West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Were I the proprietor of an RSU, I probably would. In this case, though, it's less messy gluing them.

On the last two I did, Dan etched a hole in the centre of the strapping and also in the centre of the side, so you could thread a bit of wire through and make sure it was in the right place. You could also flood solder through from the back that way, which was what I did. Here there are some bits round the doors where I may be able to do the same but in the main it'll be glue. The last one I did turned out nicely done that way.

[jwealleans]

the oil pots and pipes.

?

I don't have a decent photo handy, but that doesn't ring any bells. The last one I did I remember adding various worksplates and the on-off plate above the handbrake wheel, but not any pipes.

[Dave]

Did I not send you the GA ?

[jwealleans]

If you did, it's slipped my mind. I'll have a look when I get home.

Are they visible in 1:76 from 3 feet?

[Dave]

Oh ye of little faith....of course they are, if you can see the strapping you can see them, 2 each side. Let me know and I will send it to you if you don't have it.

[jwealleans]

Oh ye of little faith....of course they are

What, like that wine tank?

[Dave]

[jwealleans]

Right, we're about there. No oil pots - they were on the prototype only, if the photos in Tatlow tell the true story. I didn't find a GA, either.



Roof needs to be attached and detailed, bit of general cleaning up and it's into Red Oxide with it. I've added the works plates and the curved one over the handbrake wheel, they aren't in the kit. Curiously there are no coupling plates either, so I'll have to find some of those.

[LNER4479]

That is just exquisite

[Dave]

Not necessarily so, yes, they were on one of the prototypes, as there is a photo showing then along with the central window, but there is also a photo of 106310 (production batch) which was one of the ones I think allocated to York originally, with oil pots. Of course they may have been removed in later years, All the drawings I've seen show them as fitted. I will finish both mine, one with, one without .
Some wagons also lost their stirrup steps and got J steps, as ever a minefield.

[jwealleans]

J steps on all the later photos I've seen. Both are provided in the kit and in this case there was a specific instruction from the customer.

[drmditch]

Excellent!
May I ask if it possible to get more views of the trussing rods and the plate crossbeams?

Are you going to fit roof doors?

I found a picture of one of these vehicles with one roof door only. I'll see if I can find it again.

[jwealleans]

I'll do a photo of the underside when it's in primer, David, be much easier to see everything. There will be roof doors of the lath and canvas type as on the previous pair of vans. Roof is now on and the sliders fitted. One of them has not cast properly so I may ditch that and make up my own from Evergreen strip.



Continuing the NER theme but back to my own stock for Grantham, a 4 wheel CCT. Someone pointed out (on this very forum, I believe) that one of these ran regularly in the Scotch Goods in the 1930s. It is visible in a number of photographs I've seen, so we shall be having one. I've had the kit, by Roger Chivers, for a long time via Ebay and it went together pretty much completely on Friday night. It's a nice little thing and like most of that range, it's a shame they're not presently available.



Today has been finishing and detailing. Roger may like to comment on the kit if he looks in, but I've replaced most of the castings. The axleboxes are 51L NER wagon boxes mounted upside down. The springs are from the kit. The buffers are also NER wagon ones - the supplied ones were cut down in the same manner as the bogie CCTs and these vans had smaller, round buffers. Brake bits from the Mainly Trains etch and bits of wire.



On the end I've added latching to the end door, lamp irons, bottom door bumpers and the vac and steam heat pipes. There was no roof in the kit so one has been made and is curing.

Finally I found some GN axleboxes while looking for something for the CCT so I added them to the GNSR brake van.



The springs should be on J hangers, but I had to really scrutinise the photos to see that and I reckon with the stepboards on and painted black it'll be very hard to tell, so I left them as they were. This only needs buffers sourcing now and it can be finished off.

[jwealleans]

Bit of a stock fettling session on Grantham today: just a couple of shots of recent workbench items:

Conflats heading south from Aberdeen or somewhere similar.



4 wheel CCT, now with roof, being tested in the same train.

[jwealleans]

I know we all like NPCCS, so here's a train we were working on on Grantham this weekend. Photos by Graham Nicholas.

Here an overall view of the train, which was an evening working from King's Cross to Holgate Sidings, York, I believe. Parcels and ECS. It stopped at Grantham to change locos and allow some of the northbound streamliners to overtake.



We wanted to record the consist as this formation ran without derailing, while the combination I'd put together at Grantham did struggle through some of the older PECO slips.



From the loco: Hornby LMS horsebox (a quick and dirty way to get a Kadee onto the front of the train), MSE LMS horsebox (not sure who has this kit now), Kirk 51' Gresley BG, D & S GCR CCT (now available from the GCRS), D & S GNR Luggage Brake, D & S LNER 32' General Van.



Roger Chivers NER high roof CCT, D & S LNER pigeon van, MicroRail Midland CCT (available from David Geen), 2 D & S GNR horseboxes, D & S GER 32' CCT, D & S GNR 32'6" Luggage Brake.