It's been awhile

simond

Western Thunderer
Would a subtle twist of the central crank not sort out the axle spacing issue on the etch? You’d need to be careful not to crush the hole, but it should be possible?

Atb
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Would a subtle twist of the central crank not sort out the axle spacing issue on the etch? You’d need to be careful not to crush the hole, but it should be possible?

Atb
Simon

Enough to take 2mm out at each end though? Doubtful.

Adam
 

bogusman

Western Thunderer
Ouch. This doesn't appear to be a wonderful kit (and the brakegear is just...), and if it was test built, surely unfinished. Did you say whose it was? I also wonder how accurate those corner plates are. Most riveted steel wagons I’ve seen had an ‘L’ shaped plate rather than a cut off square gusset like that (which is what welded BR minerals had).

Hi Simon the kit is from Dragon Models who have now sold the kits on. I did phone Dragon Models who gave me the number of the new owners (they live quite close and are friends) so I phoned them about the missing rivets on the ends. Looking at the instructions (photo for every stage) the brake rods have been bent with kinks in them (not the best) to make them fit. As for the corner gussets I am quite happy with them. If you have a copy of "The 4mm coal wagon" by John Hayes page 84 has a photo of GWR loco coal wagons that show these gussets. I will persevere with this kit but will not build the other one in a rush. Once this one is finished I will start the cooper craft coal wagon which should be straight foreward. Will not do anymore for a few days as painting fence panels which will take a few days. Thank you both for your comments

Pete
 
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bogusman

Western Thunderer
Back onto the wagon again today. Glued brake gear in place. While waiting for glue to set I started to look at brake levers, brake lever guards, buffers and spring/axlebox castings.
Starting with morton brake levers decided to scrap and replace.
Brake lever guards will use.
Buffers nice castings with fitted turned heads but length of buffer shank/ head looked too long consulted ref books and found length 1mm longer than it should be. Removed heads and drilled out for sprung replacements.
Spring/ axlebox castings replaced with MJT castings as ones supplied are very poor.

Pete
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bogusman

Western Thunderer
Change of plan as I was about to start on some N13 coal wagons (cooper craft). On futher investigation I found that these wagons were fitted with DC 1 brake gear all I have is DC 2 brake gear. So a quick visit to scalefour stores to order some DC 1underframes. In the meantime another PO wagon under construction.

Pete
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Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Pete,
Looks to have a strange suspension system. How does that work? I wonder what the thinking is to have the W irons on one side separate from the underframe?
Dave.
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Pete,
Looks to have a strange suspension system. How does that work? I wonder what the thinking is to have the W irons on one side separate from the underframe?
Dave.

Hopefully Pete won't mind the intrusion - I've done one from this range, albeit not this precise etch - Ceci n'est pas une pipe - after the deluge: reworking Ratio - and they all work on the same sort of principle which is effectively three point compensation but with a sprung rather than a rocking axle. The construction is designed to solve the problem (in the designer's mind*) of springing out the the W-irons to fit the wheels and relies on some deft work with 10BA nuts and bolts which allso allows for some adjustment. How much of this is necessary, I don't know and I'm afraid I soldered the removable W-irons in place and sprung the W-irons out in the usual way to fit the wheels.

The brake gear goes together very nicely and all the parts on mine fitted as designed which is a big plus and the key test is passed in that I would definitely build another.

Adam

* This is the late Brian Morgan - there's more somewhere on the Scalefour Society forum.
 
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bogusman

Western Thunderer
Sorry Dave I have not answered sooner but have been enjoying the weather and the wife and I have been gardening and what time I have had has been used building " the real track company" GWR 2 bolt chair straight lengths of track. I must admit I prefer this compared to ply and rivet.
I must thank Adam for the description of these units as I have not started building them yet.
On the workbench at the moment is now one of the Hornby horsebox's as described in MRJ 216. An easy conversion or so I thought. The one in the artical was converted to EM gauge and when the wheels were fitted the back of the brake blocks were pared back for clearance. So I thought as I model P4 I would just pare back a little bit more how wrong could I have been!!!! The brake yolks were scrapped as they were too short and the brake shoes were cut off and drilled for new uprights. Holes were drilled in the floor for the repositioned brakes. New yolks are now being made. I followed the artical for the modifications to the body and the shawplan glazing improves the model leaps and bounds the only issue I had with this was removing the old glazing. One side was held in place with a few dots of glue so very easy to remove. The otherside was a different kettle of fish the whole glazing unit was seamed glued in. Had to use a chisel blade to remove it. I hope the photos help.

Pete
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Shawplan glazing fitted to righthand horsebox.
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Underside mods at present. And making brake yolks.
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bogusman

Western Thunderer
Hi Dan
The other one is still untouched I only put it to the one I have reglazed. I hope to show the improvement with shawplan glazing. When I get round to it I will convert and renumber. Hope you liked the yolks.

Pete
 

bogusman

Western Thunderer
I am now approaching the finish post with the horsebox. All the parts that either fell off or broke have been refitted and screw coupling made. All that have to be do now is
1: fit rivets on body retaining blocks

2: fit vacuum pipes and steam pipes

3: repaint chassis and weather

Pete
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