The plan is to recommence active modelling with a motor luggage van as used on the Southern Region.
Background
The motor luggage van story is well told by Blood and Custard which has the story from from start to finish. The Class 419 units have largely been preserved and there is a huge amount of photographic reference courtesy of Brian Daniels on Flickr recorded in 2014 when the vehicles were located on the East Kent Railway.
The base of the model is from a relatively new supplier (to me at any rate) Gosport Railworks which the owner commenced in relation to his own modelling endeavours but has extended to a range of locomotive and electric multiple units produced through 3D printing. Until recently I had been looking at the Rue d’Etropal models (also 3D printing) which, for the moment at least with the closure of Shapeways, are no longer available.
I am hoping to tell the journey from bare model to finished model – but probably with whimsical wandering along the way.
Bare Model
So a few emails exchanged with Gosport Railworks and before payment he supplied some photographs of the print. I could see that the solebars were a little distorted. Bearing in my the typical viewing position for all models I accepted that this was not sufficient reason to reject the model. Packed in a suitable box delivery was in much less than a week from making contact to arrival.
This is a photo of the model effectively untouched as it was delivered. The battery boxes dominate the left hand end of the bodyside and surface generally looks good.
Flipping the model over shows the underside which I have ordered with the intention of adding a powered chassis. I believe it is possible to order a version with underframe (but no bogies) which then works as an unpowered vehicle. The cross struts are to provide some strength but these will be removed to allow a chassis to be placed there.
Here is the cab end of the MLV far larger than real size and demonstrating that even in N it is possible to build a lot of detail – probably more than I could add by hand.
The main tasks are:
- Chassis – under consideration – some titivation of the chassis will be needed I suspect.
- Paint – BR Blue/Grey seems most likely although overall blue (one MLV was in this livery) is being considered.
- Third rail pickup beam and shoes – no obvious solution.
- Buffers – source uncertain at the moment
Chassis
I have been contemplating a number of possibilities.
Gosport Railworks recommends using a Tomytec TM25 chassis and so one was ordered from Osborne Models and arrived rapidly. This will probably be used but I have other possibilities. I will run it in first and check all is well with the unit and what can be done. There is little room for underframe detail as the motor sits low in the frame but it is of the right size in terms of length so relatively straightforward.
Next up is a chassis which was once under a Farish Railcar which I acquired (second hand) some years ago. At one point I am sure I had it working – but given its age it is again showing signs of split gears and has been sent away for service by a third party – so we will see if it can restored to some form of working order – I have undertaken such repairs in the past but this time could not work out which gears had gone.
Final option is far more complex. Some years ago it was suggested in print that a Class 101 chassis can be used under emus and I want more emus than just the MLV. A little while after the suggestion I bought a supply of class 101 multiple units but never made any progress – and life intervened. I have started a separate article which will discuss the entire saga to get from a class 101 short chassis to one which will fit under standard BR/SR emu stock – I have at least four to convert but the first one will take time – hence probably going with the Tomytec chassis.
Long term if the old Railcar chassis can be utilised that would be useful; short term getting the Tomytec working would get a moving model and prove the entire concept of making a functioning emu. Medium term the conversion work on the 101 chassis can be a testing ground for further models – either from Gosport Railworks or another supplier plus items on hand.