2mm Adrian's 2mm workbench.

adrian

Flying Squad
Thanks everyone for the feedback.

If you haven't already got a copy, I'd recommend trying to get your hands on 'LNWR Portrayed' by Jack Nelson
I have been trying to get a copy - I was watching a copy on eBay but forgot to bid - doh! Someone got a margin at £3. So just trying to find a secondhand bookshop with a copy and/or watching eBay.
The wonderful automated pricing software has resulted in Amazon offering a new copy at £999.11 but that is topped by Abebooks who can supply a new copy for £4583.99 and cheap postage costs too at £50.42.
9780900586453: LNWR Portrayed: A Survey of the Design and Construction Methods of the Premier Line - AbeBooks - Nelson, Jack: 0900586451

One will pop up on eBay at some point!
 

David Varley

Western Thunderer
Thanks everyone for the feedback.


I have been trying to get a copy - I was watching a copy on eBay but forgot to bid - doh! Someone got a margin at £3. So just trying to find a secondhand bookshop with a copy and/or watching eBay.
The wonderful automated pricing software has resulted in Amazon offering a new copy at £999.11 but that is topped by Abebooks who can supply a new copy for £4583.99 and cheap postage costs too at £50.42.
9780900586453: LNWR Portrayed: A Survey of the Design and Construction Methods of the Premier Line - AbeBooks - Nelson, Jack: 0900586451

One will pop up on eBay at some point!

Fingers crossed. That German bookseller seems a mite confused about they're selling!
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Adrian, your little hut looks lovely. I particularly like the texture and colouring. I'm glad that I'm an inspiration to somebody :)

Ian

PS Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Taking a short break from building track work I decided to switch back to doing a little more on the railmotor. First off was trying to fit extra pickups to the bogie. First attempt was just a bit of phosphor-bronze wire pressing on the wheels but this stopped the wheels moving completely!! So I then tried putting a coil in the wire but that caught on the chassis so this is version 3. However not the final version - the wire is fine for 7mm pickups but too thick for 2mm so I'm going to have to order some finer wire.
Railmotor - 1.jpg

I then moved onto a bit more chassis details. The wire bracing is a bit of 0.5mm nickel-silver wire with a couple of 7mm handrail knobs for the vertical braces. I filed off the base on the handrail knob and once soldered on I filed flats on the end to get rid of the ball end and make it look more like a cylindrical sleeve. The boxes were just filed up from a bit of brass bar stock and buffers were fitted.

Railmotor - 2.jpg

So it's managed to fill in some of the vacant space in the chassis area.

Railmotor - 3.jpg

Railmotor - 4.jpg

I think the next job will be sorting out all the steps.
 

queensquare

Western Thunderer
That really is looking good Adrian. If you want some fine wire suitable for pickups drop me a pm with your address.

Jerry
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Having just finished the turnouts for Holywell Town I decided to have a small change and go back to wagon building. In a recent 2mmFS Newsletter there was an offer for some new etches for a variety of LNWR wagons, a couple being 20T brake vans which will be required for Holywell Town. The freight trains for Holywell had to be top and tailed with a brake van and if I remember correctly limited to 5 wagons so quite a few brake vans will be required.

So I decided to go for a full set of etches and this is what you get.

Holywell - 4 (1).jpg

These are the etches for

3 x LNWR D33 Covered Goods Van
2 x LNWR D15 Beer Van
2 x Diagram 16 4-wheel 10 ton Goods Brake Van
2 x Diagram 17B 4-wheel 20 ton Goods Brake Van with Ogee
1 x Diagram 26 22' 0" Special Cattle Wagon with Drover's Compartment
1 x Diagram 436 Horsebox
1 x Diagram 445A 4 wheel Covered Combination Truck
1 x Diagram 43 Gunpowder Van
1 x Twin single bolster wagon
plus 3 extra LNWR chassis and detailing.

Spoilt for choice it could have been difficult to decide where to start. Although in reality the decision was made for me as I only have LNWR Wagons Volume 1, all these wagons, bar the special cattle wagon and the twin timber bolster are in Volume 2. So hopefully I'll have Volume 2 in a little, while courtesy of a certain Bath Emporium.

So I cleared the workbench and made a start on the Special Cattle Wagon.
Wagons of the LNWR - Diagram 26 22ft Cattle Wagon with Drover's Compartment

This is the etch as supplied.

Holywell - 5 (1).jpg

The sides are built up using three layers, they have an outer frame with an etched hole, the intention is to make up a jig and use location pins to align everything.

However before soldering the layers together there are a couple of items to solder onto the top layer. This is a really neat bit in the design as the half etched detail slots into the top layer. So from the middle layer the drovers door is removed and soldered to the top layer, from the bottom layer the drop door is removed and soldered into the top layer, the half etching in the door locates this under the strapping etched in the top layer.

Holywell - 6.jpg

Holywell - 8.jpg
 

queensquare

Western Thunderer
image.jpg Lovely stuff Adrian. I too bought a set of those etchings, I shall probably sell on a couple of the brake vans although at least one will be taken into North Somerset Light Railway stock!
I haven't got volume two of LNWR wagons either so am hoping Simon has at least a couple in stock, mind that didn't stop me soldering up the delightful little gunpowder wagon. I found a few pictures on the interweb but as I shall be finishing it in NSLR livery I wasn't too worried. With it's 7'6" wheelbase it really is tiny, just the thing for carrying explosives up the Cam Valley.

Jerry
 

David Varley

Western Thunderer
That's three of us bought a set and some of the down under lads have bought some as well. The LNWR seems to be very popular in 2mm at the moment - up around 50 orders for the Coal Tank etches so far :)
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Lovely stuff Adrian. I too bought a set of those etchings, I shall probably sell on a couple of the brake vans although at least one will be taken into North Somerset Light Railway stock!
I haven't got volume two of LNWR wagons either so am hoping Simon has at least a couple in stock, mind that didn't stop me soldering up the delightful little gunpowder wagon. I found a few pictures on the interweb but as I shall be finishing it in NSLR livery I wasn't too worried.
Well if I could be cheeky and there are some going spare then I wouldn't making a sensible offer especially as Holywell Town requires 2 x 20T brake vans per goods train!

As for the gunpowder wagon do you have links for the images? - your google fu is obviously better than mine because I couldn't find anything apart from pages and pages of a 4mm Dapol offering. Many thanks.
 

queensquare

Western Thunderer
Hi Adrian, the pictures I found are of the Furness models kit as built by Argos on RMWeb. I know it's not the done thing to use a model as reference but as mine will be finished in the fictitious NSLR livery I wasn't too worried.

Regarding the spare brake vans, you are very welcome. The Bishops castle I believe had one of the 10T vans so the NSLR will as well but the rest are surplus. I'll PM you.

Cheers Jerry
 

adrian

Flying Squad
So I found a few hours over the weekend to crack on with the cattle wagon.

To build the sides up a scrap bit of plywood was drilled to make the location jig for the sides. So this photo shows one side complete and the top and middle layer in the jig, note I soldered them up from rear to avoid as much as possible plastering the detail on the front with solder.
Special_cattle - 1.jpg

I then turned to the end of the body. These have quite substantial vertical stanchions, in the kit these are built up from 3 layers, the middle layer has the tabs for location and it also has little pimples to represent the bolt heads.

Special_cattle - 2.jpg

Unfortunately I can never get on with this method - they are that thin I can never get the 3 layers soldered together accurately enough and the cusp from each layer always shows. So I never even attempted it, instead I put the 3 layers together and mic'd it up at 30thou, so I found a bit of 28thou nickel silver sheet, cut a couple of thin strips and filed them down. Leaving them as long strips helped soldering them onto the end plates, they were then cut and shaped afterwards. I've just spotted in this photo a small error in the etching. On the half etching for the planks the vertical etch on the left hand side extends all the way to the bottom past the buffer hole whereas on the right hand side it stops at the bottom of the planking. Fortunately it's not that noticeable, hopefully once the buffers are soldered on it won't be obvious, if it is then it shouldn't be too difficult to fill with solder.
Special_cattle - 3.jpg

The final details at this stage were to solder on headstock thickeners and couplings and this is where I wasn't that clear on what needed to be done so I got it wrong! The instructions say there are 2 thickeners to apply on both sides. I took this to mean front and rear but when I offered up the chassis there was a gap to the headstock so the two layers are meant to go behind the headstock. However this mistake proved fortuitous as I can explain in a couple of photos.
Special_cattle - 4.jpg

I then tried to fit the sides together but I had problems with the corners. When the sides are built up in the jig after the frame is cut out it leaves little tags on the inner layer, just visible at the top of this photo, the inner layers are slightly shorter than the outer layer to provide a rebate for the ends, unfortunately these tags stops the ends seating cleanly in the rebate. So very judicious use of a square needle file trimmed back these tags to clean the rebate out.

Special_cattle - 5.jpg

So there are then three spacers with small tabs to slot in the sides and end. So I made up twos sets of sides and ends and checked they were square.

Special_cattle - 6.jpg

This was then tack soldered together. In this photo the headstock thickeners are still on the outside. These were removed and 2 layers added to the inside/rear of the headstock. With the body side soldered on they didn't fit properly as the bottom plank of the side got in the way. I had to file a small notch in the thickener to get them to fit - hence why I would recommend fitting these after the body is soldered together.

Special_cattle - 7.jpg

Before soldering it up fully I thought I'd crack on with the chassis. As per many 2mmFS association kits this is built up from multiple layers, there are two different options for the top layer, the early LNWR single long brake lever (at the top and bottom) or the later LMS central V hangers ( on the left hand side.) I was going for the early LNWR single lever version. If you are using the LNWR long brake lever then be very careful which side of the chassis you solder on the top etch - in the photo below I have it the wrong way round as explained when I get to the brakes.

Special_cattle - 8.jpg

So all the layers are built up in the flat to make life easier.

Special_cattle - 9.jpg

Once everything was in place the sides are folded down, by hand, and a couple of wheels chucked in to see how it looked. The brackets and steps added for the drovers compartment.

Special_cattle - 10.jpg

So yes now for the brakes -again any 2mmFS member should recognise the system of folding up and fitting the brakes. Note one brake set has an extra lever behind the brakeshoe for the manual brake lever, so this has to be fitted to the side with the small bracket for the brake lever. However much more important to note is that this brake set has an extra tab, now look at the chassis and just above the "LNWR" lettering there is an extra half etched slot just above the letters. This is the only location on the chassis for this brake set so this is why it is important for the top solebar etching to be on the correct side. I didn't realise it at the time so I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right and more by good luck than judgement I got it right!! You can just see the small bracket on the solebar above the P in Prize.

Special_cattle - 11.jpg

Once they were solered on it was just the brake lever remaining and the roof. So this is the current state, the roof has been rolled to shape but needs trimming on length by a whisker so at the moment is not soldered on.
Special_cattle - 12.jpg

Special_cattle - 13.jpg

Special_cattle - 14.jpg

So overall quite a fun build. With the exception of the wheels and modified end stanchions this is the kit as supplied. However there are just a couple of details to finish off that are not included in the kit. I have some buffers from the 2mmFS Association that are close enough, there is then a large pot lamp required for the roof to make up and on this style of van the vacuum cylinder for the brakes was a horizontal unit behind the brake lever which I will have to fabricate to fill in a bit of the under chassis.

The Bath Emporium has supplied Volume 2 of the LNWR wagon book (Thanks Simon :thumbs:) so I'm currently deliberating on which to start on next.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
That looks excellent Adrian, a really characterful wagon.
Thanks for that it is appreciated. Although looking at the photos in the LNWR wagon book the big pot lamp makes a big difference to the character of the wagon. When I put it next to the D88 van it is noticeably lower in height without the big tub on the roof, so I think it will look significantly different with the extra detailing. Then I've just got to sort out livery and transfers!!

[edit] and I forgot there is a vertical handrail required by the side of the drovers door.
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
Then I've just got to sort out livery and transfers!!

In full LNWR lined carriage livery? Rather you than me! Turned out to be a beautiful little model and you built it amazingly quickly.

Mike
 
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adrian

Flying Squad
Turned out to be a beautiful little model and you built it amazingly quickly.
Thanks for that - however as usual the detailing seems to have taken just as long as building the kit. Anyway a few more details have been added and I'm happy to say finished for painting now.

special_cattle - 1.jpg

special_cattle - 2.jpg

special_cattle - 3.jpg

So the extra detailing added is.
  • lost wax cast buffers from the 2mm Association.
  • Oil lamp holder on the roof turned from brass bar
  • Vertical hand rails on the drovers door.
  • End strapping.
  • Horizontal vacuum cylinder from a bit of brass bar held in place with a couple of straps.
  • Vacuum pipes from a bit of guitar wire
  • Some signalling equipment on the drovers end made up from a bit brass stock and wire.
Overall a nice little kit that has gone together with very few issues.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Busy as usual but I did manage to find time over the weekend to get back to the workbench for a few hours. Decided to try batch building now so from the stack of etches I selected the three D33 vans.

So this is the prototype Wagons of the LNWR - Diagram 33 Covered Goods Van

Start with the etches.
d33 - 1.jpg

A start was made on the body sides which are built up again from 3 layers, so 3 layers per side, 2 sides and 3 vans meant a pile of overlays for soldering together. On these vans on one side is a small door and on the other side the door is larger. So the layers on the left hand side are for the large door, the layers on the right for the small door. To help soldering alignment the layers for the small door are in the large door side, this is all soldered together and then the small door is removed from the side - if that makes sense!

d33 - 2.jpg

As before a pin jig is drilled to locate the layers. When I started I was slightly miffed that the frame location pins were different for each side so I needed one jig for one side and another one for the other. However on reflection I decided this was a good thing as it meant that there was now way I could mix up the layers.

d33 - 3.jpg

The larger door is made up separately from 3 layers.

d33 - 4.jpg

To help with the alignment when soldering I used the pins for the frame jig.

d33 - 5.jpg

So all 6 sides and 6 doors soldered up and cleaned up.

d33 - 6.jpg

Next step will be to make up the end panels before tackling the roof, which as it has a sliding door panel is going to be interesting.
 
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