A very early example of the etcher's art. PDF version
The kit,
which used to be sold by MSC, arrives as a flat pack containing a sheet
of hard, bright, etch attached to sheet of stout card, various
castings in white metal and a set of Roxey lost wax
buffers. These have brass shanks and heads so
must be from an early production run since later sets
(obtained for the
large
Cambrian
horseboxes) contain steel shanks and heads. Fortunately, I have
two full
sets of steel buffer heads left over from that build to
use instead. The quality of etching is
good; particularly considering it is based on hand-drawn masters so there are inevitable minor
inaccuracies. It may well be one of the oldest
etched kits produced, being the work of the late
Peter Korrison, a skilled scratch builder, whom I
understand predates even Colin Waite. The
sheets are marked 'NEG 65', which suggests they may
have been drawn in 1965. I am
told that it was originally produced as an aid to
scratch building but it holds up reasonably well as a kit.
Included also is an eight page set of instructions,
which include a parts list and a list of etched
components. The last two pages contain
isometric drawings of seven figures referred to in
the instructions, except for figure 5. It looks
as though it refers to the vacuum cylinder so
perhaps originally no casting was provided. There is also a large, scaled,
drawing marked 'not 7mm scale'. These vehicles are to
form part of an NPC train that includes the Cambrian
large horseboxes, a GW
Fish-van
and 70' Newspaper van.
The standard of the white metal castings appears good, particularly the complex part for the springs and axle boxes. The strapping is, naturally, delicate but is easily fitted with a little care. However, great care is needed while removing fine and delicate parts from the frets. The tabs are quite thick and the gaps sometimes very narrow between parts. The white metal stanchions that fit on the ends come as two pairs with differently spaced pegs and lengths; neither of them fits the holes etched in the ends. Never the less, they will be easy enough to fit by eye with the pegs removed.
There are etched parts for the hinges but they are tiny, with no portion to bend at right angles to make soldering easier. However, suitable etch from the scrap box was forthcoming to make up a set of hinges that could be soldered in from the rear.
As
is my usual practice, I fitted as many parts as
possible while the sides and ends were still flat.
The door handles came from a set of Slater's lost
wax castings. The handrails on the step end
were measured from the drawing and suitable holes
drilled. Still to be fitted are the white
metal stanchions. There is no provision for
control gear at the step end and so, since it is a
prominent feature and fitted to the
large
horseboxes, some will be scratched up from brass and
wire.
The floor
with parts fitted for the solebars.
These have small ninety-degree turnovers at each end
however; they need to be removed, as they will foul
the buffer body shanks, which are quite meaty.
There are tabs at each end to fit matching slots in the body ends; they are a reasonably good fit requiring little fettling.
Some of the etched parts are extremely fine and there are parts provided for the grab handles by the doors and on the roof however, I elected not to use them in favour of 0.5mm wire instead; it is stronger and looks better too. The handrails at the step end need to be measured up and appropriate holes drilled as no anchoring points have not been etched in. The dimensioned drawing made that easy enough. Back to Top
The
alarm gear was made using some small scraps of brass
and wire.
The
wings on the ends of the rod are made by heating the
end of the wire to dull red when, once cooled, it is
flattened hard in the vice.
The completed ends how ready for fitting to the floor.
To fit the ends and compartment partition
required a jig so that the floor could rest on its
solebars. Some magnets and a couple of files
on the steel plate did the trick. The one at
the step was fitted first, then the partition and
lastly the other end, that way there is always space
to hold a small engineer's square to ensure a right
angle.
Once the ends were tacked in place and
checked a substantial piece of rectangular brass
tube was soldered into the join to strengthen it.
Once happy that the joints are solid and square, work can commence on fitting the sides, which requires care, as they are an exact fit. I used the corner jig to start the first corner of (see Siphon for details of this tool).
Finally, two bodies ready for fitting the underframe and roof.
The original buffer beams were made of wood and the suggested method of making them correct thickness is to use Milliput; I do not like the stuff and think it more fiddly than making some brass inserts. I cut eight pieces of 2x6mm brass rod long enough to fit behind the beam, realigning the base of each to a good right angle after each saw cut. These were set up in a jig on the steel plate and soldered together. The block was marked up and filed to shape; finally, they were unsoldered and cleaned up ready for fitting.
It was then a simple matter of soldering the parts in situ. A little fettling ensured they fitted the shape of each beam end correctly. It took a couple of hours but avoided messy fillers and the dusty process of cleaning it up once dry.
The
time came to begin fitting the wheel sets, one of
which is a rocking set to compensate the vehicle.
The trucks go together quite well the only
difficult bit being opening out the tiny holes in
the wheel bearing supports, a longish job with
broaches. The compensated truck is designed with two slots in the housing to fit
over fold up tabs under the floor.
Unfortunately, these tabs stand out so far from the floor
that the wheels would be several millimetres too far
from the floor and the vehicle would slope
dramatically from the groom's end downward.
I thought about this for a while since, it is now all but impossible to modify the pivot tabs without taking at least the sole bars off. Eventually, I came up with the following method.
I removed the pivots as in the picture
above right and filed the edges where they had been to line
up on the centre line of the floor. Then made
a new pair of pivots to be soldered inside on the
floor.
These were made using measurements from the wheel
truck and then
soldered in place on the floor inside, ensuring that
the wheels lined up correctly down the centre
line and across in line with the axle.
Very little movement is needed on the rocking
truck to effect compensation. All that was
required was a short length of 0.7mm wire soldering
on
the centre line of the truck.
On probable advantage I thought might be that the trucks could be made removable, which would have made painting that much easier. Sadly, it proved not to be, see later.
Had I not already built the body, it would probably have been possible to modify the pivot tabs.
White
metal parts ready now for fitting. The axle
boxes and springs are interesting in that they slot
over the edge of the solebar. Here they are cleaned up with
part of the fixing flange cut away for the
buffer shanks to operate.
The buffers are left
over from the large
Cambrian
horsebox,
used in lieu of the brass set provided in the kit.
They have been blackened because it is unlikely they
can easily be
removed for painting. However, I
did come
up with a method that may allow removal. A
piece of brass with a slot cut in it to take the
steel spring wire. Once the buffers are fitted
together with the spring, the brass anchor is fitted
and soldered in place thus. With care, it is
possible to remove them.
The
steps proved to be 'interesting', the etch includes
parts for the step supports as shewn here.
They are designed to be laminated in pairs but in my opinion,
would be far too
fragile.
Further investigation revealed that the
flat of the step boards
were a scale 4" wide while the drawing indicated
they should be 8" and, as a single layer, I deemed
them far too thin.
I scrapped them and decided to scratch some up from
brass angle and Slater's step board
supports,
which gave a more robust unit. The supports
needed modifying to allow for narrower step boards
and the removal of the fixing pins; the
steps
were then soldered in place on the solebar where
they look like the thick, rounded edged, planks that
would have been used on the real thing.
The roof is designed to be
removable
with tabs provided that are soldered into slots in
the roof corners. They work well though I had
to cut a few corners out to allow for the
strengthening parts I had fitted in the body
corners. The ventilator is made up from five
parts that fit well and makes a good
representation. It is important to get the
parts the right way up and then file a slight inner
curve in the base of the ends so that the whole
thing fits snugly into the slots in the roof.
Meanwhile
I have completed the underframe details, which are
simple. Again, as for the
large
horseboxes, I omitted the details behind the
wheels, as they are invisible in normal use.
Back to Top
The vacuum pipes needed modifying similarly to those on the large horseboxes but this time I joined the two parts together with some brass tube.
The final hurdle is the pair of long door hinges
on the end opposite the groom's compartment.
The parts are very fine and delicate; great care is needed removing them from the fret and cleaning up the tabs. I drilled out the holes 0.5mm before removing them from the fret. Parts not needed immediately should be left on the fret; there are no spares so losing any is not an option.
There is a clear drawing on how these parts go together so they were easy enough to fit, despite their delicate nature. I hope that they will survive painting and handling in the future.
A
final view of the pair ready for the paint shop,
which the customer is doing himself. I hope to
get some pictures in due course of them in service.
The kit has proved most interesting and something of a challenge but only because we fortunate modellers of today have access to modern CAD designed kits. This is more akin to a very good aid to scratch building. However, I think that any modeller with a modicum of experience could build it.
A copy of this review was sent to the manufacturer however, after several weeks he had not responded.