More North Eastern Wagons

Rambler

Active Member
Fret 6 arrives in the Post
Over the past umpteen years I've been developing wagon suspension units for (mostly) North Eastern wagons. This started as part of the development of kits for Diagram P4 hopper wagons but has acquired a life of its own - development of the P4 kits is still ongoing but is progressing slowly. I've just got my sixth fret back from PPD and couldn't resist the urge to post a picture - prudence says that I should do a test build first but I suppose I can post updates as the test build progresses, and maybe cause some amusement if it all goes pear-shaped.

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The fret has three each of the early and late type of NER w-iron, and all are 9' 6" wheelbase (which was the most common).

Incidentally, the cost of getting this etched by PPD and delivered by Royal Mail was £66, which is very good value. I guess this is made possible by the use of digital artwork - when I was doing LNWR coaches in 4mm in the 1990s it cost over £100 to get pen-plotted artwork converted into a photo-etch tool, but that required the skill of Phil and his very expensive camera.

...to be continued.
 

Rambler

Active Member
Test Building
(In which the total modelling output of three weeks is condensed into one post)

I started by removing the main parts for one underframe from a fret. Even if this is a test build I like to be able to use it on a model - the one that I have in mind for this has a 10'6" wheelbase so I split the floor-pan along the half-etched lines put in for that purpose.
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For reasons that I now can't remember, I'd folded over the bottom of the bearing carriers before I took this photo.

I added the straps at the bottom of the axleguards (pinned with 0.6mm wire) and folded over the bearing retaining straps. For retaining the bearings there are three options on the fret - little tags (like Exactoscale), a fold up strap, or slotted plates that represent the flange of the axlebox. I don't know which is best, only time will tell.
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When its all folded up and soldered up it looks like this:
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This photo shows how the suspension is fitted. The slot at the bottom of the bearing carrier engages on the length of 0.8mm rod that comes through the tab. A spring is located in the holes in the ends of the bearing carrier and bears on the protruding rod. There's not massive clearance between the rods and the wheel but there is enough.
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Methinks I need a photo with a spring in it!

NB: The material is 0.4mm nickel silver - it only looks like brass when it as photographed under artificial light. The earlier pictures where taken with the camera flash and they show the true colour; I think its a bit fierce so I've not used it for the later photos.
 

Rambler

Active Member
John, thanks for the complement.

A nice sunny day (for November) enabled me to get a reasonable photo showing how/where the spring fits. It a bit of steel wire bent into an L shape, with the short leg trapped against the bit of the "solebar" that's folded inwards.

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Rambler

Active Member
Round field Engineering Dropside Wagon, Diagram B1

Fitting door-retaining chains is this weekends chore.. The damn things start on the side and loop round to the end so the cast-on representation inevitably has a break in it (assuming you can get them to line up), so I've removed the chain and replaced it with bits fashioned from multi-strand electrical wire.

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Top view

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Bottom View. Its got an early version of my NER wagon under-frame. The break-gear uses the kit brake shoes with push-rods made from NS strip.

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Corner View. This was the first one I did - the others have the chain looped over the ring (Sods Law says you photo the worst example).

Note : To get the depth of field I took this at F32 with a half second exposure, using a tripod and remote control. Its a lot easier to do this with a digital camera as you can immediately see whether you've got the right settings.
 

Rambler

Active Member
John,
The NER dropside wagon is top right in this picture of my small display cabinet, along with several other wagons, many awaiting suitable axle-boxes.
The LYR brake van (top left) is the model that I'm working on at the moment - I built one in 4mm about 30 years ago so I thought this would be straightforward, but I've learnt from this one that you can get away with things in 4mm that you can't in 7mm....
The middle row is all NER diagram P4 hoppers. I've got an OTT underframe etch for unloaded vehicles, that includes the hopper doors, and a simpler one for loaded vehicles.
The two NER brake vans are ebay purchases that need to be converted to S7, but they look good as they stand (a credit to their builders). I don't dare start converting them until I manage to finish some of the others!
Cheers, Eric
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Rambler

Active Member
Around about 2013 I commissioned Cambrian to make me the body parts for the NER P4 Hopper. We started with the basic body (sides and ends) but then realised that the hoppering and underframe were going to be a lot more complicated than a non-hoppered wagon, so that's as far as we got in plastic. As noted above, I've designed two etched underframes - these are good enough for me but aren't really marketable.
Among the things that are preventing me from finishing these wagons are the axle-boxes. I model the LNER period so I really need NER oil axle-boxes, but there aren't any available. I hope to get some cast or 3D printed, but I never seem to get round to it!
Eric
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
We do a Resin and brass P4 and and a P5 both can be converted to S7 easily and they now have separate axle box/spring and W irons. We don't do the oil axle boxes but the ellis ones were still very common until the early 1940's. The P4 can be build either with round or flat ends and there are about 20 different strapping variations provided with the kit. Marc
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