4mm An EM Workbench: n shades of grey

[AJC]

An exercise in batch building, not that I meant to, but one way or another I found that I had three Parkside vanwides in the drawer. One is missing a roof - a suitable strip of 20 thou' is currently cooling having been formed for the job - but the three are otherwise at the same stage - a round of brake fittings next.



Adam

PS - for any three-link-users out there, it's worth noting that BR spaced the coupling hooks from the headstocks to accommodate the long buffers. I forgot so have had to fish the couplings out and pop a bit of 40 thou' in to represent the channel the real railway used to achieve the same thing: BR Vanwides - vacuum brake VWV VMV ZDV ZRV VEV | B783458 VMV

 

[Lyndhurstman]

An exercise in batch building, not that I meant to, but one way or another I found that I had three Parkside vanwides in the drawer. One is missing a roof - a suitable strip of 20 thou' is currently cooling having been formed for the job - but the three are otherwise at the same stage - a round of brake fittings next.

View attachment 189548

Adam

Hello @AJC
Nice work. Enjoy.
I think VANWIDE self replicate. I haven’t checked up on my 6 in a while; maybe I should

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

Hello @AJC
Nice work. Enjoy.
I think VANWIDE self replicate. I haven’t checked up on my 6 in a while; maybe I should

Cheers

Jan

It's a puzzle, isn't it? I think I've already built two, but I'm unsure; dad's done one relatively recently (I passed him the transfers) so this should make six, but as you note, there always seems to be another. It's a very good kit, one of Kircaldy's finest, and that might be a factor, but it does seem rather a lot...

Adam

 

[Kylestrome]

I think VANWIDE self replicate.

I had mine 'doctored' from the start so I still have just the one.

David

 

[iak63]

An exercise in batch building, not that I meant to, but one way or another I found that I had three Parkside vanwides in the drawer. One is missing a roof - a suitable strip of 20 thou' is currently cooling having been formed for the job - but the three are otherwise at the same stage - a round of brake fittings next.

View attachment 189548

Adam

PS - for any three-link-users out there, it's worth noting that BR spaced the coupling hooks from the headstocks to accommodate the long buffers. I forgot so have had to fish the couplings out and pop a bit of 40 thou' in to represent the channel the real railway used to achieve the same thing: BR Vanwides - vacuum brake VWV VMV ZDV ZRV VEV | B783458 VMV

Lanarkshiremodels.com do the right coupling hooks and buffers for these beasties.
Of course, you could use the Rumney Models chassis which covers all the issues.
Having built 4 or 5 Vanwides for Mostyn, I totally concur - this kit is one of Parksides best...
Mind, I am now looking at putting Rumney Chassis' under Bachmann bodies so, wibble.

 

[John57sharp]

Lanarkshiremodels.com do the right coupling hooks and buffers for these beasties.
Of course, you could use the Rumney Models chassis which covers all the issues.
Having built 4 or 5 Vanwides for Mostyn, I totally concur - this kit is one of Parksides best...
Mind, I am now looking at putting Rumney Chassis' under Bachmann bodies so, wibble.

Thank you Ian, this has proved very useful in a number of departments.

cheers
John

 

[AJC]

Lanarkshiremodels.com do the right coupling hooks and buffers for these beasties.
Of course, you could use the Rumney Models chassis which covers all the issues.
Having built 4 or 5 Vanwides for Mostyn, I totally concur - this kit is one of Parksides best...
Mind, I am now looking at putting Rumney Chassis' under Bachmann bodies so, wibble.

All true, of course (and the buffers on two of these are from that source - the moulded OLEOs are pretty good so I'm just going to add sprung heads for the third one). But a Rumney chassis under a Bachmann body? That's the better part of £80 for a wagon with all the bits! Perfectly reasonable thing to do, just not cheap.

Adam

 

[iak63]

All true, of course (and the buffers on two of these are from that source - the moulded OLEOs are pretty good so I'm just going to add sprung heads for the third one). But a Rumney chassis under a Bachmann body? That's the better part of £80 for a wagon with all the bits! Perfectly reasonable thing to do, just not cheap.

Adam

Aye but with true Scottish fiscal alacrity, I have aquired the Bachmann Vanwides at reduced renumeration. The Rumney chassis' I have had for ages. All told, I think this rake cost around £40 tops per wagon. Air-braked Vanwides are next - once I have properly contemplated the project...

 

[hrmspaul]

All true, of course (and the buffers on two of these are from that source - the moulded OLEOs are pretty good so I'm just going to add sprung heads for the third one). But a Rumney chassis under a Bachmann body? That's the better part of £80 for a wagon with all the bits! Perfectly reasonable thing to do, just not cheap.

Adam

Makes 7mm modelling seem very financially attractive! Dapol Vanwides and VEA have been available for a smidge over £40, and no expenditure on paint or transfers

Paul

 

[AJC]

Because we’re very serious Finescale people… yeah right. Here’s possibly the only clockwork Thomas in creation on Sharman wheels (in EM).

This one has been part of the Yeovil MRG’s South Junction for as long as I can remember. Goes like the proverbial off a shovel, to the three-year old’s delight.





Adam

 

[AJC]

Anyway, onto more serious business: load testing. I think it's fair to say that all passed this particular test, trundling around South Junction, all 30', flying junctions, and some interesting track alignment of it. First the Jinty, happy with 30 or so on (maybe sideplay wants some attention). Dad looks on, cautiously satisfied.



The other Thomas presents no concerns, being heavy and happy going round corners: you get one right occasionally. The B4 was also blameless.



Slightly more complex was Mr Lycett-Smith's mogul which pulls very well at load ten (more than adequate, I think, and certainly more than I have space to run), but requires a bit of attention to the pony truck turning left as it derails going that way, occasionally, but not turning right.* I strongly suspect, going on the picture I have of it from MRJ, that it never turned left in its life until now being set up to haul a particular train on a round and round layout at home. Thinking about this while on the '303 back to Kent, I have half a notion why that might be, but I'll have to check. Only one outright failure: a PO mineral (which I didn't build, to be fair: it was determined that shifting one W iron and resetting will probably sort that).



Adam

* This would not be the first loco used on South Junction to suffer that problem, but I'd rather like it not to be a feature of any of mine...

 

[AJC]

I'm slightly surprised that no one asked about the Scalefour Society badge on the layout in the background. Yeovil MRG has historically been (mostly) EM and 0 gauge - though there's a lot of 00 and N, and even 2mmFS these days - but S4 (I'm using this deliberately) is a novelty. We're currently host to Ray Hammond's layouts, Thursford, and Buntingham. This is the former, a through station on the erstwhile M&GNJR (modelled in the '50s, not perhaps the most interesting era of that railway's life, but none the worse for that). It's rather nice, and works, I'm told.









Adam

 

[Bob Essex]

Yes, S4 is of course not P4, if I take your reference correctly. It’s the dead scale track and wheel standards which Ray adopted and used but which the S4 society don’t promote as the normal standard but rather P4. He was of course the chairman of the S4 for some years. Nice to see his layouts surviving and being cared for.

Bob

 

[AJC]

Yes, S4 is of course not P4, if I take your reference correctly. It’s the dead scale track and wheel standards which Ray adopted and used but which the S4 society don’t promote as the normal standard but rather P4. He was of course the chairman of the S4 for some years. Nice to see his layouts surviving and being cared for.

Bob

That's right - S4, so something of a curiosity, in that respect (I dimly recall that this may have been a point of contention, once upon a time). The track is beautifully rendered, I must say - dad observed that the operating systems took a bit of working out - and functions well, though not with the three-year-old in attendance (fond though he was of the level crossing).

Adam

 

[JimG]

That's right - S4, so something of a curiosity, in that respect (I dimly recall that this may have been a point of contention, once upon a time).

P4, when introduced, contained a few compromises in trying to attain "exact scale", possibly introduced by Studiolith which was the supplier of parts. Scalefour - S4 - was the implementation of exact scale without any compromises. I think I remember a lot of "discussion" in the letters pages of the magazines at the time.

Protofour also produced their recommendations for other scales by scaling from their 4mm measurements, therefore scaling the compromises. I don't think any other scale ever adopted their recommendations.

Jim.

 

[Dave Holt]

It's nice to see the photos of Thursford. I helped Ray operate the layout at several exhibitions as a fiddle yard operator. There was almost more track and action behind the back-scene as there was in front because full and empty trains only ran in one direction and had to be shunted back to the other end, out of sight, for their next run. Several of my locos ran at these exhibitions and I deliberately built them with back-to-backs set loose to my P4 gauge so they didn't clunk the check rails and crossing vee noses - they still seem to run OK on P4 track, fortunately.
Stripping down at the end of an exhibition could be quite stressful as Ray was very particular about which items of stock went in which box.
Dave.

 

[adrian]

An exercise in batch building, not that I meant to, but one way or another I found that I had three Parkside vanwides in the drawer. One is missing a roof - a suitable strip of 20 thou' is currently cooling having been formed for the job - but the three are otherwise at the same stage - a round of brake fittings next.

A little late to the party - from the prompt I remembered I had a Slaters 7mm vanwide in the cupboard, only one though but I needed a little light relief from a heavy work schedule. Tweaked slightly to be sprung rather than rigid but must be a record for me finishing a wagon in less than a month!

 

[AJC]

A little late to the party - from the prompt I remembered I had a Slaters 7mm vanwide in the cupboard, only one though but I needed a little light relief from a heavy work schedule. Tweaked slightly to be sprung rather than rigid but must be a record for me finishing a wagon in less than a month!
View attachment 192237

A nice job of work on that - those Slater’s BR vehicles have always looked like very good kits. Two of the three of mine are stalled for want of lever guides: I need to order some more.

Adam

 

[adrian]

A nice job of work on that - those Slater’s BR vehicles have always looked like very good kits. Two of the three of mine are stalled for want of lever guides: I need to order some more.

Adam

Thanks - on the whole yes it went together nicely, the only minor quibble were the little brass castings for the bottom door guides a little bit awkward to fit and get at the right height for the door guide. The door guide is then attached at three points - the middle one being plastic bracket and the 2 outer ones the brass castings, so superglued on but seem a little prone to be knocked.

 

[Matt.S.]

A little late to the party - from the prompt I remembered I had a Slaters 7mm vanwide in the cupboard, only one though but I needed a little light relief from a heavy work schedule. Tweaked slightly to be sprung rather than rigid but must be a record for me finishing a wagon in less than a month!
View attachment 192237

Feels like a group build in the offing?