Early LNWR passenger break van

Mike W

Western Thunderer
I don't generally write up kit builds on here because most of my builds are my own kits. However, this is the test set for a new kit planned by Parliamentary Trains in Gauge 3.

Here are some of the parts as received. There are ten separate sheets of parts, all laser cut from a variety of materials. I hope this shows hat there are laser cut kits .. and there are laser cut kits. This may be twice the price of some others, but it is vastly more detailed and we'll see how it goes together.
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Mike
 
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Mike W

Western Thunderer
I should explain that its an LNWR 21ft passenger break van. At least 75 were built between about 1860 and 1870, and the last was withdrawn around 1906, from departmental stock. Nothing else was known about these vans until the 1980s when my brother happened across a grounded body attached to a house in Bletchley, which we photographed, measured and drew in detail. This drawing has been used for the various kits in various scales over the years.

The body is still there, but from the road you would never recognise it and it is very much in use, so not available for preservation ... yet!

Mike
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
There are not yet any instructions with this kit yet, so some time and care was taken (a.k.a. procrastination) before doing anything. The parts are extremely well tagged, by which I mean they fall out of the sheet leaving the smallest of marks and here is progress after the first day! OK, I'm only doing a few minutes each day!100_0173.JPG
 

Mikemill

Western Thunderer
Mike

Interesting picture of the brake van, I notice it has no tumblehome as with the carriage behind it. I wonder why, as most other companies all their carriage stock had tumblehomes? Is the chassis a brass etch?


Mike
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
a real one at the back of a train on the C&HPR

That is very interesting. Since seeing that, I've found a second picture of the CHPR in John Marshall's book, showing presumably the same van at Hurdlow, behind a train hauled by a Crewe Goods tender engine. I wonder if they installed a stove, it must have been cold in that van.
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
They were all straight sided and even the next version of LNWR brake vans, the 26ft (as done by D&S) was straight sided and also the 30ft 6in and first 32ft were too. The "hatches are rooflights to allow light into the van area and very shallow compared with later vans. The kit is all laser cut MDF, card or another material which I'm not sure about yet, this includes the underframe. I'll get on to those parts in a few days ...

Mike
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
The parts list says each side with its various layers and brakes should be completed before assembling them onto the floor to make a box, but I didn't like the idea of delicate bits of brakegear hanging down whilst I struggled with the heavy stuff, so decided to ignore that (wonder if I will regret that later?) and make the main box first. The main parts fit extremely well and have to be pushed quite hard to get the tongues to engage. You hardly need any glue.

Now we have a box. You don't really need to assemble this on the usual sheet of plate glass as a flat surface because the fit is so good that it can't be anything other than dead square. And I am convinced that I could jump up and down on the main shell without causing any damage.
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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Mike

Interesting picture of the brake van, I notice it has no tumblehome as with the carriage behind it. I wonder why, as most other companies all their carriage stock had tumblehomes? Is the chassis a brass etch?


Mike

With no tumblehome, construction should be a little easier.

Jon
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
err, no. I suspect it will be a lot more than some of the other laser cut kits, but then its a lot more complex, as will be sen later. Also, there will need to be other, metal parts which have not yet been sourced and that's one reason I've been asked to build it. I will carry on with the test build, so patience please!

Mike
 

Arty

Western Thunderer
Thanks Mike I shall continue with my plan of scratch building the shorter version.
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
Well Jon, some records appear to have been lost, but a register dated 1897 shows that the vans surviving at that date were built between 1863 and 1869. Since that means they were 30 years old, I think it likely that some were built earlier, hence my note above "about 1860". I think 1855-ish is the earliest likely build date because there was a shorter version built at about that time, for which hardly any records exist.

Mike
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
The solebars are in three layers, plus another two layers for the axleboxes. Some layers are laser engraved, so there is quite a lot of relief. It is all very well detailed and cleverly designed. I have never seen a laser cut kit with this much detail. My only reservation so far is the texture of the areas which have been engraved which are a lot rougher than the original surface of the material. I guess these areas - really only solebars and headstocks - are made of wood on the real thing, so maybe it will be OK. We'll find that out later.

Headstocks added - two layers in each. Roof sticks fit well - in fact it might have been easier with a small hammer! I like some of the small details, like the shape of the roof sticks where they join the sides. I guess, if you have the drawings and know what they look like you may as well include the correct shape, even though the only way to see them may be with a mirror on a stick. Very nice.
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