Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[Atlantic 3279]

Sometime since this thread had an update

Like many I suffered a bit of a mojo loss recently so I decided to take a short break from loco building to tackle a couple of wagons in the hope that the enthusiasm was rekindled.

I did wonder if it was just me when the combination of short, gloomy, cold, wet winter days, the apres-Christmas anti-climax, and the banning of travel and contact once again finally started to dull my enthusiasm, which had been fairly buoyant through the summer and autumn of 2020. I feel things are showing signs of improvement again now. Fingers crossed.

There doesn't seem to be a lot to a diamond frame bogie, even in big scale. Is there more to add?

[Robpulham]

Good Morning and thank you for more inspirational modelling.
Is it a Dia. G7 van that you are building, and if so have you found material indicating that they were used as Road Vans?

Hi Caroline,

Yes it's the Diagram G7 van. To answer your second question, sort of.

Dan describes it as a "NER Bogie Road Van 25 ton Diagram G7"

Peter Tatlow in volume 2 of LNER Wagons describes Road Vans as having two doors per side as opposed to the single door of Tranship Vans but whether this only relates to the four wheeled vans I don't know. Not conclusive by any means especially as the LNER describes them only as 25 ton Covered Goods (taken from a GA).

[Robpulham]

There doesn't seem to be a lot to a diamond frame bogie, even in big scale. Is there more to add?

Hi Graeme,

I agree, and the kit doesn't provide any more, checking the GA it shows a little more in the way of linkages between the brake shoes but not much else which like you did surprise me.

When I get to building mine, I may attempt to add the additional linkages but to be honest I doubt that much will be seen from the side despite them being open framed.

[jwealleans]

I believe that these went into general goods use fairly quickly under the LNER. There's a picture of one in an up goods train at Grantham (possibly in the Cawston book) and there is also one in one of the goods trains on Pendon.

[drmditch]

Thank you. North Eastern Record No.1 doesn't call them Road Vans. There is a good article in one edition of 'North Eastern Express', and I will try to find it if you haven't seen it. (It has 7mm scale drawings as well!)

The problem of browsing through the Express volumes is that it is very easy to get distracted!.

If they were intended as road vans it is difficult to see why they were Westinghouse piped but Vacuum braked.

EDIT
This got stuck in my mind, so I have sacrificed/spent 20 minutes usefully looking this up (and only had to put aside three other volumes for current/future projects).

North Eastern Express, Volume 46, No.187. August 2007 Page 92.
Article by Richard Lacey (and others.)
He suggests that these vehicles were influenced by Wilson Worsdell's American experiences of bogie 'box cars'.
'They were intended for cased and box loads that were not suitable for transport in open wagons between important centres at longer distances using higher speeds.'
'They (the first two) were presumably judged suitable for the intended task and a further 98 were produced between July 1907 and February 1908'

78 survived until Nationalisation.
If you like I can scan the drawings (for private study only of course!)

If I do that however, I may demand reciprocity in the form of any information/details that you happen to have of NER 6 wheel passenger-carrying underframes! My current project is a Dia.85 Officer's/Inspection saloon, and underframe details are difficult to determine.
There is a similar Type B under restoration at Alnwick, but I suspect I am not going to be able to get there just yet!

[Robpulham]

Hi Caroline,

That makes sense and ties in with the similar if somewhat scanty info provided in the historical notes in the instructions. I have to confess as to not really knowing what the term "Road Van" meant in practice.

I would appreciate the drawings, you can never have too many drawings. I will struggle to offer reciprocal info on any type of NER coaching stock as I have very little in that department. If you ever need anything on GNR 6 wheeled coaches I can probably assist as I have a folder full of info on those.

[Robpulham]

Before going any further I took the time to detail the sides while they were flat. One of the features that I love about many North Eastern Railway vans is the doors and their variations of the locking mechanisms.

Much of this detail is provided in the etches and I only added the locking rods and some thin half etched strip to create the staples that the locking rods and lower locking bar fit into.







Once the various grab handles and pins for the drop doors were added they were ready for fitting.

[Robpulham]

When I got my office and workshop completed last year I placed most of my shelf queens on the window sill in full view so that they are a constant reminder that they need finishing.

One of those is quite a blast from the past, those with long memories will remember my building this NER V4 brake van back in 2017. I got so far with it and for some reason as sometimes happens, it was popped on one side.

With the bit between my teeth, on Friday evening I picked it up and realised that all it needed to complete it was the fitting of the brake gear, guard irons and couplings. I am pleased to say that I knew exactly where the missing bits for it were and a couple of hours last night saw it complete.





It does need a good scrub before it gets painted but it's now ready for a blast of primer when I do the road van.

[Robpulham]

Moving rapidly on with the Road van body, the instructions suggest that you fit the ends first and once I filed of an offending etching cusp, the ends fit nicely.

My recently acquired RSU has come into its own on this build. Using it allows me to use the probe to hold pieces in place while tacking them. After tinning the edges of the ends, sides and the fold down on the floor pan, tacking it together with the RSU became a breeze. I ran the microflame gently down the joints to join up the dots and hey presto.





It may just be me but it seemed so much easier than my previous efforts with van bodies. In fairness, the kit is well designed and that helps too.

[jwealleans]

When it's done, Rob, can we see it with your L & Y van? I have a feeling they're all but identical.

[Robpulham]

When it's done, Rob, can we see it with your L & Y van? I have a feeling they're all but identical.

I am sure that can be arranged Jonathan

[Robpulham]

Almost before adding much more under frame detail I couldn’t resist trying the bogies underneath it for an idea of how the finished van would look.



The outer truss rods are quite interesting on that they have two rod one on the outside and the second on the inside of the solebar. The instructions have you add these in two pieces I did them in one with a square U bending in the middle. This proved a bit tricky to get sitting right on the front face and I suspect that doing it in two pieces wouldn’t have proved equally tricky.

[Robpulham]

Another two even longer term inhabitants of the work bench from four years ago are two Connoisseur V1/3 Birdcage Brake vans. on a bit of a roll with the V4 I looked at the other two and found that the only things missing from them was buffers.

The reason that I hadn't finished them initially was because I had read On the late Raymond Walley's blog that he had replaced the solid buffers supplied with some sprung ones from NMRS. I subsequently bought some from the late Graham Jones at a show.

Fortunately despite not touching them or the V4 van since 2017 I knew exactly where the replacement buffers were so dug them out and soldered on the buffer shanks and then when I went to fit the heads/springs etc. I found that there wasn't any room for them or indeed access to get the nuts on and tightened.

It is possible to fit sprung buffers, but you need to plan for it and fit them much earlier in the build. In order for them to fit and be able to spring them you need to remove some of the base of the W Iron/spring casting prior to fitting it and adding the wheels brakes etc..

In the end I spent another half an hour removing them and fitting the solid buffers.

Here they are scrubbed up and awaiting paint.









Not wishing to waste a good scrubbing, we had a warm dry day here in North Yorkshire today so I popped out and squirted them and the V4 with etch primer.

[Robpulham]

I forgot to add in the last post that the Couplings, vac and Westinghouse pipes are Laurie Griffin.

The kit comes with nice cast brake cylinders which have cast on mounting brackets. The odd thing is that they come with a separate domed end but you can't fit them unless you make the mounting brackets longer. I elected to file them off and replace them with brass strip. This makes them sit a bit lower and I had to put a slight bend in the brake rods to get them to pass over the cylinder.





With it being quite a long van, I added some supports for the middle of the roof from scrap etch.

[jwealleans]

You may not be there yet, Rob, but the last one of these I built (which was a commission) had three or four plates on the lower bodysides. One was clearly the builders plate, but there was a curved one over the handbrake wheel and a couple of others which I forget the details of. Sadly I forgot to photograph it until I delivered it and the picture I took is very dark and indistinct. I worked from one of the photos in New Tatlow 2, which I'm sure you'll have to hand.