SQL Server
DRIVER={SQL Server};SERVER=sql11.hostinguk.net;DATABASE=gaugegu1_gog2;UID=gaugegog1;PWD=g2Fr8*r6=yN-_4DUs$z!45;

Taff Vale Models	Julian and Sue Wynn
20 Slade Close	02920 026122
Sully
Penarth	Email: taffvalemodels@gmail.com
Wales	Web: http://taffvale.wales
CF64 5UU

Purchased and reviewed by Chris Gwilliam

The completed carriage

This kit is one of a range of three GWR four-wheelers, the others being an S2 Third and a T36 Brake Third. I had also bought the T36 and made a start on it first when I realised it had a major error. It has been etched with ends to a single-arc profile, and the pre-rolled roof also has a single arc, whereas the real thing was a three arc vehicle. Also, the end etches lack the prominent beading at waist level and there are four redundant slots for non-existent steps at the gas-switch end, as there should be steps at the other end only. I contacted Chris Basten at Dragon Models who told me that he is preparing a replacement etches for the ends. So while I wait for the new parts I got on with the Compo. It’s sold as a 1st/3rd Composite but until the abolition of Second Class in 1910 it was in fact a Tri-composite, with 1 Third, 1 Second and 2 First class compartments, the Firsts being next to the central luggage compartment, and the Second at the end with the gas-switch. As I model the period immediately pre-1908 mine is a Tri-compo. The kit is a very welcome replacement for the old Gateneal product.

The instructions for the U12 are clear and helpful, with 47 colour photos showing step-by-step construction, and I mostly followed the suggested build sequence. You will need to search elsewhere for livery details, and there’s as typo in the list of running numbers, which should read 537 – 556 (later 6537 – 6556). The flat-packed bag contains white-metal and lost wax castings, a selection of brass wire and section, and sprung steel buffers to fit into whitemetal shanks. You’ll have to source your own wheels, bearings, glazing and seating strip. There is a pair of coupling hooks but no links. The brass etched sheet is fairly thin, but extremely well drawn and dimensionally accurate. It may be necessary to use thinners to remove any adhesive tape residue after you have removed the parts from the backing card.

I was easily able to introduce the curved tumblehome with gentle finger pressure, and the basic body shell went together quickly and perfectly – an object lesson in how an etched coach kit should be. However, the skimpy droplights suppled barely cover the spaces in the doors, so I dumped them in favour of some Mallard/Blacksmith spares which have wider framing. The white-metal door ventilators supplied are for a 12in panel, and as explained in the instructions need to be cut down to size to fit the 9in space. I opted for some Mallard/Blacksmith etched spares instead. The bolections are very fragile and care must be taken cutting them from the etch as they are easily distorted and there are no spares. Early and late pattern lamp brackets are supplied; for my date I used the smaller early pattern, and I imagine most if not all of the 20 U12s ran with the early type all their lives. The tiny etched hinges are a delight, though fiddly to fit. They are suitable for the upper and middle slots, but for the hinges on the lower body panel which protrude further they are too small, so I used scrap brass strip. There is a small error at the step end. The designer knew that one of the two steps just above solebar level was to be fitted inverted (to clear the lamp bracket which sits above the left-hand buffer), but unfortunately he’s drawn it on the right, so some corrective work was needed. I trimmed the fitting tabs for the steps so they would not intrude too far inside the coach and impede the seating later. The gas switch and associated pipe run from waist level to the roof at the non-step end. The alarm gear comes with three white-metal castings but my kit was missing one lug, so I made a pair from some brass etchings I found in my spares box. Two additional holes needed drilling in the body-side waist beading (3rd compartment from the left on one side only) to take brass wire for door stops as the etched witness dimples have been omitted. The roof is a hefty piece of brass, supplied pre-rolled to roughly the right profile, and a little finger pressure was needed to correct small inaccuracies. It was the right length but 2mm too wide so I used tin snips to remove a small amount of material. The kit provides good quality white-metal castings for oil lamps, pre-1896, or gas lamps. Until about 1910 only one gas pipe was fitted. After that date the flat-flame lamps were replaced with incandescent type, which require a second pipe run of smaller bore for the pilot light feed. With the gas-switch end to the right the larger pipe needs to be on the near side of the lamp tops. I used the brass wire supplied for the pipe and added small fragments of Microstrip for the upstands.

While preparing the solebars, I realised that the dimples for the V-hanger bolts need pressing out on one side only. There should be two dimples to press out at each end, where the solebar meets the headstock, but they are missing at one end. The fixing tabs at each end of the solebars need trimming as the slots into which they fit are partly obscured by the turn-under of the body ends. Similarly the corners of the base plates for the suspension units need a small amount trimming off to clear the solebar tabs. The floor panel with the V- hangers, vacuum cylinder and gas tank can be built as a sub-assembly before it’s added to the underside of the body. To my eye the V-hangers were too skimpy so I cropped them and added some sturdier spares from my box of leftover bits. The vacuum cylinder supplied bears no resemblance to anything that came out of Swindon in the 19th century, so I substituted a spare Dean cylinder left over from a Slaters plastic kit. The mounting hole for the vacuum cylinder is the wrong side of the actuating rod and needs to be re-drilled. The brake cylinder actuating levers on the etch are of the curved ‘rabbit-ear’ type, but I’m fairly sure these were not in use in the arc-roof era, so I trimmed off the ‘ears’ to produce a pair of simple straight levers. I found some lost-wax gas valves in my supply of spares, and added one to the lower edge of each solebar and one to the gas tank, at the end nearest the gas switch body-end. I also sourced a pair of white metal gas dials, one for each solebar. Normal GWR practice was to orientate the gas tank (only fitted after the 1896 conversion from oil lighting) on the nearside when the end with the gas switch is on the right. The photo of the completed model in the instructions gets this wrong and incorrectly shows the vacuum cylinder on the near side.

The W-iron sub-assemblies are very well designed: one is to be fixed in place, the other needs four small tabs cropping off so it is free to rock, assuming an element of compensation is required and not four rigidly fixed W-irons. The white-metal springs are designed with mounting brackets to be fitted behind the solebars but I found that once in place there was insufficient space for the rocking unit to move at all, as the axleboxes pressed hard onto the underside of the springs. I had to cut the springs from their mounts and re-solder them closer to the solebar. When I get on to building the T36 I will investigate attaching the springs to the rocker unit, not to the solebar. I used Slater’s Mansell wheels and bearings, and found I needed a couple of packing washers to eliminate end-slop on the axles. At this point some hard decisions have to be made about the brake-gear. Thus far any niggles with the kit have been minor, but there’s a major error in the brake design. Photo evidence shows that the Diag. U12 coaches had earlypattern outside-rigged brake pulls, which sit in front of the axleboxes and just above the lower running boards. One such photo is on Richard Spratt’s authoritative website, penrhos.me.uk, which has a huge amount of data on early GWR coaches. It’s the shot which shows a U12 to the left of a U16 in brown or lake livery after 1908/12 and both have outside rigging. There is also useful information on U12s in Barry Scott’s article for the Great Western Study Group (no. 57, Spring 1998), and a photo of the 6-wheel U16, which has a similar body, in Jack Slinn’s GWR livery book. The kit only supplies parts for the later Dean pattern of inside-rigged brakes actuated by triangular yokes between each pair of brake shoes, although the etched shoes themselves are correct, with slots for levers, not holes for rods. To the best of my knowledge Swindon never found the need to replace the earlier system on old coaches already well into their designed lifespan. The change to inside rigging roughly coincides with the change from single-arc roof to 3-arc roof designs, around 1890, whereas the U12 dates from 1878. You might decide to just leave the yokes and associated safety loops off, as they are barely visible once the running boards are in place, but the outside rigged brake pulls are an obvious feature and the model will not look right without them. I was lucky in that I have built a lot of IKB kits, available from the Broad Gauge Society, most of which have outside-rigged brakes and which always came with lots of spare brake levers and clasps, so I was able to assemble what I hope is an accurate representation of the brakes on a U12. If you do not have any such spares, the levers and short clasps can be fabricated from scrap brass strip. There are four of the longer adjustable clasps on the etch, which can be pressed into service. If you model the mid- Victorian period and want your U12 in ex-works 1878 condition you’ll have no such problems as there were originally no brakes at all(!), the coaches predating the legislation requiring continuous brakes.

The suspension brackets for the running boards are lovely lost wax castings. I found the holes for them (in the solebars) needed enlarging slightly. The upper running boards on the etch are too narrow, and the notches to clear the suspension brackets are in the wrong places so I made replacements from scrap brass strip. The lower running boards have recesses to clear the axleboxes, and I found that the ones at the ends with rocking W-irons needed to have the recesses enlarged slightly with a Swiss file to make a bit more room for movement of the axleboxes.

There’s enough space on the brass etch for only two interior partitions but four are needed, so the kit comes with some Plastikard, and the brass ones are used as templates to cut two more. The white-metal buffer housings are supplied pre-drilled, but need further drilling to part-depth to accept the steel buffers, which have a two-diameter profile to trap an internal coil spring. After struggling to make one work I gave up, re-drilled right through 1.9mm, and used a piece of 0.9mm brass wire soldered to the end of the buffer tail, then cranked 90 degrees and soldered to the floor to provide springing. The white-metal vacuum pipes are vulnerable to handling so I left them until last. The photo in the instructions shows the one at the step end fitted to the left hand side of the coupling pocket, but all the photos I could find of GWR coaches of this era show it sited to the right. The opposite applies at the other end so the pipe will need to be very gently re-profiled to crank left from a right hand mounting position. I left fitting the superb lost-wax commode handles and T-handles until after painting and lining. Etched commode handles are also provided but the lost wax ones have far more heft and are much to be preferred.

Painting, lining and transfers (HMRS Pressfix) followed my normal practice, with the word ‘Luggage’ on the right-hand luggage door, and ‘Passgr’ omitted from the left hand door as I wanted mine in post 1902 condition. The Slinn photo shows crests on all First-class doors, which is what I followed, but this is a 19th century shot, so I am not sure if this was still the practice after the turn of the century. Getting black lining in the narrow spaces around the raised bolections was decidedly tricky. At Richard Spratt’s suggestion I numbered mine 6539, which was converted to Stourbridge Engineers’ Van in 1926, renumbered 14572 in the wagon series. Overall, this was a very satisfying build. With a bit of effort and research the kit can be turned into a model of a very high standard, and I would not hesitate to tackle another. I now await the revised parts for the T36.

Dragon Models is changing hands around the time this issue goes to press. Check the website for new contact details.

A copy of this review was sent to Dragon Models and Chris Basten responded: To my way of thinking, it is a delight to read such an article, which is both constructive and informative. However, it does highlight the difficulties in designing and producing a kit for prototypes that were built so long ago. Drawings that are taken as accurate turn out to be just the opposite, as modifications and changes are made both at the building stage and in later life. For example, when Chris contacted me regarding the roof profile on the T36, I immediately checked the Swindon drawing used, and confirmed the single arc modelled. Chris then produced a definitive photograph, so it was checkmate to him, and I then modified the artwork. The revised ends for the 3 arc profile will be available by the time you read this. His remarks on the brake gear are also at odds with my drawing, but he did not mention this when we corresponded, which will annoy him as I could have supplied an etch for the outside clasp brake immediately. Which brings me to perhaps my main point in that the approach that Chris takes, in talking to a manufacturer about issues with any product, has much to recommend it, as it should result in a better product. I strongly suggest that more people do this. I mildly disagree with some of the other small issues that Chris raises, but they are a matter of preference in most cases. Overall, as he says and shows, a fine model can be built.