Sandy Shores - Building a brake van in 009 - Part 1

 

Despite having plenty to do already on Sandy Shores before Statfold Barn (not least, a fiddle yard rebuild and possible rewiring - which we'll start hopefully tomorrow, only a few days before I leave for Birmingham - eek!), there was something that I only recently realised was missing from the layout - a brake van. As you all probably know by now, most of the rolling stock on the layout consists of 4 wheeled flat wagons (designed for me by Mark Greenwood, and available from his website here). These flat wagons have no brakes modelled (the real ones didn't have any), and whilst the fictional location of Sandy Shores is presumed, being a spit, to be very flat, it occured to me that a brake van would still probably be a useful addition. Besides, I'm sure any extra train crew/railway workers would be grateful for a bit of shelter from the windswept and exposed spit!

Another reason for wanting one is that it adds further operational complexity. For some of you, that may sound like a reason to avoid it, but for a small layout like this, I think it's important to spice things up a bit and create added complexities. I can just about last a two-day exhibition operating the layout solo, but an extra step to think about would, in my opinion, be a welcome addition when operating the layout. Furthermore, the lack of a run-around loop means that a second engine is needed to park the brake van out of the way whilst shunting takes place. That will add a surprising number of moves to shunt the brake van to the end of the outbound train!

So what were my options? Well, there are of course a couple of RTR options from Bachmann, as well as a few Dundas Models (ex Parkside Dundas) kits. However, whilst looking for inspiration, I came across a photo of one on the Teifi Valley Railway (scroll to the bottom). This I liked much more; especially with its balcony on one end, and the visible framing on the outside. This posed one slight problem though - I've never made (well, certainly never finished) a scratchbuilt wagon before, and rolling stock in general is about the only thing I avoid building myself!

Above: The initial diagram can be seen on leftover packaging, with the start of the brake van body being created from 1mm plasticard. Note that I planned to add the supports for the balcony end of the roof later on as they would otherwise be hard to cut out (we'll get to that later!).

Taking a deep breath for a second, I realised that making dioramas for BRM in recent years has 'forced' me to teach myself new skills - including working with plasticard. With plenty of flat wagons at my disposal, I realised that making a brake van body to sit on a flat wagon would be no harder than constructing buildings that I've made out of plasticard previously.

Above: Going back a step, the upper side of a curved lintel overlay (Wills) can be seen to be about the right diameter to create the curved shape of the top of the ends of the brake van.

Suddenly, building a wagon really didn't seem that difficult (and so far, no different to creating a building, really). What's more, a fairly recent purchase made light work of assembling the components to create the body...

Above: ...York Modelmaking 'Magnetic Mates' were such a useful tool when assembling the bodyside of the brake van, and they helped ensure that everything was square. The cleverly-designed hole means that you can apply glue on the inside edge of the joint without gumming up the magnetic squares themselves.

However, I soon ran into quite a big snag with the build. When placed on a flat wagon, it looked, quite frankly, ridiculous! Part of that is because I measured the height to match that of my current coaches - which are quite low compared to the locomotives. The other part of that is because the flat wagons have a tiny wheelbase, and they are also much wider than all other wagons! The end result was this:

Above: Quite possibly the most ridiculous looking wagon ever created! The short wheelbase of the flat wagon really isn't suited to such a top heavy body, and that's before we even consider that it's far too short and squat.

Armed with that realisation, I knew that it had to be rebuilt, so I downed tools for the day, and came back to it the next morning with a fresh mind. Clearly, as endearing as the thought of the railway repurposing a flat wagon as a brake van is, it's not going to work with these particular examples! However, a quick search online brought up various flat wagon kits by Dundas Models. Handily, dimensions were quoted for the 'floor size', so one was duly ordered, and a new plan hatched...

Above: The floor size of the Dundas Models kit is quoted as 36mm x 20mm - much different from the 32mm x 25mm of my existing flat wagons! Measuring up the height of the O&K locomotive enabled me to draw a brake van of much more realistic proportions.

A couple things to note in the above photograph. Firstly, that I actually decided to attempt to cut out the vertical supports for the canopy end of the roof from the sides, rather than adding them in as a separate piece later. Secondly, that the extra length has meant that I can more or less match the prototype in terms of there being a longer cabin area. The whole thing looks far more 'narrow gauge' now!

Above: Happy with the changes, the parts could then be cut out. Note that, as always, it's best to cut out all the apertures BEFORE you attempt to cut out the components themselves. That makes it much easier to keep thin parts from distorting - such as the canopy supports. By the way, the curved lintel was again used to draw the roof shape, though this time the bottom edge was used - it being of sharper radius to match the narrower body.

Above: Here are all the main components of the body (aside from the roof) cut out. Note that, because the narrow ends will sit within the two walls, it makes it much easier to cut out the windows for the former!

Another improvement over my first version was that I modelled the door to be slightly ajar. Despite the very thin frame separating the door from the window, I was able to keep it all intact. It requires a lot of patience with a knife, and careful bending of the door by supporting the thin frame with fine-nosed pliers!

Above: Yet another improvement over the original was to very lightly scribe vertical planks onto the interior of the walls. Note my somewhat crude method of drawing perpendicular lines using one of the magnetic squares together with a steel rule - fine if you don't need long lines, nor so long as you don't apply much pressure! Something to mention, should you go down this route, is that anything more than one light pass of a blade would cause the plasticard to bend - you have been warned!

Above: Yet again, the York Magnetic Mates were useful when glueing together the body - though, unfortunately, they were 1mm too big to fit fully inside, so only the two walls shown in the photo could be glued this way.

Above: The rest had to be aligned by eye. This wasn't difficult per se, but there was a lot of fettling that needed to be done to get it all to sit relatively square. I figured, however, that time spent being careful here would pay dividends later on. I still somehow managed to glue two bits the wrong way round - thus I had to carefully pry them apart with the knife again before reglueing!

I'm certainly glad that I made the decision to lightly scribe the internal planking, as, although there are only small windows, it would annoy me if the inside was textureless. In any case, that'll do for this first part as it is now 2.30am as I write this! In any case, that's as far as I've got. Part 2 should probably cover the external framing and detailing. I'm not sure if I'll put in any internal detail - though I suppose a stove and stove pipe wouldn't be difficult to represent...

I'll leave you with one final montage showing the stark differences between the first and second version of the brake van!

Ps. Am I crazy to attempt a fiddle yard rebuild and a rewiring/new control panel in only 4 days?!