Advice on removing waggon brake platform

[Henri]

As brake platforms were not used in the real life of my training interest (RTM Rotterdam) I want to upgrade a couple of old cheap boxcars I have (two yellow Chiquita’s)

i think most work is done by shortening the chassis in the middle and removing a purge from the roof?

I am sure others have been there, done this before so I’m looking for advice! Thanks!



Here is the Milk waggon which is a nice example to model out of one of the Chiquita’s

 

[Henri]

 

[PhilP]

Now if I was clever..
I would direct you to David1226's threads on his good's stock for the Claptowte Railway..

David?

 

[a98087]

Easy to do, especially if you use the standard Lgb 300mm chassis, which is what you’ve got in the picture.

remove 4 body screws from underneath,
Unclip the balcony, cut chassis in half, and then remove a short section of chassis.

then re attach the chassis, one side will use the existing screw holes, the other will need new holes.

hope this helps and here’s a picture of one I did recently, it’s the first wagon behind the loco

 

[a98087]

Option 2
I haven’t done this yet, I’m still collecting parts, but it’s something that might tempt you,

these 2 photos I saved from an eBay auction as I quite liked them

I think it’s two wagons with the bodies cut in half, and then swapped about.

it’s more as inspiration for your impressive modelling Skills
Dan

 

[Henri]

Thank you!! Very inspiring!

 

[dunnyrail]

Chopping the chassis is not such a big deal, just remember to put plenty of strengthening plastic inside the side channels. If you are a real belt and braces sort of a guy ally strip with small nuts and bolts will also work.

I think I may have wrote up what I did in the old Mad days, I get a little agitated about the length imbalance on the Toy Train Wagons. One end has longer couplings than the other so on these 2 vans I did a cut and shut. Making one longer with 2 balconies by using the longer couplings and chassis end. The shorter one was using the shorter couplings with no balcony. A similar job could be done to just shorten an existing chassis. in case you wonder the under-frame in the shorter one is a spare Bachmann Tram Side-frame that I picked up at a show.

Of course with your vans there is the option of a Body that comes without any balcony, but sourcing the right one may not be what you want in terms of cost.

 

[Henri]

The Toy Trains become too short when removing the platform. At least for my prototypical examples.

in stead of shortening the 30cm chassis lengthening the body is a very good idea. The gap can e filled by widening the doors! Clever..!!!

 

[David1226]

PhilP made reference to my threads on converting LGB Toy Train wagons for the Claptowte Railway. I used Toy Train wagons for cheapness (I was going to cut them up anyway, so clean used examples could be bought relatively cheaply on Ebay or off trade stands at shows), but I also wanted standard length wagons to use on a shunting puzzle. If you look up my conversion threads you will see that I spent a lot of time adding bits and repainting in order to produce quite well detailed models, I can be a bit of a stickler for detail, although I am very much not a rivet counter, I just like to make things look right. Having said that the fact that the wheelbase is 'off centre' does not worry me in the least, I never think about it. When a train is trundling around, indoors or outdoors, at normal viewing distances, I doubt that very few people would even notice it, and, if they did, they would be so overawed by your audacious use of a toy to produce an acceptable model, they would only stand and applaud your efforts. (oops, that sounds rather egotistical, it's not meant to, it's meant to be encouraging). Of course none of my stock is meant to be prototypical, they are all freelance designs out of my head.

I have attached a link to one of my conversion threads to show how I deal with the Toy Train balconies.

The Claptowte Railway - Open wagon conversion - G Scale Central





David

 

[dunnyrail]

The Toy Trains become too short when removing the platform. At least for my prototypical examples.

in stead of shortening the 30cm chassis lengthening the body is a very good idea. The gap can e filled by widening the doors! Clever..!!!

Just done some measuring and more pics of my mods.

This is the long wagon which when cutting up the 2 long ended coupling bits gave me a chassis length of 25cm.

I keep on saying this but I must do something about that B roof!

The short one comes to 19.5 cm chassis length.

Here are the two van types with or without balcony, they scale in at 26cm chassis length.


Non balcony opens use the the same chassis or similar to the van but the balconied ones use a somewhat longer chassis as can be seen below.

 

[Henri]

What a wealth of information!!! So many thanks for sharing everyone’s experiences!!
Much appreciated!

 

[Gizzy]

Haven't cut down any wagons, but I did cut down a NQD coach once to make a driving trailer....

 

[Henri]

After 30 minutes...

 

[a98087]

Looks good so far, please keep the pictures coming

Dan

 

[Henri]

After a few hours this afternoon. Too bad the top rails for the sliding doors were glued into place, otherwise I could have used these for rigidity. Unfortunately I had to cut them. Now the area above the sliding doors is not very sturdy, but when the roof is on there is more than enough support.

I did make my first ‘fake wood’ and it was really very easy!

 

[Henri]

New doors. Not 100% happy yet with the groves.
And it needs more details!

 

[Henri]

The doors were modified today. I made them more narrow as they were almost square, now they are much more rectangular. Also gave the imitation rivets a try. MAN these are SMALL!!!
So far I’m very happy with the result! The crossmember on the door is prototypical RTM.

 

[phils2um]

It's too bad there's an ocean and customs agents between us. I'd have happily traded 300mm standard LGB chassis for your 330mm balcony chassis. I would have even been willing to offer some coin of the realm to sweeten the deal! I would like to have the balcony chassis for my rubber rulered RhB gons and box wagons that are missing brakemen's platforms.

 

[playmofire]

The redimensioned door looks much better, Henri. A small change but a good one.

 

[Henri]

Ok now I‘m started I just might get it completely right.