4mm Life in a Northern Town - the Buttercrambe diversion.

[Neil]

The latest project to occupy my workbench has been a pair of BR ferry vans. Over at the other place there is a long running thread 'Hornby's Best Ever Models' which seemed like it might show some promise as a discussion piece at the outset but which quickly wandered off at a less fruitful tangent. I'll admit to not really seeing the worth in the Triang Hornby ferry vans until relatively recently, being put off by the swivelling wheel sets and toy like sliding doors. Having seen Karl Crowther's lovely rebuild of the basic rtr model, I thought that I'd have a go myself but to a more basic standard. Here's my starting point ....



.... and something close to the finished thing.



The underframe has been lowered onto the pivoting wheel assemblies which have been rigidly fixed in place. The sliding door was fixed in place and the supports for its lower edge removed from the underframe. The circular moulded bump in the centre of the roof filed flush and the small square holes in the body side just to the left of the door filled in. I swapped the large Triang tension locks for the smaller and neater Bachmann examples and arranged for them to pivot. Paint is from rattle cans, Halfords grey primer for the roof and a cheapo, generic red oxide for the body. Transfers are from Railtec and were fixed with a waft of Dulcote once dry. Still to do are to pick out the anchor points in yellow and some tasteful weathering.

 

[Neil]

After the ferry vans something equally international in nature.



For the last few years I've had a bit of a thing for the Night Ferry, and in particular for the last Night Ferry. I believe that these vans were taken out of international service in 1960 but applying the 'my railway' rule I'm happy to bend time in order to suit my desires. In my estimation I'm in good company as anyone who has read the late Denis Allenden's piece in Model Railways on the transportation of wine will realise.


The sides should be an easy bash from the Parkside SECR van kit, cut away the two centre panels, open out windows on the blank sides of the door and scratchbuild the guards compartment to match. The ends call for a decision which I have yet to make. Ideally the roof shape will be a bit flatter and so will the profile of the ends, However with the more rounded ends as moulded the birdcage will still project a sensible amount. The question is do I accept the incorrect curvature of the roof and ends, which will probably be neater than any alternative I can come up with or do I accept a less well crafted but correct shape?