7mm On Heather's Workbench - Dean Triplets

MRJ 24 and 28 to the fore, nice one. Those issues include good advice about building Slater's 7mm coaches generally and the GWR kits specifically.

If you were building the clerestory carriages then I would remind you that each compartment probably had arm rests against the outer wall irrespective of compartment class - see photos of the diagram C10 clerestory that I have given you. I have not seen any evidence to say yay or nay about a similar fitment to the 4 wheel stock. Given that you are building these kits for the 1930s then I think that the trimmers at Swindon may well have left the arm rests off by that time. A similar situation exists with the composite coach to diagram U4 in that the carriage ought to have retained the arm rests attached to the compartment screen for the first class compartments - in this case my feeling is that such details would have been retained. Slaters has some nice mouldings for these items.

regards, Graham

Thanks Graham. The internal trim is something I am beginning to ponder, for all three coaches. While I have the fine luggage rack etches, I am leaning towards leaving them out as all but invisible. The armrest info will be useful, though.

Finishing touches to the U4 underframe as I ponder whether the steam heating and vacuum should both be downies or whether to go with the kit option and have the vacuum uppie.



First of all, couplings. The kits don't ship with couplings. These lost wax brass efforts came from my bits box, and probably originate from the sadly-missed Home of O Gauge shop in Sarf Lahndan. Remind me I need to stock up on suitable couplings and pipeworks at the next 7mm show I visit, please.



Next, buffers. A moulded plastic peg is glued to the inside of the solebar, with no real indication of where it should be. I mocked things up a few times until I felt happy. The scheme is the peg retains a spring, which is passed over the end of the steel buffer head and retained in turn by an etched hook affair that also prevents the head from leaving the headstock. The instructions do cover this, and it's both fiddly and clever.



Here's the completed springing arrangement with a highly trained finger depressing the buffer itself.

Now back to pondering uppies and downies.

For those following the indecision saga, I went with uppies for the vacuum pipes in the end. It's what was in the box.



The body goes together pretty quickly. I made use of the timber right-angled jig I knocked together for the BG van - which you can see lurking drunkenly in the background.

Right now, I am thinking it might pay to get the brake third underframe up to completed level again, and then consider painting things. The bodywork can be worked on while stuff dries.

Heather Kay said:

Finishing touches to the U4 underframe as I ponder whether the steam heating and vacuum should both be downies or whether to go with the kit option and have the vacuum uppie.

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Hi Heather,

Try this link, the balance is one up and one down. Interesting that the pikkies which have no upstand pipe seem to be of engineering department vehicles.

regards, Graham

Dog Star said:

Interesting that the pikkies which have no upstand pipe seem to be of engineering department vehicles.

Click to expand...

That's pretty much been my reading of the images I can find, too.

Attention has turned to the brake third. This was the basket case of the triplets, having been almost literally thrown together with some kind of adhesive.

Having already removed the body from the underframe so the former could be stripped of the thick layer of gunk that passed for the livery, I thought I would give the underframe itself some TLC.

The original builder had obviously encountered the same conundrum with the compensation system. In this case, they had elected to glue the whole thing up solid. I don't know what the adhesive was, but No More Nails seems a likely candidate.



Rather than try to prise the etched parts from the underframe, which was already in a pretty parlous state after my bodywork extraction attempts, I elected to simply cut the wheels out en bloc. The plastic base plates could be - hopefully - removed from the etched parts, and then reassembled with styrene strip reinforcement.



The butchery choice was helped by the fact the original builder had fitted the wheel units the wrong way round. They had to come out anyway. Here's the compensated unit. It took some little effort to get the brass parts ungunged, and both wheelsets are being treated to a bath of paint stripper before further remedial works are attempted.



Refitting the styrene base plates wasn't too hard. I dived into my strip offcuts box and selected some suitable bits to lay into the angle section mouldings underneath.



On top, thin flat section strip was laid along the top of the cut chassis members. The body is supposed to sit above the chassis on wooden battens, so these won't be a bother later. The whole chassis is now set aside for the copious solvent cement to set nice and hard while I attend to the brass parts, and ungunge the buffers for later refitting.

I'll have to rummage and see if the various gas lighting castings have arrived in one of the boxes. Some sort of piping needs to be made up, at least. I also note a lack of spring protectors, which might need a bit of thinking about.

To the paint stripper!

This is the result of a dip in the stripper and a couple of ultrasonic cleaning bath sessions. Most of the black paint has been dislodged, which makes the refurbishment a little easier accomplish.

The rocking unit seems to have been through several rounds with a heavyweight boxer. One of the axle units was bent out of shape, and the least said about the state of the brake yokes the better. I hope I can rescue the finely twisted brass, but we shall have to see.

Heather Kay said:

... The body is supposed to sit above the chassis on wooden battens..

Click to expand...

The use of wood packing upon which the body sits was a feature of GWR carriages in the Dean era and in spite of years of looking at many, many, many... official drawings I have found only one reference to the packing... on a Collett era Siphon!

As a general indication, the packing appears to be 1 inch thick and from 4 to 6 inches square. What timber packing remained on underframes when GWS started lifting wooden coach bodies, in the 1970s, looked suspiciously like mahogany offcuts from the C&W sawmill. Just as puzzling is the placing of the packing... mostly under the bottomside member in the door spaces. However, some packing had to be placed where the bolts could only be accessed by removal of interior wood sheeting so I suspect that the actual placing was often according to individual whim (especially with luggage compartments as in third brake to Dia. D14).

regards, Graham

While tidying the brake third underframe, preparing for reassembly, I realised the springs had been glued on the outside of the solebars. Consequently the axle boxes were too high. It all had to come off. Rummaging in the boxes turned up an etch of the spring protectors, so at least this coach will have the relevant detail. I will probably not worry over such fripperies on the full brake, as the builder in that case got it more or less right.



Cleaned up and more or less straightened up suspension units. There's a fair chance the underframe will be completed today.

Due to lack of spares, I skimped a bit on the brake rigging. There are no adjusters or fancy brackets, and no safety loops. I don't think anyone will notice.

I reinforced the back of the headstocks with a strip of thick styrene. They were a little flimsy, and with all the drawbar pulling right on the centre it was likely to part at some point. The previous builder had glued the buffers up solid, and I couldn't find a way to ungum them, so solid they remain. I hope they don't cause problems when running.

Slightly different steam heat pipework this time, though both came from the same stable. I learned a new thing today, and I'm glad I spotted it. It became a normal thing on most coaches in the 20th century to have the vac pipe on the left of the hook, with steam heat on the right. Well, these 'ere Dean coaches weren't built with steam heat, and to make life simple the vac pipe ran right down the coach on the cylinder side, with the headstock connections appearing on the right of the hook on one end, to the left on the other. When steam was fitted later in life, this followed the same idea.



And there we are. The previous builder had chickened out of folding the steps properly, instead cutting the main board fold off entirely. So all the etched marks need to be filled before painting.

I reckon both the compo and brake third underframes can now be painted. Then it's onto the bodywork.

I reckon I have an allergy to MEK. I got a dose of the sneezles Sunday night, and decided to give myself most of the day off yesterday to recover.

Back at it today, though.



Posed with bodies and roofs perched in place, here's the gruesome threesome. The Diagram U4 1st/3rd composite, the Diagram T34 3rd brake, and Diagram V5 full brake.

I have managed to salvage the gummed up buffers, so all three have working springing now. I am waiting on the filler to dry on the T34 steps, then I shall vanish into the paint shop for some underframe painting. I might even get some primer on the bodies.

The only thing missing is the three lamp tops for the full brake. I reckon the Bits Box and some ingenuity might create something passable.

Heather,

Rainstrips... not thought much about this item in the past, working on the premise that each carriage had four strips in the Edwardian period. Maybe the number was reduced from four to two for some stock by the 1930s - what info do you have in this respect?

regards, Graham

I have the instructions, and photos in Russell of vehicles late in service. I shall probably go with the four strips - which means supplementing the moulded strips with strip styrene.

I am beginning to feel a bit liverish. The client wants the coaches finished to suit running in the early 1930s. This would mean either the immediate post-lake livery, possible repaint to the mid-1920s chocolate and cream, or the basic 1930s simplified version.

For simplicity, I am leaning to the latter. The only half decent photo I can find is in Russell's GWR Coaches Part One, page 75, Fig 85, which shows a clerestory 6-wheeler kitted out as a camp coach. The cream upper section is demarcated from the brown by what looks like a black and gold lining. The end also looks very dark, almost black.

If the team thinks I ought to be looking at the 1927 livery, then I'll have to sharpen my bow pen!

I will also need to consider suitable transfers, so the sooner I decide on the paintwork the sooner I can order the right ones!

Lack of photos, but not lack of progress. I'll try and get some images later, but I'm not sure you really care to see more images of partly-painted models.

Anyway, I tested all three coaches on the twisty testy track, shunted about rather incongruously by a Western (being about the only working fine scale loco I have in my possession). The working close coupling worked well. A spot of lubrication on the bearings also helped. I think each coach could do with a little extra weight, which will be added to the floors of each compartment, and then they ought to run very sweetly.

The underframes have now been sprayed and varnished, ready for some light weathering. The bodies have been primed - in grey, as it helps to stop the main colours from turning out too dark, apparently - and the first blush of cream is drying as I type.

As a side note, does anyone who designs personal protective equipment think about those of us who have to wear glasses? I have a new face mask, but I can't then fit the specs on my nose, where they tend to work best. I have to kind of perch them on the top of the mask, which means I have to lower my head to see down properly. My neck is now killing me. There has to be a better way to do this…

As a side note, does anyone who designs personal protective equipment think about those of us who have to wear glasses? I have a new face mask, but I can't then fit the specs on my nose, where they tend to work best. I have to kind of perch them on the top of the mask, which means I have to lower my head to see down properly. My neck is now killing me. There has to be a better way to do this…

I have been suffering the same problems for quite a few years now and my solution was to put on my reading glasses (fortunately, they are still 'in focus' at around 750mm) in lieu of the varifocals - not the ideal solution but not so strenuous on the neck.

cheers

Mike

Paint has been squirted about. As usual, I seem to be doing it all wrong.



I can't break the habit of lighter colour first, followed by darker colour. Having spent a little while trying to carefully pick out the panel mouldings, I've decided to cut my losses and spray all over brown in the morning. I'll then paint the upper panel lines in black, followed by the panels themselves in the cream.

It can't turn out any messier, that's for certain!

In the cold light of day, I reviewed things.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. With a little guidance from someone who knows a lot more about painting things, I pressed on.

The mouldings are now black, and with some care I found it was possible to let really thin washes of cream to wick into the panel edges. A little more tomorrow will see the main paintwork more or less complete.



A spot of careful touching in, then I'll gloss varnish. That will make the lining easier, as well as the transfers.

I need to find a reasonable match for the mahogany frame colour. I shall rummage in my paint box.

Hi Heather,
For mahogany windows try first painting them black, then ( I kid you not!) paint them in LMS crimson lake.
You will be amazed at how good they look