More North Eastern Wagons

[Rambler]

Fret 6 arrives in the Post
Over the past umpteen years I've been developing wagon suspension units for (mostly) North Eastern wagons. This started as part of the development of kits for Diagram P4 hopper wagons but has acquired a life of its own - development of the P4 kits is still ongoing but is progressing slowly. I've just got my sixth fret back from PPD and couldn't resist the urge to post a picture - prudence says that I should do a test build first but I suppose I can post updates as the test build progresses, and maybe cause some amusement if it all goes pear-shaped.



The fret has three each of the early and late type of NER w-iron, and all are 9' 6" wheelbase (which was the most common).

Incidentally, the cost of getting this etched by PPD and delivered by Royal Mail was £66, which is very good value. I guess this is made possible by the use of digital artwork - when I was doing LNWR coaches in 4mm in the 1990s it cost over £100 to get pen-plotted artwork converted into a photo-etch tool, but that required the skill of Phil and his very expensive camera.

...to be continued.

 

[Rambler]

Test Building
(In which the total modelling output of three weeks is condensed into one post)

I started by removing the main parts for one underframe from a fret. Even if this is a test build I like to be able to use it on a model - the one that I have in mind for this has a 10'6" wheelbase so I split the floor-pan along the half-etched lines put in for that purpose.


For reasons that I now can't remember, I'd folded over the bottom of the bearing carriers before I took this photo.

I added the straps at the bottom of the axleguards (pinned with 0.6mm wire) and folded over the bearing retaining straps. For retaining the bearings there are three options on the fret - little tags (like Exactoscale), a fold up strap, or slotted plates that represent the flange of the axlebox. I don't know which is best, only time will tell.


When its all folded up and soldered up it looks like this:





This photo shows how the suspension is fitted. The slot at the bottom of the bearing carrier engages on the length of 0.8mm rod that comes through the tab. A spring is located in the holes in the ends of the bearing carrier and bears on the protruding rod. There's not massive clearance between the rods and the wheel but there is enough.


Methinks I need a photo with a spring in it!

NB: The material is 0.4mm nickel silver - it only looks like brass when it as photographed under artificial light. The earlier pictures where taken with the camera flash and they show the true colour; I think its a bit fierce so I've not used it for the later photos.

 

[john lewsey]

They look superb

 

[Rambler]

John, thanks for the complement.

A nice sunny day (for November) enabled me to get a reasonable photo showing how/where the spring fits. It a bit of steel wire bent into an L shape, with the short leg trapped against the bit of the "solebar" that's folded inwards.

 

[Rambler]

Round field Engineering Dropside Wagon, Diagram B1

Fitting door-retaining chains is this weekends chore.. The damn things start on the side and loop round to the end so the cast-on representation inevitably has a break in it (assuming you can get them to line up), so I've removed the chain and replaced it with bits fashioned from multi-strand electrical wire.


Top view


Bottom View. Its got an early version of my NER wagon under-frame. The break-gear uses the kit brake shoes with push-rods made from NS strip.


Corner View. This was the first one I did - the others have the chain looped over the ring (Sods Law says you photo the worst example).

Note : To get the depth of field I took this at F32 with a half second exposure, using a tripod and remote control. Its a lot easier to do this with a digital camera as you can immediately see whether you've got the right settings.