Adam

After hols in Italy, more on the Prestwin - Airfix got so much of this right that all I'm really doing is finessing (Bachmann, take note): On top, a smattering of handrails (Airfix moulded 'em as lumps) and some valve wheels will be replaced with etchings. Missing from the Airfix moulding is an access panel which was present on both sides which I've added in 5 thou' together with vac' pipes and so on. I ought to think about brake levers... Adam

Even if it doesn't help Chris, it would help me! I'll PM you. Adam

Well yes - I think they're massively over-engineered but include the brakegear (and the solebars which are very nice indeed) which is what I was after. The advantage is that, having figured out how they're meant to work, I can go back to my usual approach to instructions, i.e., to read them after the event and find out what I should have done... Anything much shorter in its wheelbase and I'd have probably soldered the thing up solid. Philistinic? Yep! Adam

It's all gone quiet! Well, not quite, but here's an update before I disappear off on holiday (Italy, in case you're wondering). A couple of things on the go. First, we have the reconstruction of an ancient Ratio GWR Open C. This, part of a collection acquired from a late, fondly remembered, club member has already been reworked once, with D&S w-irons but not a lot else. I rather like long opens - later pipe wagons included - because they weren't only use for the carriage of tubes but for anything that would fit - bulky but light(ish). The chassis is vintage Ratio and not bad, considering the circumstances. As noted the W-irons are from D&S and will be recycled at some point since they're perfectly good. The Ratio kit represents a diagram O.8, apparently (GWR 4mm Wagon and Van Kits), and this has knock on effects for the conversion. The body needed replacement doors with a barrow plank and feathered top edge - it was straight up and down - and some new strapping on the ends and sides. Meanwhile, the chassis will go from lever brake to Dean Churchward. Here's the body with replacement doors and floor (both 40 thou') prior to the fitting or offering up of the chassis. The latter comes from the Morgan Designs range sold through the Scalefour Society e-shop. Though labelled and marketed as a conversion from an Open C to a O.18, so far as I can tell it's good for all of the Open C designs which differ mainly in the arrangements of the body to floor ironwork. Here's the etch with the basic floor cut out: The design is quite unusual since it is basically a form of three-point compensation but instead of a rocking W iron at one end, it uses transverse springs with a built-in height adjustment using a 10BA screw acting on a captive nut. This obviously means that all W irons are static removing the need for mucking about separating springs and axlebox mouldings with the consequent visual disruption. Fair enough, but the instructions miss the key drawing/photograph which shows how the complete set up should look... This caused a certain amount of head scratching, as did the separate W irons on one side. So far as I can work out these are rendered thus so as not to flex the W irons when putting the wheels in: while this is a sound engineering solution it is perhaps a bit much in the circumstances and needs more 10BA nuts than I currently have access to. Subsequently, I soldered the fixed end in retaining the sprung end as designed to make fettling the spring units that much easier (no, the instructions didn't really help here). I can go into all of this in more depth if anyone wants? The system does work quite well, I think, but I have had to work out where a lot of the bits go according to how they fit rather than how the overly-wordy instructions state. The headstocks have been added now (but not photographed) in plastic sheet and strip so from here on it's about detailing. Still, we're a long way down the road to a handsome wagon which will be, I think, an O.19. Much, much easier is this, an Airfix (now 'Kitmaster') Prestwin. Lovely mouldings, little bit of flash, very straightforward. Adam

Thanks, that's helpful (and possibly reassuring). Proper drawings, that's what I need, at this point... Adam

Looking at the images of both types on the Hattons site, it would appear not - it seems that both types are the same length over buffer beams (using the track and steel ruler included in the pictures as reference points). Earlier in the thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126141-andrew-barclay-14-16-0-4-0st-in-oo-gauge/?p=2861576 Hatton's Dave shows the length over chassis (labelled as 16" but clearly the 14" version because the springs are level with one another; the 16" has the front one mounted lower) as 81mm. The images in this post http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126141-andrew-barclay-14-16-0-4-0st-in-oo-gauge/?p=2853005 would seem to confirm that. This leaves me with a bit of a quandary. I've pre-ordered a 16" but if it's not the right length then I want to know where the additional length has been lost if at all possible. My suspicion is off the cab length because the cab on the 14" and 16" seems to be the same moulding and the footplate which - since I'll be replacing the chassis - doesn't bother me, but if the tank has been made too short I'll change to a 14" since I want a Barclay but an accurate one and lengthening the tank would be a complete faff... Adam

It matters not - the Hornby one will be much better. So much so, in fact that a while back, dad built a Finney L11 for a friend with a Hornby tender behind it rather than the Finney version. Could anyone tell? No. Adam

Slightly to my surprise, the Tithe award maps for the area now in BANES aren't on Know Your Place West: http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=banes - those for Wiltshire (as of last week), Somerset and Gloucestershire are and they're a seriously useful tool in my day job The tithe maps for Wellow are indeed at Taunton in two copies and a smaller, more convenient version for reference: http://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/SAS/C2401/7 (Small) http://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/P/wlw/3/2/2 (Parish) http://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/Rt/M/303 (Diocesan) That's a full house, with the apportionments as well, which is nice and relatively unusual. Adam

Yes to 14", though note that the cabs of the Devonport ones were different so far as I am aware and most Barclays at Devonport were 12": Works numbers were 1397 of 1915; 1406 of 1915, 1516 of 1919. Hope that helps (info' from the appropriate Industrial Railway Society volume). Adam

Wagons rolling off the line, and this brace of vans I'm quite pleased with. The LMS van you'll be sick of the sight of by now, and consists of a modified Cambrian body on a Rumney Models chassis (state of the 4mm finescale art?). You could easily achieve a similar result using Parkside mouldings with BR W irons - as Porcy's image shows, some were re-equipped: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37002-adams-em-workbench-wagons-roll/?p=3063548) The LNER van, by contrast, is more or less straight Bachmann with new brakeshoes and safety loops. There also follows the iron ore hopper and at this point I'm happy to call that complete: Adam

Thanks Paul - the likelihood would be that the documents you are referring to are somewhere in the RAIL 254 series (there's a long run of NER registers and repair records for GWR in there). If we had the original reference code we would be able to translate across (in fact, Discovery - the TNA catalogue - would probably pick it up); I can find out who the relevant specialist at Kew is easily enough who will almost certainly know but it would be nice to be clear - has the detail been published anywhere? In the HMRS back catalogue for example? Adam

Yes, here they are, in the series T[he] N[ational] A[rchives], RAIL 254. What I think you are referring to is this one: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4350223 (TNA, RAIL 254/380, formerly GW5/380). I go to Kew fairly regularly as part of my job - not to look at rail series usually, though the sale file for the West Somerset Railway was fun (and legitimate) so this isn't a corner of the catalogue I'm familiar with, or that I've seen cited in even the best-researched publications. If anyone has a reference for the later wagon censuses (from the '50s and '60s), that would be of use/interest to me at least. Adam

No worries Mike, it's one of the compromises of using oversize but practical and robust couplings; they don't always look amazing in pictures! Of course... I'm looking forward to finding where I've put them! Adam

The quick and the [very] slow, both ex-works. Only one is finished, however - I can't find my supply of overhead electrification flashes so I've had to order some. First the quick, yet to be weathered: Now the slow, with which I'm really rather pleased having got this far: The difference is that one is the blend of two good kits and the other - while fundamentally sound - has some weird materials choices (whitemetal headstocks which shrank badly, and overthick brass, notably) and an appalling rendition of the (admittedly complex) brakegear. The lovely sprung buffers I've kept for something else where access to the rear of the buffer beam is possible. The unfitted version, that has much more simple brakes would be a much, much better kit. Looks good though. Adam

That *is* the Masokits version albeit the long version - I can't get on with the short version at all even with sprung buffers. It's clear of the railhead, just about, and the three-quarter view has not shown it to its best advantage. Adam

I'm going to have to find something else to make, the LMS van is now complete following the arrival of buffers in today's post (the replacement corner plate comes from a mismatched pair of sides being supplied). Paint will have to wait until it warms up a bit more. The chalkboards on the ends are from a Rumney etch per Ben Alder's picture and seem to have been a common enough retro-fit by BR(?) which suggests the BR-refit many of these vans seem to have had; the reason for wanting to do one of these was the surprising number of freshly repainted examples that appear in colour photos from the early '60s - the corrugated ends are quite distinctive so the combination of axleboxes and chalkboards hint at that. Not bad at all, I reckon. Adam

While I await the buffers, something else. Again, it's a completion job, this time, the detailing of an ESSO anchor-mounted Bachmann compromise courtesy of etched components from Rumney Models. Following Pete Johnson's example (and noting that this is never going to be exactly right), the full collection of modifications can be seen below: The etched ladder makes an enormous difference, the valve wheel perhaps less so but it's still very definitely worth doing. As noted, it's a compromise - the tank diameter is neither hither nor quite yon (and this one has been extended, proportionately, to look more or less like a proper B class vehicle). Still, it's not a bad approximation so long as you don't have an accurately scaled version alongside it... Adam

Ok, so here's the van on its wheels and with the boltheads for internal strapping sanded back so they're more or less witness marks for weathering. Buffers on order and solebar to body brackets still to add but it's coming along very nicely, I think. Adam

Are you sure though? It's pretty murky down there but that's definitely a J hanger and I can't think of an example of a Morton-fitted wagon with J hanger springs. My thinking is that it's so dark, you simply can't see the brakeshoes. Adam

Seems likely - there's another one a post or two below: DM143374 - note the chalk board, presumably a retro-fit. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61890-a-wagon-miscellany-at-aberdeen-ferryhill-in-1975/?p=792248 Adam

Hello Dave, The Sentinel conversion of one of these was at Sandford Quarry, Somerset - https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/49/Notes.htm#Note%203 (something I've always fancied modelling being one of these Sentinel conversions of other locos) Rebuilt from Manning Wardle 1954 of 1916 in 1926-7, ex-Vobster Quarries - the scheme for modelling it has been stymied up until now for lack of dimensions beyond wheelbase (6') and wheel diameter (3'). Adam

Hahahahahaha. No. There were so many different types of iron ore hopper that the odd one off doesn't hurt which, since building this one was so - relatively - little fun means this will be a singleton, probably running in the midst of a rake of tipplers for which some excellent kits exist. I have quite a lot of these already and a couple more in prospect. The hopper is now painted though: Railmatch rattlecan for the livery colour (BR Bauxite) with some more of the same sprayed into a jam jar lid to fill the gaps where the nozzle won't reach. There's currently quite a queue for finish painting/lettering/weathering, mostly for things that have been in gestation for years. This is really pleasing. Adam

Howdo, The biggest issue, thus far, is that I'd put the lever guides in the wrong place (now resolved). I'm merely copying the photos and am kind of intrigued to find out what I've made! There's this: http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsvan/e2c1514d1 Note the rust marks showing where the bolts are, both sides of the door and vertically, presumably indicating internal strapping which must have been present in some shape or form. It's much more visible on this example with horizontal planks: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsvan/h2C7041F9#h2f844784 Why the LMS did this when the body and framing of the inherited Midland design seems to have worked perfectly well is currently beyond me! Adam

The new project has been glimpsed already. It's an early LMS fitted van to (I think) dia.1828 - if anyone happens to have the Essery LMS wagon books to hand, perhaps they could confirm for me? This features a clasp braked, vac' fitted chassis with vertical planked sides and early pattern corrugated ends, per this grounded example from Paul Bartlett's collections: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsvan/h2C7041F9#h2c7041f9 The body is from Cambrian (ref: C101 for the dia. 1832A) with the side strapping removed and boltheads added from cubes of 10 thou': The chassis from Rumney Models and is very similar to the Derby type I built to go under the shock open featured in the pages of MRJ (nos 246-7). This example was a little under-etched but that didn't get in the way of what I was trying to do or my enjoyment of the process. Per my usual practise for short wheelbase 4 wheel wagons, I've built the thing rigid which speeds things up a bit and makes the process somewhat less fiddly. Note the four holes intended for location of the various elements have been opened out to be used as fixing points (for small self-tapping screws). It's just about ready for the two bits to be fixed, permanently, together. First, however, metal black. Adam

Well. After nearly five years - I bought the kit when I started my current job - the dratted thing is near complete, barring buffers which will have to wait until I've opened up the holes in the buffer beams (and, perhaps, some new buffers - there's some nice sprung OLEOs supplied but I've no way of accessing the rear of the buffers at the brake cylinder end). As you may have gathered, I haven't especially enjoyed the process, but now it's all but done, some pictures. The ladder, if anything, is the best designed element of the kit: the stiles fold up with sacrificial spacers which you can trim away once you've soldered the rungs in. Neat! As you can see, these also require twisting through 90 degrees to enable the things to be fixed per the real thing - superglue at the top, solder at the bottom. The end struts were also glued and soft-soldered. The end result isn't at all bad but some of the materials choices - the (replaced) whitemetal headstocks were unusable, as was much of the brake gear. Quite why the hopper is provided without positive location is beyond me since the accuracy of the moulding was excellent. The non-fitted version, with push rod, 4 shoe brakes is probably a decent enough kit: I might built one, some day... Adam