Garden Railway Forum

Very nice work, the addition of little details really helps to bring them to life.

Currently it can haul all all sixteen axels behind it inc Brake Van but it is quite long and did struggle in the wet weather today so I think maybe restricting it to 5 or 6 wagons max.

Wow. You must have really weighted those wagons down. From what I read from others here Lady Annes can haul significant trains!

The wagons and brake vans look great though. I love the extra details you've added to the brake van.

Thanks chaps

Aye I certainly have. Inside each is a 4oz fishing weight. Truth be told they may not actually need it but the track now and previously has been laid quite rough so the extra weight should help them stay on track if not just keeping the little lady working hard.

The IP stuff is just great as a basic building block for your own improvements no matter how simple and a lot of the upgrade came from spare wood from the bit holding the kits together.

Your colorful and individual wagons have a certain quirkiness, I like the outcome.

The rebuilding begins. Originally I had glues the coal yo represent full rakes. In hindsight I realised thus was a mistake as I like empty stock as well as full rakes. So the plan is to completely revote my stock once again. I'm removing the vacuum braking from the coal Wagons and giving them to future stock. It saves a bit of money and I like representing the full standard gauge equivalent with non fitted mineral stock and fitted merchandise and coaching stock. It'll also give me a chance to play around with lamp codes.
Overall the first wagon came out pretty neat once the wooden supports and weights where removed and sanded down. There has been an additional plus with the coal weathering the interior automatically.

Really impressed with your wagon builds and the livery's are brilliant. Hope the refurbs go well..

Why thank you. They're all works in progress and for the moment continue to be.

So, whilst continuing the the trend of updating and modifying current stock I set my mind to the brake van. Going back a few posts (and many many years ago) I built my brake van. At the time I was fairly happy with it, I had made something that was detailed enough and had a little play value with adjustable safety chains and removable roof. Moving forward - I was quite embarrassed by it. In my haste I messed up the chassis slightly. As we all know a slight mess up of the chassis does, without doubt, lead to catastrophic running. Added to that the roof was a bit of a pig to, it resembled one of the early Ffestiniog bogie coaches but it wasn't the look I had actually wanted. In the end the many years of abuse by movie power and derailments took it toll and it pretty much fell apart.

So off to the works it went.

What I love about IP Engineering and Brandbright (amongst others) generic stock is the allowance to enhance them considerably.

Taking it apart wasn't too difficult the chassis was already compromised - replacing these wheels and soles bars with strips of wood and a Swift sixteen wheel set.

The test fits showed they worked quite well but the size of the Swift Sixteen axle boxes force me to use thinner steps - TBH I could have used the originals but I've decided to use them for a possible future project.







Next up was a new roof. As mentioned before I wanted to have something different from the generic Brake Vans you see trundling around. (No offence, they are all lovely brake vans you've got). So looking through some ideas I was particular inspired by the us cabooses and NER Birdcage brake Vans (being a Teessider it just seemed natural) and a kit I saw on the Smallbrook Studio's website. Some cutting up some ply wood and wooden stripes I fashioned a new removable roof. I could have done it was one removable piece but it was easier to brake them into three sub components, the removable roof, the bridge cage and the verandah which was be fixed.











Finally a relatively new interior was fashioned compromising of some of the original parts with some new bits. New lockers (and platforms for the birdcage) seating and a modified stove & brake valve were created from crap bits of wood, foams board and plastic.



Finally the under frame was enhanced with parts from Cambrian Models and IP engineering including claps brakes and footboard brackets. The the vacuum cylinder and holdings were scratch built.



Finally the roof was canvassed with black frabic bought from my local Boyes and glued down with Gorilla Wood Glue as testing showed this didn't seep through when glue down with the slightest pressure.











And there you have it. Unfortunately I must have glued the wheelbase on wrong as the wobble is technically still there however I've made the axels float so all wheels make contact with the rails which will help towards preventing the derailing.

That looks very good, thanks for sharing.

Hi Sylvian Tennant,

I think your brake van is one of the best I've seen, I'm impressed and not a little envious! Well done on such a high quality rebuild, it's something you should be very proud of. The livery really suits it too.

SVLR Andrew

A fine build. It looks grand, inside and out.

Thank you everyone.

It was quite an enjoyable rebuild. Much more than my current 009 gauge one.

As mentioned before the IP Engineering stuff particularly are nice and simple kits both in the build and their design. I've found just a little more effort in them than the one Brandbright kit I've made but not by much.

So a while back I bought four more of the generic van kits with the intention of creating some individual ones for specific traffic. Currently I've built up the bodies including and omitting the strapping I'll need for each other. The brown one was my original which I'm rebuilding. It'll continue to be a general merchandise van but with one or two extra bits.



Can you guess what they're going to be?

I'm eventually planning to get more vans to modify, again for different duties as well as maybe a couple more based on variations on the typical box van.

One thing I am going to do to enhance all my wagons is to replace the axle boxes they come with, with the small leaf strung ones. They are a smidge smaller than the kit ones but not each to cause any hinderance, I'm also going to add some representative bracing along with rivets and brake gear obtained from Cambrian Kits.

One issue I've found with extending my stock was the run around loop is really not up to task for allowing anything longer about about four or five short wagons plus Brake Van and anything longer (such as the Newqida tanks) will allow even less so it'll be extended just about a foot or so. It was a slap on the forehead moments as after believing I had lost one of my double straights, it turned up just after ballasting.



This will be a job for the next few months whilst the weather gets better but the winter has taken it's toll on the garden so unfortunately it'll have to wait until other jobs are done. what's more, one of the points I bought was a bit of a dud so it'll be replacing as will the lever as they were prone to cat and toddler damage. On the subject of terrible toddlers, the head of the Permanent Way has already made a start on removing the ballast.

I like that birdcage brakevan very much - with the red livery it's got a pleasingly caboose-y vibe too, albeit a very NE England one!

The van train's going to be impressive. I'm guessing a blue one for fish, a white one for meat - and a yellow steam-heated banana van?!!

Glad your little one's keen - it's remarkable how little damage mine did to the railway over the years...

Andrew.

Thank you, again being in Teesside, it feels a little more natural to have something representative. Something I wished I had gotten by Lady Anne in the green so I could have done her as an NER loco.

He loved trains and most other things with wheels. Just active encouraging really, one thing me and my dad never did - hence why I'm into trains and not football. To me it's really important, but also to not get too precious about it. So far so good through.

You're not far off! The current rake will be representative of standard gauge stuff but not adhering to any one railway/era. There will be two single vent general merch vans one planked and the other plywood (I just turned the ends and sides the other way around). I'm considering doing one with planked sides but plywood doors - they're based on the BR versions. There will be a meat van based on the BR Meat van in crimson (or Mice Red...) a fruit van (based on the GWR Fruit A van) and an insulated van inspired by the NER type. Quite conservatives colours but I'm hoping to get a little more adventurous when Time, money and a line extension allow.

Ah, I was on t right lines! For a while I was working on a version of the Fry's factory at Somerdale and have a 16mm-ified BR standard van half completed - I was planning a GWR "Tevan" for outgoing chocolate too...

Alas, my teenage children no longer share my fascination with the garden railway, but they tolerate my hobby with great fondness...

Awh bless them, I'm not looking forward to that day but it happens. Even I veered away when I was younger but got back into it big time as I had a girlfriend in Liverpool which required regular train journeys.

Ah, I remember that project. Was really impressed and thought about doing something similar myself but the punishment I put my stock through it wouldn't have lasted. I also remember the Hornby style station halt you made, I was really impressed by them both - I've worked with some foamboard with some decent enough results but that station was brilliant.

So cracking back on with the wagons, and whilst the other half takes the little one to see his nanny. I took the opportunity to create some bits for the van rake. Thew pasts so far have just been pieces of Balsa, plasticard and triangular plastic strip along with rivets from Cambrian models.



As mentioned previously I'm turning one into meant van.




The basis of this is the BR 12T version as this has more overt detail differences.

I've also built up some vents for the generic vent vans again - based on the BR 12t types.



One atonal thing to make those who are not familiar with IP kits is sometime they include spacing lines to have identify where the sola bars go and others do not. I've found for 45mm gauge stock create two line 60mm apart should suffice, the three line going across the width are to help show where the wheels are going. For these models I'm going to have a 50mm wheelbase.

I also managed to make the vents for the fruit van.



I'm basing this on the GWR type so it requires double vents at the top and either side of the ends.



The basal wood vents and plastic surround were cut and sanded down to profile, along with the complimentary Cambrian rivets.

I really like the details you're adding to each van - vents etc. They really bring them to life!

Rik

This is great stuff and shows what a difference a little detailing can do.

Cheers guys.

I'm hoping it all pulls off in the end. Still a way to go but most of the body fittings have been completed.

I've managed to get the main bits for the refrigerator wagon sorted.



This is loosely base don the LNER refrigerator van and will be painted accordingly. The vents unlike the real thing stand proud as it just seemed easier to do this way. The ladders are repurposed from the signals I built a while back (I'll be eventually returning to them).



The fittings have just been place don loosely so this definitely will not be the final positioning,

In other news, the brake van was tried out yesterday and much to my surprised it performed admirably. The floating wheels kept contact on the track work which had suffered the ravagers of white and rain. The loco and wagons, however didn't seem to be enjoying the rough and ready track.



Yet again the apprentice wheel tapper was more than happy to lend a hand - once he finished. his brew.