Even though at the time I was planning on modeling a section of the North and West I snapped up a couple of David Geen kits when they were first relesed. Milk tankers on the North & West were not uncommon with a dairy at Dorrington and the plan was to have a similar arrangement on my fictional wayside station. They were generally trip worked from Shrewsbury (though by some interesting motive power: Patriots and Counties spring to mind) but what I really wanted was an excuse to run proper big trains of them heading for London. When the sprung diesel bug hit and my modelling interests headed southwards it didn't take long for dreams of the Whitland to Kensington to surface. It's going to take a lot of milk tanks but at least a start has been made:
- GWR milk tank 2.JPG (44.01 KiB) Viewed 14824 times
This represents a GWR Dean-Churchward braked Diagram O.42. In truth this isn't particularly suitable for South Wales as they were all built for Express Dairies but in time it will be rebuilt as a Diagram O.39 United Daries example complete with central platforms, lovely. Hopefully at some point in the near future, rather than distant future, I plan to do up a detailing etch with the platforms on as well as GWR lever brakes and some of the different types of ladders that could be found. Need to get to York first though.
Given my particular foibles concerning things like suspension and also the thickness of W-Irons when confronted by the David Geen kit something had to give. Needless to say it wasn't me! The main problem concerned fitting comercially avaliable springing units to the whitemetal underframe. In the end I decided that what was needed was a brass underframe built around modified Masokits BR Plate W-Irons. The method was pretty simple but also pretty time consuming. The sprung W-Irons were assembled as per the instructions, with just a little reprofiling to better match the prototype, and then soldered to a sheet of 0.010" brass. The bits of the W-Irons that would be visable were removed and then the brass sheet was cut out to match the David Geen whitemetal underframe 'spine'. Sections of 3 x 1mm brass bar were soldered in place to give things a three dimensional look and then the rest of the kit was attached around it. If I had thought about it at the time I would have used 3 x 1mm L section to better represent the U channel the prototype was made up from. Too late now!
- Ro-Rail Underframe.JPG (49.87 KiB) Viewed 14824 times
This is an undeframe for a GWR Ro-Rail tank trailer and shows what the underframe would have looked like before everything was cut out. I've added some bits of 3 x 1 mm brass bar to help stabilise everything. In truth the Ro-Rail tank trailers had disappered by my mid sixties timeframe but they're so nice you've got to make allowances for one of them at least.
- LMS Milk Tank Underframe 1.JPG (49.5 KiB) Viewed 14824 times
This shows the underside of an LMS Diagram 1994 and the finished article. One of the advantages of the brass 'spine' is the ease with which all the gubbins such as brakegear can be soldered in place.
- LMS Milk Tank Underframe 2.JPG (45.91 KiB) Viewed 14824 times
The same chassis from above with daylight in all the right places. The only issue with the arrangement is the ride height which works out at 14.25mm. Too high! However I have a cunning plan to replace the spring carriers with something which gives a buffer centre of around 13.8mm, which should please Russ Elliot. The prototype buffer centres were 3'6" above rail level when empty. This was reduced of course once 3000 gallons of milk had been loaded. I should really straighten out the cast whtemetal leaf springs for full tanks!
Constructing 13 odd milk tanks using these methods would probably send me off to the funny farm so something needs to be done to help speed things up a little bit. Some sort of fold up etched underframe kit perhaps catering for both of the David Geen kits...
- Milk Tank Underframe.JPG (134.46 KiB) Viewed 14824 times
