West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Give that man a coconut, Grandma!

It was the arrival of a packet of castings which prompted action and you're right, we're well overdue something from that quarter.

I'm quite busy this week and then playing trains at Hartlepool (anyone coming?) so it'll be a while before I can present it to you with its upperworks on.

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm now interested to see whether it finishes up on heavy banking duties, tripping heavy timber loads from the dockside, or hauling a coastal gun train . The latter would presumably provide you with some novel wagons to build?

[65447]

In the immortal words of Dame Edna Everage, "Can you tell what it is yet?"

Don't let Rolf Harris know you said that...

[jwealleans]

Either side of my weekend in Hartlepool I've been back on the road for a few days so it was back to the plastic. The first of the conflats has been loaded up and readied for the road:



Bit of an interloper here but an attractive prototype and not a bad kit to build, the Cambrian C87 LMS fish van. The corners took a bit of tidying up and I can see an excess of putty where I filled the hole round the door handle (I used thinner wire than supplied) but overall it went together very well. I've replaced the buffers and roof vents with cast items, apart from that it's as it came.



Lastly a pair of Parkside fish vans cut down to the 10' wheelbase version. This was fairly straightforward and once painted you'll have to look hard to see the join. It should be fairly obvious here where the cuts go. I eventually worked out that the best thing to do is shorten the floor, attach the ends and then assemble the outer extremities of the sides to them. The location is very positive on these kits and you end up with a solid and square shell to which you can cut and shape your centre piece. This is all then reinforced with plastikard on the inside once attached.

The solebar has two plates in the middle which very handily mark where you need to cut. You do need to remove some of the floor ribs which are now in the way of the brake shoes and I've used brake linkages from other Parkside kits rather than cut down the ones supplied. Buffer heads are also 51L steel ones.

[Atlantic 3279]

Pleasing to see some more shortened fish vans. When I did much the same thing I believe I shortened my floor by cutting a piece out of the middle, so that all of the clearances and locating points for wheels, brakes etc. moved to the correct new positions. A good glue bond, with or without a reinforcing strip of plastic (or metal for weight) on top of the floor, combined with the bracing effect of the sides, resulted in a strong finished vehicle.

I think I arrived at a slightly different choice regarding the cutting lines in the right half of each side - but no matter how you do it, if you only make straight, vertical cuts down the plank lines, you cannot save simultaneously the door stops, the full length of the top door runner, and the original little door-bottom guide "clips" .

[jwealleans]

I imagine there are all sorts of ways to skin this particular cat - with what I had with me in my hotel room it was easier to cut the ends off the floor. You're right about the bottom door runners, which I've replaced here as you can see, although I'm not convinced by the Parkside shape anyway TBH. Door top runner does indeed need to be extended and the stops go nearer the end of the body. There's still a little more brake gear to apply as well and then these are done - a very straightforward conversion, in fact.

It did occur to me you could use the floor and undergear from a 10' WB fitted van kit, but I'm not clear about what you could then usefully do with what's left, other than perhaps a conversion to an unfitted one.

[IAK]

Already have and sorted mon...
And I have plans for a veritable frankenstein - resin and brass ahem...
Well all those Bradwell spare bits need a home

Ah ha... The bits are here!
Let the alchemy begin....... ?
See what you have started mon?

The Fish Vans look interesting mind; having a Cambrian to play with one's comment ring true about the holes...

[jwealleans]

Ah, glad you managed to make contact. Mine may well be lettered this weekend. The fish van conversion is very straightforward and I don't know why I didn't think of it before someone pointed it out to me. I hope to have those ready to run by Monday so I can do some haulage trials and check the loco will still pull the complete train!

[cthompson]

This is how my felines are losing their fur. Pretty much as Atlantic described I suspect. I couldn't save the door stops so had to make new ones otherwise everything, door runner included, falls into place nicely.

Do I take it that you've found the number series for these vans Jonathan? Or does lettering mean strictly that - no numbering?

Craig.

[jwealleans]

Morning Craig. There's one number on the drawing in Tatlow, of course and I'll probably just pick another fairly close to it. These will be in BR livery and those tiny HMRS numerals are barely legible when you're putting them on, let alone from the far side of a barrier at a show. I can always correct them when Vol 4 comes out.

[2512silverfox]

Two series 1932 and 1934 with the number series as follows:

1931/2 168935 - 170434
1934 174800 - 174899

Nick

[jwealleans]

That's very kind of you, Nick. Craig and I are both much obliged.

[Atlantic 3279]

So am I, as I can now verify numbers already applied to some shortened vans, and I'll be ready to apply the correct numbers to a couple more that are still on the "to build" list.

You could always do a 9' underframe under one of these, just to be different Jonathon.......

[2512silverfox]

On further reflection, I think Diagram 83 may have comprised both 9' 0" wheelbase and 10' 0" wheelbase vehicles.

There were four lots of Dia 83. My drawing in Tatlow shows the 10' version and has an authentic number, but the Plate 91 shows a 9' wheelbase vehicle of the same design. It looks therefore as though the batches were as follows:

168935-170434 1931/2 9'
174800-174899 1932 10'
183841-184090 1936 10'
203317-203466 1937 10'

I could check with PT if it would help.

Nick

[jwealleans]

Morning Nick,

If it's not too much trouble, I think it would be as well to find out. I'm sure it will be in Vol 4, but we wouldn't want to mislead any future Googlers passing this way.

Graeme - yes, a 9' variant had crossed my mind. I may even have a potential donor kit in the pile. There will be another round of containers in due course so perhaps then.