Daves C & W Works

[Dave]

Atso, Thank you, and I'm looking forward to the end too, if I'd known it would take as long as it has I would never have started 3. You know how it is, bend and solder up the body and you think you are almost complete...then comes time, work, holidays and diy.

Anyway I'm making the bellows, black paper with the outline traced from one of the brass masters, cut out as MJT instructions...gad they work.

[Dave]

Bellows template

[sawdust]

I'm going to be controversial now and say that those pullman gangway faceplates look like Thompson ones to me. And yes there is a difference!

Sawdust.

[MikeTrice]

I'm going to be controversial now and say that those pullman gangway faceplates look like Thompson ones to me. And yes there is a difference!

Sawdust.

Go on, tell us more. You know you want to really

[Dave]

Sawdust - You are controversial mentioning the 'T' word on a Thursday. I did not know there was any difference, as Mike says let us know..oh and pics as well please.

[sawdust]

Very well! (photos to follow after this weekend). The underside of the top of gangway is straight on a Thompson, while on Gresley it curves slightly. In each case echoing the top of the vestibule door behind it. It was the late John Curtis who pointed this out as we had put a Thompson one on one end of 56856!

Now I know some Gresley's do have a flat topped vestibule door (albeit wit radiused corners), did these vehicles have Thompson style faceplates? I've no idea, I'm afraid.

Often the shape of the vestibule door is governed by the vestibule ceiling and how far it is required to open back.

Sawdust.

[Dave]

Thanks Sawdust, you learn somthing new everyday, looking forward to the pics.
As the face plates in question will I hope not be seen end on as they should be against another carriage, it probably will not be to noticable.

Managed to get a bit done this lunchtime
Fixed some face plates to bellows.
Refixed the vac pipe that I removed weeks ago when I got the cyl's in the wrong location, and started to fix the steps..

[2512silverfox]

For the piece of oiled canvas which goes over the top of the coridor bellows, you might consider using that very fine plastic film which supermarkets use to wrap meat etc., For the last twenty or so years I have used this glued to the roof and top of the plate with superglue and it seem to work well.

[Atlantic 3279]

That MJT "paper bellows and baseplate" design has now appeared on nearly all of my Gresley vestibuled coaches because it actually works rather than merely looking good. It does wonders to eliminate the unrealistic daylight between coaches, with the bellows obligingly expanding to maintain contact on curves, and there's the additional benefit of the bellows giving very useful extra sprung-buffer action so that there's no coupling slack.
I find a slight modification to the pure MJT design is a real practical advantage and a cost saver too, even if it isn't perfectly prototypical: On those coach ends likely to mainly run within rakes, coupled to others, so that end doorways cannot be seen, rather than fit the MJT brass outer face, I fit a black plastikard item cut to the same shape, but with no doorway cut-out and no lamp irons. I'd found that the doorway edges or lamp irons on coupled coaches would tend to engage/snag as the connectors try to shuffle when the coach enters or leaves a curve, sometimes tipping the two coupled coaches opposite ways and causing derailment. The plain plastic plates give trouble free operation, and you can make up as many sets of connectors as you like from a supply of black plastikard and black paper.

[MikeTrice]

I don't have many photos of end covers but there some subtle (and I mean subtle) variations. Most noticeable is the radius of the corners at the top. Which one is which though is anyone's guess.

[Dave]

2512silverfox - thank you for that tip, I will be using that one, I've struggled for years trying to find a suitable method to replicate that sheet.
Atlantic - I've used the solid end before traced from a MJT front and it works very well, as before I just can't make myself waste the MJT ones in between carriages. I've bent the lamp irons as per prototype and this may stop them locking up.
Mike - thanks for the photos of gangway ends, so many types on so few carriages, I feel a our scale and in between carriages, it may not be noticable, we await Sawdusts definitive photos.

[sawdust]

Photos as promised. Who mentioned covers?

https://plus.google.com/u/0/11386395232 ... Q1xBmdyxDQ

Sawdust.

[MikeTrice]

Photos as promised. Who mentioned covers?
Sawdust.

My fault, you mentioned faceplates and I thought you were refering to the ones with the cover on. Interestingly it has highlighted variations in the covers as well. Will now start looking at faceplates.

[MikeTrice]

With you now. Yes the shape of the top lower edge of the facplate does appear to differ with the earlier Gresley's having a slight curve and later Thompson having a straight edge. Drawing 16711N dated 23/5/1945 lists that it is for a coach with a flat-topped doorway. Difficult to observe any difference in the upper curve though.

Well spotted.

[sawdust]

The upper curve is constant, presumably to aid water run off.

Sawdust.