7mm On Heather's Workbench - North Eastern interlude

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
also got to trudge across muddy fields doing survey work for the power lines

Ah, happy days! When I was working for a big civil engineers back in the early 1980s, they absorbed what was originally the South Eastern Road Construction Unit of the Department of Transport which had been working on the then uncompleted M25. Part of the office was dealing with the Surrey sections through Reigate and up to the M4. I was part of the team working on what was known as the Poyle to M4 section. Vivid memories of traipsing across a landfill site right under the Heathrow take-off flightpath doing surveying. When Concorde took off, you had to stop because of the noise, and it seemed so low down you felt you could reach up and touch it.

Once that project was under construction, we moved on to improvements on the A3 from Stag Hill A31 to Milford. If anyone has negotiated the bridge that takes the B3000 across the "new" dual carriageway at Compton, I was responsible for the alignment. The proper qualified engineers had been fretting for ages over this bridge. Their computer programs kept making it a skew across, and that meant vast sums of money. It seemed the programs weren’t able to align the bridge at right angles to the main road. I spent a lunchtime with the drawings and the minimum requirements for large vehicle turning circles, and actually managed to get the alignment at right angles. There was muted rejoicing in the office, but I still haven’t seen a plaque on the bridge in my honour!

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Mind you, it is tight. A couple of weeks ago I followed a large modern articulated lorry as the driver negotiated the junction. I was pleased that although it was obviously tight it wasn’t all that difficult. I always have visions of drivers of all sorts muttering about the tight turns I’ve lumbered them with!
 

3 LINK

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather,

Well to put your mind at rest, I have navigated those particular roundabouts many times over the years with many 40 foot fridge trailers and the occasional low loader carrying various plant machinery and have never thought it was that tight. The only exit that can be a challenge is coming off the A3 Northbound and taking the first exit towards the Hogs back.

Martyn.
 
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Passenger coach brake rigging done

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Meanwhile, back at the bench!

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Both passenger vehicles are now equipped with stopping equipment and footboards. I shall now review full brakes, though I suspect the underframes are much the same as the other coaches, with added albeit invisible to most people extra brake rodding from the guard's area.

I know we’ve been seeing biblical amounts of precipitation this year, but I have to say this particular set of Slater's coach wheels have a definitely increased propensity to rust. A little surface oxidisation can be expected, even after chemical blackening, but I’ve not seen anything this bad after simply sitting on the bench for a few days.
 
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Full brake pondering

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
My attention turns to titivating the full brake.

As far as I can tell, and I hope to be corrected if needs be, the underframe is identical to the standard 61ft 6in turnbuckle frames as used on the other two coaches I'm working on. So, the step boards and vacuum pipe arrangements will be the same as I've already done.

Mike was kind enough to send me some images off list last week. I have cropped one of them, a works photo of a full brake destined for the Flying Scotsman train. I hope Mike doesn't mind me reworking the image for the purposes of asking questions.

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First up, there's a nice extra step below the guard's door, presumably repeated on the other side. While this vehicle sports the original full length step boards, it is possible to make out on the original uncropped image the vac pipe runs on the ducket side of the coach.

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At the other end, as it were, there's an intriguing box hanging there by the dynamo. Does anyone have any idea what that might be, and whether it remained a fixture until the full brakes were withdrawn in the late 1960s?

While I leave those questions to be pondered, I shall get on and fit the steps and rearranged the brake rigging on the FB.
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
There are two electrical systems used by the LNER, Vickers and Stones. The Vickers system used a large spring to provide tension on the belt (which appear to be missing in this photo) and the Stones system used gravity. The photo appears to show the Vickers system in which case the extra box will probably be a regulator box which the Stones system does not use. The kit will no doubt be the Stones system. Note that there are only one set of battery boxes on full brakes which means the steam moisture trap is very visible.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Thanks Mike! Brilliant!

Looks like some surgery will be required to get rid of the extra cell boxes, and a steam pipe and trap inserted.
 
BG steps complete

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
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Well, that’s steps and vac pipe sorted. Again, the Bits Box provided for the extra steps under the guard's doors. The brackets are a bit too far apart, but I’m not telling anyone, and neither should you! ;) The second cell box came off eventually, after some careful prising with blunt instruments. Apart from the glue joint of several decades, nothing got broken.

I need to sort the vac connections to the cylinders, then I can think about making the steam pipe, vapour trap and the extra electrical box. Thanks to Mike - again - for pointers in that direction. My only worry is whether vans still had their original electrical gear at the end of their lives. It strikes me such things may have been ripe for replacement with the current (ha!) standard equipment at various times. Clear images, though, seem to be few and far between.

I have been giving a little thought to representative cabling for the dynamos. Just something to give the right impression, and to add to my favourite busyness in the gloom. Thinks are also being directed to the headstock detailing. I’m going to need to make up some buffer saddle stowage blocks, though I could just glue the saddles on the ends of the headstocks and be done. The dropped end of the BG will need dummy stowage blocks, though.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
While I set about making a nice scale steam trap and a box for unknown underframe electrical purposes, I am mentally preparing to read the Riot Act in the general direction of Suffolk. :mad:
 
BG frame detailing

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
That was, surprisingly, quite a lot of fun.

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Can you see it?

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How about now?

The steam pipe is 0.9mm brass rod, wrapped in masking tape to simulate the asbestos lagging. The steam trap is a reasonably close approximation to size and shape, filed from some 1mm black styrene with added brass wire to give the impression of the various nuts and bolts.

Now, time to tackle the box.
 
Dynamo wiring loom

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
On reflection, and a quick scan through photos, I’ve decided not to fit the extra electrical cabinet. One reason is the dynamo setup on the models is different. I think it represents the more common Stones system, and doesn’t have the tension spring. Well, actually, the kit dynamos have very little detail at all, but quite sufficient for dangling in the dark under a model coach.

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What I have done is twist up a quick loop of copper wire and glue it approximately in place to sort of give an impression of the wiring loom from the dynamo up into the frames and thence to the switchgear and battery boxes.

With that, and still no sign of anything coming from Kemilway (I spoke to an answerphone earlier, and I will charitably assume Mr D is away on a holiday rather than avoiding my calls), I’m calling the underframes finished. Time to get on with headstock and drawgear fitting.

Monday, I think. When I shall also call Mr D again. Plan B is to acquire the suitable 8ft bogie kit from MM1, and then claim my money back from the other party. It’s gone on long enough now, even allowing for all the usual hiccups we’ve been through this past 18 months and more.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
A packet arrived this morning. It contained the detail frets for the 8ft bogie.

We are getting there. I now have one bogie, two detail frets. Just need the other bogie and I can move on.

I guess I shall still need to hail Suffolk on Monday.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
I just need one fret of one bogie. It’s all I want from life. Once I have it I can move on and never bother Mr D again.

Instead, I get to hold a one-sided and brief chat with voicemail. :headbang:
 
BG end detailing

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Just to show I’m actually doing something, rather than fretting about missing bogie kits…

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A Kadee has been installed in one end of the BG. Obviously this entailed excising a portion of the headstock, but that wasn’t very hard. As I mentioned a while back, when doing a quick overview of the kit underframes, the moulding was designed with Kadees in mind.

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The other end has been furnished with a JLTRT dropped buckeye assembly. The next job is to fit some dangly bits, install the cast buffers and make them a bit bouncy. It should look nice and busy when I’m done - if I can find my energy and an extra bucket of enthusiasm.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Time fit some buffers. The end of the BG which will be used to attach to the hauling loco first.

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The kit parts are interesting. The later clipped round buffers are brass castings with a stem which goes into a cast shank. Another casting for the collar, or "saddle" in the LNER world, goes on. The instructions which I have are sadly incomplete, missing a diagram that’s referred to in the text. Happily, I remembered I’d seen some bits of bent steel wire that had been labelled as buffer springs, so it was a case of just sitting with all the bits and working out how they went together.

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Yes, I can see one buffer is wonky. Once the epoxy has set I will attempt to adjust it by tweaking the wire spring.

The rest of the buffers will be easier in that they don’t need collars or springs. Famous last words! I’ve also decided it’s not really worth the effort of adding the emergency coupling. For one thing, it won’t be easily visible most of the time. For another, I’m not sure I can make six identical ones, and just making one for the sprung buffer end is silly. It’s one of those lovely fiddly details I like to add, but would really suit being 3D printed or folded up from a flat etch or something. I will make the buffer saddle stowage blocks, though. You can see those.
 
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