Don't do as I did!

The first job was to rout out a large chunk of the solid moulded bench, during which operation I managed to knock the chimney off. 3D prints like this one are rather brittle: I had the feeling that the lamp irons would also need replacing before long. I put the body to one side and started on the running gear. I found I had some phosphorbronze etched units that looked as though they could be fitted in the space available. To aid installation I decided on soldering them to a piece of 0.13mm brass sheet using a jig milled from a piece of wood to ensure the axles would be parallel and at the right spacing.

 

 

I measured the need for washers, and fitted the wheels to axles with their pin points removed. Pieces of lead were cut and added to the brass sheet after soldering a piece of channel to stop the sheet bending under the weight. At this stage a start on the brake gear was also made.

Work then moved on to the body. The holes in the body side were filled with Milliput and then drilled to take handrails bent from 0.3mm wire (the prototype was only 5/8”). Whilst fitting these I managed to break one lamp iron (replaced with bent nickel silver strip) and one veranda side, the latter being repaired with superglue. A roof strip was made from 5thou brass and rivets embossed: unfortunately I made it rather too wide.

 

 

Floors were cut from 1mm plywood and scribed to show the 7” planks.
Wet sand boxes and locker/seat for the verandas were fabricated from polystyrene sheet and strip and partially painted before fixing to ensure no paint went on the floors.

Glazing was cut from thin plastic sheet and fixed in the apertures with Micro Kristal Clear. The door plating was made from 5 thou plastic. Subsequently turned brass door catches from "51L" were added as these are a good representation of those shown on the drawing; but a later photo shows a lifting latch. I wonder whether this was a change on building or during service.

A piece of wood was milled to form the kickboards, including the drainage spaces and attached with PVA glue.

The hinged bars across the entrances ("staples" on the drawing) were made from 0.3mm wire fitted into slots sawn in the veranda body top and small brackets glued to the cabin body. I made no attempt at making them work!

Finally, a representation was made of the lever for operating the dry sandboxes inside the cabin.

 

Work now returned to the running gear. The axle box and footboard mouldings were now offered up to the body and it was discovered that the outer footboard supports were at the ends of the headstocks rather than in-board: clipping them in place resulted in the footboards bowing downwards in the middle so all the supports were broken off and the rear of the footboards filed flat. Supports were bent from 0.7mm brass wire fitted through holes drilled in the solebars and tiny bits of strapping from 5thou plastic added.

At this stage the sub-floor with wheels was epoxied in place. The buffers were added, with a tiny sliver of plastic at the bottom edge to compensate for the step between veranda and headstock. The ride height of the wagon was checked and the suspension units tweaked until this was OK. Links for the couplings were fabricated, noting that these were longer than those normally fitted to wagons, etched coupling hooks and backing plate were blackened and fitted.

A big oops: the brake gear proved to be a major problem, apart from the tiebars between the shoes. The operating screw beneath the brake column could not be fitted because it would foul the phosphor bronze springing units, similarly supports for the operating levers at each end could not be added. So if you want decent brake gear in a P4 model you will have to design a different suspension system.

The bottoms of the dry sandboxes were made from 5mm square polystyrene and the pipes from 0.7mm brass rod. The pipes for the outer wet sandboxes were fixed into lumps of milliput and 0.3mm bracing struts added.

Tiebars were made from 0.5mm brass wire with the ends flattened to fit the bottoms of the W irons.

 

 

The brake standard was turned from brass with the handle made from wire, partially flattened. Can you spot the bit that's missing?

A replacement chimney was turned up from brass rod. With memories of how difficult the one was on my RR van, I chickened out of making it properly so it's simply a single solid piece.

Painted and some of the lettering done with HMRS Methfix transfers, slightly on the large size but better than I could do by hand. The "Pontnewynydd" will have to wait until I get some transfers printed: weathering should then follow.