The Bigbee Line

I’ve been fettling the Big Train / Lima axle guard/ axle box assemblies. This is the before.. Then with the guard iron thinned and axle box fettled.. A front view with the solid part above the spring removed.... Quite pleased with the effect. Plus “waste not want not”...

Tidy up and trip to the tip day today. I found an old jig saw blade, so decided to make another 3 link former. The end of the blade was heated to red hot and after cooling had the square edges rounded off. I tightly wrapped some wire round the former... Using a cutting disc cut just over half way through. The idea was to push them off and divide. They were a sod to get off. In the end the gave in and they came off... Quite mangled, but they would go back on the former for a fettle..... Some tweaking.... Another length was wound on. This time a bit looser. To make them easier to get off I decided to cut them completely.... They vibrate off on their own.... So again a fettle.... before.... And after..... They still need some work as the sides need to be parallel. The former is going to have a very slight taper added to ease removal of links at stage 1.

Just had a catch up on the thread. I've a spare pair of slaters ends, and the first versions were new in my time frame... When I was at Toton, there were 3 air brake conversions in use as a store, so had the sense to get a few close ups, plus luckily, a few shots of the door gear with the doors open.. The coupling support mentioned earlier is seen, quite common when long buffers are used with the instanter coupling. You can see that there are 2 parts, the 'mouth immediately behind the RCH drawhooh, and the steel section that 'stands' it off the headstock. This is the bottom rail for the doors... Finally a shot from under one corner... I need to check out what buffers they were built with...

Scouring the Internet I have found various pictures of car traffic from Abingdon. I think (the pictures are not always the highest resolution) that there are a couple of variations, without the classic side rails as seen on most Carflats. One picture in particular shows the wooden deck has no side rails but a substantial steel section forming a 'side', between which 'wheel bars' can be seen. Here is my 'schematic' showing the arrangments, note that it is not to scale. My hypothesis is that the angles will be similar to those on other carrying wagons, so if I can find a plan I can use those dimensions.

Here is a parkside buffer that has been hacked about a bit... I have used some spare Skytrex heads, that need a spin in the drill and a touch from a file to reduce the radius of the head. They have the look, I think...

Looking in the Don Roland “British Railway Wagons, the first half million”, is a picture on page 38 B748166 in 1969. There are no side rails. Just a low side. Does anyone know of other pictures. Thanks Ernie

I mean to use dark grey instead of black.

I would use 2 shades of grey and leave out the black.

I would use 2 shades of grey and leave out the black.

Paul Thanks for the tip. Is it true for the different workshops: Doncaster, Darlington etc. I will now get drawn to this when I look at Pictures. I did note that later wagons have low level pipes. It would be good to be able to unravel the builders logic.. From a reality check point of view I would have a couple of observations: The LNER handed pipes as illustrated, it puts the pipe directly above the coupling. Other companies pipes are to the left hand side (proved to be wrong on that one I expect), so would cross over at some point under the wagon.. I did find one vehicle with the pipe appearing under the headstock on the right hand side and then running up and over the hook to the left hand side.. Never a surprise..

I’ve a part built fruit van with brake work and safety loops on a plate between the axles. I’ll get it finished.

Regarding pipe position. Both ends will be identical. The pipe will change sides somewhere.

The Copydex stays rubbery for a week or two, then turns all sticky. So can easily rub off for this type of weathering. PVA has a bit more ‘sticktion’. I’ll give Copydex a try when home.

Nipped into Lidl today in Cardiff. Came out with the above. Plus a the cutting disc set and a mini drill. Too cheap to miss.

John I had some Maskol. Like yours probably 30+ years old. Would Copydex be a worthy substitute?

I use .88 copper flex and ,88 paper clip wire. A jigsaw blade is the former The links are cut with a heavy duty Stanley knife blade. Watch your fingers. Then straightened. Sir Douglas gave me the tip to use the paper clips. Assembled as 2 copper and one ferrous link. The joints are soldered. They go nicely on Peco or Stensons Models hooks.

John, Thanks for sharing your misfortune.. I am going to experiment by using a very small amount of grease on the buffers of one wagon... That's after I have chemically blackened the buffer heads....

Thanks for the tip. What are the wagon numbers.

Parkside Southern Railway Buffers - As supplied with the Pill Box Brake. Does anyone think the springs are too stiff. The seem to get coil bound after very little stroke. Has anyone else any thoughts?

Buffer shanks all done. So drilled some holes for the underframe. I had to trim some plastic from the ends. Here in place. I still need to do some packing to level off the wheel sets. Now sitting on its own wheels..... The roof has had another coat of paint, first on the new gutters. Couplings, buffers and door bars next.... It’s hard to believe it’s mainly card....

The race is on to get the buffers fitted at the other end. I’ve decided on 2 bolts per buffer. The heads of the pin will get a faux hex head. Trimmed to length and bent over across the back of the card headstock. Here are the holes drilled... just waiting for a fettle.... The headstocks have the holes ready for the shafts. Fettled and glued. There are no springs fitted at the moment. The shanks are acting as locating dowels. The metal plate needs the slot for the coupling and some faux bolts. I’m going to use a Peco short shanked hook and Dapol screw coupling, with no springing..... So later on I can drill the holes and fit the bolts through the buffer shanks.

After my crude but effective buffer bolts, I thought I would refine my skills. Most of the time I can’t really see what I’m doing. Maybe my magnifying lamp would help. Also some better focussed pictures.... These are the bolts as moulded... The with the bolt trimmed off and hole started... Keeping the drill square, the hole is made.... I used a larger drill to create a small countersink. Then pushed a pin through into some foam for a revealing close up. In the cruel close up you can see the bolt is over scale. I can file down the head of the pin, even making the prototypical hexagon head..... But it isn’t too bad as it is. I will cement in place to start and use two bolts on the diagonal.

I have glued / cemented the buffers in position. Thinking about a mechanical bond would be an improvement I drilled some holes and use a couple of fine track pins as bolts. Crude but effective. When the excess pin has been clipped off, I’ll cover the pins with a plastic / solvent mix.

John, What do you use to blacken your buffers?

I use a piece piece of sticky paper to hold the buffer nuts. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/125310-ernies-7mm-wagons-wagon-spotting-in-books/page/12/&tab=comments#comment-3766227