Most of the Rochdale society members are familiar with the sight of my 5”g Midland Railway 3F locomotive and its short rake of five mixed freight wagons with an LMS 20 ton brake van attached at the rear, trundling around the Springfield Park track on the occasions of the public running sessions. For some time I had been contemplating what form wagon no.7 would take as the choice would need to be a version of a prototype that would fit into an existing carrying box provided with a ‘top shelf’ when, in an effort to save space in the estate car, the box was originally constructed to house an earlier built 7 plank PO wagon. Hence the ultimate choice of a wagon with a low superstructure and a similar 9’6” wheelbase and chassis dimensions to that of the Railway Clearing House standard timber framed design.
The load the wagon will carry in service
A General Arrangement drawing of a MR wagon on the inside back cover of Dave Noble’s 2000 catalogue provided the inspiration, which together with the plethora of photographs and wealth of information gleaned from Bob Essery’s Midland Railway Wagons Volumes 1 and 2, enabled a full set of drawings to be prepared.
Completed chassis showing arrangement of timber framing
The chassis was constructed in accordance with the standard timber design of sole bars, buffer beams, longitudinals, cross members and diagonal bracings, sawn from a scrap hardwood shelf in an earlier life and initially glued squarely together on a flat surface with PVA adhesive. The buffers, stocks and backplates were machined or formed to MR style from ms bar and plate, the former being fabricated to a slightly simpler design that includes the spring within the confines of the stock rather than being located to the rear of the buffer beam where the spring reacts with an awkwardly positioned thrust plate between the diagonal and the solebar timbers.
Close up of brake side cam detail
The ‘W’ irons, ‘V’ hangers, coupling hooks and backplates were sawn and filed from ms plate and bar with the 3 link chains being formed with the aid of a small jig, the joints being silver soldered to prevent any risk of opening up under load conditions.
Midland 10A Ellis grease type axlebox
The 9 axlebox 5/16” wide spring leaves were fashioned from the steel banding commonly associated with securing bulky loads onto wooden pallets, although more recently the material appears to be something of a rarity in favour of some form of replacement hard plastic or neoprene strapping. The Midland Railway 10A Ellis pattern grease box type castings and 10mm OD bearings with 8mm bore were supplied by Dave Noble along with a pair of horse hook castings for the solebars; a kit of parts for the Moreton single sided type brake gear cams and levers and a copious supply of 10BA x ¾” coach bolts and nuts required for assembly of the various components of the superstructure. Use was also made of a pair of Doug Hewson’s moulded brake blocks.
Non brake side cam and lever detail
At the outset, construction of the wagon was to be an economic/time management exercise so rather than purchase a set of wheel castings that would require a full set of machining tasks, it was decided to utilise a pair of ready to run, 8 spoke 3’ 1” diameter wheelsets of the type supplied by Slater’s of Matlock Bath. Not wishing to get involved with the production of maker’s plates etc. a full set label pockets, builder and number plates, so essential for the ‘finished article look’ on the solebars, was also purchased from Bill Hall of Monmouth.
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
The superstructure side and end panels were formed from ¼” thick plywood, the individual grooves for the ⅝” wide planking being created by the use of a Xacto saw blade and triangular needle files. The hinge straps and various other necessary ironmongery components were fashioned from bits and pieces of ms rod and sheet with Doug Hewson supplying the fine chain required for the wagon side securing pegs and the brake rack lever locking pins. The protective strip along the top edges of both sides and ends was represented by the use of 3/16” wide brass boiler banding held in place with very small brass brads.
Underside showing detail of brake hangers, push rods, safety hoops, 'V' hangers and cross shaft
Painting and Livery. In Midland Railway tradition, everything below the solebars and buffer heads was painted black, firstly with a coat of grey primer and a further coat of satin black, both applied by aerosol can of the type produced for the motor vehicle finishing trade. The inside of the wagon body was left ‘au natural’ whilst the outside of the sides and ends were sprayed with two coats of the same light grey primer. The livery details were applied as a mixture of Letraset for tare weight and self-adhesive vinyl was utilised for the MR letters.
Dropside lowered showing hook fixing
Completed but unpainted wagon. At this stage with incorrect buffer backplates and later exchanged for circular pattern
Reference was made earlier to an ‘economic/time exercise’ so it may be of interest to prospective builders that my records indicate that the financial outlay amounted to £138.90 but this figure does not of course include the value of the various materials already in stock such as timber, ms plate and bar, springs and various other bits and pieces. The wagon assembly utilised 330 individual components with 512 nuts and bolts, screws, pins and other miscellaneous fixings being required to fasten the components together into a three dimensional form
Works plate detail and label pocket position and detail
On completion of the wagon construction, a short section of ballasted “show track” was put together in readiness for the wagon’s competition entry at the 18th Annual 2011 National Model and Engineering Exhibition at Harrogate. There being no class for ‘rolling stock’ it was included in the Locomotives 5”g - 7¼”g category by the organisers where it was awarded a Highly Commended Certificate.
The loose coupled freight
The 3F ready for work
Meanwhile, construction of wagon no.8 ……………………. !
GD July 2011 |
