Sparkshot MR wagon

[nberrington]

Knuckles has these for sale through his Shapeways shop.
I though I would give them a once over - ordered on April 24, here today.

The quality is very good indeed - lovely detail. I suspect some cleanup is needed, but it looks minor to me. They have a bit of twist. I suspect once a suitable chassis is on, it will be fine.

I plopped it in an unattended Craig Welsh 9’ base - just to see - I think these are a treat.

Now to dig out my midland books to see what the chassis is supposed to look like.....

[nberrington]

My head hurts! MR had a gazzillion different brake arrangements !
Mr Essery’s fine work has photos of D305 with
- brakes on one side
- brakes on both sides handles on one
- brakes on both sides with handles on both sides, but facing the same way!

Lively book all the same.....

[Knuckles]

Hello, glad they got there safe, can't really help with the brake gear although I own the same book.

The bit of twist can be ironed out by running under hot water, gently teasing it then setting with cold.

Before painting there are a variety of cleaning methods that everyone argues over. I favour a white spirit soak for half hour or so (goes white) yet others prefer not to.

Hope this helps.

[David Knight]

Neil,

I think as a rule of thumb the number of brake bits increases with the date so the early version would have minimal braking and later, say about 1937, would have levers both sides at the very least if not brakes and levers. Your model has bottom doors IIRC so brakes and levers both sides would *probably* be safe. Now I’ll sit back and wait for the flood of pictures from assorted collections to prove me wrong

Cheers,

David

[Le Corbusier]

My head hurts! MR had a gazzillion different brake arrangements !
Mr Essery’s fine work has photos of D305 with
- brakes on one side
- brakes on both sides handles on one
- brakes on both sides with handles on both sides, but facing the same way!

Lively book all the same.....

C4275B29-60B0-4872-A7D3-AB337F24F804.jpeg

If you wanted chapter and verse on braking layouts Stephen Lea (Compound) has a thread on Rmweb which is dedicated to such things ... I am sure a simple question would ellicit everything you needed to kow ..... https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113035-more-pre-grouping-wagons-in-4mm-the-d299-appreciation-thread/

[nberrington]

Before painting there are a variety of cleaning methods that everyone argues over. I favour a white spirit soak for half hour or so (goes white) yet others prefer not to.

Hope this helps.

- as in Windsor and Newton artists white spirit? Pretty nasty stuff....
Would IPA do?

[Knuckles]

Haven't tried IPA to know.