LBSCR Horsebox C1856

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
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While waiting for the MecPac to properly dry on the break van, I thought that I'd turn my thoughts to this little project. They were 7' 9" wide x 10' 10" long over buffer beams and covered with square nuts and square washer plates. Whereas, I won't even think about making square nuts for the straps et al, I am thinking about using them on the sole plates.

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This shows about seven per corner and as I intend making 2 horse boxes, this would mean making at least 56, not too bad.

The example below is made from a length of 1.5mm square brass tube threaded 14BA and parted off at .030", which scale scales up to .678" thick. Measuring off the drawing, the square nuts come out at about 1 1/2" square. Does anyone know what sort of thickness a square nut of this size should/could be? When it comes to the strap hinges, I shall use 16BA on those.

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Just for comparison, the 14BA machine screw is 3/8" long.

Jon
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I've been out of commission for a while but, I'm back now. I've made a start on the hangers and springs for the two horseboxes. In the bottom right can be seen two front hangers bent and cleaned up with two others waiting for the same treatment. With these front hangers, I formed the eye and silver soldered the overlap. This meant that the hanger wouldn't distort in the bending process. The overlap gave me enough material to file to shape/reduce the edge of the overlap to mimic a blacksmith made and forge welded hanger. There's more work to carry out on this group before they will be ready to mount. The white metal springs are some of Mike Williams' that I've altered slightly to represent the springs on a horsebox shown in a photograph.
I made a bit of a faux pas on the four headstocks and these I'll have to remake before I can make up the underframes and fit the springs et al.
I've asked Mark Woods to make up two sets of Wharton wheels for me but these won't be ready until the summer. Still, lots of other things to keep me busy and the grass will be growing soon.

Jon

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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I've started putting together the underframes of the two horseboxes. Not much to see really but a jig to hold all square which includes a MS spacer bar to keep the sole bar the correct distance from the end of the buffer beam. The rebate in the top of the beam is to house the lower edge of the first end board, if you see what I mean. The drawing shows the top of the sole bar 2" below the top of the buffer beam, the 2" being the thickness of the flloorboards which will finish level with the top of the buffer beam. The vertical corner posts are rebated too and I'll be having a go at those when the time comes.

Jon

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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
More pieces added to the under frames. I made a bit of a mess with the springs which means that both of the horseboxes will sit low. The cure would be to make new springs for both but, I'm afraid that I chickened out of that one. When the boxes are complete, it may not notice.....too much. The loose pieces in the foreground are the corner posts each with it's first rebate. This rebate faces the inside and will take the lower boards. There will be another rebate above this one which faces outwards and takes the upper boards. The axle guards are fixed with 14BA brass cheese head screws with square nuts on square washers.

Jon


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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I've started making up the end walls/panels for theses horse boxes. I glued in an extra piece of wood onto the jig that I used to make up the under frames in order to keep everything square and keep the uprights/corner posts at the correct distance apart. Making up the ends is an easy, if slow, process as, I have to wait until all is cured before going on to the next task. I don't want to run the risk of removing a component from the jig when the styrene is still soft from the application of the mek-pak. I'm using the little plane to clean up the edges of the board in-fill panels and it is a joy to use. Andy B put me onto it, he uses one for his modelling.
I did wonder to myself why I was going to all of the trouble to machine out the rebates but now, as I've started to assemble the ends, I'm glad that I did.
I keep giving sideways glances at the cruciform bracing on the drawing of the horse box sides and wonder how I'm going to cut those angles accurately. Maybe, I'll get I'll get one of those Eureka moments but it hasn't come to me yet :)

Jon

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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
P.S. In the first picture, it's just possible to see a small gap beneath the corner posts which makes the boarding show up as a downstand. When the time comes, this downstand will fit into a rebate that has been worked on the inner face of the buffer beam.

Jon
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
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The Horse boxes so far. I find it very difficult to photograph the models when they are simply plain white styrene, the camera doesn't like it.
It was a time consuming task but, i think that all of the rebating has paid off. The next item on the agenda will be the lower doors including all of the strap hinges. The upper doors have that cross framing and will have to be made separately.

Jon
 

AndyB

Western Thunderer
I keep giving sideways glances at the cruciform bracing on the drawing of the horse box sides and wonder how I'm going to cut those angles accurately. Maybe, I'll get I'll get one of those Eureka moments but it hasn't come to me yet :)
Hi Jon,
For the diagonals on my Tony Riley Midland covered goods (which have to be shaped from timber 'sticks'), I use the Veritas plane on a makeshift shooting board with a simple angle jig made from a triangle of scrap ply.
Let me know if you need a picture.
Andy
 

AndyB

Western Thunderer
Andy
That sounds a good idea, Yes, please, a picture would really help.

Thank you
Jon
Finished door:
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Shooting board made from a piece of scrap ply, just thicker than the distance from the side of the plane to the blade with a fixed fence glued to the base at 90 degrees. Angle template to suit the angle of the diagonals and turned over / around to use the 2 different points as needed.
Workpiece held against the template and 'fed' along it for each successive cut.
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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Back in the saddle again.
Here are two of the sides complete with strap hinges all held in place with 16BA screws and nuts.
It was a bit of a fiddle soldering on those barrels and then fitting the hinge pin ala LBSCR. Only another 24 to go as I'm building two horse boxes, can't remember why though. The first barrels, I tried silver soldering but that just annealed the nickle making it very bendy. I reverted to soft soldering and that worked out okay.

Jon

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Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Andy B
I forgot to say, what an excellent job you've made of the angles on that door, not a bit bit of daylight visible at all. Not sure that mine will come out as good but, never say never.

Jon
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
The Wharton wheels have arrived and here are a pair part machined. The others are at this stage, eight in all. I'll chuck them face out and turn the rims and ream for the the axles on the same setting. I'm not 100% sure of what's happening re the large holes. Obviously a tapered(?) screw passes through the rim and exiting in the hole which looks as if there could be a nut on the end (lift of the shoulders). The other part that is missing and that was difficult to cast is the nut and bolt that tensions the wedge. I'm thinking of gluing on a 16BA nut threaded onto a short piece of thread. The only thing that I can think of using is Superglue but I'm not sure if this will hold. Any ideas?
I've been slowly fixing the lower sides in place, shown above. These have moved a bit and so, I'm aligning one corner and gluing it. When it's set, I move onto another corner of the same end and when that is set, I run some Mecpac along the inside before moving onto the next stage end. Once all of that is complete, I'll turn my attention to the top opening doors.

Jon

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