A new brake van (and matching stock...)

[Miamigo259]

Some time ago, I bought a cheap Bacmann US 4-wheel caboose at a show as I needed the body off it for another scratchbuilding project.

The chassis was put to one side and stored with a view to its use sometime in the future........the time for which has now arrived!

I was looking around for a suitable prototype of a 4-wheel Brake Van to construct for my line by studying various books and the internet andsettled on one of the J & A Brown owned vehicles from the South Maitland Railway in New South Wales.
A photo of one can be found here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/malleeroute/7385194894/in/pool-1221873@N24/

Although the original was standard gauge, I wanted something "Colonial" in feel, rather than a straight UK prototype, and this fitted the bill perfectly. I did find a black & white photo showing one in one of my books, but the best source of information has been the internet and I have been able to study sufficient photos to make a start on the model.
The annoying thing is that I visited the preserved section of the operation - the Richmond Vale Railway - back in 2003, but didn`t take any photos of the goods stock there (which includes at least one brake van) due to film cost - a situation that doesn`t apply nowadays with the delights of digital photography!

The Bachmann chassis was stripped of the access steps and some of the other fittings, with suitable material cut to fill the resulting gaps. A pair of solebars were made from plastic strip and fixed to each side of the chassis and then coffee stirrers were used to make the platforms at each end.



Once the platforms were complete, further trim was added to the chassis prior to a start being made on constructing the bodywork.




To be continued....

 

[ge_rik]

Re: A new brake van

Good start and an interesting prototype. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Rik

 

[Miamigo259]

Have managed to get a bit more work done on the van.

I was going to scribe planking onto plasticard sides, but decided to use some more of the coffee stirrers that I have "in stock", so stuck these onto a plastic base to make the van sides.



After an initial coat of paint on the outsides, together with applying a two-tone colour scheme to the inside walls, the sides were attached to the chassis.



Now these are in place, the next job will be producing the ends of the guards compartment using the same method as for the sides....

 

[ge_rik]

Re: A new brake van

That looks brilliant. I like the idea of combining coffee stirrers with plasticard. My first brake van used just lolly sticks and was a devil to get everything square.

Mind you, it was one of my first scratchbuilds and has put in robust service ever since....

Rik

 

[spoz]

Re: A new brake van

An almost identical design was also used by the NSW Government Railways on coal trains without continuous brakes in both the Hunter and Illawarra areas. Known in Government service as the "CHG", ("HG" meaning brake van in NSWGR speak and the "C" possibly meaning coal, being third, or random!) and there were hundreds of them. At least one is preserved at the museum at Thirlmere. Other private train operators also had something similar, John Brown & Co for example.

Looks like it's going to be a nice model!

Steve

 

[Miamigo259]

Re: A new brake van

An almost identical design was also used by the NSW Government Railways on coal trains without continuous brakes in both the Hunter and Illawarra areas. Known in Government service as the "CHG", ("HG" meaning brake van in NSWGR speak and the "C" possibly meaning coal, being third, or random!) and there were hundreds of them. At least one is preserved at the museum at Thirlmere. Other private train operators also had something similar, John Brown & Co for example.

Looks like it's going to be a nice model!

Steve

Many thanks for that - I hadn't realised it was a design in wider use than the Maitland area.

I did an internet search and amongst several photos, I found a dimensioned drawing of one of the CHG vans, which has been of use in more or less confirming my estimated measurements!

 

[Miamigo259]

Not had much chance to progress the build for the past couple of weeks due to other things, but have now reached the stage where the verandah railings have been made for one end, using some plastic strip and wire. The wire came from some old magazine binders that I threw out a few years back, but kept the wire as I thought it might come in useful !



Ends have been fabricated for the guards compartment and fitted as well, as have some spare centre buffers off a Newquida open wagon.

 

[Miamigo259]

The completed article..........



I didn`t bother with fitting a horizontal handrail on the sides below the guards window, but the rest of it has followed the prototype, even down to the double roof - wood and a raised corrugated tin one mounted about 6" above it.

Just need to make a few of their 4-wheel wooden hoppers to go with it at some stage, assuming I can find some suitable chassis (or a narrow gauge version of a GCR/ROD 2-8-0 to pull it..........)

 

[ge_rik]

Re: A new brake van

Jolly good. Nicely finished off.
I do like those generous balconies. You could easily put a hammock, deckchairs and barbecue out on them

Rik

 

[mike]

Re: A new brake van

a credit to you sir!! a great build and cleverly done too..

 

[Miamigo259]

Having finished the brake van, it really needs some suitable rolling stock to go with it, so I have been giving some thought to the easiest way to do this. The biggest problem was finding a suitable (cheap!) chassis to base it on.
I have recently made some kits produced by Houston Gate Loco works and was impressed by what you get for a relatively budget price and wondered if their chassis would be of use. The problem us that they are a low, UK narrow gauge type of chassis, so don`t really fit into the style of running gear I was looking for. However, the `eureka` moment came when I happened to compare one of my Hartland 4-wheel wagons with a HGLW van and realised that the Hartland body would actually look better on a HGLW chassis, which would then free up the Hartland chassis parts for use on my proposed coal hoppers.

The prototypes on the South Maitland Railway looked like this..



so after making some estimates of the size of the model and constructing some suitable paper templates to check it looked right, I set to work with plasticard , cardboard and coffee stirrers (again..) and have reached this stage so far...



This will be the first of about 4 or 5 similar hoppers, so once complete, I can then set up a production line for the others!

 

[ge_rik]

Looks like a promising start. Those HLW wagon chassis are very useful - I've made quite a few wagons based on them (including the two wagons shown in my earlier reply).

Rik

 

[Riograndad]

Great little brakevan,nice build,the wagon looks promising too,keep us posted

 

[Miamigo259]

I`ve now finished the chassis for the hopper, with the Hartland wheels, sideframes and couplings all being re-used in the completed article.



The sideframes were cut in half and the wheelbase extended by 35mm. Various odds and ends of plasticard, strip, wood etc have been used in the construction.
After making the handbrake lever and assembly I had to produce some representation of the mechanism and brake blocks (which I wasn`t originally going to do) as it didn`t look right without it. You can get away with it in smaller scales, but not `G` !

 

[Gizzy]

Nice work Steve....

 

[Miamigo259]

The first of the wagons is now complete, with 3 others to follow at some stage. I have lettered it with the `CC` code of Cessnock Colliery (in NSW) though the letters are rather smaller than they should be, but I had some self adhesive letters & numbers in stock and didn`t fancy hand painting them - the `B` on the brake van (for J&A Brown) was bad enough!
Both the hopper and chassis carry running numbers, as the bodies were removed to unload the prototype wagons and it ensured the right bodies went back on the appropriate chassis!



A few other photos are included below to show its size in relation to the brake van and an HLW Mack switcher. The photos show the initial phase of the Ashington Colliery complex on my layout - ie the bits I have got round to building so far. Further buildings will be constructed over the winter. A more suitable shunter will be sourced as well
The large bogie hoppers of the Ashington Vale Railway, two of which can be seen in one of the pictures, were obtained from a trader at the GSS Stafford Show in 2014 and were scratchbuilt from wood using Bachmann parts. Don`t suppose anyone on here built them, did they?

 

[mole]

Hi there steve once again some nice model work there looked up that web site you sent me very intresting if you get a chance to come round to the open day here next week you could bring the models round

 

[Miamigo259]

Latest addition is a steel bodied version of the wooden hopper which was somewhat quicker to produce than the wooden bodied ones.

Body is just plastic sheet and is much more economical on the use of plastic strip, plus the addition of a coal load means that I haven`t had to detail the insides of the wagon. Some light weathering has been applied to the body of this one as well. Dumb buffers have been fitted rather than the single sprung style on the first wagon produced, again, as it speeds up the production time.



Two more wooden ones are in the course of production.

 

[jeremy.viewing]

Brilliant thread, really love the hoppers.

 

[Miamigo259]

Last two of the (current) batch - both wooden bodied hoppers - one in the markings of Abermain & Seaham Collieries (A) and one Hebburn Colliery (H)



More are likely to follow in the future, assuming I can obtain suitable HLW chassis, though I have 2 more of their wagons that could possibly end up being rebuilt with HGLW chassis.......