[Brossard]

I thought I'd share this just finished van - in EM gauge. A few months back, Brassmasters had a batch of D&S kits on offer so I got the L&Y 6 wheeled brake (for some reason I like 6 wheels).

Opening the bag, you get this:



Construction is relatively straightforward with soldered assembly. There is a complicated suspension design to the kit, which I tried to follow but got defeated

In the event, I found the suspension to be unnecessary, fixing all the axles and giving the center axle some sideplay. There was some missing information relating to part of the underframe, but I energized my leetle grey cells and found a solution.

Without going through the details, I ended up today with this:





Livery and numbering is guesswork - I couldn't find any decent data.

I took lots of pictures of the build in progress so if anyone has any questions please ask.

John

 

[dwb]

A very fine result

Thanks for showing it.
David

 

[Allegheny1600]

Hi John,
I concur with David above, a very fine result!
I too, have a 'thing' for 6 wheelers which is why I looked in! At least in EM you should get away with a fixed chassis, I do a bit of P4 'on the side' and I doubt I could get away wi it!
Ah! You made the sensible choice!
Cheers,
John E.

 

[Greyvoices]

A really good model John. I think that you have done justice to a very fine kit.

Best regards ............. Greyvoices (alias John)

 

[sean hpw]

That really is a beautiful kit John,

Do you have any pics of the chassis please?

Sean

 

[Brossard]

Thanks everyone.

Sean, I assume you want to look under the bonnet:



Not pretty but it works. The yokes are from a Mainly Trains brake gear etch.

John E., I would be interested to know what sort of messing about one would have to do to make a 6 wheeler like this compatible with P4. Given the small WB, it's hard to imagine that it needs much than a floppy center axle.

Last night I weathered it:



There is a small change. A friend of mine suggested that there might not be a bodyside number and that it might have had just a solebar ID plate. This is consistent with the only picture of the LMS version I could find (Modellers BackTrack Vol 2, #2) where the solebar plate is quite prominent. I therefore used Powerpoint to create the tiny plate you see in the picture.

John

 

[sean hpw]

Coo, now you have made me want one!

the weathering is really the icing on the cake, the only thing missing is a Guard

Sean

 

[Brossard]

Just be sure to take your pills before tackling it Sean. The Brassmasters batch is sold out but London Road Models have re released and revamped some of the D&S kits: http://www.scalefour.org/LondonRoadModels/various/wagons/

I'm actually tempted to have a bash at another.

John

 

[34C]

There is something about the six wheel van. I have a GCR six wheeler of similar proportions on my to do list.

In the long ago I built an EM model of a GNR rigid frame eight wheeler, 13' w/b all symmetrical. This thing visibly snaked about as built with all the wheelsets slightly slack in pinpoints. So instead of doing something sophisticated like a Cleminson arrangement, it was made into a four wheeler, with a floating inside bearing bogie in the middle. That fixed it.

 

[sean hpw]

Thanks for the link John,

I will take ALL my pills before I attempt it, although I am tempted by a number of there kits

Sean

 

[Brossard]

There's certainly more than one way to skin this 6 wheeled cat 34C. I just started converting the Hornby LMS 6 wheeled milk van.



The body looks to be correct, the underframe on the other hand...

The wheels, while quite nice are 12mm dia so not suitable. I found some Gibson wheels.

I will use Bill Bedford W irons:



Something Bill said on another forum the other day got me thinking. He was talking about how the real thing copes with the center axle, which is to allow it to move from side to side. I have encountered many complicated ways to do this but his solution is very simple. Mount the wheels on a tube 22mm long for EM & P4 and insert a 26mm long steel rod. The rod goes in the pinpoint bearing.



It just so happens that the Gibson wheels have 1.5mm axles and, in my scrap box I had some brass tube that is a smidge over that. I also have some 0.032" steel wire (used for Tortoise actuators), which by a remarkable coincidence fits very nicely inside the tube.

Here's the wheelset with the steel rod inserted. What a good do.

John