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Two more van variants produced by cross-constructing plastic kits.

Always on the lookout for ways to vary my wagon fleet, I recently came up with the following two examples of simple conversions:

1) B855131
A ventilated pallet van with standard corrugated steel ends and modified door pattern. The 12 ton shock-absorbing prototype would have been fitted with through vacuum brakes. Wolverton lot #3311 (built 1961).

The model was constructed from Parkwood Models' kit No 4 with spare single vent corrugated steel ends from Parkwood's BR standard van kit No 8. The diagonal braces on the original doors were removed, using a scalpel and a dentist's scraper, to alter the appearance of the door panels. I ought to have filled these panels with plasticard and added shock absorbers and vacuum cylinder to the chassis but it looks OK without, for the time being. I can always add them later on, before painting.

2) (D)E180738
A non-ventilated, ex-LNER 12 ton vacuum fitted van. Built in the 1930s, these vans survived well into the 1960s in normal use and some were still to be seen in the mid 1970s in departmental service.

The model was built from Parkwood Models' No 8 BR Standard van floor and unventilated corrugated steel ends. Sides were from the 2mm Association's LMS sliding door van (No 511) and the roof from a Peco van kit (the rest of which having been converted into a peaked roofed van for the D&BTCo!). The horizontal bar on the door panel was cut from suitably dimensioned microstrip. A vacuum cylinder needs to be added to this model too.

Both vans were assembled on Peco 10 foot wheelbase steel pattern chassis.

Sources:
1) BR Standard Freight Wagons by D. Larkin (D. Bradford Barton, 1975)

2) Pre-Nationalisation Freight Wagons on BR by D. Larkin (D. Bradford Barton, 1977)

3) Railways in Profile Series Nº3: British Railway Vans by Geoff Gamble (Cheona Publications 1997)

This article first appeared in N Gauge Journal 6/00. Members can purchase back copies of Journals.