LNER Toad D from Dapol 7mm model.

[LarryG]

The other day, my good friend Adrian R., better known as Northstar Design, gave me a Dapol O gauge BR goods brake van that he had comprehensively backdated into an early LNER Toad D. 99% of the conversion had been done and it was simply left to me to 'floor' the verandas and tidy up. An as-bought BR brake van straight out of the box....


Note shorter stepboards on LNER Toad D below....

The earlier LNER vans had no concrete or cast iron weights and no trussing below the solebars so they were removed from the model....


The 'sideframes' had been held vertical by the platform weights and so Loctite was run into the grooves as shown in green (both sides).....


The earlier vans had windowless matchboard doors. Adrian made these from Plastikard...


He also fitted brass lamp brackets. I finished the model off with 16thou thick brass veranda floors. They will be painted prior securing to the model. Of note are the replacement grab rails that differ from one-piece handles on the BR brakes.....

 

[LarryG]

The end floors (in primer) had only been plonked in place for this photo, hence daylight above the buffer beam. Photographed in this mornings sunlight just to show the distinctive appearance of the LNER-built van compared with the BR version. More than just removing concrete blocks....

 

[Dan Randall]

Nice work Larry.

I didn’t realise how modular Dapol’s brake van was until I saw your pictures. Now you’ve demonstrated the relative ease of the conversion, I’m sure others on WT, will be converting at least one of their Dapol brake vans!


Regards

Dan

 

[LarryG]

Getting there (slowly) in between Xmas 'stuff'. After spraying the brass veranda floors with my cellulose BR early grey, it became obvious the whole van body would have to be sprayed. While I realize BR early wagon grey was not just one shade, my personal choice is not to wander too far off the grey that Precision Paints has provided us with since year dot. Insignia was HMRS 'Methfix'.

The GWR Toad in the back ground provides a convenient link at this point. Arrangements were made in 1928 for the temporary loan of a GW 20 ton long-wheelbase van used at speeds up to 60mph. The conclusion reached was that the riding of the GW van was considerably superior to anything the LNER had and it was free of oscillation. So was born the LNER Toad D....

 

[iak63]

Proper modelling done properly! Excellent

 

[LarryG]

Proper modelling done properly! Excellent

Thanks Iak63. I will pass your comment onto Adrian. I was the lucky beneficiary when he went back to 4mm/00. He has built a neat little traverser-to-station layout that doubles as a BR(ex-SECR) branch or a BR(ex.GER) branch according to how the day takes him. The ultra-smooth running of his locos impressed me greatly. I hope I am not influenced into returning to the small scale!!!

 

[LarryG]

Finished. Weathering of the body is minimal although the chassis was weathered as normal. The brake shoes should really be single, but it depends on how far one wants to go....



Inside the shed on the layout showing a comparison of the LNER Toad D with a Dapol BR version...


Although it started out as a model of the LNER's only batch of unfitted vans for the Cheshire Lines, I could not find if the running number was altered after nationalization. So I gave it a number from Batch 158 built by the LMS at Derby in 1941 (246663-834) while going off a photo showing an unfitted version. I wonder if side lamp brackets were fitted in BR days....


EDIT:
I finished off the weathering on the chassis last night and repainted the end veranda floors back to grey seeing as I had weathered them too much and they looked brown....