New feet for old vans

DB says:

My FM van dates from the Otaki to Cass days, but still looks as decent as it did then.  The 30 foot van below is newer, so its a nicer model. 

Both have ugly feet.

Holy Rollers, Batman.

Despite these elephantine rims, the van can be dragged through pointwork, but rewheeling it has been on the agenda since it was built. The bogies have always looked quite appropriate, but unfortunately the wheelsets have an odd axle length that I've never found replacements for.

Never fear, for new shoes are now in hand from Dr Kato-san's Orthapedic Bogie Shop. 

Outer brake shoes removed and the top copper tabs and supporting plastic filed down:

The brake pipes/headstocks are a nice idea, but too 'far out' for use on this short van. They might look good under a 44 foot wooden car where the bogie mounts are a little further inboard. One of these Kato couplers will be retained, and a Peco/Rapido/Arnold one added to the other end.

Little angle irons were placed in the bogie sideframe corners (white unpainted styrene on the near one, and painted on the rear one):

When asked whether this was worth the effort, or whether these are likely to survive the first few seconds of operation, the writer was uncharacteristically evasive. 

Note the white plastruct tube in the background above. As these bogies have large mounting holes, this will be a pivot for the bogies to swivel on, and being a tube, will take a small screw easily.

Old mountings removed, holes drilled for the plastruct tube:

Mounted up:

The washer was needed because the screw head was a bit narrow. Adds a few micrograms of low-down weight too.

The Peco coupler, at the end where the white XC wagon is, has been moved further back under the body after this was taken. The Kato knuckle at the back end sticks out a bit far, but will couple to MicroTrains knuckles. Although its unlikely this will be attached to a set of modern coal hoppers.

The end of the UBC cement wagon is visible at right too. A little more white weathering helped hide those rings, but what really made the difference was a coat of  Tamiya Flat Clear. The Dullcote left a semi-shiny surface, whereas the Tamiya made it quite flat, so the ring doesn't catch the light nearly as much.

Work to re-bogie the FM will be similar, with replacement Kinki-eqsue bogies having been purchased a long time ago as part of my TranzAlpine experiment, way back when.