on about wanting variations on RTR that should be well within the capabilities of most who choose railway modelling as a hobby. I can vouch for the time and effort LT puts into his work as he very kindly did a CR breakdown van for me that had migrated to Helmsdale in its latter years, and he spent considerable time and effort in research and construction aspects for this model. It is not until you start looking at what appears to be a simple project  you realise the amount of attention to detail that is required - makes one glad it isn't your job to produce a proprietary model!

 

He assembled the body for me and I fitted underpinnings etc and here it is on its first day in service in its new home.The Silhouette cutter and those who provide the input are opening up a whole new prospect of easily assembled models of rolling stock that are never going to be commercially available and I for one am most grateful for the kindness of those who generously make their efforts available to others. Thank you, Steve.

 

 

[uax6]

I have to echo BA's thoughts above. Steve naturally plays down his modelling, but I am frequently finding myself in awe of what he is producing. I have to take some of the blame for his output, for it was I that introduced him to the output of the silhouette cutter, and he has taken to it far better than I have!

I hope to see much more of his output here....

 

Andy G

[Dave John]

The rattle can red oxide looks fine Steve, CR red oxide seems to have been a bit variable to start with and tended to fade to a bit of a pinkish hue as time went on. 

[Londontram]

I have to echo BA's thoughts above. Steve naturally plays down his modelling, but I am frequently finding myself in awe of what he is producing. I have to take some of the blame for his output, for it was I that introduced him to the output of the silhouette cutter, and he has taken to it far better than I have!

I hope to see much more of his output here....

 

Andy G

Andy stop being so modest, I might be able to bodge up the odd wagon but I'll never be the master of the pre grouping paneled coach like you are. Oh and yes it was your fault and look how much its costing me in plasticard you bugg-er

[Londontram]

Very nice. The design seems close to the LNWR D32: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113035-more-pre-grouping-wagons-in-4mm-whitemetal-soldering-success/?p=2394361

 

 

Sounds good - the roof hatch would give you a rare chance to show a crane unloading through the roof, a rarely modelled scene I think?

 

I'd like to do something similar, the only problem is that it takes up valuable track space.

Thanks Mikkel your right about the room it would take up but I think I would like to give it a go and I guess it wouldn't have to be permanent you could just set it up and then lift it off when you want a change but it would make a good photo opportunity and now the drawings done the beauty of the silhouette means I can run off and build the basic van in just a day so your not tying up time and resources to much.

 

Oh and yes your right it does look like the D32 van I've got a drawing of one so I'll have a look to see how close they are, It might not seem as strange as it looks because the Caledonian and the LNWR were very closely linked so its not impossible the Caley used an "off the peg" LNWR van for there own design. I'm just putting together a LNWR D87 van cir 1903 to add a bit of colour (Gray... Hmm) to all the Caley red oxide but this could open up another avenue too.

                                                                                                        Steve

[Londontram]

Silhouette has given me a chance to fill in the gaps between available models of Caledonian models which although not plentiful there are a few about and the next box van built by the Caledonian was the first under Drummond the diagram 3. In reality this was no more than the van Drummond had built for the North British just before he left to join the Caley and apart from a few small detail differences are almost identical. 

    The Caledonian association produce a small range of resin wagon and van kits. Produced in short runs these are for members of the association only and usually sell out quickly in fact they are only produced once there's firm orders for most of them, In a way this is a shame as there a fine range of well made models and I have had the privilege of being involved with the development of one of the up coming models having done the drawing for a diagram 11A CCT.

 

There latest offering is the diagram 3 box van and hopefully I'll be picking mine up at the end of this week so I'll post pictures as soon as I do, I plan to do one as a Caley van and one as a North British van working cross border for a bit of variety

 

So jumping ahead to the next box van in the Caley's  history is the first generation diagram 67 van, a bigger more robust van with a 10 ton capacity. It had doors on both sides and a roof hatch on one side, it was flush paneled with inside frames.

 

   Right from the start of the wagon project I designed the chassis as a separate item from the wagon bodies so that a basic chassis could be altered to fit different vehicles with just a few seconds work so after the van was drawn this and the chassis were cut on the Silhouette and assembled like the other vans. I wont go over the details again but when built I ended up with this.

The Diagram 67 early pattern van cir 1903

I'm not sure if it was the initial build cost or to make them easier to repair but about 1910 the diagram 67 was altered to an outside frame style of build. about this time the Caledonian dispensed with roof hatches so although dimensionally the same a new drawing was prepared and once cut and built the van looked like this.

Diagram 67 late pattern.

There's a bit of a story with this one as I used it as a test bed for plasticard W irons and even though it was a worth while experiment and provided lots of information on the best way to build a wagon with just plasticard W irons as this was built piecemeal it never had the strength that the later build ones have so I made the decision to convert it back to etched brass W irons which is what I'm doing with it here (There in lie's a clue to why it didn't work as it was built with the solebars to far apart so the new brass etched W irons fit between the solebars but as built the plasticard W irons wouldn't hold the axles with out packing and support all of which weakened the assembly.

     Having learnt from this later builds like the pre diagram box van has solebars reduced in width to 23.5mm apart as apposed to 25mm for the etched fitted ones. 

 

The last van here is a diagram 80 six wheel box van which was basically a longer version of the late pattern diagram 67 van, as you can see this is very much a work in progress job but is now just waiting for the detail fitting it too suffering from my post Christmas lack of funds to buy all the fittings from Wizard. The van on the right is a LNWR diagram 87 box van cir 1903

 

   Thanks again for looking. Steve

 

 

 

 

 

[agt613]

So glad to see you posting on this site again, Steve. Great work. I've just joined CRASSOC and am blown away by the generosity and knowledge of the guys there. Great modelling on the wagons. Happy New Year, Graham

[Londontram]

So glad to see you posting on this site again, Steve. Great work. I've just joined CRASSOC and am blown away by the generosity and knowledge of the guys there. Great modelling on the wagons. Happy New Year, Graham

Thank you Graham. Yes there not a bad bunch but you do have to prod them with a stick from time to time to get a response bless them but as you say there's a wealth of information there and its well worth going back over the old posts as there's some real gems of information there.

 

I shall be following your 125 class build with great interest those Dundee bogies are a pretty looking little loco and one on my wish list and I might tackle one in plasticard one day which should make those splashers easier to cut out with a silhouette, I'll see how you get on with yours first.

                     Steve

[Londontram]

Here's another update, don't worry this is the results of six months worth of work here I'm not super productive. Now it might be suggested that I'm obsessed with box vans well.... OK yes I am I do find them fascinating so here's just one more before we move on to something different.

  This time its a Caledonian refrigerated van (basically a send a boy up the ladder and chuck some buckets of ice through the roof hatch van) As a rule all Caley freight stock was painted red oxide but stock that was designed to run with express trains like a refrigerated van were painted a dark brown and were either fully braked or at least piped to make it compatible with passenger stock.

    Built in the same way as the other vans with my universal chassis and the main body 40 thou thick from two layers of 20 thou laminated together. The underframe detail including brakes are from Wizard components with Hornby metal wheels running in pin point bearings on Comet etched W irons with the two ladders at either end from Markiits,

    on the advice of the members of the Caley forum the van is sprayed with Halfords Ford Rio brown. The black iron work on the underframe is yet to be added here.

 

    Running a very close second to my love of box vans is a passion for six wheel vehicles of all kinds either passenger or freight and here is a Caledonian diagram 60 steel wagon shown here with a well chained down RSJ load.

Built again on a variation of my universal chassis the fittings on the solebar reflecting that this van has a steel chassis the body again although only two planks high was made in the same way with two 20 thou layers laminated together. Between the floor and the bottom of the chassis is a recess which has got a flat strip of steel plate in it to give the truck some weight.

       The truck runs on three Hornby wheels and axles sets with pin point bearings in Comet W irons, one is fixed at one end the W iron at the other end is built as a rocking one and the center axle is modified to a sliding axle with the axle running in a tube giving about 1mm movement either side. To aid this the ends of the axles are filed flush with the edge of the wheels and no pin point bearings are added, its a simple and cheap system with the only down side being a slight increase in drag on the center axle. I use this system on all my 6 wheelers and find it works very well on curves and through points.

 

As a rule most Caley freight vehicles had just plain black wheels but a few had the wheel rims picked out in white for photographic purposes and this is painted to represent one of these.

 

                                                               Steve

 

PS note none of these have couplings fitted yet as at this time I'm still looking at different options though as these are for home use only I'm drawn to three link couplings I've never had a problem personally with the great hand from above unhooking wagons etc.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Londontram

[Londontram]

I keep talking about my universal chassis which for the purpose of these models is kept simple. The two buffer beams are made from three layers of 20 thou plasticard laminated together making each buffer beam 60 thou thick the main deck/floor is two pieces of 20 thou plasticard making this 40 thou and the side rails are again two pieces of 20 thou each side making each rail 40 thou thick. the width of the buffer beams cab be altered to take into account the width of the wagon being built varying between 28mm to 32mm.

    

    Also the main floor can be altered to adjust the solebar width to take into account whether the wagon will have etched W irons or the W irons are plastic and part of the chassis. if the chassis is to have etched W irons then the floor is cut 25mm wide, if its to have plastic W irons then its altered to 23.5mm and once fitted with top hat bearings this gap seems to hold the axles (Hornby) at exactly the right tension. In both cases the side rails are glued butted up to the edge of the floor.

  

   The length of the floor and side rails are altered as required for the wagons length and as can be seen here vary from a small box van up to a six wheel coach or NPCS vehicle. The side rails are 4mm deep, most of the dimensions like the depth of the solebars were taken from Cambrian and Ratio chassis kits.

 

The cutter will not cut right through 20 thou plasticard scoring perhaps 3/4 of the way through this allows these parts to be easily "snapped" off the plasticard.

 

   With the outside W irons cut as part of the side rails I find cutting them on 10 thou plasticard allows the cutter to cut cleanly through which is helpful when there are some intricate shapes to cut out like around the W irons but I've also found laminating two pieces of 10 thou together seems to work out stronger and less "springy" than one piece of 20 thou, by using one piece of 20 thou and two pieces of 10 thou you still have a solebar that is 40 thou thick. When building with this method I add a third W iron shaped overlay making the W iron 30 thou thick which seems to make a very strong assembly.

 

Having the basic shapes on the PC lets you join up different features in seconds for example in the drawing program Inkscape just by laying one shape over another and pressing an icon marked union joins the two parts as one with no join lines.

 

   Here is a chassis under construction for what will become a rectangular tar tank wagon and the chassis drawing had already been altered to include the hand brake V hanger as part of the solebar in the way described above its also had the head stocks raised to hold the tank in place and had some cross sections add as par the plans for the tank to sit on. At this stage I'm not sure if I should carry on with it or just get one of the Dapol ones as I fear I could never get my rivet detail and general finish as good as a proper model one.

[Dave John]

Well Steve, you enjoy building things so have a look at the Alex Jackson type coupling. Unobtrusive and inexpensive to have a try at, even if you find you don't like them a bit of 11 thou wire is always useful. 

[Londontram]

Still trying to catch up with the backlog of built wagon here's a personal favoret of mine and one I've wanted to build for a long time. Very much a scene of the pre grouping Scottish railways with versions built by most of the railway companys here is.

The Caledonian diagram 12 empty barrel wagon, with its build its a wagon that poses many problems as these early wagons were built on old four wheel coach chassis the axle guard arrangement was quite archaic with the springs mounted behind the axle guards which in turn are fixed to the outside of the solebars.

 

The body its self also had me scratching my head as there's no solid body to mount the frame on the framing its self being the body.

 

To start with the chassis which the basic drawing was altered to the right size but like the pre grouping wagon the two outer layers included the W irons and as well as these two 10 thou layer a third W iron was added which was in the "LNWR" (sic) clover leaf shape this sat over the other layers on top of the solebars giving the right effect.

 

As a foot note here I should mention that before building the chassis all the solebars were clamped together with bull dog clips and the holes for the bearings were measured out and drilled through so everything lined up perfectly oh and all the chassis and bodies are built on a sheet of glass.

 

The springs and axle boxes are available as separate items so carriage springs were chosen. The solebars had already been drawn to the correct "fish belly" shape to mount the springs which were super glued in place behind the W irons. Here is a closer view of the springs and axle guards.

 

Like the previous six wheel flat truck a void was created between the deck and the lower chassis floor during construction in which a section of flat steel plate was glued in place to add weight, 

 

The body being of open frame construction meant I had to think about the best way to draw and build it and in the end I went for layers of 10 thou plasticard laminated together to build up the sides and ends the layers changing as needed to represent the planking then frame there was in the end 7 layers making the body sides 70 thou thick which is as near as exactly the right scale thickness. Each layer was added one at a time and left to dry pressed between two flat glass table mats with a heavy weight on top. When all the sides were done the whole lot was glued around the floor to form an open box, although strong there was a slight tendency for the sides to bow in but a snug fitted load helps to straighten them up  After considering various makes I chose the EFE range of barrels though this was just personal choice as there lots of different makes available but these fitted almost perfectly across the wagon. Here's a picture of the wagon with a full load. 

Note the top layer of barrels are laid on there side and one would assume that if they were sat upright you could get a few more in but as the early wagons were built on ex carriage chassis they had a very low weight limit so were restricted to how many barrels they could carry. Later diagrams were built on new chassis with uprated springs and had a much heigher weight limit. Incidentally these later vans had iron cross beams to hold the side together so the real ones must have had a similar problem to my model one.

 

[Londontram]

Along with the barrel wagon one special vehicle I fancied having a go at was a Caledonian diagram 18 well wagon. With ship building being at an all time high and some of our greatest yards being in Scotland moving items around for the ship building industry was very important for the Scottish railways and this small class of specialist wagon was used extensively for moving unusual and some times out of gauge items like ships propellers.

 

A combination of information in the great "Caledonian Wagon book" by Mike Williams and a set of scale drawings provided by the Caledonian railway association gave me the information I needed to make a start though a few issues on the internal stanchions and bracing layout produced a lively debate on the Caley forum with one member eventually coming up with a copy of an original drawn on cloth plan giving the missing information I needed.

 

The van was drawn again on Inkscape and like the barrel truck had a few construction issues that needed to be thought out, the main one being the fact that the wagon had an open "well" running down three quarters of the wagons floor meaning normal etched W irons couldn't be used. So like the barrel truck and pre diagram van the W irons were drawn as part of the solebars, this was also beneficial as the W irons on this wagon were of a heavy duty solid plate construction with no piercings so needed scratch building anyway.

 

The body was made up in the usual way with the stanchions and main beams being made by laminating strips of 20 thou plasticard up to the correct thickness. Body detail was added from 10 thou plasticard and any rivet detail was added by pressing through from behind with a blunt pointed tool I was helped in this respect by a simple guide tool to keeping the rivet lines straight and evenly spaced made for me by a chap called Alan on the Caley forum, the larger coach bolt heads were made from cutting squares off a strip of evergreens 0.75mm plastic strip with a little bit of glue applied with an old thin paint brush and then placing the bolt heads on the model with the tip of a scalpel blade.

 

   For a load I wanted a propeller to look as realistic as possible and as this wagon was so open with no ware to hide any weight to have some weight in it to help weigh the wagon down, a test with a basic home made plasticard propeller showed that a 50mm diameter propeller would just fit within the loading gauge so one was purchased from a local model boat shop. These come with a cone on one side of the hub which was cut off and the propeller was mounted on a spigot and glued in place with bracing beams and chains copied from one of the very few pictures of one of these wagons that exist. I still felt it had a weight issue so managed to add some lead under the floor at each end which redressed this issue.

 

   It was like the others sprayed with Halfords red oxide and the iron worked picked out in black and now only needs decals to finish, all the other fittings like springs axleboxes and buffers were from Wizard.

 

   Strange possibly because of there specialist nature but they were not fitted with brakes so must have been chocked when parked the only other detail on the underframe being tie rods between the axles which was made from 0.500mm hand rail wire super glued in place.

Edited January 7, 2017 by Londontram

[ian@stenochs]

Still trying to catch up with the backlog of built wagon here's a personal favoret of mine and one I've wanted to build for a long time. Very much a scene of the pre grouping Scottish railways with versions built by most of the railway companys here is.

Barrel truck three quarters view.jpg

The Caledonian diagram 12 empty barrel wagon, with its build its a wagon that poses many problems as these early wagons were built on old four wheel coach chassis the axle guard arrangement was quite archaic with the springs mounted behind the axle guards which in turn are fixed to the outside of the solebars.

 

The body its self also had me scratching my head as there's no solid body to mount the frame on the framing its self being the body.

 

To start with the chassis which the basic drawing was altered to the right size but like the pre grouping wagon the two outer layers included the W irons and as well as these two 10 thou layer a third W iron was added which was in the "LNWR" (sic) clover leaf shape this sat over the other layers on top of the solebars giving the right effect.

 

As a foot note here I should mention that before building the chassis all the solebars were clamped together with bull dog clips and the holes for the bearings were measured out and drilled through so everything lined up perfectly oh and all the chassis and bodies are built on a sheet of glass.

 

The springs and axle boxes are available as separate items so carriage springs were chosen. The solebars had already been drawn to the correct "fish belly" shape to mount the springs which were super glued in place behind the W irons. Here is a closer view of the springs and axle guards.

Barrel truck side cose up.jpg

 

Like the previous six wheel flat truck a void was created between the deck and the lower chassis floor during construction in which a section of flat steel plate was glued in place to add weight, 

 

The body being of open frame construction meant I had to think about the best way to draw and build it and in the end I went for layers of 10 thou plasticard laminated together to build up the sides and ends the layers changing as needed to represent the planking then frame there was in the end 7 layers making the body sides 70 thou thick which is as near as exactly the right scale thickness. Each layer was added one at a time and left to dry pressed between two flat glass table mats with a heavy weight on top. When all the sides were done the whole lot was glued around the floor to form an open box, although strong there was a slight tendency for the sides to bow in but a snug fitted load helps to straighten them up  After considering various makes I chose the EFE range of barrels though this was just personal choice as there lots of different makes available but these fitted almost perfectly across the wagon. Here's a picture of the wagon with a full load. 

Full barrel load.jpg

Note the top layer of barrels are laid on there side and one would assume that if they were sat upright you could get a few more in but as the early wagons were built on ex carriage chassis they had a very low weight limit so were restricted to how many barrels they could carry. Later diagrams were built on new chassis with uprated springs and had a much heigher weight limit. Incidentally these later vans had iron cross beams to hold the side together so the real ones must have had a similar problem to my model one.

Hi,

 

On long wagons like this one there were sometimes tie bars across the top to hold the sides in. I built a similar cask wagon, but the G&SWR version, in 7mm scale and it has a steel bar from the top of each door post over to the other side. On the prototype it reinforced the sides and stopped the load bowing them out but on the model holds them in place and stops them bowing in which is a tendency with models built from plastic are.

 

Ian.

[Londontram]

Hi,

 

On long wagons like this one there were sometimes tie bars across the top to hold the sides in. I built a similar cask wagon, but the G&SWR version, in 7mm scale and it has a steel bar from the top of each door post over to the other side. On the prototype it reinforced the sides and stopped the load bowing them out but on the model holds them in place and stops them bowing in which is a tendency with models built from plastic are.

 

Ian.

Thank you Ian these were built in two diagrams the first like this a diagram 12 built on redundant coach chassis of varying wheel bases depending on what was on hand and there is at least three different ones recorded. but this first diagram did not have a tie Bar/hoops across the top of the body. The later diagrams (off the top of my head diagram 74 I think) which although the same length were built with new chassis able to carry much more weight and these did have cast iron tie bars across the top of the body

[Londontram]

Here's a couple more pictures of the well wagon the first showing it side on showing with no brakes how little detail there was on the underframe of this wagon

and another one showing the open well in which you can see one of the axles showing why an etched W iron could not be used on this wagon.

[Londontram]

Although I've already admitted a pre occupation with box vans I realise I need to work on the open wagon fleet and here I've been assisted by the Caledonian railway association who are producing a small range of models pretty much exclusively for association members going by the name of "True line" models. There cast in resin and are as a rule only made in batches of fifty and only after there's firm orders for most of them so I'm sorry chaps they wont be available to the general public which is a shame as I'm sure there would be a market for this fine range of pre grouping wagons

 

First off although not mineral I've stuck these in just to tidy up my wagon matters but here is a pair of True Line Caledonian diagram 10 cattle wagon kits.

There a nicely detailed kit and each one comes with all the underframe parts in white metal just needing wheels of your choice to complete. As you can see here they've been painted red oxide but I've only just made a start picking out the black detail work.

 

Also from the Caley association "True lines" range is the diagram 22 dumb buffer mineral (On the left in the next photo) I've managed to get a couple of these now out of stock models and as I will need more and there for my own purpose only and are no longer available I've cloned it with the Silhouette, the cloned one is on the right.

The association have now done a later mineral wagon the diagram 46 and I have four to build so at the moment are just as they come.

 

But as well as open mineral wagons a lot of goods were carried in open four plank wagons with dropping sides and although there is a kit by 51L in white metal I decided to do my own so I could mass produce it on the Silhouette if I wanted too. Little bit of a story here as one of the bodies seen in the next picture was hand built a few years ago and features in some of the earliest posts on this thread and when I was looking at building the wagons with the Silhouette I purchased a Cambrian chassis to see how it went together and I mounted this body on this chassis which in the next photo is the wagon on the right. The one on the left is a pure Silhouette built one which can be repeated as many times as I need on the cutter. Of note this is a diagram 15 with full length drop down sides the Caley also made a version the diagram 24 with fixed sides and just doors in the side and I've altered a set of drawings to do one of these as well in the future.

 

The next post should wrap up all the odds and sods and I'll look at future builds and some other kit options. Thanks for looking Steve

Edited January 8, 2017 by Londontram

[Londontram]

Well after a flurry of posts I've just about caught up with the backlog of the last six months or so. I tend to have several jobs on the go at once so I can move from model to model as the mood takes me and have always admired those people who can start a job and see it right through to the end before starting anything else. So looking around the work bench to see what else is lying there I come across two brake vans both the old K's kits.

Being K's kits there both white metal and very heavy. The painted one on the right came in a box of bits my son picked up for me and is fairly well built but lacks any hand rails, it seems the original builder chickened out as its not even had the holes drilled out for them. As I said its heavy but its also got the original K's rounded ended axles running in just the white metal of the axle boxes and boy does it drag.

 

   The second one on the left was a flee bay find which if I recall right was only £12 at the time, its sat in the unmade kits box for a couple of years and as I'm in a wagon building mode I thought I'd better have a go. Straight away I made one change and that was to fit pin point bearings and a new three hole disc wheel set supplied by Andy uax6 as I didn't have the correct type in stock at the right size. Thank you Andy who also let me have a few more sets for anything else that needs disc wheels which the Caledonian started to fit from just before WW 1

 

The white metal castings are crisply molded and fit together well the whole van being glued together with super glue but even as it was going together it was obvious that with no matter how much fettling I did as I built it it wasn't going to sit flat on its wheels. so after trying this way and that to cure it out of frustration I grabbed up the van and give it an almighty twist and low and behold it was almost flat on all four wheels so I gave it one more twist to tweak it and it now sits nice and flat and rolls lovely so I guess sometimes there's even a case for brute force and ignorance.

 

In due coarse I'll convert the other one too though Andy is of the opinion that I should leave it as it is as he said having a brake van with a bit of a drag on a loose three link coupled train might not be such a bad thing so I might leave it and see how the two perform against each other.

 

I did have another brake van given to me by a friend off the Caley forum, those of you who go on there will know of Tony Brenchley a lovely chap generous to a fault and a mind full of information regarding all things Caledonian, he also handles the True line models for the Caley society which feature in a few of these posts.

 

This van was a Caledonian diagram 6 van cir 1880 and was made it seems from a kit though to date I've not found out by whom. This like the first K's van needs a little TLC and a repaint but as its for my own use I took the opportunity to clone it with the silhouette cutter and although still an on going project here it is, note that the roof hasn't been fixed in place yet and as this needs some glazing wont be done until after its painted.

When these are done it should give me four brake vans which should fill most of my needs, if I ever need more I've got some 6 wheel paneled NPCS brake vans and although built for passenger trains there often seen on freight trains especially fitted fast van trains like fish and meat trains, being painted like the passenger stock they would add a splash of colour to a wagon red freight train. 

 

Any way enough for now I'll look at some of the other on going "projects" on my wok bench next time.

 

     Thanks for looking Steve

Edited January 17, 2017 by Londontram

[M Wright]

Hi, those wagons of yours keep on getting nicer- the propeller wagon who could resist that.  When I have time I dabble in 7mm Highland Railway and yesterday I found a wagon I have just got to have.  A Scottish Fish Oil and Guano tank wagon! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/107713-castle-aching/page-75 It is near the bottom of the page. The guys model of it looks neat but I think the wheelbase might be another foot longer and certainly  overall, the wagon was a bit lower, but hey the guy has almost nailed it.  Can you imagine drawing the short straw on a hot summer's day in Tunbridge Wells, 500 miles to the south and I hope downwind to open the unloading door?  Or perhaps the designer had a heart and it has a dump valve underneath?????. Anyway I have got to make one and another thing I want is an EARLY shale oil tanker, idelly a twin or very small diameter single tank.  Have you ever seen a drawing?? There is a nice photo or two in History of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry.  I was going to justify mine for bringing Naphta to my Pinsch Gas plant at Inverness.  If your CR love is in the central belt the CR and the NB  had a lot of these early tankers 1880s onwards. No Scottish Railway should be without one or two.  All the best.

[Compound2632]

of frustration I grabbed up the van and give it an almighty twist and low and behold it was almost flat on all four wheels so I gave it one more twist to tweak it and it now sits nice and flat and rolls lovely 

 

It's good to learn that the old ways still have their place alongside such high-tech novelties as the Silhouette!

[Londontram]

Hello gang.

 

Going back briefly to post 162 on page 7 you will be reminded of the Scottish North Eastern Railway passenger brake which I started building as part of a desire to build some stock from an earlier period in this case cir 1860/70s, After a brief pause due to lack of parts through lack of funds I've now managed to push it on a little further. Although there is a good lined drawing of the body with some basic measurements in the Caledonian carriage book this drawing doesn't extend below the solebars so the underframe is a bit of a mystery not helped by the few photos that exist are taken from a distance and every thing is hidden by the double set of steps these vehicles and other of this period were fitted with. Luckily there are some good close up pictures of other SNER coaches from the same build period that do show some detail so using this and to be honest a good dose of common sense lateral thinking I came up with a working solution.

 

The first thing of note is that SNER carriages had inside W irons which was not the standard practice on the Caledonian and other Scottish railways at the time. The short length of the vehicle means basic wagon springs would most likely suffice and axle boxes again with no good views a fairly generic oil axle box was used. As for the brakes I used a drawing from another contemporary passenger brake van from another small Glasgow railway that had been absorbed by the Caledonian for the layout as the carriage book featured an original drawing of this.

Being a brake van I fitted a tie bar across the W irons which on this model are standard Comet RCH W irons, the top step has already been fitted to the bottom of the solebar pretty much covering all the spring mounting detail and now the next job will be the lower step.

This was made from some 5mm evergreens RSJ girder section plastic strut and cutting away three of the webs left the correct width step with a nice small top lip.

Looking at all the buffers I had in stock and comparing them with the pictures of the SNER carriages I plumbed in the end for an old set of brass Triang ones (Dont knock them there a lovely machined buffer that looks the right shape for the period)

 

I've got to do a bit more solebar detail and fit couplings and because of the period safety chains as well but its coming on, After painting which will be standard carriage (chocolate) brown will be the hand rails so more to come on this one

 

The easing of the parts situation has also allowed me to push on with another van the big 6 wheel diagram 80 goods van and I've now fitted the W irons and brake detail not that there's a lot on this van.

The W iron on the right isn't badly fitted it the rocking W iron, on 6 wheel vehicles I always fit a fixed W iron at one end a sliding one in the middle and a rocking one at the other.

On the subject of 6 wheel goods vehicles I must pull my finger out and finish this Caledonian diagram 91 Callender and Oban road van which is all but ready for paint

     Anyway thanks for looking I'll update the thread when I get some more done. Steve

Edited January 19, 2017 by Londontram

[Edwardian]

Inspirational stuff, as ever.

 

Unique models of attractive prototypes skilfully rendered producing distinctive and refreshingly different stock for a layout.  All boxes ticked, so far as I am concerned.

 

Continue to be educated and entertained by your progress.

[drduncan]

I agree wholeheartedly with Edwardian's comment! Wonderful craftsmanship and a real inspiration. If only I had a silhouette cutter...

 

Any updates on your projects, Steve?

 

Duncan