© Copyright: Raymond Walley – All rights reserved. Transferred to Wiki by Tommy Day
Connoisseur GWR PERMANENT WAY BRAKE VAN Dia AA6
The last vehicle
that will appear in
the P/Way train
will of course be a
Permanent Way
Toad. This is Jim
McGeown's kit
and, like many of
his kits, it has no
compensation.
The parts arrive in
the usual flat pack
as shewn and need
the addition of
wheels.
Instructions are
comprehensive
and excellent. One can produce an excellent model using all the parts Jim
supplies plus a set of wheels. However, my client wanted some changes
and so I fitted WEP compensation units, WEP Instanter couplings and
Warren Shephard lost wax buffers. There are a lot of bolt heads to push
through.
I followed my usual method of building as many components as possible
before
starting
assembly as
shown below.
The roof has
a chimney
made up from
brass tube in
place of the
white metal
one provided.
The side
stanchions
are fitted by
carefully
twisting the tabs at the rear. The method is
easily visible in the back view of one side and
end. All the parts that can be fitted while still
“in the flat” have been, including lamp irons.
All that remains to be fitted on the body after
assembly are the handrails.
Below are two pictures of how the steps are
made up. First by soldering some 9mm wire
into the etched slots on the underside of the
steps. These are then held individually with
pliers and the wire bent at right angles. After
checking for true the wire ends are fitted in the
“Hold and Fold” so that there will be 11mm
between the top and bottom bend. Result,
three step supports that are perpendicular to the
steps and all square.
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The holes in the solebars will need to be opened out after the axle guards are fitted to take the wire.
Assembling the body is then relatively easy to achieve due to the neat
design. However, I had not thought through my changes well enough this
time and had to remove the buffers from one end to get the solebars in!
I also soldered in some brass angle to stop a tendency for the sides to bow
inwards and some false flooring to support the compensation units.
The roof is removable using
phosphor bronze springs
soldered in to grip the sides of
the van body.
Ready for the
paint shop, I will put up a picture
of it painted in due course.
