Great Northern Railway Ventilated Van

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

I recently obtained this D&S kit from the collection of Dave Hamilton, one of our area group members who sadly passed away a few years ago. It’s always nice to have something to remember people by so I was keen to get it built.

The kit went together very well with superbly fitting parts. I used the Prickly Pear semi-sprung suspension system, cutting the springs and axleboxes from the kit W-irons and fitting them onto the new etched brass ones. The finished wagon runs very smoothly, and while I don’t compensate or spring wagons as a rule, I must admit I am now considering it for future projects.

The left one in this view!

[Paul TomlinsonParticipant]

Stuart, that looks a fine wagon. The Prickly Pear suspension interests me – I know little about the company as the owner prefers to avoid the www/e-mail, but I should phone to obtain a paper price list? It looks like you’ve used nickel silver as the spring wire, the other day there was a post on WT giving details of a supplier of single guitar strings in thicker gauges than I’ve seen before, which I found very useful. Did you use one of the jigs from Brassmasters to align the axles? I’ve been working on a 7mm Brake Van, which uses sprung w-irons from Connoisseur Models, which gives a smooth ride. Cheers.

Link to the string supplier :
D'Addario

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[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Hi Paul – the springs are brass wire, as recommended in the instructions. Paul can be quite hard to track down – the address isn’t even on the instructions, though he does attend the odd exhibition. Perhaps the brass is adequate as they don’t actually support the weight, just allow a cushioned movement of the wheelsets. And prevent the body flopping about of course.

Yes I used the Brassmasters jig – from the same source as the kit, and can’t believe I’ve made do without one for the last 40+ years of wagon building!!

 

[Paul TomlinsonParticipant]

For a few quid, that jig makes life a lot easier! All the best.

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