Chris Veitch
Western Thunderer
Just looked at the "Area 51" forum description is this is definitely non-Western Region, although it's feasible (but maybe unlikely) that it did possibly run over GWR-owned track in its lifetime...
I've long sought to dabble in O14 (i.e. true scale 2'0" gauge in 7mm scale) but never really got anywhere. In a fit of enthusiasm a few years ago I bought one each of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association FR slate waggon kits (always two "g"s on the FR...) for the 2 and 3 ton versions. I made a start on the 2-tonner and by a combination of impatience and ignoring the advice of others, managed to completely trash the body. And there it sat for several years, glaring at me from an old takeaway box. However at one of last year's gravity train events I noticed that one of the slab waggons in the FR demonstration train appears to be built on the chassis of the same type of 2-ton waggon - like this:
As can be seen. it's a pretty simple waggon in that the body's a sheet of rolled iron and four timber bearers with some bolts in them. How hard can that be? So I've set out to produce one from the remains of the waggon kit, and this is far as I've got:
The chassis is only partly finished and still requires quite a bit of detail as can be seen. The item on the right is a jig I milled out of a bit of scrap aluminium (because I had some - big mistake!) to cut the bearers to length and jig drill them for bolt holes. The bearers were cut to 2.0 x 2.5mm on my little Proxxon bench saw and pilot drilled for their bolts. The floor is just a large bit of scrap from the end of an etch - my etcher changed sheet size a few years ago which handily means there's a nice big strip of scrap a couple of inches wide on each sheet now. The jig was later used to drill the holes in the floor - I want to keep all the parts separate until after painting so that I can easily add the bearers unpainted. The bolts will be plated brass pins with the heads turned down in the minidrill and metal-blacked.
When milling the jig I'd forgotten how "raggy" aluminium can be and forgot to lubricate it, meaning it was a bit of mess when it came off the machine. It cleaned up OK with files but I'll know for next time.
Because I want to assemble everything after painting I decided I wanted a means of making the floor removable. The photos below show what I've come up with.
The two bits of angle are soldered onto the bottom of the floor to give an accurate location within the cutout in the centre of the chassis etch. When I was but a youth I had a fleeting interest in slot car racing and followed the more obscure Airfix MRRC system rather than Scalextric - this didn't last long, but left me with a lot of track containing very nice T-section brass extruded pickup rail. There's still a lot in the scrap box and these are a section with one leg filed off.
The screws are 10BAs with the heads turned down to a blind flat as thin as possible (about 0.3mm) and sweated onto the floor. The two items top right are nuts to clamp the chassis etch up against the floor - the mating face of the item is relieved with a 4mm mill to ensure it can clear any of the bolt head which pokes through the floor. The photo below shows the whole lot (so far) assembled.
I'm now experimenting with making up some chassis detailing. Coupling won't be too much of a problem since I have no layout, other stock or locos to couple to for now. I'm silver soldering up some of the little chain rings from brass wire and plan to turn up some eyebolts for them. I have a small scrap of 3/16" steel sheet cut out of LINDA's cab front sheet during her last rebuild (to accommodate the rerouted blower pipe, I think) and plan to turn up the eyebolts from a slice of this to incorporate a bit of genuine FR into the waggon.
Hope all this was of interest to someone - will post a few more photos as things progress.
Chris
I've long sought to dabble in O14 (i.e. true scale 2'0" gauge in 7mm scale) but never really got anywhere. In a fit of enthusiasm a few years ago I bought one each of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association FR slate waggon kits (always two "g"s on the FR...) for the 2 and 3 ton versions. I made a start on the 2-tonner and by a combination of impatience and ignoring the advice of others, managed to completely trash the body. And there it sat for several years, glaring at me from an old takeaway box. However at one of last year's gravity train events I noticed that one of the slab waggons in the FR demonstration train appears to be built on the chassis of the same type of 2-ton waggon - like this:
As can be seen. it's a pretty simple waggon in that the body's a sheet of rolled iron and four timber bearers with some bolts in them. How hard can that be? So I've set out to produce one from the remains of the waggon kit, and this is far as I've got:
The chassis is only partly finished and still requires quite a bit of detail as can be seen. The item on the right is a jig I milled out of a bit of scrap aluminium (because I had some - big mistake!) to cut the bearers to length and jig drill them for bolt holes. The bearers were cut to 2.0 x 2.5mm on my little Proxxon bench saw and pilot drilled for their bolts. The floor is just a large bit of scrap from the end of an etch - my etcher changed sheet size a few years ago which handily means there's a nice big strip of scrap a couple of inches wide on each sheet now. The jig was later used to drill the holes in the floor - I want to keep all the parts separate until after painting so that I can easily add the bearers unpainted. The bolts will be plated brass pins with the heads turned down in the minidrill and metal-blacked.
When milling the jig I'd forgotten how "raggy" aluminium can be and forgot to lubricate it, meaning it was a bit of mess when it came off the machine. It cleaned up OK with files but I'll know for next time.
Because I want to assemble everything after painting I decided I wanted a means of making the floor removable. The photos below show what I've come up with.
The two bits of angle are soldered onto the bottom of the floor to give an accurate location within the cutout in the centre of the chassis etch. When I was but a youth I had a fleeting interest in slot car racing and followed the more obscure Airfix MRRC system rather than Scalextric - this didn't last long, but left me with a lot of track containing very nice T-section brass extruded pickup rail. There's still a lot in the scrap box and these are a section with one leg filed off.
The screws are 10BAs with the heads turned down to a blind flat as thin as possible (about 0.3mm) and sweated onto the floor. The two items top right are nuts to clamp the chassis etch up against the floor - the mating face of the item is relieved with a 4mm mill to ensure it can clear any of the bolt head which pokes through the floor. The photo below shows the whole lot (so far) assembled.
I'm now experimenting with making up some chassis detailing. Coupling won't be too much of a problem since I have no layout, other stock or locos to couple to for now. I'm silver soldering up some of the little chain rings from brass wire and plan to turn up some eyebolts for them. I have a small scrap of 3/16" steel sheet cut out of LINDA's cab front sheet during her last rebuild (to accommodate the rerouted blower pipe, I think) and plan to turn up the eyebolts from a slice of this to incorporate a bit of genuine FR into the waggon.
Hope all this was of interest to someone - will post a few more photos as things progress.
Chris