7mm mk3 coaches and class 442 build

[Vin]

Hi All,

 

This build project was started over 12 months with the research taking the longest time. Talk about opening a massive can of worms would be an under estimation! So I should start at the beginning. This thread is technically in two parts.

1. The mk3 coach as one group (loco hauled, passenger coaches, buffets, sleepers and HST coaches).

2. A class 442 for NSE Daz using the constituent components from the above build.

 

I will try my best to split these up as much as possible but as they are being built at the same time and use the basic parts it maybe difficult.

 

 

Here are two inverted underframe cast in coloured resin. Casting in black resin helps to stop scratches showing up if the paint gets chipped. I've several coaches where the wheels have touched the underside and chipped the paint.

These underframes are used throughout the build on both the mk3 stock and the class 442. I was going to cast the equipment well on this part but later I'll show why I didn't.

 

A pile of underframes in various colours, with and without equipment wells. Enough to do a 5WES.

 

There are some etches which are attached to the underframe equipment well. This pair is for one of the trailer cars in the class 442 set. 

When I first started out sketching the equipment boxes for the both the mk3 and 442 I found that each type is different and that over the years they have changed. The easiest way to explain it is to divide the length of the trapezoid into ten bays with a gap at the ends. Then each bay has a hatch, a blank, control equipment or grill. Now it gets complicated because I have found and drawn over 50 different types.

 

Here is one the sides taped to the equipment well. Another different trailer car from the 442.

 

A close up of the etch. I spray painted with etching primer first and a day late with matt black while they where still attached to the etch sheet.

The rectangular holes at the right hand etch are for the large third rail fuses pictured below.

 

The fuse elements still attached to the etch. There are three parts to each piece which I'll show later on when I build them up. These fuses are situated at the end of the coach where the third rail pickups are on the bogies. As pictured below.

 

These bogies are Peter Clarke kits whitemetal castings with my etches glued to the sides. I designed these so they flex. Hopefully this will stop the damage caused by out of gauge structures, which happened to my Roxey mouldings SR EMU. This had whitemetal soldered shoe rails and caught an object at the side of the track and nearly ripped the bogie clean off!

 

Here are the shoe rail etches which are handed. As you can see there are more shoes than needed. This is so I can solder two together so the shoe has a bit more depth to it. Ignore the 30A shed plates they are for something else.

 

Finally for today a mk3a SLEP bodyside.

 

More soon.

 

Regards

 

Vin 

 

PS Some of the photos are taken with my old camera and others with the new one. Can you tell the difference?

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2014 by Vin

[tomstaf]

Hi Vin,

 

Very good start there. Your mouldings look very nice and crisp! Are you going to beef up the show beam at all, they're wooden strips on the real things and are chunkier than you'd imagine.

 

Cheers

 

Tom

[Vin]

Hi All,

 

Thanks to Pete Harvey I've corrected myself on the mk3 designation. In the process I'm adding the extra photos I forgot to add in the first place.

 

 

The mk3 style side of a trailer car from the class 442. This uses a blank resin casting of the mk3 coach and then the doors are chopped off and modified. The window etches allow for a 1mm surround on the inside of the coach for the glazing to be as flush as possible.

 

The difference between the power plug doors (above) and the standard mk3 door. More butchery is required to make the driving trailer sides as the door is in the toilet window position.

 

Vin

 

 

[Vin]

Hi Tom,

 

I'm going to place a strip of 30thou plasticard on the back of the shoe rail to give it some depth. Its hard to see from the photo but the etch is bent in places to give it the correct shape. So the hardwood centre section will be where the depth is.

 

Vin

[NSE DAZ]

Hi Vin,

 

Looking very good Vin those etches look superb very crisp  looking forward to the updates on the 442 (selfishly  ) also the general mk3 coach.

 

All the best a very excited NSE DAZ

[pwr]

Vin

 

Coud theses kits conceivably cover the prototype vehicles?.

 

Paul R

[Vin]

Hi Paul,

 

Covering every variation of coach is a very tall order. As things stand at the moment I've made enough parts to produce the driving trailers and intermediate trailers for the class 442. The interiors need to be done as all the carriages will have dcc lighting. Then I've also made enough parts to make a couple of SLEP's or SLE mk3a's as all the above have a very similar roof with one vent box the water tank hatches are in differing positions. Next to make are the coach ends which are very different between the 442 and a mk3 coach.

 

Regards

 

Vin

[Vin]

Hi All,

 

Just a quick update. I've been making a new mould for the underframe equipment casting because I needed to make an access hatch in the bottom for the DCC decoder to sit. On the original casting the whole of the compartment had to be dropped to get to the decoder. The other reason for making a new mould is that I needed to trim 1.5mm from each end so that the bogies have more rotation. This means that the etched overlays protrude by 1.5mm at each end fortunately this isn't that noticeable.

 

The class 442 TS side blu tacked in position to check for fit and any errors.

The underframe needs the 3rd rail fuses fitting and then a coating of matt black.

 

The window etches. From left to right top row, full size window frame, 442 and sleeper small window, Toilet and 442 plug door window. From left to right bottom row, buffet window, 442 buffet small window, Sleeper coach corridor side window.

 

More to follow.

 

Vin

 

[bobster]

Nice work Vin, very nice detail.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[NSE DAZ]

Very nice Vin, thanks for sharing 

[Vin]

Hi all.

 

I've now finished 6 underframes. 4 for the class 442 (DTF, TS, TSW & DTF) and 2 mk3a SLEP. This has included fitting of M3 bolts for the bar connections on the EMU with Kadee buckeye couplings on the outer ends of the driving trailers. The buffers are in the post and I'll have to manufacture some heads as class 442's have a strange cropped rectangular buffer arrangement. 

 

Over view of the finished underframe TSW 71849. I've added a sheet of 20thou plasticard to the top so I can measure out for the interior which has a lot of seat castings and not many tables. The delights of suburban travel!!! I've made the toilet cubicles and the coach end partitions. As this unit will be fitted with full LED lighting I could do with some good photos of the Eddie Pond graphics which adorned the interior panels as I'll make these into laser printed transfers. I don't know if these where different from unit to unit or if there was a certain number of them spread randomly throughout the fleet?

 

Close up showing the etches to good effect. The two piece 3rd rail fuses have been picked out in white but I think another coat of paint will intensify the colour. The red air tank could also benefit from some more red as well. The sides of the solebar will have the paint removed before the sides are glued to them with super glue.

 

This is one of the bogies in position which I'm glad I have glued together yet as the wheel size (3'1" as shown) are too large for the trailer cars. I've order some more wheels from Roxey mouldings, 16 axles which are in the post. Fortunately I etched some disc inserts for the new axles about a month ago.

 

Here are the centre motor coach wheels with etch inserts fitted. These are 3'1" diameter wheels which will also fit the BT10 bogies for the mk3 coaches. The edges have been chemically blackened with Birchwood Casey super blue for steel, nasty stuff but does the job.

 

I'll go back to making the resistances for the motor coach under frame now.

 

Cheers

Vin

[tomstaf]

Hi all.

As this unit will be fitted with full LED lighting I could do with some good photos of the Eddie Pond graphics which adorned the interior panels as I'll make these into laser printed transfers. I don't know if these where different from unit to unit or if there was a certain number of them spread randomly throughout the fleet?

 

Cheers

Vin

 

Hi Vin,

 

They were standard across the fleet of pigs. Here are some pics of the interior coach end murals. http://www.southernelectric.org.uk/features/rolling-stock/442/442int04.html

 

Cheers

 

Tom

[ngtrains.com]

They were standard across the fleet of pigs.

 

and we got in to bother at Litchurch Lane because when Mr Pond came to visit to see them in the coaches the Poole Harbour scene had become shark infested.  (it peeled they were insulation tape sharks}

 

I think we all theought the murials were shi.......  not very good

Edited April 1, 2014 by ngtrains.com

[Vin]

Hi all,

 

Cheers for the link. In the back of my mind I seem to remember a pink design? Or was that from a great eastern unit?

I'm going to reinstate the sharks to Chesil beach that way I can't be done for forgery!

Back in the early nineties a mate of mine drew the captain pug wash ship and glued it on Poole harbour scene. Even the guard laughed.

 

Cheers

Vin

[Talltim]

I really liked them, my line was Thameslink so we had the 319 versions, lots of London landmarks

[legomanbiffo]

Those coaches are shaping up really nicely. It's great to see someone taking the initiative and producing something completely new.

 

I don't know if it's of interest but I have a full set of recordings of a Class 442, made at Railcare Wolverton a couple of years ago. I haven't done anything with them to date as there was no model to the best of my knowledge, but if you were after a DCC sound chip let me know...

 

Bif

[Vin]

That's great news. When I get around to finishing the design for the motor car I had sound in mind. The speakers can live in air con equipment box at one end and I'll have to find somewhere at the other. Drive is going to be from 2x ABC gears traction motors so a loksound V4 or equivalent will suffice. This is more work to do. I should at this point thank Brian at ABC gears for sending me a CAD of the traction motors so I can design the bogie around it.

 

Regards

 

Vin

[ngtrains.com]

Its a long time ago since I was involved

 

It’s a long time ago since I was involved in building these units at Litchurch Lane but here are two or three more snippets: -

 

These units whilst not the beginning of the end for BREL Litchurch Lane they were a significant notch on the route.   We were all offered voluntary redundancy timed for the Easter the first units were delivered. The idea was the first would be done by Christmas with the rest delivered by Easter. In the end not even the first was done by Easter!

 

An early panic occurred when with about a dozen bodyshells made Peters doors went Bosoms Uppermost leading to a lot of frantic whizzing around Europe before they settled on Tebel doors

The first power car was wired at least three times as they changed the designs as it evolved. The power cars were a nightmare and the underframe traction cases went back to Eastleigh several times before they were accepted. They were doing them to `overhauled REP’ standards but they were being inspected in Derby to suit new build. Furry tape and bitumen paint insulation not being acceptable on new build.

 

These were the first units where they tried to turn the factory into just an assembly plant by buying in the wiring harnesses yet we were expected to wire the first one then lift the harnesses out so the outside firms could copy them. As a sop they let the works quote for the work and because we could use a tape measure we undercut all the outside firms.   We built something like a giant easel that mimicked all the trunking layout and represented the terminals with pop rivets hammered in. On that we made up all the harnesses and then about half a dozen of us picked it up and carried into the carriage.

 

I did get to spend some time commissioning the units and whilst a lot of that is now a hazy memory I do remember that these were the first units some of the drivers encountered with a vigilance device and they couldn’t get the hang of lifting off the pedal at intervals until it all came to grinding halt  (they couldn’t say it either – insisting on calling it a villigance pedal)

 

There was also a `feature’ if, when the doors were open, you pressed both the open and close buttons the doors would half close and then trip the circuit breakers stranding the unit with the doors open. We could never understand why the guards insisted on pressing both buttons. The depot manager at Bournemouth reckoned he was going to get some chimps to work the doors and they guards could just feed the chimps!

 

I said yes to the voluntary redundancy but with the overrun they kept deferring it. The unions then forced the issue and BREL had to let anyone go who had a job to go to. I left and went to work for the Festiniog Railway.

[Vin]

Hi ngtrain,

It's always interesting to find out info from those on the factory floor how these where built. On my build the doors will be in the shut position so I don't need to buy any chimps for door duty!!!

I've redrawn the Eddie pond wall art and included a shark in chesil beach and captain pugwash's black pig (it took me ages to find a good image) to Weymouth harbour. I'll post them later.

 

Cheers for the insight.

Vin

 

Ps. With these coaches been Dcc I'll be making up wiring looms as well. Fortunately they won't be as long and definitely not as heavy!!!

[Vin]

Hi all,

 

I've done the artwork for the interior walls, but I have a problem and that is for the original NSE versions I don't know which artwork goes where? The only one I know is the Chesil Beach in the DTS.

 

442 eddie pond artwork1.pdf

 

The rectangular shapes are for the interior bulkheads with the doors and seats removed for clarity. On an A4 sheet of paper the parts are to scale (1:43). I shall be printing these onto white transfer sheet and putting them on the plasticard partitions.

 

Enjoy

 

Vin

[BernardTPM]

I got the postcard set for these and the 321s at Collectors Corner (Euston) about two dozen years ago. Think they were about £ or two a box. Happy times!

[Vin]

Hi Bernard,

 

I never knew they did a postcard set of the artwork. If my representations took as long to produce then it would make a nice hourly rate. It took me 2 x 2hour flights to Italy and one 2 hour train trip from York to Kings X

 

Cheers

Vin

[Vin]

Hi all,

 

No photos of the interiors yet. I've made most of the seats, which are the same design as those fitted to the original class 158. There are 300 seats to make which includes the 50 first class ones. So I made 10 originals to cast multiple times with differing amounts of wear and armrest positions to break up the monotony. These made so that they aren't handed so any position in the coaches are possible and allows for wiring runs along the length of the coach.

As for the mk3 I've made some beds for the SLEP. The photos will happen at the end of the week.

 

Cheers

Vin

[Vin]

Hi All,

 

After a month of doing other projects and generally being away from home, I've returned to the class 442 and painted some of the finished sides. As painting the complex network southeast (more difficult than the standard coaching stock) with its stripes and bands.

 

Here is the TSW trailer coach sides. The blue looks a bit dark because it was too dark for the camera to pick up the true colour.

 

Here are the underframes showing the differences between the component hatches and grilles. The third rail fuses still needing to be picked out in white on one of the frames.

 

Here is the TSW with the sides just blu tacked on as the silver grey still needs to be applied, which I'm going to do tomorrow. This is a finished bogie and the eagle eyed will notice the wheel size has changed from a previous post after realizing they have lowmac sized wheel sets. This meant I had to redesign the nickel silver disc brake inserts as well. The yaw dampers and hanging brackets I'm etching as a separate fitting and these will go on last.

 

A close up of the almost finished bodyside. The window etches have been scraped back to the nickel silver on the inner edges which I think makes a massive difference.

 

The centre of the coach has the door open lights painted in orange and the surround scraped back to the nickel with a flat scalpel blade. I will fit a clear plastic square over this to give relief gluing over the paint which is something I try to never do, but as it is carrying no weight or protruding to far out it should be a problem.

 

The ends still need the door passenger release controls picking out in silver and the vertical hand rails require fitment once the painting is completed. Painting these sides is much easier part finished and on the flat as getting narrow tapes to run straight over coaches that are 500mm long is bad enough.

 

Wheels, wheels and more wheels! These are for the 5WES and don't include the other ones already made up into bogies. The 4 axles in the top right are 3'1" for the motor coach the info for this fact took a lot of digging. All of these have been chemically blackened and then the disc inserts are glued in with epoxy after painting black and polishing up.

 

Third rail pickup bogie with the centre missing because I hadn't measured the ride height at this point.

 

The other bogie without the third rail pickups as one the real ones they are spread throughout the train.

 

Regards

 

Vin

 

 

 

 

[chris_n]

Your 442 is looking great, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished thing.