A 16T Rarity
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:34 pm
In between etches for Diesel locomotive bogies and detailing work I thought I'd put something a bit different together to keep me sane! I've always loved wagons and they're probably my favourite thing to model. There's so much variety when you scratch below the surface especially I think in my chosen period of the mid sixties. Pre-Nationalisation types were still nocking around, particularly if they'd been vacuum braked, and then there were all those wagons built for BR. The most numbeous type of course was the humble 16T mineral but instead of building yet another unfitted one I thought I'd build one of the vacuum fitted variety and just to be different I'd tackle one of the very rare Dia 1/109 rivetted examples built by Cambrain Wagon Works as part of lot 2806 in the late fifties. The spec was standard for a 1950s built vacuum fitted 16T mineral: 8 shoe clasp brakes, lifting link brake levers, screw couplings and 2'0 1/2" buffers. The basis is the parkside kit for the 1/109 with Masokits W-Irons and brake gear. Much of the construction is pretty standard so I'll gloss over that so as not to bore people too much and concentrate on areas where I've wandered off in my own direction.
Firsty wheels which are Exactoscale. I'm not completely sold on the stainless steel tyres and ideally I'd like to use Ultrascales but price does come into it and the Exactoscale ones are nicely detailed and only a bit more than half the price. Assembly can be a bit of a three handed job and getting the axle central between the wheels can be difficult. In order to make things easier some time ago I made a couple of plates up from plasticard and brass sheet. When held over the wheels in an Exactoscale back to back gauge they centralise the wheels on the axles and make the job of assembly much easier.
I like to assemble the W-Irons and all the brakegear on a peice of brass sheet whch I cut to be the same size as the plastic floor in the kit. A simple jig is used to set the vee hangers in the correct position.
Adding enough weight to a wagon can be a problem especially with all that brakegear and two vacuum cylinders getting in the way. My solution is to put it in the floor. I cut a hole out of the plastic floor of the kit and then cut a peice of lead sheet to fit. The brass sheet sub-base onto which I've solderded everything helps with this arrangement. A piece of plasticard will be added to cover the lead. This does make the floor 0.5mm or so thicker but it isn't really noticeable unless you're modelling a Conflat of Lowfit. In these cases you need to find a different approach!
With the brakegear, safety loops and vee hangers soldered to the brass sheet the solebars can be added. The axleboxes on the two photos I've seen of the prototype are different from those supplied in the kit so I used some spare ones I had with the correct type. They were for a 10' wheelbase wagon so they needed shortening to fit the 9' wheelbase of the 16T rarity. This was done so that the join will be convieniently hidden by the door springs. There is method in this madness somewhere!
The completed chassis. The Masokits clasp brakes have been modified to better represent the BR type. They aren't perfect but they are better than they were. An proper etch for these would be good, lots of clasp braked wagons to build! The Masokits brake levers have also been modified. Vacuum cylinders are ABS with the missing bits filled in on the sides that show. They should really be different sizes but I got lazy at that point. Detail has been added to the solebars, wagon door springs fitted and the changeover levers for the two vacuum cylinders cobbled together. Incidently does anyone know why wagons were fitted with two different sizes of vacuum cylinders and changeover levers? I've seen mention of freight and passenger modes. It strikes me as odd that a 9' wheelbase 16T mineral needs a passenger mode!
Trying to get the characteristic bow in the top of the sides of mineral wagons can be tricky. The easiest way that I've come across is to bow the whole side. Unless you look along the track at near rail level it isn't too noticable that the bottom of the sides is also bowed. I find that a small strip of 0.010" plasticard added to the wagon floor in the middle of each side is sufficient to do the job. The floor also needed adding to as the lead was a bit thicker. A top made of sheet plasticard was fitted and filled to take into account the spacers added to each side. The result can be seen in the assembled wagon body.
I don't know if anyone else has issues putting sprung buffer heads in whitemetal Heavy Duty/Self Contained buffers but I find it a real challenge. It would probably be dead easy with a lathe but I haven't got one so have to do them by hand. I find getting the holes central in the buffer to be a right pain and they need to be dead centre with those 2.5mm shanks. Given that these buffers are basically just tubes my solution is to make some out of brass tubing. I used 3mm OD 2mm ID and 2mm OD 0.5mm ID brass tubing. The large tube was drilled out to accept the buffer shanks and a collar was added using 0.4mm brass wire. The tubes were then soldered together using a jig to set the correct distances. It did take longer than drilling out whitemaetal ones but once I got going not by much. They are also stronger and look pretty good with a bit of added detail.
The completed wagon. Coupling hooks and screw couplings are Masokits. The buffers have been put in for illustrative purposes and will be replaced with the correct 13" heads once the wagon has been painted and they have turned up in the post. Vacuum pipes were made out of old wound guitar wire and 0.035" plastic rod. I see that Lanarkshire Models & Supplies are going to be doing a casting for this type which will be gladly recieved.
The wagon has been primed and now awaits coats of bauxite and black. Time to get back to the Diesels.
Firsty wheels which are Exactoscale. I'm not completely sold on the stainless steel tyres and ideally I'd like to use Ultrascales but price does come into it and the Exactoscale ones are nicely detailed and only a bit more than half the price. Assembly can be a bit of a three handed job and getting the axle central between the wheels can be difficult. In order to make things easier some time ago I made a couple of plates up from plasticard and brass sheet. When held over the wheels in an Exactoscale back to back gauge they centralise the wheels on the axles and make the job of assembly much easier.
I like to assemble the W-Irons and all the brakegear on a peice of brass sheet whch I cut to be the same size as the plastic floor in the kit. A simple jig is used to set the vee hangers in the correct position.
Adding enough weight to a wagon can be a problem especially with all that brakegear and two vacuum cylinders getting in the way. My solution is to put it in the floor. I cut a hole out of the plastic floor of the kit and then cut a peice of lead sheet to fit. The brass sheet sub-base onto which I've solderded everything helps with this arrangement. A piece of plasticard will be added to cover the lead. This does make the floor 0.5mm or so thicker but it isn't really noticeable unless you're modelling a Conflat of Lowfit. In these cases you need to find a different approach!
With the brakegear, safety loops and vee hangers soldered to the brass sheet the solebars can be added. The axleboxes on the two photos I've seen of the prototype are different from those supplied in the kit so I used some spare ones I had with the correct type. They were for a 10' wheelbase wagon so they needed shortening to fit the 9' wheelbase of the 16T rarity. This was done so that the join will be convieniently hidden by the door springs. There is method in this madness somewhere!
The completed chassis. The Masokits clasp brakes have been modified to better represent the BR type. They aren't perfect but they are better than they were. An proper etch for these would be good, lots of clasp braked wagons to build! The Masokits brake levers have also been modified. Vacuum cylinders are ABS with the missing bits filled in on the sides that show. They should really be different sizes but I got lazy at that point. Detail has been added to the solebars, wagon door springs fitted and the changeover levers for the two vacuum cylinders cobbled together. Incidently does anyone know why wagons were fitted with two different sizes of vacuum cylinders and changeover levers? I've seen mention of freight and passenger modes. It strikes me as odd that a 9' wheelbase 16T mineral needs a passenger mode!
Trying to get the characteristic bow in the top of the sides of mineral wagons can be tricky. The easiest way that I've come across is to bow the whole side. Unless you look along the track at near rail level it isn't too noticable that the bottom of the sides is also bowed. I find that a small strip of 0.010" plasticard added to the wagon floor in the middle of each side is sufficient to do the job. The floor also needed adding to as the lead was a bit thicker. A top made of sheet plasticard was fitted and filled to take into account the spacers added to each side. The result can be seen in the assembled wagon body.
I don't know if anyone else has issues putting sprung buffer heads in whitemetal Heavy Duty/Self Contained buffers but I find it a real challenge. It would probably be dead easy with a lathe but I haven't got one so have to do them by hand. I find getting the holes central in the buffer to be a right pain and they need to be dead centre with those 2.5mm shanks. Given that these buffers are basically just tubes my solution is to make some out of brass tubing. I used 3mm OD 2mm ID and 2mm OD 0.5mm ID brass tubing. The large tube was drilled out to accept the buffer shanks and a collar was added using 0.4mm brass wire. The tubes were then soldered together using a jig to set the correct distances. It did take longer than drilling out whitemaetal ones but once I got going not by much. They are also stronger and look pretty good with a bit of added detail.
The completed wagon. Coupling hooks and screw couplings are Masokits. The buffers have been put in for illustrative purposes and will be replaced with the correct 13" heads once the wagon has been painted and they have turned up in the post. Vacuum pipes were made out of old wound guitar wire and 0.035" plastic rod. I see that Lanarkshire Models & Supplies are going to be doing a casting for this type which will be gladly recieved.
The wagon has been primed and now awaits coats of bauxite and black. Time to get back to the Diesels.