Garden Railway Forum

Thanks Phil for your advice on Plastikard today! I have some on order now to see if I can make the axle boxes fitted out with suspension.

Help me, I am becoming a rivet counter:

24.....................

philipy:107551 wrote:You could just make one spring I suppose, but then you'd need to make 4 individual castings per wagon, not just 1 set of 4.

In the distant past (pre laser cutters and 3D printers) when I made my own resin and whitemetal castings, I always made one pattern and multiple moulds. That way all the castings come out identical, without needing the skills to make identical patterns.

For really large quantities of parts, you can always cast several copies of the pattern and mount them for making multiple moulds with multiple parts. You need a double shrinkage allowance on the pattern though, if you intend to go down that road.....

Graeme

tom_tom_go:107546 wrote: I keep thinking of how to make the axle boxes look sprung though as it just does not look right to me without some kind of suspension?

The Glyn Valley got by without springs on their goods stock, as quarry products don't complain about the ride.......

Coil springs weren't unknown on narrow gauge stock and are easy enough to make. Wind soft copper wire around a rod, slide off and run some solder in a line to make the 'spring' rigid. Cut into lengths, file the ends flat, then glue in position over the axle box.

Graeme

GTB:107580 wrote: Coil springs weren't unknown on narrow gauge stock and are easy enough to make. Wind soft copper wire around a rod, slide off and run some solder in a line to make the 'spring' rigid. Cut into lengths, file the ends flat, then glue in position over the axle box.
Graeme

I did think about this but the axle boxes I have used don't really look like 'hudson' style of axle box as can be see from L&B stock below:

I think I am about done with this wagon. I wanted to fit a hand brake, however, the axle boxes stick out too far and catch the arm on the brake lever:





Colour wise, going to go for all black weathered look and add PW markings as it looks good carrying track ballast.

I will be using Plastikard more on my future projects, great stuff!

That looks fine. Good job well done.

tom_tom_go:108250 wrote:
I will be using Plastikard more on my future projects, great stuff!

I've been promoting the use of Plasticard for some time now so I'm delighted to hear from another convert how useful a material it is!

Nice job on the wagon...... more please!

Back in black:






The interior needs weathering, however, it is all coming together now it has some colour

Absolutely superb!

Very nice!
Where did you source the wheels and axleboxes, and the couplers?

Looks really good! I tried plastic angle as corner plates but the stuff I was using had a greater than 90 degree angle on the inside which was not good. What brand did you use?

Rob

Hello Tom,

what dimension did the wood strips have?
And could you maybe made a drawing and a
material list for these wagon?

yours

Markus

Hi,

The axleboxes are Accucraft L&B with Plastikard added for the leaf springs.

The price has increased since I purchased these a while back (£7.50 from TrackShack now) so I would go for the IP IoM offerings which will look good at £6.50 with the springs as part of the casting.  They also include brass bearings.

The wheels are again Auccraft L&B 25mm, 32mm gauge

Rob, the plastic angle is from a DIY store here in the UK called B&Q.  You could try metal angle instead which should not have any deformities.

And (yes you guessed it), the choppers are also Accucraft.  They are shortened although I am still trying to perfect this process and keep makng mistakes ruining the coupler housing on some sets (very annoying and costly).  My next attempt at one will be with a mini hacksaw with the coupler housing bolted onto a plank of wood which I can then clamp in my vice.  This should allow more accucrate cutting (hopefully).

The safety hook/chains is from BrandBright and fixed under the chopper.

If more people are interested I can do some measurements and a drawing although it might take me a couple of weeks to fit in round work/family life.

Tom,

The iron work on the sole bar in front of the W irons, I.e the 2 vertical straps and the inverted ‘horseshoe’; where did you source those from?

Paul_A_C wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:39 pm Tom,

The iron work on the sole bar in front of the W irons, I.e the 2 vertical straps and the inverted ‘horseshoe’; where did you source those from?

These are white metal castings from IP Engineering:

http://www.ipengineering.co.uk/page94.html

The price has gone up since I bought some, does anyone else supply these maybe using plastic instead to reduce cost?

Thanks, a tad pricey, but they would save a fair amount of time.

If more people are interested I can do some measurements and a drawing although it might take me a couple of weeks to fit in round work/family life.

Hi
I would be interested. I'm new to 16mm/SM32. I'm moving up a scale from Gn15 and I've yet to get my head around this larger scale.

Thanks

Andi