Brake Van Bash

3Valve

3Valve

Railways; Air cooled VW's; Soul Music
Country flag
Picked up a scratch-built brake van about 5 years ago.  Originally started life as a double verandah brake, very GWR Toad inspired.  Beautifully put together from timber with some plastic fittings and metal rivets etc.  However to me it looked a bit too standard gauge, so I decided on a revamp.

First job take off one of the Verandah`s and shorten the chassis.

Next remove the home made wooden buffers and fit Accucraft couplings

Then remove the huuuuge wheels and replace with Accucraft L&B discs - originally a nightmare job until I realised that I could make them fit on the axles that the original wheel were fitted too.  The whole project went on hold to two years until I sussed this out.  Just couldn`t get my head around how to get the Accucraft wheels to fit the existing brake van chassis.

"Front" end now having it`s verandah removed had a new end wall made up from the bits removed and a collection of good old reliable coffee stirrers, which got it to this stage: -

brakenotop.jpg
brakenotop1.jpg
brakenotop2.jpg
 
New roof was made from Plasticard.  the old roof was really well put together with what looked like old black plastic pipe material covered with cloth tape and bent around plywood formers.  Cutting it down was going to be a real faff hence the decision to fabricate a new roof.

brakeroof.jpg
 
Next up - stove-pipe.  The previous builder had put in a really nice interior with cabinets, brake stand and bot-bellied stove.  So it had to have a stove-pipe.  I wanted something similar to the stove-pipe on the Welshpool and Llanfair brake (the one modelled by Accucraft), rather than a straight pipe.

Made up the stove-pipe from the barrel of a plastic pen, plasticard disk and a short length of plasticard tube.  With the stove-pipe on I could get it primed:-

brakprime.jpg

brakeprime1.jpg
 
Now then did anyone spot my deliberate mistake in Post #1?

Should`ve changed the wheels before fitting the couplings.  What a stupid rookie mistake.  Now the coupling height was all wrong.

Soooo, we drill new holes and relocate the couplings, then give the roof a couple of coats of Halfords Lada Cream over white primer.

Finally touch in the handrails and top of the stove-pipe in black, then try it outside with some stock (to check that coupling height).

Job done.  Just the tail lamp to mount and lettering to do, once I`ve decided on the name for my railway (yep, having a railway naming crisis)

brake.jpg

brake1.jpg
 
A very neat job, and very smart looking. Your wheel solution shows the value of setting projects aside for a time. One of my projects started as an idea in 1997 and came to fruition in 2006.
 
A very good job done there Gareth!
Looks totally spot on
 
Thats a lovely brake van :)
 
Just love scratchbuilt stock, especially for smaller wagons, looks more romantic and realistic than some of the injection moulded gear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom