Highland Railway D.4 Van

Plate 1. Railway workman RW6 in nonchalant pose beside HR d.4 van

The nonchalant workman is ref: RW6 from Pete's own "Heroes of the Footplate" range of 1:43 scale figures.

Plate 2. HR d.4 Van from a "Lochgorm Kits" etch, with additions.

I made a few additions and alterations to Lochgorm's Highland Railway d.4 Van...

I dispensed with the "rib and stringer" construction inside the roof and simply added a curved rib at each end and doubled the thickness of the roof all round with 0.45mm strip. I think this ensures an adequately robust roof structure. The roof can be removed though I can't see any reason why it needs to be; I think I'll glue it down to stop it rattling over the points.

I added a simple door fastening with a security chain made from twisted 0.2mm wire for the peg.

The ride height of the van needed adjusting which I achieved by adding more metal to the vertical rib that supports the rocking-axle tray.

The upper riveted corner plates when soldered to the side top rail and folded didn't meet the end top rail, they were in the air. I thickened the end top rails with short lengths of 1 x 1mm brass section which allowed the corner plates to seat snugly, you can see this modification in Plate1 above.

I made new brake levers as I found that when I'd removed the cusps from etched levers there was practically nothing left! I added lamp irons to the sides and ends in the positions indicated on the drawing supplied... and I made those little chains and pegs that dangle from the brake guards and are used to peg down the brake levers.

The axle boxes I found were oversize, so I modified them by sawing a square of metal out of the back so the bottom of the spring sat on the axle box. Then I cut away enough of the top of each axle box at the front to ensure that they didn't mask the springs, which I think much improved the look of the van below the sole bar. I had to cut away even more metal from the axle boxes at the rocking-axle end to ensure some rocking movement was retained.

Couplings were made up from CPL castings. Safety chains, which hang from modified hand-rail knobs, were made from 0.6mm n/s wire.

The completed van weighs in at a satisfyingly chunky 250g...possibly a little overweight, but undoubtedly adding to her smooth running qualities.