Building the Airfix 00 Mineral Wagon kit

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Retro build!

I seem to have collected quite a few of the Airfix railway kits of wagons and vans dating back to the early 1960's.  They can sometimes be picked up quite cheaply on 'the bay' and at model railway shows.  They are excellent kits considering they are mostly around sixty years old.  I prefer the original Airfix kits to the current Dapol versions as I find the plastic to be harder and more crisp than the modern offerings.  Also, when made, the toolings were new and the kit parts display virtually no flash.  Having said that, all power to Dapol's elbow for keeping the kits in production.
The Airfix kit represents the British Railways 16 ton mineral wagon to Diagram 1/108.  The prototype wagons appeared in several guises and straight off Airfix appear to have 'gone off the rails', so to speak.  The model depicts a wagon with two sets of independent brake gear, one each side, and not connected in any way.  This arrangement would have applied only to vehicles with a door in the floor where the brake shaft would foul the door.  The brake gear would have two v-hangers each side.  The Airfix kit has only one v-hanger each side and no representation of a door in the floor.  The usual arrangement would have been Morton brakes with only one set of brakes on one side of the wagon capable of being operated by a brake lever on either side. 


This is what is inside the box…
My aim is to construct the kit but to take the opportunity to upgrade or improve the model as I proceed.
The kit includes plastic wheels which I have discarded straight away in favour of metal wheels.   Two sets of brake gear are included and I will only be using one set.  The old Airfix couplings will also be discarded to be replaced by Bachmann NEM couplings.

Before commencing construction, all underframe parts were given a coat of black acrylic paint.
 
First off, the solebars were located. 

For smooth running I intend to use metal wheels with pin-point axles running in brass bearings.  The holes in the rear of the axleboxes were opened up with a small drill to take the top hat bearings, which were fitted with a dab of glue. The solebars were put aside and attention was now directed at the floor…
 Firstly, in order to fit the Bachmann couplings later on, the two raised circular bosses need to be cut away.  This was done with a scalpel and a few passes with a flat file finished the job.  The wagon will require some weight to keep it on the rails and to this end the two long central parts of the underframe needed to be removed.  This was achieved by running a scalpel along the bottom edges and cutting at the ends where they meet the cross beam. A pair of pliers soon had them removed and a small file cleaned up the job.
Terry

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The headstocks have four strange prongs moulded thereon.  These were originally for fitting either the Airfix coupling or an early version of the tension-lock coupling.  All four prongs should be removed.


One of the solebars was glued into place on the underside of the floor, setting it slightly further out than indicated by the kit instructions to accomodate the pin-point axles and brass axle bearings which require a tad more room than the original plastic wheels being pushed directly into the holes in the axleboxes.  Once the solebar was set, the second solebar was glued in place, at the same time locating the metal wheels between the axleboxes. After checking that the axles were parallel, the whole unit was placed on its wheels on a sheet of glass to ensure that everything was level with no rocking movement apparent.  A small weight was placed on the unit and it was left to dry.  The wheels used were metal three-hole wagon wheels from either Bachmann or Hornby.
Next, the headstocks were added as was one set of brakes. The brake levers are integral with the 
v-hangers and one was glued to each side of the wagon. Strictly speaking, the Morton brake should have a dog-clutch arrangement fitted to the lever on the side where the brakes are fitted. This ensures that the brakes can be applied utilising either brake lever.  Without it one lever would apply the brakes and the other would release them despite being pushed down . The kit does not take account of the dog-clutch arrangement.  It should be possible to obtain a suitable brake lever but I wanted to utilise as much of the original kit as possible, so have just fitted the lever as supplied.  I don't think it will be particularly noticeable at the normal viewing distance on a layout.
Here is the inverted underframe awaiting the fitting of a suitable weight and the  brake shaft between the v-hangers.

Terry

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I love these old Airfix kits Terry - as you say, they seem much better than the Dapol version, presumably because the moulds must now be almost worn out.

I'm interested in your comments about repositioning the sole bars to accomodate the bearings and metal wheels.  Did you just do it all by eye or is there some means of locating them ? 

I have a couple of ex Airfix brake vans, sadly the Dapol versions, but they do come with metal wheels.  I failed to get the wheels perfectly lined up so they have a few "steering problems" ………  I was thinking of changing the chassis for either Bill Bedford ones or, if they're the correct size, a ready made Dapol one ……….  Certainly somethings got to be done !!

'Petermac
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Hello Peter.  I just moved the solebars out to the edge of the floor.  Just be aware that any detail on the face of the solebar will be protruding further out than designed.  I love the British railways brake van.  My favourite vehicle.  Replacing the moulded handrails with wire improves them enormously, as does glazing. I have a number of them awaiting the paint shop.  Maybe I should do a thread on that kit next.  This could end up as a series of Airfix/Dapol kit builds!  I think I have a picture somewhere…

Those are the original Airfix transfers, but lesson learned here…next time paint the area beneath the transfers with gloss varnish to prevent air becoming trapped underneath leading to the 'silvering' effect.  Once the transfers are applied, spray the area with matt varnish to get rid of the gloss and secure the transfers.  The torpedo vent, a white metal casting, still requires painting black.  A lovely model and much cheaper than Bachmann's ready to run version.
Terry

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On with the mineral wagon.  I remembered that I have some lead shot hiding somewhere in the railway shed.  Ideal for this job.  The space beneath the floor was filled and superglue was dropped in to secure it in place…


A short piece of plastic rod was now glued in place to link the brakes with the lever on the opposite side of the wagon floor.  This will be painted black. 

Terry
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Time to fit the body starting with the ends.  One end is plain with two stanchions and the other is moulded to represent the end door.  It appears that the prototype wagons were always built with the end of the brake lever on the non-braked side of the wagon pointing towards the end door.  In other words, if you are looking at the non-braked side the end door will be to the right.  There is a raised lip on the rear of the end moulding which assists in lining it up with the edges of the floor, thus ensuring the end is central to the floor.  I found two small engineer's squares useful to ensure the floor was vertical. Take account of the small lip at the base of each end when placing the small square inside.  


Terry

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Both ends now in place…

Contrary to the optical illusion, the left end is vertical!
More soon,
Terry
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The wagon is coming along nicely Terry, looking forward now to what goes where next.

Always try to look on the bright side of life!

Barney
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You are obviously enjoying this build Terry and I can see why, as the venerable Airfix kit has such magnificent crisp mouldings! A  joy to behold.

Enjoy the remaining build, as I know we all will.

Best,

Bill

At 6'4'', Bill is a tall chap, then again, when horizontal he is rather long and people often used to trip over him! . . . and so a nickname was born :)
 
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Thank you Ron and Bill.
So, we come to the wagon sides.  The kit was designed to allow the side doors to open.  Unfortunately, this involved the inclusion of an overscale hinge arrangement which bears no relation to the prototype wagon.  I guess the opening doors feature was a sop to the toy market.  Let's remember that the original kits were pocket money toys and could be bought new for two shillings (ten pence decimal). This is what confronts us on the wagon side…

The curved protrusions at the bottom accept the pins attached to the door bottoms and form a crude hinge.

It all works quite well if you want opening doors and a non prototypical hinge arrangement.  I didn't want opening doors so I cut off the curved protrusions from the wagon sides and cleaned up with a small flat file.  Regarding the doors, I trimmed back the long protrusion to match the short one on each hinge, thereby forming a hinge which is more in keeping with the prototype.  The doors were glued into the apertures in the wagon sides.

One more job to do before fitting the wagon sides.  As it stands, if the sides are fitted at this stage, the door hinges will not be attached to the underframe and will be floating in the air. Small strips of styrene strip require fitting to the top of the solebar either side of the side door spring (the bit that stops the door crashing down onto the brake levers).  I use 20x40 thou.  This will give somewhere on which the hinges can sit.  You can see them in place here.  Unfortunately, I painted them before remembering to take a photo…

The sides were now glued in place between the ends.  This was the work of less than a couple of minutes…

We now have a free-running vehicle which is certainly looking something like the original.
More soon.
Terry

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One thing to mention.  The floor of the kit is a fraction too small.  When the sides and ends are added, there are small gaps in each corner and behind the doors. These can be easily filled and I will do this as soon as I have a delivery of new filler, my old tube having gone rock hard after many years.  The floor problem appears to be a design fault as other people have complained of the same thing during previous build of this kit.

The buffers were painted at the same time as the underframe and brake gear at the beginning of the build.  They have small spigots attached and are simply pushed into the holes in the headstock, or would do in a perfect world!  I had to open up the holes with a 1.6mm drill.  Ensure that the shortest of the four ribs on each buffer faces upwards.  I secured them with a lick of solvent.



Terry



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Time to deal with the couplings.  As previously stated, I am going to use Bachmann NEM tension-lock couplings on this vehicle. First off you require two Coupling Mounting Blocks designed for Bachmann couplings. I originally obtained mine from Parkside Dundas.  These can now be obtained from Peco under their Parkside banner.  This is what you are looking for…


The two 'feet' or 'runners' on each unit will not sit happily on our Airfix underframe so I removed them with a scalpel and sanded the bases to make sure they were flat…
 
In order to get the couplings to sit at the correct height, a small square of 30 thou styrene sheet was required as packing between the wagon underframe and the base of the unit.  Both were glued in place close to the axle…

The packing will receive a dab of black paint.
The couplings used are Bachmann 36-061 Short Straight NEM Coupling.  They come in packs of ten and like all Bachmann products have risen in price alarmingly over the last few years.
This how the wagon now looks…

I used a ready to run wagon to check the height of the coupling.
That is the basic construction finished apart from fitting the supplied coal load.  I think it has gone together quite well and certainly has the look about it of typical British Railways unfitted mineral wagon. 
Off to the paint shops tomorrow for a coat of British Railways Freight Grey.  I will be using enamel paint from Precision Paints.
Terry

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