New van time

Will the horror never end?.....

Well, maybe the end will arrive quicker if I build vans in bigger batches.
following on from the 47' van, I decided that I wanted 2 30' wooden vans, one with a trust rod underframe, and one with a steel underframe with no trusses. A 3rd 30' van with a plough was added just for something different so that I could add a ballast train to the roster at a later date.

I started with scribed plasticard sheet in 2 different spacings, as the first vans had 4" and the later vans 2" cladding. The size of the sides is 17.5mm by 70mm. I glued the door runner in place, measured straight from the plan, and also glued the guards lookouts in place as well.


I then made up some tiny triangular doorstops and glued them into position. the doors were cut to size from a pieces of grooved plasticard 16mm high with the doors cut to the closest plank width wise. The windows were likewise marked out using this method with the top and bottom lines measured off the plan. the windows were cut out using my homicidal Spanish hand drill with a 1mm blunt drill used as a cutting tool as it just melts the plastic through as it goes. The windows were then cleaned up with a knife and files. Not shown here is the slightly larger hole I cut in the side behind the doors so that I could fit the windows with the white stripes. After the doors were attached I cut out and glued on the number plates and the mail slots. The guards lookouts were tidied up by the addition of microstrip for the window edging. The final step was to cut out the dog box doors and other plating and glue them into position.

'3 for the price of 1'

How not to fight the Obesity Epidemic

Does chasing trains seem too much like hard work?

Just borrow a company webcam (for testing, you understand), place on a convenient company building, then relax in the comfort of your ergonomic office chair, and let the email alerts give you enough warning to turn from your excel spreadsheet to watch the latest freight train sail past in real time.....



Current Weight: 78Kg's and climbing....

Oh my eyes

Friday evening I sat down at the bench, and with a beer or 2 in me mustered the necessary dutch courage to tackle the platform railings. This was identical to the ones that I did for my first van. I drew the frame shape out on MDF, and used a knife to cut the grooves into the surface. The bits of brass (microstrip for the base, 0.5mm brass rod for the uprights) were cut to shape, laid in the grooves, and before you could say 'pfft' a dozen times the collection was one, and with only minimal cleanup required (and no burned fingers into the bargain. I must be getting better at this).

Now for the really hard bit. Due to improvements on health and safety over the years the more modern vans had some more small railings on the bottom 1/2 of the assembly. My inner finescaler was not asleep yet and demanded that these were also added. The outer me muttered 'OK' while pouring him another glass of beer in the almost impossible hope that it would send him to sleep again.

It was not to be though. I had purchased some 0.25mm brass wire from North Yard. I started by tinning a length of this. There are 3 bars required and so I figured I'd start with the middle one and then do the other 2 so at least they would be about the right distance apart. The microstrip on the base was also tinned and then painted with flux agan. I butted the brass wire up to the base and with a fluttering heart touched the soldering iron to the spot. It held! I fluxed the spot at the other end of the railing and again everything went swimmingly, even after it was trimmed. And so it progressed for all 6 bits with no problems. some careful cleanup with a file and it was all done. My inner finescaler snored lightly in my head, andI quickly glued the railings onto the platform before he woke up and could check the progress.

'No fingers were harmed in the soldering of this model'.

Get Ahead by Stealing Office Supplies

AmFet writes: Different offices, different sorts of supplies....

All Blocked Up

AmFet writes: At the risk of being excommunicated from the Nelson branch of the family, I thought I would revisit that contentious old chestnut, concrete railway structures and their inherent beauty.....I can hear the howls of protest already, especially from those not bored into submission by the deathless epic that is the guards van series....

Anyhoo, I present for your perusal this fine evening Exhibit A: Mokoia Goods Shed.



Now when Drew first pointed this out to me (as we sauntered past at around 40-odd K with 16 empty OM's on the back), I originally guessed that the building had been reclad at some time with concrete blocks over an older structure to increase its longevity...I mean, whose ever heard of a goods shed from concrete block?

BUUZZZZ! "Well, thats not quite the answer we were looking for, but lets have a big hand for our unlucky contestant anyway, he's been such a great sport!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Exhibit B (and C, for the sake of completeness):





Damn...there go all my geek credentials I 've worked so hard to attain...

Items of interest:

- The heading is for a "Standard Goods Shed"....can anyone name any others built to this pattern?

- The drawing suggests that is was always designed for concrete block use, especially the second sheet which shows how to reinforce the corners and columns.

- Note the base and loading decks are all cast concrete, with the hollow shell filled with "Hard Fill"

Now for the fun bit...to replicate all this! I'm thinking of photoshopped printed card, but any suggestions from the Peanut Gallery would be most welcome.

BTW, I was going to threaten another "Whats on my Workbench" column, but somehow I dont think my Hasegawa 1:48th MkXIV Spitfire somehow counts...

Rumbled?

Went along to the support group last night. Another pleasant evening. The ringmaster was laid up with a poisoned leg (a careless assassination attempt?). I offered to have a look ( i am a doctor after all) but this was refused for some odd reason. I took along the 2 Guards vans as well as the trackgang guards van underframe to show the improvements.

Several of the group had been down to the annual modelers weekend several weekends ago. One of the story's that they came back with was of interest to me. One of the talks was by someone who had brought an online Vulcan rail car, and then modified it to make it more 'correct'.

This got me thinking a bit, as its been rumbling around in the vast spaces of my head between brain cells. When I buy a kit I tend to regard it as a tool to make a model I want, but accept that there are bits that I will want to modify/replace to get the look that I want. The reviews that I write here tend to be based on this premise. However I'm (semi) conscious that other people might look at my reviews and think 'oh that's far too much work to put into a kit I just won't buy one'. Now personally I am finding it great to have the trackgang products available, as they are a good basic model, and provide a solid foundation for further detailing etc. I love being able to get bogies, underframes and the wee detail bits that I find I just can't make myself without a great deal of effort.

So for Friday night, any thoughts on this?

(And finally, I think I've been rumbled locally. I'm sure I heard someone mutter the blog name from the other side of the room as the van's were being passed around. You know who you are...)

Impetuosity

I've been slowly working on my 47' van this week. Its been a series of ups and downs.

-The bogies were attached. I used nuts and bolts vs the recommended woodscrews on this one, and then realised after I had glued the nut on the top that I would not be able to adjust the bogies (if i had to) once the roof was on. Oh well, you live and learn.

-Was about to glue the roof on when I realised that I had not put the windows in yet. I found some thin clear plastic sheet. to do the white bars that are so prominent in most pictures, I scribed some lines in, painted the sheet white, and then wiped the paint off while it was still wet. I painted the window frames red first so that i would not have to The plastic was then glued into place with 5 minute araldite.

-Was about to glue the roof on when I noticed that I had not added any weight. Lead shot was added in and then covered in PVA.

Finally got the roof on, and then sanded it down to shape as it was a bit high.

-Was about to paint the van red when I noticed that I had not added the guards lookouts. Promtly got these on.


-Came home from the support group meeting last night, and painted the van red. Realised that I had not put the dog boxes, number plates, or mail slots on. scraped the paint off the right areas and sorted this out.

So heres where we are now up to.


Next step is to do the handrails and end railings, the roof ventilators and then the weathering job.

Also this week I've reworked the underframe of a Z15 I've had a for a long time. the truss rods were made from thin copper wire, and this took a beating over the years. I replaced them with some 1mm brass angle from North yard. Its now a bit more robust at least.