Southern Railway Banana Van

Author: James Aitken

It’s not too often that there is a new wagon kit for the Southern Railway, so I was more than pleased to hear that Parkside Dundas was planning an extension to the range of SR vehicles. I can build etched brass kits as well as the next person, but I still prefer plastic for the solid look and ease of assembly.

I bought the new SR banana van at the Guild's annual show at Telford, opened the packet and found more sprues than I’m used to in the kit. For the first time that I had seen, there are plastic mouldings for the full clasp brake mechanism. Other manufacturers use etched brass for these parts, and I always find these a real fiddle to assemble. Making models out of disparate materials never seems to be a good idea to me. Whenever I find I need to join the brass bits together in situ by soldering, I always end up melting the plastic parts a bit.

My older models are all hand painted, but I’ve recently started painting my kits with a compressor powered airbrush, both for the body and the chassis. Because of this I like to be able to separate the wheels from the chassis for painting. This is a problem if you follow Parkside’s normal order of assembly.

With Parkside’s models the axleboxes can be assembled to give some suspension just by their ability to move up and down in the W irons under gravity. This implies a free running and slightly loose fit in the W iron. Following the instructions, you are supposed to stick the back of the axlebox to the front part while assembled on the W iron, but this can be tricky without also sticking the parts to the W iron. Also, if the axlebox is assembled into the model before painting, there is a problem of how to avoid getting the whole thing stuck together with paint.

For the last few kits I’ve made, I’ve found a solution to this problem. I cut off the tiebar at the bottom of the W iron using a fine razor saw, and then clean up carefully using a needle file. This allows me to fully assemble the axlebox, which can then be slid into the W iron when needed. I can put a wheelset in to line up the brakegear, and take it out to paint. All parts can be sprayed with minimal masking.

As far as the kit is concerned I won’t list all the steps, but just highlight a few changes that I made. I use a Tamiya side cutter to separate the parts from the sprue. I’ve used one ever since seeing them on the CPL stand at one of the shows. I find it worthwhile to fit the buffer bodies to the ends before assembling the body. The holes in the ends need to be opened out a bit and this is a lot easier to do before the complete body and chassis are assembled. Assemble the body then as normal, cleaning up the little bit of flash. I do like the way Parkside has made the sides fit to the ends; you get a really clean join. I don’t glue the roof until after painting, but I clean it up carefully and check the fit.

Assemble the body then as normal, cleaning up the little bit of flash. I do like the way Parkside has made the sides fit to the ends; you get a really clean join. I don’t glue the roof until after painting, but I clean it up carefully and check the fit.

Having cut the tie bars off the W irons, clean up the solebars by scraping a knife edge along the edges until they fit in the slot in the floor, but do not glue them in yet. The little tiebars go into one of the parts bags until I need them after painting. Don’t lose them! I fully assemble the axlebox parts, leaving them for a hour to dry out before sliding a needle file into the groove which will mate with the W irons, until I get the axlebox assembly sliding nice and freely. I glue the solebars into place with both wheelsets in position so I can get them perfectly located with a little bit of sideplay and free movement of the wheels up and down.

When assembling the brakegear, the instructions should say “do not glue the brakegear together straight away”. Once I’d opened the small holes out to 1/32in as recommended, I found all the parts quite a snug fit, which meant that I could assemble the whole brakegear together without glue, place it into position and operate the lever to open or close the brakegear to get the best fit against the wheels. In other words, Parkside has managed to create a fully workable clasp brake system. When I had all the parts of the brakegear assembled, I trial fitted it to the floor and dropped a wheelset in. I found that the axle rubbed on the long pull rod. Trimming a millimetre off the leg which reaches to the floor cured the problem and left the wheels free running.

Parkside has made these delicate parts in ABS, which is a tougher material than polystyrene, and to my mind has made a brilliant job of it. They look the part, are easy to assemble and work prototypically. The only problem I had was in opening out the small holes to 1/32 in. The mouldings are very narrow, and the original holes had not been moulded exactly down the centre line. They were probably only 5thou out, but this was enough to leave almost no material around the new larger hole. The first one I drilled broke through the side, so with the next one I took my time and also did parts from the sprue. To be honest you can’t see the broken side once assembled.

The only disappointment is the use of a bit of brass wire to join the actuator lever to the two levers which hold the crossbars together. There just isn’t a nice way to bend this and make it look right. Given Parkside has moulded so many of the brake parts out of ABS, it is a pity that the actuator rod was not moulded in the same material. Finally, fit the detail parts to finish off the model. I put a little lead inside the body glued with Evostick to give it a bit of extra weight. A spray of paint, transfers and a final spray with clear lacquer and I have a welcome addition to the layout. Overall an excellent kit. I’m looking forward to the next in the Southern range.