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Great Northern Railway of Ireland - Ballast Plough Van No.120

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Richard EH

By Richard EH
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Richard EH

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The idea for this model sprang from two sources. An article in New Irish Lines Volume 5 No.2, which provided the scale drawing and a photo to work from, and the availability in my ‘things to do one day’ pile – this was actually one I’ve had since my childhood of an old Airfix Great Western Toad brake van which initially looked as though it might be a good quick start for a conversion….In addition I have a cambrian BR ‘shark’ van in stock which looked as though it might provide a ballast plough…

 

Once I’d had a closer look, it became apparent that the bodywork of the GN van, whilst initially similar would need a lot of work to convert, so I resolved to replace the bodywork with a scratchbuilt bodyshell. This has been built from evergreen 2.1mm planked plasticard siding as the basic shell, with 30 thou plasticard for the floor and internal partitions. Once the basic box was built up, I used plastruct 90501 1.2mm ‘L’ section to produce the distinctive ironwork. However, it was apparent that the body was slightly wider than the old airfix toad roof, so I couldn’t use that either and it also had to go…..I’ve replaced that with a 3d printed roof I designed to fit.

 

For the chassis, I took the razor saw to it to take a section of the chassis out and shorten it down to the length of the GN van. Careful reglueing is required here to keep the chassis square, and a section of plasticard was glued across the join. Looking at the photo of the GN van, it’s apparent that the footboards do not extend the length of the vehicle, so more careful razor sawing was required to carefully cut these out. There’s a section over one axle which is difficult to remove, I left that in as it wouldn’t be worth removing it and I don’t think it’s too noticeable.

 

For the ballast plough, I ended up drawing a plough rather than using the Cambrian shark which I resolved to keep for a project to provide a ballast plough for my IFM wagons which are on order… The plough is quite a complex shape which would be a tricky build in plasticard but is simplicity itself for a 3d print. Using the drawing I took a broad look at the shape which has come out well – I also printed a couple of supports to attach it to the chassis as a strong one piece item. I did then cape the plan to keep the Cambrian shark as a complete kit straight away by using the plough wheel in the open section of the GN van, as it’s quite a noticeable feature…. Oh well….!

 

Final detailing is now underway, using various brass wire and offcuts for the handrails and lamp irons. I’ve also plenty of archer transfer rivets left so attaching some of these is the next job followed by painting and transfers from railtec. I’ve no photos of these vans in later life, only the photo in New Irish Lines, therefore I’m not sure how long the GNR(I) shown lasted, I may well finish it off just with GN and the number of the van shown in the photo, that’ll be fine for me in the absence of any other info.

 

So now it looks like I’ve got a GNRi ballast plough van, three CIE ballast hoppers on order, and could’ve kept the toad if I’d sourced a chassis from elsewhere – oh well….!I’ll have to also look at a a few GN hoppers which are also in the NiL article – I suspect Cambrian kit C110 (Herring) may be a good start, or even the recent Cambrian ‘open’ chassis kit C105 with a printed hopper. The Cambrian open is a good development - this will also be useful for the GN cement van/hoppers I think, more on that when I manage to get hold of a couple of these, apparent semi mythical, beasts….. perhaps a CIE van will turn up from other sources in due course……

GNRi Plough Van 1.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 2.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 3.JPG

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Richard EH Collaborator

Richard EH

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Cheers for the kind comments guys, I'll keep the thread updated as it progresses.

 

The 3d design stuff isn't so tricky these days, more help becoming available all the time as it becomes more popular - give it a go, I'm sure you'll find it a useful addition to your modelling skills!

 

The couplings are what they are at this stage, it's an old chassis so unless I replace the chassis completely they'll be staying - and if I replaced it, I may as well have kept the original GWR toad van..... some might say I should've done that anyway!

 

Cheers for now.

 

Richard

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  • 2 weeks later...
Richard EH Collaborator

Richard EH

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Hi all,

 

Bit more of an update which includes a=few week or so's progress since the last time I updated the thread. For a good reason - the birth of our second child, a boy!:x All doing great, and a bit of downtime to relax so updating the thread on the van..... won't last for long, for sure!

 

So, I spent a lot of time applying the remaining set of archer rivet sheets to the angle iron... it's actually quite relaxing process. The rivets have really come out well and lifted the model I think. I've then given it a blow over with a Halfords rattle can of grey primer and I think it's come out looking rather nice. I've failed to find any photos of these vans, beyond what is the makers photo, I guess the attractions of a blue 4-4-0 would've come first over a ballast plough van! Even the usual trick of something poking into shot has drawn a blank! If anyone does have a photo, I'd really welcome a look at it! For now though, I've used the railtec GNRi transfer sheet to add transfers using roughly the same layout as the Provincial Wagons GNRi van and I think it looks good.

 

A further read of the NiL article revealed that 120 may not have been the real number, actually 8166/8167 were there numbers, so that's what I've used....

 

Cheers for now!

 

Richard.GNRi Plough Vqn 5.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 4.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 5.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 6.JPG

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DiveController Grand Master

DiveController

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I've failed to find any photos of these vans, beyond what is the makers photo, I guess the attractions of a blue 4-4-0 would've come first over a ballast plough van! Even the usual trick of something poking into shot has drawn a blank! If anyone does have a photo, I'd really welcome a look at it!

 

.... 120 may not have been the real number, actually 8166/8167 were their numbers, so that's what I've used....

 

Richard, I believe this is your van from the O' Dea collection GN 816x seen at Enfield in 1961. I presume she passed from GNR to CIE?

 

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305587

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Richard EH Collaborator

Richard EH

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GNRi Plough Van 14.JPGHi all,

 

Many thanks for the hints and tips - and especially the photos DiveController! That's really clinched it for me and I've modified the transfers as per the photos - I've not made it quite as used as it's shown in the photo, but have weathered it to give it a used look.

 

Some photos attached of the finished vehicle.

 

Cheers for now!

 

Richard.

GNRi Plough Van 12.JPG

GNRi Plough Van 13.JPG

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