LBSCR Covered Goods 1851

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I've made a start on the underframe for this covered van which I have been meaning to build for a number of years. I do have a drawing but I had a look at the HMRS website to see if they had anything there. It just so happens that they do have two drawings of early covered vans, one with an end door, but the other one could just be the one in the picture. The problem is that lockdown 2 has interrupted my order and I'm not sure if the HMRS will open this week. Fingers crossed that they can as I would love to compare drawings and also have a look at the one with the end door. If the drawing is clear enough, I'll probably have a go at that one too.
I ordered a set of 3' 1" open spoke wheels from Mark Wood and they duly arrived. I started to machine them up yesterday afternoon and made an apprentice's error on all four wheels which meant that they were scrap :'(. Well, scrap as far as this application is concerned. If I find a wagon that uses 2' 9" wheels, they could come in handy for that. Anyone any ideas?

Jon

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JimG

Western Thunderer
I ordered a set of 3' 1" open spoke wheels from Mark Wood and they duly arrived. I started to machine them up yesterday afternoon and made an apprentice's error on all four wheels which meant that they were scrap :'(. Well, scrap as far as this application is concerned. If I find a wagon that uses 2' 9" wheels, they could come in handy for that. Anyone any ideas?
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Jon,

I'm assuming that your wheel tyres are now about a scale 1" thick and not 3" thick with the spoke centres being OK. So turn them down further to just leave a thin rim and fit new tyres from steel. Digging around for suitable material for the tyres might be a bit of a job. I dare say getting a bit of steel bar of the appropriate diameter might be the most straightforward but you'll be knee deep in swarf boring the tyres out. :) And you might have to purchase at least a foot of the bar leaving you with a long leftover bit to clutter up you workbench. :)

Jim.
 

Rob R

Western Thunderer
Jon,

My HMRS drawing order was posted out on friday and dropped through the door today.

I suspect they are working through a bit of a backlog.

Rob
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Jim
I don't think that I would fit steel rims to the wheels. Having said that though, how would they be held in place?

Rob
I'll send an email and ask HMRS how they are getting on.

Here is the picture showing a bit more. I think that there is even more with an extension to the right.
I'm curious why there is that beading fixed onto the end. Logic says that it it fixed over the junction of the various wooden sections but it's a bit narrow to my way of thinking. I always thought that it was off a square section but looking at it again, it looks half round stuff.

Jon

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Mike W

Western Thunderer
I think that is exactly what they are Jon - to cover the join between the planks and the framing. The LNWR, who admittedly were not at the forefront of wagon design, used similar half round beading even on their final covered van design - D88.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Here is the picture showing a bit more. I think that there is even more with an extension to the right.
I'm curious why there is that beading fixed onto the end. Logic says that it it fixed over the junction of the various wooden sections but it's a bit narrow to my way of thinking. I always thought that it was off a square section but looking at it again, it looks half round stuff.

Interesting to see the van has 5 link rather than 3 link chain couplings and safety chains.
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Here is the van so far. There's a little bit of cleaning up to do before it can be painted but that can wait until tomorrow. I've ordered some .5mm aluminium sheet with which to fashion a roof but until it arrives, the painting has to wait. As above, I did have a set of wheels but cocked up the machining and the new ones won't be here until late spring well, that was the proposed delivery time until this latest lockdown.

Jon

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Mike W

Western Thunderer
The wheels certainly are nice Jon and ell worth the effort. Not sure about the cost of them though.

Oh, the van's superb too!

Mike
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
John
How long do you think these vans lasted? I've moved my 7mm LBSCR layout's time line to 1890-95 do you think they would have been scrapped by then?

Marc
 

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
Marc
I'm not 100% sure but, I expect that they certainly would have been scrapped in your time period. There are at least two covered vans that came after this one.

Jon
 
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