Bogie Maintenance

More fettling of the stock has been going on this week over at Himself's place.

Our Merddin Emrys has had its bogies out so that the couplings can be changed from the chunky ones we used since it was built for the brass Greenwich design which is standard fit on all our carriages and wagons now.

There have also been a couple of bogie upgrades for the Barns.

Observation Car 100 and its one time running mate 124 have been treated to a pair of my own design of brass and resin modern FR bogies.

There are still a lot of our older carriages which need these so I will have to pull my finger out and cast a few more soon.

Odd Jobs

I've hit a wall with the body of my new WHR carriage because I've run out of the right size of styrene strip for adding the beading detail.

My back-up plan of raiding Himself's stocks failed because he hasn't got any either!

So while I wait for fresh supplies to arrive I've had to think about what other jobs I could be getting on with to progress the model which is increasingly being built in reverse order.

The seats and tables have already been cast - that was the first thing I did - so instead I've soldered up a pair of bogies and glued on the castings with the axle boxes and suspension details.

For these latest WHR saloons I've made a new mould to represent the roller bearings and improved suspension which have been retro-fitted onto the former SAR wagon bogies at Boston Lodge.

For the fold-up brass part I can use the same etch which goes into my wagon kits.

I've also taken the opportunity to get my least favourite bit of a carriage build out of the way and fabricated and shaped the corridor connections which are very fiddly to do.

The new packets of strip should be hear soon and then I can begin detailing the door and end pieces which I made last week.

Top Hat-Trick

I have deposited the body of 150 with Himself so he can form and fit a brass roof for it.

There's not really much more can be done on it until that's in place and then I can add the front window pillar.

A roof will also make it properly rigid because the unsupported top of the body sides are still quite vulnerable.

In the meantime there are some other important jobs I can be getting on with, such as making up the bogies.

I'd delayed doing this because I was 1 top hat bearing short, but when I dropped the carriage off with Himself I was able to raid his stores and procure an unopened packet.

Thus restocked, and with an otherwise empty evening ahead of me, I decided there would be no harm in a little forward planning so I made up three sets in total and cast the resin detailing bits to go with them.

So as well as a set for 150 the plan is that another of them will go under 125, the new service car, which will be my next project, and Superbarn 118 which you may recall I already have the resin body shell parts cast for.

That should keep me out of trouble as the nights draw in this autumn.

Bigger Bogies

Rather than simply watching paint dry Himself had been working on completing another long-term project which involves some of my new FR carriage bogies.

What they're going under is this pair:

They are replacements for 105 in its cuurrent condition with a toilet compartment in the centre where the 1st class used to be and the reborn 106.

Both our existing models of these two are in 1980s all-over red livery so obviously of no use at all on Bron Hebog.

Saddle Up

While the tank is the big ticket item on the water tanker project there are quite a few smaller bits to make before I can think about fitting it into place.

Prime among these are the 3 cradles which it rests on atop the flat DZ wagon chassis.

As these need to be identical to each other the easiest thing to do is make one master and cast the three I need for the wagon.

I'm making this wagon without ever having seen it with my own eyes.

I do have the benefit of some research pictures taken for me by a friend, and another who ran a tape measure over it, but I've made an assumption here that the supports are in the form of a saddle rather thatn separate ones on each side - it's very dark under there and impossible to tell from the pictures I have.

If I've got it wrong I'm sure someone reading this will be quick to correct me.....

I have also been carrying out the alterations to the DZ wagon chassis.

It's not really possible to use the side castings from my flat wagon kit because they include the remains of the stanchions and door stops which have been stripped off the frame used for the water tank wagon.

So instead I have fitted plain lengths of styrene which I will decorate in due course with transfer rivets.

There was a similar issue with the ends so for this I have adapted a couple of castings from the ballast wagon kit which are uncluttered.

I've also put together a pair of diamond frame bogies for it run on.

Once the saddle parts have been cast I'll be able to see what it looks like with the tank on top!

Return Of The Bogie Man

That's right, I'm still soldering & folding bogies!

I'm pleased to say I am more than half way through the mammoth task, though.

There are 18 of the cast Bettendorf bogies to be produced. 12 have already been assembled with the brass frame and the resin details on top.

Tonight I soldered up the final batch of six.

It's a more enjoyable task than the foutery business of filing and fitting the resin parts because there's that element of jeopardy with the hot iron and the satisfying sizzle of the flux evaporating.

After these are done I've just got five sets of diamond-frame bogies which are much less hassle to put together because its quicker and easier to cut out and glue on the separate axle boxes and the suspension castings.

Bearing Up

I've got a commercial job on the go at the moment which I'm fitting around the house building.

A regular client has requested a job lot of DZ wagon chassis and has also bulk ordered spare bogies, so last night was spent soldering up a dozen of them until I ran out of bearings.

As you can see from the picture I've already cast and fitted together the bodies - or perhaps I should say the floors - and I've already prepared a stockpile of the cast bogie sides

Tonight's task is to summon up the strength of character to begin cleaning up two dozen of them.

I won' try to pretend it's not mind-numbingly repetitive.

New Bogies On Test

We've been trying out the prototype FR bogie I made up a couple of weeks ago.

Himself has attached couplings and given the pair a coat of black paint and installed them under our new model of 116 to see how they look.

As I expected they need quite a bit of packing to get the ride height the same as with the plastic bogies we've been using, although it varies from carriage to carriage.

(It seems I'm no more consistent than Boston Lodge in the way I build them!)

It doesn't necessarily show on the model, because only the bottom half of the bogie is usually visible on FR carriages, but if we're going to try to fit these as replacements throughout the fleet then it could have consequences if the old pivot bolts are not long enough.

So I've decided to get a Mark II etch designed which will have the stretcher beam 1.5mm higher which should reduce the need to for packing.

It will mean going through the process of making another master for the resin cast of the axle box and suspension details but it'll be worth it to get it right.

Test Etches Arrive

Time to crack on with another of those project which we seem to have spent years talking about but not actually getting anywhere with.

This week the first test etches arrived from Narrow Planet for our modern FR carriage bogies.

The plan is that just like with the SAR wagon bogies we will insert brass bearing cups and cast a resin piece to glue on top with the axle box and suspension details.

Until now we've been adapting Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol bogies and adding some styrene extensions to bulk them up a bit.

The picture shows that there won't be that much difference in the overall length of the bogies but the wheelbase of the brass one is clearly much longer.

My Biggest Challenge Yet

Himself has returned from a week's volunteering on the FR which included a research trip into the darkest corners of Boston Lodge to view progress in the carriage works, and the photos he has sent back have confirmed my worst fears.

The new FR observation carriage 150 is going to be a complete and utter pain in the backside to scratch build!

Previously I've only seen a basic artist's impression and pictures of the skeleton framework.

Now they're putting the wooden flesh on the bones I can see that there are going to be two primary challenges - the roof with its curvy profile at the obs end, and the go-faster slope on the bodyside windows.

The roof on the model, is is clear now, will have to be made from brass just like with all the Super Barns. However, unlike them, there is going to be less scope to have a flat, false ceiling inside to keep the sides straight because it would be visible through the top of the end windows.

One way around that might be to solder a small lip beneath the brass roof to do the same job?

What's more it'll be very tricky to make that curvy valence at the top as a self supporting styrene structure. Along with the central pillar at the front it's going to have to be fixed in place only after the roof is bonded on.

I'm also beginning to think that it would be better to make the main bodyside sections as resin casts to make them more rigid.

Talking of casting, while rebuilt original-style Barn 106 was in the works he grabbed some good shots of its bogies.

One of my resolutions for 2015 is that this will be the year that we get around to producing our own, proper-sized, modern FR carriage bogies.

Steve at Narrow Planet has drawn up designs for a basic brass outline which is going to be test etched very soon and I'm intending to produce a resin overlay with the spring and axle box details as I have done for my South African wagons.

I shall, naturally, keep you informed of developments.