7mm On Heather's Workbench - Multiple Maunsells

[Heather Kay]

Yay! All done bar the paint. I'm hoping I can find enthusiasm and energy to complete the other three pairs, but for now, these will do. On with the rest of the coach.



In fairly quick order, on my new sheet of plate glass, the floor and solebar halves have been assembled. I just checked, and in classic Slater's fashion the coach will actually fit back in its box - but not with buffers and gangways. Hmm. Anyway, I was hoping to crack on with this today, despite the weather and our cat being out of sorts (he's not actually ill, but something spooked him early this morning and it's taken a while to get him to feel settled again). However, my enthusiasm has diminished, as it occasionally does with some builds. I think it's the prospect of having to deal with more etched brass bits, plus…



… gaps in the solebar. I'm pretty sure that's not right. I noticed the problem before I glued the solebar in place, and opted to leave the gap in the middle. It will be easier to plug here than at the headstock ends. I also checked I hadn't missed something painfully obvious in the instructions. I seem to have followed them to the letter, so I'm not sure quite why there's a gap.

So, with the Mrs Mojo opting for time out, I think it's time for some further armchair modelling on these coaches. I would really like to pin down things like vac and steam pipe routing, as well as handbrake linkages under the floor. I'll also consider further details for battery boxes and other underframe fittings.

 

[Heather Kay]

After a couple of days' sabbatical from this, it's been slow progress. There are times, and this build is no exception, where I wonder why I agreed to take things on! The next stage is brake rigging, and if I'm brutally honest I'd rather do anything else right now!

Are there any good online resources that show these type of bogies without coaches on top? My Google-fu is somewhat lacking, as all my searches seem to end up with images filled with Hornby RTR 4mm things! What I'd like to find is a simple overview type photo that shows roughly what the bogies look like inside the frames. You see, foolishly, I'm considering a dynamo pulley if I can manage it. Ideas about which end goes where, and any mods to the end frames for the dynamo belt, as Steph did for his bogies, would be very handy. Sadly, my only reference reference book (King's Southern Coaches) is not a great deal of help with underparts.

Right, let's sort out the brake knitting. Deep breath!

 

[Heather Kay]

I keep telling myself "it's the journey". I'm not sure it helps.



The brake shoes are moulded in two halves. The first stage is to glue the halves together. I elected to do it while half the shoes were still in the sprue, as it made it a bit easier to handle and align things. Once they're properly set, each shoe has a hanging link fitted, which must be free to swing, and the wire trimmed back flush.



After some cursing and fiddling, this is as far as I've got today. Not a lot to show for it, frankly. I wish I could say I was enjoying these bogies, but I'm really not. It's not that they're hard work, it's just there's so much repetition and fiddling, plus filing and fettling. With the brake shoes fitted, and the yoke pull levers installed, I am contemplating further fittings to the yokes themselves, such as safety chains and so on. The wheelsets ought to be attacked with metal black, as it's not long before they will be fitted.

There is something that bothers me a little about the Slater's approach. Some parts of these bogies are carefully thought out and represent the real thing well. Others go off a bit half cock, such as the distinctly flat yokes. The real ones are flat trapezoidal things, with a round bar rod and attachment at the centre. Equally, the yoke attachments to the levers should be a forked trunnions... I'm sure I could concoct something suitable, but the law of diminishing returns thunders over the horizon! What's the point, when most will be lost in the gloom? So, I shall raid my chain store and see if I have something suitable for the safety side of things, which is visible after all, make up the flat bar safety loop on the inner ends, and be happy.

I must admit to a minor booboo. Before I was pointed to the detail photos, I made an assumption that the inner end beam of each bogie may have been cut out to clear the dynamo belt. I reasoned it wasn't always possible the same bogie would end up at the right end of an underframe. I was wrong. So, one of this current pair will migrate to the next coach I build!

 

[Heather Kay]

Wheels! At last!

If you've had the fortune to build earlier versions of these bogies, you will have found small etched horseshoe-shaped parts referred to as "hornblock guides". Their function, from what I can tell, is to allow machined brass hornblocks to fit between the axleguards and provide a peg for the springs to fit on. Well, you don't need them any more. New machined brass hornblocks are in the kit, with a small peg already in place, and which fit neatly between the axleguards with only a gentle pass of a fine file to remove cusps here and there. The hornblocks guides don't come anywhere near fitting the new hornblocks. I know this because I tried, then realised I didn't need them.

Of course, the instructions - at least, this booklet from this particular kit - still refers to the older setup. I shall report if other sets of instructions have been updated.

Anyway, even without springs, these bogies run really sweetly. That improved my overall mood with this build so far. I think the next thing ought to be a nice bath in some blackening fluid (not me, the bogies, obviously) followed by fitting the brake yokes and rods. I have some suitable chain which will come in handy for the safety gear.

 

[Heather Kay]

I think I'm going slightly mad…





The leaf springs and axleboxes are moulded styrene. The idea is a pair of plastic pegs are pushed through holes at the top of the axleguards, glued in place, then the spring mouldings are glued to them. This ensures the correct spacing from the bogie side frames. Happily, Slater's mould spare pegs, in case one heads for the carpet monster.



The pegs fitted. I ran a taper broach through each hole, just to clear the etch cusp.



I cleared each moulded hole on the springs with a 1.1mm drill, just to make sure the springs would pop over the pegs easily. The idea is each leaf spring meets the top of the J-hanger castings, but in practice, there's one corner where they don't. This was common to both bogies, so it wasn't just me being ham-fisted. It is possible to gently bring the casting over to the spring, but then it looks bent. I think I would have been much happier with the whole J-hanger and leaf spring thing being a single cast brass item. Hopefully, plenty of grunge will hide the small gap.



Making good on my threat to add safety chains, albeit only in the outer yokes. The yokes have etched holes, so I made a kind of split pin affair onto which a link of the chain was looped, then soldered into the yoke and cleaned up. The chain will, happily, hook onto the brake hanger wires inside the frames, and will be held by a drop of cyanoacrylate later.



Oh, that rigging! Everything is floppy, so you're juggling soot until you reach a certain point where it all comes together. I've temporarily refitted wheels to align the brake blocks and ensure the rest sort of sits in the right place while a quick dab of solder holds the wire pins in the main lever.



The other end done. I'm having a rest before doing it all over again with the second bogie!

Once the blocks are aligned properly, the whole shebang still runs really sweetly. If building to finescale, I suspect some adjustment of the bearing cups might be required to centre the axles and cut sideways sloppiness, but the new hornblocks setup means everything seems to be centred from the get-go. That's nice.

Deep breath, and on to the other bogie. Then, perhaps, getting them into a chemical bath, or perhaps it's me that needs the bath? Oh, I don't know any more! Cue Freddie*!




*Follow the U-choob link at the start of this post to understand.

 

[Heather Kay]

Reasonable progress today, despite diversions engineered by Microsoft and Best Beloved.



I patched the solebar gaps by gluing a strip of scrap styrene inside, then filling with suitable strip material at the front and making good. Not perfect, but it will do. I opted to use the kit's trusses (making brass section ones would be a relatively simple job, but not for me this time. Sorry Steph!). I deem the plastic ones adequate, and once assembled they're fairly rigid. One just has to be mindful when handling the underframe. Cleaning the beggars up, though, well, that's another ball of wax, ripe for accidental twanging and snappage. I have also installed the etched vee-hangers, which have since been reinforced with five-minute epoxy after some twit managed to bend a couple during further brake rigging work…



The outer vacuum reservoir saddle needs a gentle shaving to let the truss sit square. The styrene material used for the truss moulding is pretty flexible, but also vulnerable to breakage if you're not careful. I was a lot happier when they were finally cemented in place.



State of play by lunch on the second day. While the underframes are essentially ambidextrous, various parts have been fitted which pin down the orientation at this stage. There's a cross member this end opposite the vac reservoir, which is where the dynamo lives. The guard's van is the other end. This is important when the brake rigging is installed.



Speaking of rigging, this is the van end cylinder and cross-shaft. The shaft is brass tube, with brass wire through the centre to hold it in the vees. This is the end where the handbrake linkage attaches, hence the extra lever and, just visible, a fulcrum point.



A better view, showing the gubbins.



To finish the day I have been amusing myself by installing the strip material to make up the U-channel chassis members. It's one of those Slater's details that could quite easily be left out and no-one would notice. I find it a satisfying thing to do, so I'm doing it. Tomorrow, I suspect I shall have to begin the brake pull rod rigging. Oh, what fun.

 

[Heather Kay]

I call it brass knitting because there are small etched parts and lengths of wire which need to be stitched together to form the brake rigging.



The dynamo end rigging. The instructions show the pull rod that goes to the bogie gear pointing up into the floor. All photos of the real thing show, obviously, the rod runs horizontally. Equally obvious, perhaps, is fixing the rod horizontally at this stage would be horribly vulnerable to damage. What I've ended up doing is engineering these pull rods so they're not actually fixed at the cross shaft, but can still wobble about like the real thing. A strip of masking tape holds it down to the floor at the free end for now.

I've swapped out the 0.5mm wire for 0.7mm wire. Although the thinner stuff might be closer to the scale size, it does look very thin and spindly.

If I was being truly masochistic about this I'd be looking to actually attach the pull rods to the bogie brake levers. I'm not going to do that for all the obvious reasons!



This is the van end of things, with the handbrake linkage running from the end of the coach. It all looks satisfyingly complex.



Battery boxes. Slater's have this idiosyncrasy which annoys the heck out of me. They do it all the time, and I can't begin to fathom why. There are grab handles on the box covers. They're pretty prominent and visible. So, why mould piddly flat things instead of actual holes for wire handles? The same sort of thing happens at the coach ends with things like communication gear and lighting cables. Why? WHY‽ Why spoil the ship for a ha'peth of tar? It beats me, and makes extra work for me, too.



And breathe… oh, wait. Here's another thing. The battery box cradles: how do they fit? The boxes don't actually fit between the frames, and there's no positive attachment point anywhere. I made it work somehow, but it's something I shall consider carefully on the next three models.



There's more. The suspension bolts are represented by 0.5mm wire. There are holes in the cradle, but nothing to locate the wires on the floor. I've had to adjust everything by eye, and blob glue to hopefully hold things vertically. Poor show, Slater's, frankly, especially when you consider the thought put into other areas of these kits.

I'm done now. I promise not to rant about anything else underframe. I've still got the headstocks and actual bodywork to get worked up about, though.

 

[Heather Kay]

A brief hiatus, mainly due to domestic issues. Nothing serious, just enough to make me really not want to spend time at the bench. Anyhoo…



I finally made a start in the headstock detailing. As seems to be the fashion with this kit, it's a proper multimedia riot. Plastic headstocks, cast brass multipart buffers, etched details, and some very small bits of wire. It do look the part, though. In this piccie, you can see the brake end buffers, fitted with their working collars.



Underneath, it looks even more complicated! I'll explain the basic construction later, but Slater's have worked out a way to spring buffer heads both ways, to let them compress as well as be drawn forward to let the collars slip on and then have enough tension to hold said collars in place. Very neat, if fiddly and time consuming.



Here, I am compressing the buffer. The large spring deals with buffing forces.



Here, I am pulling the buffer head outwards, and you may just make out a smaller spring inside the larger spring, on the tail of the buffer head.




Here are the workings. The brass parts all need to nest inside each other and be a sliding fit. Being castings, it takes a while to file and fettle them so they work as expected. So, the head slides into the square ram, which fits inside the body. You will note, I've fitted a small wire hook to the body, which is where the chain attached to the collar goes, and the collar itself will hang when not in use.

I still have to resolve couplings, so I rather think some of the further detailing may have to wait for a response from the client. Being close to Christmas, and my client being one of the blessed not in thrall to the internet, snailmail will be slow. I could always phone him, I suppose. Anyway, only the outer ends of the rake will be fully detailed, which leads me to a question I may put to the WT megabrain.

I have four coaches in this set. I suspect I might find the answers in the reference material, but with the following vehicles, what would be a usual formation? The vehicles in question are Brake Composite, two Brake Thirds and a Composite. My guess, believing that Southern Region were fond of three coach sets, is Brake Third+Composite+Brake Third with the Brake Composite being attached as needed.

I am sure the client explained it to me some time ago, but I probably failed to note it down. Some book work is needed, then, to ascertain suitable running numbers and likely set numbers. All good fun! Perhaps I will start on some bodywork tomorrow.

 

[Heather Kay]

Athough the Southern had a penchant for 3 carriage sets, however - beware as BR remarshalled some into two and four carriage sets. This is where Gould's book becomes invaluable.

Indeed. This is why I should check with the client before I commit to anything. The chosen formation will also have a bearing on couplings and which sort I fit where, so most of the rest of the headstock detailing must wait.

I managed to contain my temper enough to fit the buffer collars today.



Intended outer (brake) end with collars holding the heads extended.



Intended inner end, with collars stowed.



I forgot to show the rather lovely two-piece brass cast dynamo before. Again, references let me down regarding safety chain and wiring, so I may have to revisit this before long. I've also been considering pulleys on the attendant bogies. I know. I am seeking professional help.

 

[Pencarrow]

Just had a quick look at the info I have on the Maunsell Coaches. All the Slaters kits are 9' wide / restriction 4 types of the first high-window variety (previous builds had lower height windows on the corridor side). The Slaters kit has alternate parts for the single vents above the lav window on early builds and the double vent on later builds - the window was the same. On this basis I think the coaches you can choose from are as follows:

6 Compartment Brake Second - Diag D2102/D2110
Note the only difference between the two diagram numbers relates to the internal door to the guards compartment. D2102 is hinged and D2110 sliding. Bizarre that this generated a different diagram number!

92 coaches fit the kit made by Slaters:
2754-2771 (18no / 1932 / 2 lav vents)
2793-2805 (13no / 1932 / 2 lav vents)
3732-3749 (18no / 1930 / 2 lav vents)
3750-3758 (9no / 1932 / 2 lav vents)
3771-3800 (30no / 1933 / 2 lav vents / D2110)
4083-4086 (4no / 1929 / 1 lav vent)

7 Compartment Composite - Diag 2301
60 coaches fit the kit made by Slaters:
5171-5172 (2no / 1929 / 1 lav vent)
5634-5651 (18no / 1930 / 1 lav vent)
5652-5691 (40no / 1932-33 / 2 lav vents)

6 Compartment Brake Composite - Diag D2401
62* coaches fit the kit made by Slaters:
6575-6604 (30no / 1929-30 / 1 lav vent)
6643-6674 (32no / 1930 / 1 lav vent)
*Total number confused by some renumbering

Hopefully this tallies with your own scribbled notes. Most of the above spent their lives either in sets or loose on the western section (ex LSWR), there are a few that wandered a bit more widely.

Set Numbers
A complex subject and none of the reference sources have the full history of all the set changes but the SEMG lists give the following appear to consist of the appropriate coaches from the above lists:
203 London to Weymouth
221, 222, 224 Waterloo to West of England
223, 232 Plymouth to Portsmoth
225-231, 387, 456 London Bognor Chichester
241-250, 327-330 Western Section Local Services
962 Eastern

Gould gives much more detail and identifies that a few more of these sets moved eastwards.
241-250, 237-330 are described as working Waterloo-Bournemouth-Weymouth services by 1951 but downgraded to local services by 1956.
241 moved to the central section for Oxted and Redhill services by late 1959 and was joined by 327 in 1962.

In the 1953 CWNs the allocations of the appropriate (to you) 3 coach sets were:
3-sets B 221-32, 387, 456, 962 London-Margate-Ramsgate-Dover-East Grinsted-Tunbridge Wells West-Brighton-Lewes-Eastbourne
3-sets M 203, 241-243, 245-250, 327-330 Waterloo-Bournemouth-Weymouth, Waterloo-Basingstoke-Salisbury, Waterloo-West of England

In 1956 3-set 330 was damaged in an accident at Bournemouth West.

By 1957 the vehicles from 3-set 223 were used in 9 coach set 455 and 3-set 456 was strengthened to 8 vehicles.

In 1959 the following 3-sets were withdrawn: 225, 243, 328 and the following disbanded: 221, 231.

In the 1960 CWNs the allocations of the appropriate (to you) 3 coach sets were:
3-sets M 242, 244-250, 327-329 Western section local services
3-sets T 203 Ramsgate-Hastings-Wolverhampton
3-sets T 222, 224, 226-230, 232, 241, 387, 962 London-East Grinsted-Forest Row-Tunbridge Wells West-Brighton-Eastbourne, Reading South-Readhill-Tonbridge

In 1961 the following 3-sets were withdrawn: 222, 224, 226-228, 456, 962

In the 1961 CWNs the allocations of the appropriate (to you) 3 coach sets were:
3-sets M 242, 244-250, 327-329 Western section local services
3-sets T 203, 229, 230, 232, 239, 241, 387 London-East Grinsted-Forest Row-Tunbridge Wells West-Brighton-Eastbourne, Reading South-Readhill-Tonbridge-Brighton-Horsham

In 1962 the remaining 3-sets were withdrawn: 203, 229, 230, 232, 241, 242, 244-250, 327, 329, 387.

Loose Brake Composites
Most of the D2401 coaches were allocated to sets but the following were loose at various stages:
6578, 6582, loose from 11/59
6588 loose from 6/62
6595 loose from 4/61
6598 loose from ?/62
6601, 6604, 6645, 6647, 6663, 6665, 6671 loose from 6/62
6643 loose from 4/61
6644, 6/61 loose from 6/61
6646, 6655* loose from 11/60
6661 loose from 6/60
6672 always loose
6673 loose from 2/61
*only in a set from 9/60 to 11/60

So 6655 and 6672 appear to be the best bet.

 

[Heather Kay]

Well, that year went by fast, didn’t it?

Now, where were we? Hmm, difficult one. I decided to spend a while reacquainting myself with the diagram 2401 high window brake composite I’d started all that time ago. The underframes are essentially complete, aside from some details hither and yon. The body sides had been joined together and tidied up, though no holes for handrails and whatnot drilled yet. The ends had been looked at, but no actual work done as yet to remove or update the moulded details. I finally learned which end of the coach had the brake end and which has the WC. I guess it wouldn’t hurt, then, to have a decko at the roof.



I checked and double-checked the ventilator locations for this coach, and drilled the roof halves to take the white metal castings. Then I joined the halves together. The WC tank filler and mushroom vent were fitted. The roof halves have the rain strip moulded in, but they don’t match at the join. I elected to trim back a section at the join area, and fit a styrene strip to make good. Time to consider the lower strip, then.

Slater's helpfully mould a fine line to help locate the strip material. To make sure I got it right, I consulted my references.



Well, it seems coaches had the double rain strips when built. This feature survived into the late 1940s and early 1950s, but generally seems to have been removed as coaches went through the works. By the 1960s, the period I’m aiming at, it seems a strip below the destination board brackets but a little higher than originally fitted was pretty standard. Bother. What’s that thing I keep banging on about knowing your prototype? Yeah, that.

Out with sharp implements and time was spent carefully carving, scraping and sanding off the moulded rain strip. A good job, then, I hadn’t fitted the vent castings at thus stage. On the next three, I’ll do this surgery before I join the halves and fit the WC gubbins.



As I mentioned, it looks like the lower strip was generally fitted slightly higher than the original one. It definitely appears to be closer to the board brackets. I found some 0.020in x 0.040in microstrip in my stocks, which seemed about right. Using the moulded fine line, I fitted the new strip above it, rather than below as Slater's suggest in their instructions.

During photo peering, it also became obvious the original WC tank filler arrangements were changed to be closer to the BR Mk1 coach style. This allowed filling to take place from track or platform level. This means I will need to modify the single handrail to a pair of rails/filler pipes either side of the end of the coach. It’s actually quite interesting how modifications to these 1930s coaches seemed to be influenced to a great extent by the new builds of the Mk1s going through the workshops.

Attention returns to the ends. I already plan to repurpose CPL alarm gear. I would dearly love to replace the moulded lighting connectors, but now JLTRT is no more, and Laurie doesn’t seem to be likely to stock detail castings any time soon, I’m a bit lost. Does Easy-Build have castings for these parts?

The other thing still exercising my brain cell is how to attach the roof. I would still like access to the interior after completion. I think Steph suggested building the body and roof as one so it can dropped over the underframes and interior. I guess I’ll need to build up the innards and see how that might be done.

Fun times.

 

[Heather Kay]

A number of images from the early 60s show double rain-strips retained

This is true. I didn’t do a scientific appraisal of my references, though the largest proportion seemed to only have the single strip. The set I’m working up has a two 6-compartment brake thirds, a 7-compartment compo, plus the brake compo I’m doing at the moment. I think, but will need to check my records, that a three-car set of brake compo+compo+brake third is intended, with the other brake third as an extra. As far as modifications, we’ve already settled that the WCs are as Mr Maunsell intended, rather than moved further out as happened on some coaches in the 1950s (to fit BR standard lavatory components, I believe).



I seem to have accidentally ended up doing as Slater's intended. Magnets might be deployed for the roof fixing. Still pondering that.



I had a notion that I could construct the compartments on the bench, and slot them into the body once detailed and painted.

As ever, like a lot of builds, it all suddenly starts to come together rather quickly. It tends to catch me unawares!

 

[Heather Kay]

Chris, Steph Dale also recommended replacing the plastic trusses. I haven’t done it because I felt the kit parts were actually okay, but I’m beginning to think I may be wrong on that score. Nothing has broken - yet - but I ought not tempt fate. I’ll sort out sizes and get an order in to Mr Metalsmith.

Meanwhile, after a day of domestic doings, I looked at the Pullman gangways .



I like. I cleaned up the etched parts and let them steep in a bath of dilute Birchwood Casey for a time. Some faces got a better blackening than others, but there’s enough there for paint to cover. The concertina parts are folded from pre-scored black craft paper, and I’ve used impact adhesive to glue them to the brass. I have to say, having sampled three other manufacturers' attempts at this style of gangway, Slater's win for looks, functionality and simplicity. Of course, the ultimate prize goes to MMP, although they’re not exactly simple to put together.



Right, insideses. Fairly standard Slater's fare. At this stage, nothing is fixed in the body. I want to paint and detail before it goes in. That course of action has led me down some rabbit holes, as I’d like to do a nice job of the innards. I’ve been reading King's "Illustrated History" volume, but found precious little that covers the interiors.

There is, of course, the Southern Railway E-Group web site, which yields some useful, if small, images of Maunsell Coaches. Digging a little further, I found the Bluebell Railway's section on Carriages: Technical Page - Moquettes. A little more digging, and I turned up a fellow by the name of Dave Clarke, who is rather keen on railway fabrics: Moquette | Flickr. I wonder if he also plays jazz piano…

All of this led me to wonder if it would be feasible to use images like those linked to create transfers to apply to the seating. Making a tiled image ought not be major hurdle, getting the scale about right is quite possible, and it would certainly make the interiors of these coaches look rather splendid. The problem I have at the moment is pinning down quite which patterns were likely for the period up to the late 1950s and into the 1960s.

I also wonder if I would be correct in assuming coaches which lived as sets of three went through works as sets and therefore saw the same upholstery patterns.

So much to learn!

I am still waiting on the lighting connectors to turn up, so I have decided not to work on any further end detailing at this stage. While I work out interior colours and details, I think it might be fun to start construction on another set of bogies. That will keep me occupied for a day or three.

 

[Heather Kay]

How old is your kit Heather and have you fully checked the box contents?

That would explain it. This particular one is one of the old red boxes.



This, frankly, is an abomination.



This one as well.

I’ll have to check the other boxes, and then get onto Mr White. Kettering isn’t far off now.

I’m going to have a little sulk, and perhaps rage into Storm Erik to calm me down.

EDIT: Etched duckets in the new boxings. Part number X7C02304. I’ll get a fret ordered up.

 

[Heather Kay]

A new week, and on with the motley.

The CRT lighting connectors arrived on Saturday, so there was no real excuse not to get on with the ends. Yes, I know, I’m supposed to have detailed the ends before sticking them to the sides. Next time, I’ll do that, but I get impatient.



First up, here’s an end. As The Navy Lark's Sub-Lieutenant Philips might say "Ooh, nasty!" I hope it’s just this particular copy of this particular kit, but the ends are susceptible to the styrene delaminating. Even being ever so careful with sharp implements I found shards of plastic coming away. I took the precaution of flooding the worst affected areas with some solvent and let it dry. I sincerely hope the next one I start is not similarly blighted.



Anyway, here’s a gangway pegged in place to assess the cast connectors. They’re about three or four millimetres too long. I pondered options, and figured the easiest way out was to subtly shift the mounting point up a millimetre on the coach end.
I plugged the holes I’d drilled previously with some Evergreen rod, and drilled new holes. Then I set about the alarm gear. I’ve chosen one of the CPL brass casting sets. Although strictly speaking not quite correct for these coaches, with a little careful adjustment they look okay.



Well, I don’t think that looks too bad. You can see the minor surgery required to the alarm gear to fit the Pullman style gangway - essentially, chopping the upper crossshaft out entirely, as it passes through the mounting plate on the real thing. The pencil line you can see traces the upper edge of the gangway plate. I still have to fit the upper step brackets, and figure out how I’m going to fit brackets for the filler pipe/handrails these coaches ended their lives with. I may just go ahead and install the various steps and whatnot at the brake end before I worry about handrails.

Onwards!

 

[Heather Kay]

Duckets, then. If you’ve ploughed through the thread, you’ll recall I had a bit of a to-do with the plastic duckets in the kit. I had failed to realise I had selected the oldest kit in the set, which was before Slater's saw sense and provided etched duckets. The other brake kits have the brass bits, so I had acquired a suitable etch from the maker for the older one.



Soldering iron deployed. Much better.



That’s much better. I’ll get those glue in and the edges filled. What’s next? Hmm, not sure.

 

[Heather Kay]

Staggering, blinking and bleary, into the cold dawn of just over a year later…

It is time to survey the wreckage or, more correctly, take everything off the shelf and review where I got to. This may take a while.

 

[Heather Kay]

The derailment issue only affects the first Brake Third I built. I think the bogie at the WC end needs some attention to ride. Meanwhile, I’ve cleaned up and assembled the sides and roof for the current Brake Third.

 

[Heather Kay]

*wibble*

It has been suggested I should document building these bogie kits. I did cover some aspects right at the start of this thread, but I appeared to skip some stages. If it’s of interest to a wider audience, I will try to document in more detail putting together the final pair of this build. That said, if you follow the instructions from Slater's, you won’t go much wrong. The hardest bit, really, is working out how to form some of the folds.

Anyway, I’ve managed to get both basic bogie frames together, cleaned up all the castings and made a start on the etched parts for the bolsters. I dug out my little jig to aid bolster soldering, and in the time between the last build and this one it’s been altered so it doesn’t work. It wasn’t me.

 

[Heather Kay]

You know already, but in case you missed it I’ve started a thread on building the Slater's etched brass bogie kits over in the Workshop section.

The idea is not to clutter this thread, but also to leave a standalone thread that may prove of use to other builders.

Coach construction will resume in due course.