[Rob Pulham]

I managed a little more on the internals for the V4 brake van last night.

Being, by inclination and birth, a tight fisted Yorkshire man. I don't throw much away, and sometime ago I bought a thousand 10ba brass CS screws. The problem was that when I bought them they only had them in 1 1/2" lengths. This means that most of them that I have used so far, have needed cutting down. This has resulted in me having a few 1" lengths of 10ba studding.

Fast forward to my cleaning up one of Slaters' very nice cast Brake Standards for the V4 and I clumsily broke off the the spigot for attaching it to the floor. At first I was just going to solder it to the brass floor and be done with it but then I thought that having the floor removable for as long as possible would help with painting the inside.

So I drilled out the base where the spigot had been and soldered in a length of the aforementioned stud. A little of the solder wicked up the thread but a quick run down the thread with a 10ba die soon sorted that.

I then thought that with a bit of filing I could use a 10ba nut with some scrap etch to represent the lever for the brake cross shaft and although turning the handle doesn't actuate the brakes it still looks the part.

It wasn't a great leap to think that I may as well do the same with the stove to make it removable too.

 

[Adrian Swain]

Hi Rob
... The thing about Morton 2 shoe brakes is that they invariably ( I think) always have the lever with the reversing cam on the side with the brakeshoes which means of course pushrods are "Left above Right" at the tumbler. The plain dog clutch lever side has no brakeshoes. Morton 4 shoe brakegear has of course got Left under Right on the plain lever side. I looked back at post 247 and in that case the pushrods were L over R but the brakes were only one sided so no reversing cam unless the model was incomplete. The only reason I knew immediately that the Cattle should not have large NE is that I have been researching the Oxfordrail 4mm cattle and all it's deficiencies on the LNER encyclopedia forum. In fact Steve Banks and I have found NO pictures of 10'wb LNER standard cattles with large NE. In theory there should be some which were converted from 9'wb before 1937 from the earlier batches. Have a read of the topic, the subject is quite complex. We both believe that all 9'wb LNER standard cattles with the later top doors may have been converted to 10'wb fitted by 1937 and even those built as 9' fitted were altered but would both love to see evidence to the contrary either in BR days or with post 1936 small NE lettering
... Do you ever do commission work, chemo has wrecked my fingers and I can't do delicate work easily now and I still have a few much needed items.
.... As an aside, why not make the brake standard work properly with fully working brakes, nothing like a challenge, a bit like fully working smokebox door darts !! You do need rich customers for that of course ... Regards A

 

[Rob Pulham]

QUOTE (Adrian Swain @ 22 Mar 2017, 22:17) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>... Do you ever do commission work, chemo has wrecked my fingers and I can't do delicate work easily now and I still have a few much needed items.
.... As an aside, why not make the brake standard work properly with fully working brakes, nothing like a challenge, a bit like fully working smokebox door darts !! You do need rich customers for that of course ... Regards A

Hi Adrian,

Yes I do, do commissioned work, indeed the two Kirk coaches that I am currently working on are commissions. I will message you with my email address so we can take the subject offline.

Regarding working brakes, I do actually have one wagon that the brakes actually work on.

Apart from already having soldered the brake standard parts in place the fact that it's in an enclosed van would make it very difficult to operate them in reality and the action of the brakes them selves would be lost behind the foot boards.

In hind sight what I should have done is make the brakes work on an NER Shunters truck that I built. That had a similar brake standard in the open on it but again it had footboards so perhaps not.

 

[Adrian Swain]

Hi Rob Not quite a brake van but I did make a working brake standard over 50 years ago on an almost all plasticard Southern L.1 4.4.0 tender. Stupid idea but was great fun trying. The working dart is on a Chuffs , now Springside L&Y pug which I never fully finished because of problems with the wheels and motor. When you are young you get these silly ideas just to impress but I found girls not in the least interested, was I on the wrong tack??

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Adrian,

Yes I rather suspect you were, my ex wife had no interest in railways what so ever.

I now count myself very luck in that my wife is not only interested in her own right (she's a very talented railway artist) but she's also interested in my models and she regularly encourages me to try that little bit harder by saying "can't you make one of these" to fit on it when referring to some detail that she's spotted on a phot or the real thing on our visits to preserved railways.

 

[Rob Pulham]

In between doing bits and pieces on the Kirk coaches I have been making slow progress on the V4 brake van.

I have been fortunate to have been given a couple of GA's which show a hearth and heat shielding around the area where the stove sits.

A raid of the scrap etch box yielded this - the hole in the bottom it where the stove will bolt down.

And me, being me couldn't resist making the coat hook to go with a lamp iron that hung to either side of the chimney.

Now I mentioned that I have two GA's and this is where life gets a little odd. One of them shows 3'7" wheels which is what Jim recommends in the kit and the other shows 3'1" wheels. Even more odd is the fact that when trying to fit the 3'7" wheels they rub on the underside of the solebars. Plan B is to try some 3'1" wheels and check out the ride height.

 

[Rob Pulham]

I think that I have got to the bottom of why the 3'7" wheels don't fit. Jim certainly did discover the error but what I had forgotten was that I wasn't using a production etch. Sometime ago when I planned the second Birdcage Van with side cotes I asked Jim if he had any scrap etches that contained the wooden duckets from the V4 kit. He duly let me have some and while making up the two V1/3 vans I idly cleaned and folded up the remainder of the etches that Jim has sent to which I added the missing bit's from my V4 kit not really thinking too much about why the etches had been scrap in the first place because there was nothing obvious to see. Upon checking last night, the production etches have cuts outs to clear the wheels.

 

[Rob Pulham]

The V4 brake van came on in leaps and bounds over the weekend at home.

Having taken the photos above I realised that the screw for the brake column could really do with being a bit longer so I used the piece of studding left from shortening the screw to hold the seat/locker in.

Those that are still awake will note the hasp and staple fitted since the earlier photos

The long seat on one side is soldered in place, the one at the other side is screwed in from below allowing the floor and all the fittings to be fixed in after painting.

The only things left to fit are the brakes but sadly I think that I will need to temporarily remove one or both W Irons at one end because the wheel is rubbing and if I don't do it now it will only short when I try to run it.

 

[Rob Pulham]

The Tevan has passed the finish line - correction I still need to remove the paint from the wheel treads.

Here are some taster photos.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Another one rolled off the bench today, just for those who thought that I had forsaken the Cameo.

The tar tank now has all it's underpinnings and just needs weathering to complete.

I am particularly pleased with how this one turned out because it was really just an experiment that wasn't meant to go further than seeing if I could make the riveted tank. Which in turn was a trial for creating cracked tar spillage....

 

[Rob Pulham]

The Tevan passed the finish line yesterday - it then hit the small ads and I am pleased to say it sold almost instantly.

Here are some taster photos.

 

[Mark Mugnai]

Having just discovered this thread I feel I must reply.

My goodness Rob, not only are you a real craftsman, but are very prolific to boot! Am enjoying this very much.

The only correction I might venture is this: you often refer to your lady Chris as "good"; yet she buys kits for you, she finds bits you've lost, and she is fabulous at the fine art of realistic weathering.

I'd say she's "great"!

You are very lucky indeed...

Mark in Oregon

 

[Rob Pulham]

Many thanks for the kind words Mark they are much appreciated.

I wholeheartedly agree, I am very fortunate and privileged to have Chris's interest and support in my modelling efforts.

Chris now has her own website where you can view what she gets up to when she's not sorting me out.

Chris Pulham, Railway Artist

 

[Rob Pulham]

In between building the Kirk coaches I have also been assembling the other exNBR bogie CCT. This one will be finished in LNER livery for my own stock.

In NBR and LNER days the side panels were all half beaded this has been added using 0.8mm half round Plastruct strip.

Although I will be making the sole bars from plastruct strip they are too long to make it out of one length so it will need to be joined.

In order that this isn't visible on the finished model I plan to draw up and cut some 10 thou overlays. Which I plan to rivet in the same manner as the tar tank. This is in the hope that it will save me from drilling, cutting and inserting the many stubs of rod that would otherwise make up the multitude of bolt/rivet heads visible on the sole bars.

 

[Rob Pulham]

A short while ago I posted photo's of a Model T tanker truck that I picked up for a pound (or maybe I didn't, since I can't seem to find it). In between other modelling projects I have resprayed it into LNER blue and added some transfers and a light waft of weathering.

I just need to glaze it now.

 

[Rob Pulham]

In between refitting seats to the Gresley all 3rd I glazed and weathered a couple of my £1 bargain buys.

First is a 1927 Talbot Van, I am not sure that I have posted this one before. When I got it, it was in a very toy like yellow livery with red writing for a bakery. What I had in mind was a second 'umpteenth' hand vehicle that had been hand painted with ex military khaki and subsequently neglected.

I reasoned that the LNER would keep theirs in better condition.

 

[Rob Pulham]

A while ago you may recall my building of a couple of LMS vans, an LNER 12 ton van and an ex NBR coke wagon? Well I finally made a start on weathering them. There is still work to do but I am pleased with where 3 sessions with the airbrush have got me to so far.

 

[Makemineadouble]

prolific Rob.
Once I'm over track laying I must get a few of those beer Vans.
As always lookin good

 

[Adrian Swain]

Hi Rob Don't know if it is too late for the LNER and LMS standard unfitted vans in post 397 but both have the brakeshoes on the wrong side. Can you slide them across on the shaft and get them in the correct position ?? I also note that you like to fit your brake pin guides right up tight against the bottom of the body side. This is not correct as on the real thing the top of the outer part of the guide is bent in to meet the inner part and has a bolt through fixing the whole unit to the solebar. This means the outer part is only about half way up the solebar before it appears to stop although of course it doesn't.
Hope you don't get too annoyed with me, you are in good company as all the latest new Dapol wagons just released have an error with the vacuum cylinder and it's linkage to the cross shaft. Can you spot it ?? I am waiting for a VF open to see how easy it is to modify. Their M prefixed open is also wrong as the LMS wagons are not the same as Diagram 1/044 but this model is actually one of that design with an incorrect number. Nobody is perfect !!

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Adrian,

No, I am not annoyed, you keep me on my toes.

Could you advise how I tell that the brake shoes should be fitted so I don't keep making the same mistake?

I hear you on the lever guides. I will need to file the block support down a bit to get them to sit lower on future wagons.