This week has mostly been taken up with underframe and bogies. In this area, the D&S kits are found severely wanting. The bogies have compensation, so go straight in the bin without passing "Go", while the etches for the long centre stepboards and vertical fixing straps vary from kit to kit, and can't seem to decide which height of stepboard they're catering for - early (higher) or late (lower); more likely is D&S and their then-advisers in the NERA didn't know about the change - they admit to having no interest in the LNER period; fine, but my research shows that many of these changes (including lighting and all the associated roof mods) affect the last 15 years of the NER period too; yet all the published drawings only show the earlier condition. The crop below shows the later height of the stepboards (below the centre of the axleboxes) nearer the camera and the earlier one (through the centre of the axleboxes) further away. I don't know when this change occurred, and, returning the favour, am not much interested in the NER period. But my guess would be in the 1910s: the full photo - GMP10_0261 in the NERA digital archive - shows that the nearest carriage has gone over to incandescent lighting, so the stepboard change seems to have happened post 1908; those with more knowledge of BTPs and access to the NERA archive might be able to pin the date down further.
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(It's odd that as the stepboards were lowered, the bodyside grab handrails were also raised - did northerners suddenly get taller after 1908?)
What D&S' choice means is that there's no chance of getting a rake of carriages with bogie stepboards and long centre stepboards lining up on all vehicles; some don't even have the correct number of uprights. I snapped these on their way to the bin:
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So I replace the stepboards with L-shape brass angle, 2.5mm x 1mm. The uprights I make by filing 0.6 wire flat (tack-solder it to a piece of pcb, file one side of the wire, de-solder, flip over, re-tack-solder, re-file). The uprights are soldered to the solebars at the correct positions (there are locating points etched on the solebars, but these sometimes need to be filed off owing to the aforementioned issue with the incorrect number of uprights - the D.53 at least is wrong). The stepboards are then attached to the uprights (which are left long), being jigged off the lower edge of the solebar with a piece of PCB filed down to 6.70mm:
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Here it is being used in anger (probably literally) - albeit after the fact as I forgot to photograph it during (the photo shows trussing and other fittings already in place, but in reality everything needs to be left off until the stepboards are on):
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Then it's the bogies. I may have mentioned these earlier in the thread, but my methods have possibly changed since then. The basics are that I use Mark's Miscellany Models/Rumney Fox bogies. These are beautiful etches with many alternative half-etched outer faces to represent carriages with, without, or nearly without, footboards. For those with footboards there's an ingenious system for folding up the supports for them. However.... they're in the wrong place for the later NER and LNER period (see above - "wrong" being relative as it was Mark's intention to model these carriages in their early life, making the footboard bracket position perfectly correct). The solution is firstly to use the half-etched outer bogie faces with no strapping on them (i.e. those intended for footboard-free bogies). However, I keep a stub of the strapping backing strips which are etched as part of the inner bogie frame - just to show me where the straps should go when I replace them. I then make my own straps (flattened 0.6 wire again), and I have two jigs which when used together set the footboard height, ensuring that they match the long centre stepboards once the bogies have their primary springing (10 thou) and secondary springing (9 thou) set up; the footboards are attached to the jig before the straps go on. (No idea how I jigged the straps as I bent up enough to see me out while on holiday with my sister, who imposed a soldering ban for the week - door handles filed from pins, and twizzles of 0.193 wire for clerestory and bodyside handrail brackets also got made by the hundred.)
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(I can provide dimensions for the big bogie jigs for fellow masochists.)
That's not the end of the hurdles: D&S' axlebox castings are too short to go between the damper uprights on the Miscellany bogies. This is because they lack the buckle thingy at the end of the springs. The solution was to add these to a D&S casting (with rod or tube, can't remember) and then make resin castings from the master. Nowadays I'd ask Justin to print them. Here is a bogie with all mods done, but awaiting bolsters from MJT:
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Anyone still reading? Right, dampers. The photo above shows my latest experiment, with the dampers. NER carriages had two types of dampers (if that's what they are): coil springs, and what look like big rubber drums. Looking at Record 2, it seems certain that the coils were the first design, and the rubber ones came in from 1908; both types were later mixed indiscriminately [EDIT: I mean that the bogies with each damper style could end up under carriages not built with them; both styles were never, as far as I know, mixed on the same vehicle - one bogie coil and one rubber]. Coils:
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Big 'uns:
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Bigger 'uns:
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So far, I've always done the coil springs as these are supplied in the Miscellany kit:
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These have to be made up from lots of tiny little etched discs, alternating with slightly tinier etched discs, all of which (48 of each [sic] per carriage) have to be cut from the fret and de-tabbed! (Richard's going to tell me I left the tab on one. I know, but I needed a lie-down.)
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For the rubber dampers I used my own resin castings. These are a bit uneven so I've approached Justin for replacements.
Finally, general view of the underframe:
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This shows the single gas tank (always in the NW or SE corner when viewing from below) gradually fitted after 1908 in place of the original 4 (incandescent being more efficient than gas burners) (you won't find that in yer D&S instructions), twin vac tanks (21" from Lanarkshire - 21" being a guess). I don't do anything more brake-wise as I've no idea what was there, but it seems fair to assume the Westinghouse stuff had gone by the 1930s. Apologies to Mark and Justin for simplifying their beautiful bogie brake rigging; that's for when I put 00 wheels in - these carriages pose around on P4 wheels, pretending they're all that, but in reality they were intended for my dad's 00 layout. But his tendency to park stock on its side made my rethink...
You may just be able to see the vac. pipe running down the solebar on the non-gas-tank side. I'm not sure how much rhyme or reason there was to which solebar this went down, but in the photos where it can be seen, it is most often on the side with the end steps to the left. I have several photos of brake vehicles showing it on that side, and the only two clear ones I have of non-brakes also show it on that side.
Next up, finishing the scratchbuilt vacuum standpipes and fitting them to the ends. I'd use the lovely Lanarkshire ones if I could, but they're white metal so not robust enough to withstand being exposed to knocks when the underframe is detached from the body (for painting, etc):
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Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment, when I explain all about the direction of kink in LNER vacuum standpipes! Maybe even a clerestory handrail too!