7mm scale Drummond 20-ton goods brake van in LMS livery.

Peter Drummond's 20-ton 6-wheel goods brake van entered Highland Railway service between 1909 and 1913, there were 16 of these 20 foot long vans, built with wooden under-frames. These original vans can be identified by the thickness of their wooden buffer beams, later 20-ton vans of this type were built with steel under-frames with characteristic "[" shaped buffer beams. Though the original design did not feature ramps to the roof lookout these were added to many of the vans quite early in their service by the HR so the guard did not bang his head when stepping up to the lookout. When the LMS took ownership they made few alterations other than fitting disc wheels and changing the livery. This involved moving the central lamp-iron upwards so the letter "M" would fit just under it, a subtlety that I noticed only after I'd painted the model and came to put the transfers on!  Photos of these vans in LMS days show that the continuous lower foot-board was cut away in front of the axle boxes, presumably to improve access, forming four separate foot boards each side, though my van has not as yet undergone this refinement.

The model is constructed from a nickle silver etch, one of my own "aids to wagon building". The ramped lookout seen here is a change I made following the drawing in Peter Tatlow's "HR Carriages and Wagons" and is quite different to the one the vans were originally provided with. 

Full construction details are to be found below in the March 2022 blog posting. I used Railmatch 611 freight grey as the base colour of this LMS version of the van, transfers are HMRS, couplings from CPL and  lamps from Slater's, with added brilliants.

I have a few etched sheets still in stock at £25.00 + postage if you'd like to add one of these vans to your collection, a great project for the modelling season ahead. 

 

7mm scale 20-ton 6-wheel goods brake van LMS d.12

Gauge 0 Drummond 20-ton 6-wheel goods brake van, LMS 294018

Portrait of a sheep van in 7mm scale.

8-ton double-deck planked sheep van in LMS days.

My recently completed portrait of 294528, was built from my own resin castings or "Aids to Wagon Building", it is based closely on the well known photo reproduced on page 169 of Peter Tatlow's "Highland Railway Carriages and Wagons". The van suits the early LMS grey livery, which accentuates the relief detail even though the ironwork is not picked out in black as it was in Highland days. Below you can see how much detail has been achieved using state of the art 3D printing for the masters and a high tech. resin casting process for production. 

I still have a few sets of 7mm sides and ends left  if you'd like to add a sheep van or two to your collection of HR stock. See my earlier post below for details of ordering.

The sheep van is also available as a 3D print in 4mm scale, see post below.

Detail of the brake lever and pin rack 

A high level of detail has been achieved in the resin casting process.