Milk Tank Madness

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jjnewitt
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Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:03 pm

For as long as I can remember I've had a thing about milk tanks and find them endlessly fascinating. I'm not entirely sure why but they always seemed different from all the other traffic on the railways. They weren't just ordinary trains of tankers as invariably they were hauled by express passenger engines: Castles, Counties, Warships and Westerns. At around 28 tons when full and given the perishable nature of the load it's easy to see why such motive power was used. Then there's the wonderous variety to contend with. Swindon alone issued 24 diagrams for 6 wheel milk tanks. On top of this there were the Ro-Rail tank trailers and early 4 wheeled tanks that were converted to six wheel. There were two very different types of brakegear, twin tanks, twin compartment tanks, some that were a foot longer than others, different ladder arrangements, a myriad of tanks supports, platforms at the end, platforms in the middle, lots of different valve arrangements on top of the tank.... The LMS issued 6 with two different sized tanks, variations in tank filler points, platforms, again in the centre or at the end, and 2 Ro-Rail tank trailer diagrams. On top of all that there were the SR and LNER ones as well which I don't know nearly enough about. It's all enough to make you either break out in a big grin or grimace at the though of it all. I sit firmly in the former camp. :D

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

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

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

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

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
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iak
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby iak » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:16 pm

Now this is seriously tasty...
Fabbo idea. :thumb
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jjnewitt
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:53 pm

Thanks iak.

The're a bit of a labour of love. The David Geen kits do make up into cracking models. You've got your head around how the brakegear goes together though which can be challenging, especially with the D/C versions, and also find your finest set of asbestos fingers. :)

Justin

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Wizard of the Moor » Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:35 pm

That looks really nice, Justin. Did McEwan's not have a 6 wheeled beer tank that ran between Glasgow and Edinburgh back in the day? I wonder how close that would be...

Talking of asbestos fingers, I remember reading soldering advice from a guy who had had the tip of his index finger chopped off in an industrial accident and reattached. Due to the loss of nerve endings he couldn't feel any pain in it, so when holding parts for soldering he had to be alert to the smell of burning flesh to know when the joint was getting too hot :shock:
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jjnewitt
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:58 pm

Thanks James.
Wizard of the Moor wrote:Did McEwan's not have a 6 wheeled beer tank that ran between Glasgow and Edinburgh back in the day? I wonder how close that would be...

Very close! And if they didn't they really should have... ;)
Talking of asbestos fingers, I remember reading soldering advice from a guy who had had the tip of his index finger chopped off in an industrial accident and reattached. Due to the loss of nerve endings he couldn't feel any pain in it, so when holding parts for soldering he had to be alert to the smell of burning flesh to know when the joint was getting too hot :shock:


I'm pretty sure the ends of my fingers have suffered significantly from all the soldering and from years of working in kitchens, not to that extent though!

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Terry Bendall » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:13 am

Very nice Justin. Just the thing to be entered in the Chairman's Cup at Scaleforum next year, should you feel like entering.

Terry Bendall

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Mike Garwood
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Mike Garwood » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:42 pm

Beautiful work...look forward to seeing the etches.

Mike

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby David Knight » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:28 pm

Looks brilliant. Just wondering though, what would be the minimum radius and how much sideplay is there in the middle wheelset?

Cheers,

David

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jjnewitt
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:21 pm

Terry Bendall wrote:Very nice Justin. Just the thing to be entered in the Chairman's Cup at Scaleforum next year, should you feel like entering.

Thanks Terry. If I get some of them finished in time I might just do that. I'm still not sure about the best way to paint them. The most logical route would be to paint the tanks and underframe seperately as they were different colours but it's not so easy with the strapping on the tanks and then the ladders to fit afterwards. Another thing to think about come the spring.

Mike Garwood wrote:Beautiful work...look forward to seeing the etches.

Me too, hopefully with holes in all the right places.. I'll put a couple aside for you, I know you want to really! ;) It'll give you a nice break from locos and coaches. :)

davknigh wrote:Looks brilliant. Just wondering though, what would be the minimum radius and how much sideplay is there in the middle wheelset?

Thanks David. With a little sideplay on the centre axle they will go round a meter radius curve. The etch has capacity for up to 0.5mm sideplay depending on the depth of the bearings used. I would have thought 0.25mm would be plenty. I don't know if I'm that keen on the thought of excessive sideplay on pin point axles. The overall wheelbase isn't that long, being only 13', so they don't suffer from the same sort of problems as longer wheelbased 3 axle stock does.

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:15 am

Well that didn't take long. It's always nice to see your drawings come back as lovely shiny brass etches. One or two slight issues still to sort out with them but it all goes together and make sfor quite a strong structure. Bit of a fiddle in places but I expected that.
Milk tank underframe a.JPG

Milk tank underframe b.JPG

Milk Tank Underframe c.JPG

Milk Tank Underframe d.JPG

Milk Tank Underframe e.JPG

Curiosly the spring calculations proved to be a bit off with the intended gauge of wire proving to be too light. Not really a problem as a heavier gauge of wire can be used. All the spring carriers work as intended. The horncheecks may seem a bit like overkill but I dislike spring carriers moving around all over the place where they meet the spring wire, something that I've found on other springing systems. Ideally, to my mind anyway, the wire would be soldered to the carrier which would naturally keep it moving vertically but there's insufficient room to do that here.

Milk Tank Underframe f.JPG

LMS on the left, GWR Dean-Churchward on the right. A GWR lever braked example would be easy to arrange from the etch.

Milk Tank Underframe g.JPG

Platforms, ladders and brake levers etc next. That might take a little longer.
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Andrew Ullyott
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Andrew Ullyott » Sun Nov 25, 2012 5:45 pm

That looks seriously good.
Do you think the design could be adapted for other wagons with open framed chassis, i.e. dogfish hoppers?

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Will L » Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:20 pm

Oh that is very tasty. I'd get ready for the orders if I was you. Pity I can't imagine how I could justify one in East Anglia.

Will

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:13 am

Thanks guys. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. It will make the Whitland to Kensington a bit esier to achieve.
AUllyott wrote:That looks seriously good.
Do you think the design could be adapted for other wagons with open framed chassis, i.e. dogfish hoppers?

I don't see why not. It's not disimilar to what Dave Bradwell did with his 21 ton hopper chassis, just an etched brass sandwich.
Will L wrote:Oh that is very tasty. I'd get ready for the orders if I was you. Pity I can't imagine how I could justify one in East Anglia.
Will

I believe there was some milk tank traffic in East Anglia. There was a thread recently on RMweb about rail served dairies in Suffolk. I'm not sure where exactly you model Will but if it's rural and if it's good enough for the Yaxbury branch...

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:51 am

Plenty of progress has been made since my last update. I’ve managed to get up to speed with autoCAD, visited Didcot with my tape measure and I went on a lovely and successful trip to the NRM in search of works drawings. Just before Christmas the drawings arrived and most of the past month or so has been spent in front of my laptop. The results recently arrived etched in brass.

The chassis etches have been redrawn in autoCAD and in light of careful study of the works drawings I decided to dispense with the one size fits all approach and do each type individually. This also allows the opportunity to etch onto the chassis brake vees and brackets for the clasp brake hangers. Overlays for the chassis have also been included, the David Geen ones don’t quite fit the exact profile of the prototypes for some types and are no good for others. Four types have been successfully prototyped GWR 20’6”, GWR 21’6” (for twin tank vehicles), LMS D.1991/3/4 and LMS D.2173/4 (these had different underframe bracing arrangement). Two others have been drawn up (SR and LNER) but are still in the can so to speak waiting for me to draw up the detailing etches to go with them.
LMS D.1991-3-4 Chassis.JPG

In light of the test builds before Christmas the arrangement of the primary suspension has been changed to my preferred type. 0.008” guitar wire soldered to the carriers using a slot as a guide.
Milk Tank Suspension Carrier.JPG

I made mention of my desire to do something about the Platforms that some examples had. Well my trip to the NRM unearthed a wonderful 1” = 1’ GA of one of the SR diagrams (3155 or 3157 can’t remember which) from which a CAD drawing was done. Now as luck would have it the SR and GWR platforms were identical which makes things simpler.
SR Platform GA.JPG

A lot of head scratching later I decided that the only real way to properly approach them would be to build them exactly as per the prototype with a jig to ensure everything goes together. The rest is like knitting valve gear!
Milk Tank Platforms 1.JPG

Milk Tank Platforms 2.JPG

The O.42 that was pictured previously in this thread has just been through the works, has gained a new tank and platforms and emerged as a United Dairies GWR diagram O.39. Perfect for the Whitland to Kensington.
Milk Tank Platforms 3.JPG

Milk Tank Platforms 4.JPG

Milk Tank Platforms 5.JPG

Milk Tank Platforms 6.JPG

There are a few more items to be done in this great project. As has been mentioned the SR and LNER chassis are drawn up and just need prototyping. SR, LNER detailing etches need doing along with one for GWR lever brakes and alternative ladders. A number were fitted with walkways so something for them will be done (though each type seems to be different) and then there are the LMS platforms to tackle. Should keep me busy on the milk tank front! Time to sort out some more diesel bogies etches now though.
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Mike Garwood
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Mike Garwood » Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:59 am

Spectacular!

And these are going to be available to view, for the nice ladies and gentlemen, at the Newport MRS open day on Saturday the second of March ?

I have a feeling you may be busy!

Mike

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:04 pm

Thanks Mike.

The O.39 complete with it's platforms will be at the open day for everyone to see along with the chassis that I've done so far. Hopefully I'll have some new diesel bogies put together as well and maybe a wagon kit prototype.

I meant to say earlier that I intend to make all of this stuff avaliable in the near future for anyone else who's mad enough to attempt it. The Platform etch will also build a left handed platform for use on end filling vehicles and as I said is suitable for both GWR and SR prototypes. The platforms came in two varieties right handed (the ladder on the right hand side of the platforms as you look at it) and left handed (a mirrored copy). All the vehicles with central platforms used the right handed version on both sides. The end platform vehicles (GWR O.57 and O.60) were arranged so that the ladder was always on the inside of the vehicle and so had one of each.

Justin

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby doktorstamp » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:22 pm

I confess to sharing your interest in milk tanks, and have several of the David Geen kits awaiting assembly. No assembly has yet been undertaken because I was looking at various ways to arrange suspension, and GW/SR are my foible so you have a customer here. Just let me know when the bits are available.

And many, many thanks for all your effort, wonderful to see.

regards

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby RedDragon » Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:25 pm

If the project goes forward with the LNER Milk wagons, I'll certainly want at least 3 or 4 of them for the Stainmore Line.

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:11 pm

All the bits that I mentioned will get done at some point, including the LNER detailing parts, if for no other reason than I want one for my model of the Whitland to Kensington! The chassis is already done, I've got a nice GA for an LNER diagram 333 from the NRM and I'm aware of some of the difference between diagrams. It's a case of working through all the bits I've got and then prototype them. The only problem with evaluating the prototype etches is the length of time it takes to put one of these things together!

Depending on the timeframe for your model you may want to consider some variety of types. I'm not sure about what the arrangement was pre nationalisation but certainly during the BR era milk tanks operated effectively as private owner wagons for the dairy who owned the tank rather than regional vehicles. For example any milk tank operated by United Dairies could be found at one of it's creameries and it didn't matter if the underframe was built by the GWR, SR, LNER or LMS. It would be more likely to be GWR or LMS but then they built more milk tanks. I've seen GWR D-C braked milk tanks in Cumbria, SR milk tanks in Yorkshire, LMS milk tanks in Cornwall... I've certainly seen pictures of milk tank trains made up of vehicles built by three of the four pre nationalisation companies. I'd be very suprised if some of them didn't have vehicles from all four, depending on the dairies being served. The key thing was the dairy.

Justin

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:07 pm

With the arrival of the milk tank platform etches and the consequent ability to finally finish one of them I have been stirred into completing (well very nearly) work on another pair.

From left to right: A United Dairies GWR D-C braked O.44, the previously seen United Dairies D-C braked GWR O.39 and a Milk Marketing Board LMS D.1994. There are a few small jobs left to do including adding vacumm and steam pipes and also lamp irons to the O.44 and D.1994. I'll do these bits when I get around to painting them. The D.1994 will also get walkways on top of the tank once I've got around to etching them.
Milk Tanks.JPG

United Dairies GWR D-C braked O.44.
These were rebuilds of the very first milk tanks produced by the GWR, the four wheeled O.23s. Quite how much, aside from the tank, survived the rebuilding process I'm not sure but I doubt it was much given that the diagrams have different wheelbases as well as lengths over headstocks. In terms of the D-C braked GWR vehicles the O.44s were about as far removed from the O.39s as you got. Note the different tank supports and tanks strap fixing points. The tank supports have been modified from the David Geen ones using plasticard, araldite and a file. Also note the lack of fittings on top of the tank. There seemed to be a trend for these to disappear over time. The O.44 makes use of one of the underframes I had etched before christmas and recyled brakegear.
UD GWR O.44 Milk Tank.JPG

Milk Marketing Board LMS D.1994.
Aside from the Masokits/scratchbuilt underframe (see previous post) this is pretty much an out the box David Geen kit though I did modify the ladders to better match my prototype. The tank straps have been soldered to the tank along with the 'bands'. The later items are made from thin strips of 0.002" brass sheet. An RSU would probably have been a useful peice of kit to have when doing these but I managed (just about in the case of the straps) with an ancient 30W soldering iron. Eventually it will be painted in faded Milk Marketing Board blue livery and will add some colour to a rake of otherwise silver milk tanks.
MMB LMS D.1994 Milk Tank.JPG

I've designed the milk tanks to come apart for painting. I couldn't really see a good way of painting them with all those straps and ladders actually attached to the outside of the tanks. This created a slight issue as I was a bit loathed to rely on a simple glued joint to hold delicate items such as the ladders on after painting, so use has been made of 0.31mm wire 'pins' to help locate things and add a little bit of robustness. The platforms are treated in a similar manner and will come off given a little persuasion. They will be more securly attached once the paint is on. As has been mentioned the full length straps have been soldered to the tanks and just fit through holes in the fixing brackets allowing the tank to be removed. Straps that appear to go under the cladding are located into holes drilled into the tank. Hopefully all this work will pay off when it comes to airbrush time.
Removable Ladders.JPG

Three down, only ten to go!

Justin
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:42 pm

Lots of lovely milk tank related etches have arrived to be worked through (and no doubt amended in places).

F Etches 3 015.JPG

F Etches 3 028.JPG

There are bits for GWR lever brakes and ladders of all shapes and sizes. Partial platforms, GWR style walkways, some additional bits for the LMS kit and an SR chassis and conversion etches to enable an SR milk tank to be built from the David Geen LMS castings. The SR chassis has been modified from the last batch of GWR and LMS chassis in order to enable the wheels to be dropped out without bending the W-Irons by making the axle guards/tie bars removable. This follows on from a conversation with James Moorhouse a couple of months ago and I believe is something that the Exactoscale chassis etches cater for (though I haven't actually seen any of them). It's such a good idea that the ability to build them like this will be worked into all the other chassis etches. It's already been road tested on a BR 8 shoe clasp brake chassis (more on that in the near future) that I recently did and I think is worth the extra effort if wanted. I'm not going to force it on anyone though! Once the mods have been checked on the SR chassis I can alter the GWR and LMS etches accordingly and then they, along with the GWR/SR platforms will be ready to go. Some of the detailing etches may take a little longer to work my way through but progress is being made.

F Milk Tank Walkways 002.JPG

One thing that has actually been put together are the little walkways for my MMB LMS D.1994. They look quite good but aren't the easiest to fold up so I'll look into that. I have recently been reminded that the last lot of D.1994s (of which my model would be a member of) were built (along perhaps with a few of slightly earlier lots) with the latter type LMS chassis. I should have remembered this as I saw the drawing at the NRM and thought oh that D.1994 has a different chassis but didn't make the connection... So at some point I'll build a latter type chassis and a new tank and perform a chasis transplant. The chassis seen above can go under a Unigate D.1994. I'm sure I said at some point that these milk tanks were complicated!
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Mike Garwood
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby Mike Garwood » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:33 am

Superb stuff as always...when can we expect these to be made available? How do we order?

I'd be interested in that clasp brake chassis chassis, new thread, photo's?

Absolutely 'over the moon' with what you've done, just shows what can be accomplished with a set of dimensions. FANTASTIC!

Mike

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:22 pm

Mike Garwood wrote:Absolutely 'over the moon' with what you've done, just shows what can be accomplished with a set of dimensions. FANTASTIC!

and a CAD program, frustration, perseverance, a little cunning, burnt fingers...

Patience! There are only so many hours in the day. ;)

Lots of bits will be avaliable under the name Rumney Models in the near future. An announcement will be made in due course when I'm ready to go.

A wagon thread would be a good idea, not nearly enough stuff on them in the forum.

Justin

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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby jjnewitt » Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:54 pm

I've had chance to start working my way through all the goodies that arrived recently and check that all the drawing work has come out ok when translated to brass. First up are the Milk tank ladders and walkways.

GWR 0.61 Partial Platforms.
F Milk Tank Ladders 054.JPG

Essentially ladders with a standing area at the top. I don't actually need any O.61 platforms (the O.61s were C.W.S vehicles) but started to draw these up thinking that they would be the same as the partial platforms fitted to the O.53s which I do have room for. Given some experience of these milk tank things I'm not sure why I assumed they were the same because of course they weren't! Having started I thought I might as well finish them. They are modelled by my GWR O.44 with the help of some bluetack. There should be a wire rung leading from the nearest side of the ladder in the photo to the manhole on the tank. The O.53 ones have been done as well. These were interesting for the fact that they were the only diagram where a 3000 gallon single tank was fitted to the longer underframe. The tank was also much smaller in diameter.

Long Ladders.
F Milk Tank Ladders 070.JPG

As fitted to the GWR twin tank/twin compartment vehicles. They are constructed using a simple jig to hold the sides parallel and lots of 0.31mm wire. Locating brackets are also included which will given pins to help locate to the milk tank chassis.

O.58 and O.54/64 Walkways (the long ones are for the O.58)
F Milk Tank Ladders 2 048.JPG

There were basically two types of walkways. Ones with wooden planks along the top and ones with a mesh. The planked variety were popular with the GWR/BR(W) and were fitted to a number of diagrams for different dairies in different lengths according to the situation. The meshed variety tended to be found on SR and LMS examples built for Express Dairies. Hubert Carr of Model Railway Developments has talked about doing these. I've also done the planked veriety to suit diagrams O.55 and O.65 as well as the small LMS M.M.B. examples seen above.

There were usually planks missing on the real thing to make clearance for the fittings that went on top of the tank. This can be easily taken care of by cutting out the appropriate planks on the etch. The do require a bit of care to fold up but there's not much to them so that isn't much of a suprise.

Everything so far.
F Milk Tank Ladders 2 062.JPG

From left to right:
The O.58 and O.56/64 walkways, O.53 partial platforms, A rounder profile (than the David Geen ones) GWR standard ladder, GWR long ladder, O.61 partial platforms, LMS ladder. I've done three sorts of LMS ladders. Essentially they were the same profile but they all had different fixing arrangements at the bottom.

This lot just needs milk tanks to go on top of now. That might take a little longer!

Justin
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Re: Milk Tank Madness

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:06 pm

A wagon thread would be a good idea, not nearly enough stuff on them in the forum.

We already have 81 topics in the 'wagons' section, but you preferred to use 'on my workbench', surely we don't need a third place to discuss wagons :)
Keith
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