Building a Connoiseur LNER Lowmac Wagon
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| Connoisseur Models | Jim McGeown |
| 1 Newton Cottages | 01544 318263. |
| Nr Weobley | |
| Herefordshire | Email: james.mcgeown2@btinternet.com |
| HR4 8QX | Web: http://www.jimmcgeown.com/ |
Jim McGowen markets the Lowmac kit as part of his Skill Builder series, aimed at beginners at etched kit building. Whilst I would not consider myself a total beginner, I do not consider myself an expert in any sense of the word. So when my wife bought me a Lowmac kit at Guildex 2022, I decided that I would try and evaluate it for ease of construction by a beginner.
I will assume that a beginner will have read the general instructions included at the start of each set of Connoisseur instructions or, better still, has read Jim's booklet O Gauge Etched Kit Building - Hints, Tips and Frequently Asked Questions, downloadable for free from the Connoisseur Models website.
The kit comes in a flat pack bag (Pic 1) and contains everything needed except wheels, so Jim sold us a set of wheels to go with the kit. After we got home, as agreed with my wife, the kit went into the cupboard to await the arrival of Christmas. By the time I finally opened the kit, I must have been almost word-perfect on Jim’s instructions since I had downloaded the instruction booklet from the Connoisseur website.
The first activity is to push out the rivets. I don’t own a riveting tool of any kind (neither, I suspect, does the average beginner.) I have for years used an old scriber with an angled end and a light tack hammer to achieve the desired result; the hammer head is allowed to drop a short distance, rather than driven onto the back of the scriber. Having completed the riveting, I removed the main floor (part 1) and the side frames (parts 2) from the fret. After using the frames as a guide to shape the floor, as required by the instructions, I stopped! Although there are etched rebates and dotted lines provided for my guidance, I needed some way to prevent movement while soldering.
(Reducing the degrees of freedom at any stage of building a model improves the chances of a neat outcome.) I decided to attach the curb rails (part 3) to the floor first. Since they were still in the fret, when pinned to a flat surface as suggested in the instructions, they effectively reduced the freedom of movement of one item, simplifying the process of soldering up the assembly. </WRAP>
Pic 2 shows the floor with both curb rails attached, the second one still in the fret. The side frames can then be fitted to the floor/curb rail assembly, which is now fairly rigid. An added advantage of not having the side frames fitted is that it is much easier to get the soldering iron to the underside of the floor/curb rail joint, making for a tidier assembly when viewed from topsides.
The wheel bearings are now fitted per the instructions. My fingers seem to dislike being burned, so to protect them from the heat of the soldering iron, I use leather quilters’ thimbles, obtainable on eBay at about a fiver each. A couple of points to watch: they usually have some metallic reinforcement on one side, which should not be against the iron; and there is a loss of sensitivity with the thimble in place. So you may instead want to use a file end or piece of card, as suggested by Jim.
After I had fitted the wheels, I tested the assembly for squareness by standing it on a small piece of plate glass. If you don’t have a piece of plate glass, a modern kitchen work top is a reasonable alternative. The wheels stood absolutely square without any trace of rock. That is probably a tribute to Jim’s drafting skills rather than my construction abilities!
I fitted the triangular reinforcing plates (parts 5) before the ramp reinforcing plates (parts 4), simply because I wanted to attach the ramp plates using my Resistance Soldering Unit (RSU), followed by the riveted plates (parts 6). I don’t like constantly swapping between soldering systems.
I don’t think that RSUs are the answer to the modeller’s prayer but they are very useful in certain situations. In particular, they are useful when assembling layers such as the ramp reinforcing plates (and even more useful if you have to dissemble aforesaid layers) and where small items such as lamp irons, steps or, in this case, the riveted plates need attaching without disturbing neighbouring work. Even so, you don’t need one to complete this kit successfully.
I then fitted the coupling reinforcing plates and the coupling hooks using my conventional iron.
You may prefer sprung hooks. Which brings us to the manufacture and fitting of the load securing rings. There is no particular problem for the beginner here; it’s just that I found the repetition (18 times) frustrating. I must have manufactured well over twenty rings to get eighteen circular ones! I don’t much like building passenger coaches for the same reason – although I do like building parcels stock; the variety never ceased to amaze me but I digress. I fitted the end rings at this stage as per the instructions but not the deck rings, which I installed after painting, secured with a dab of five minute epoxy behind the curb rails.
Again, I deviated from the instructions by not fitting the axle guards at this juncture. They seemed too close to the brake levers and brake pin guides for comfort and I didn’t want any accidents. The axle guards were subsequently installed with epoxy. With regard to the brake levers, I think it would be easier, particularly for the novice, if there was a full 7mm scale pattern to follow in the instructions. My first attempt was a little wobbly but the second side was formed in seconds using the first attempt as a pattern. I also used a drilled-out 12BA nut as a spacer on the cross shaft behind the brake lever. You could use a rat-tail file or a broach to do this. Alternatively, you can leave out the spacer and have the lever flush, as the kit describes.
The buffers and the wagon number plates are now the only items left. With regard to the buffers, I have never got on with the cross-spring method, as described by Jim and other kit suppliers . I prefer self-contained units where the head and shank can be dropped out for painting and the buffers easily adjusted to the correct length on reassembly. I used LMS match truck units from the Invertrain range. True it adds another £7.50 to the price of the build but, for my part, the extra cost is worth it in the long run. The bodies were secured in place using low melt solder. Pic 3 shows the paint shop ready wagon.
Jim supplies a length of copper-plated chain and some etched screw shackles, which are not listed in the parts check list. I wish I had realised that, since I had bought some lost wax shackles from Slater’s in the interim. In the end I used the Slater’s product since the cast item has a bulk that is missing from the etches. The overall result is shown in the picture of the finished model on the first page of this article.
The model will eventually be finished in BR livery (when I get round to numbering it). I couldn’t find a photo of the vehicle in BR days – in fact, the picture of 68932 in Peter Tatlow’s LNER Wagons – An Illustrated Overview (Atlantic Transport Publishers) is the only one I have ever found. However, on page 56 of David Larkin’s Prenationalisation Freight Wagons on British Railways – A Pictorial Survey there is a photograph of an exGWR wagon of similar vintage, where one can make out the layout and text of the markings.
Using the ex-GWR wagon as a reference. the LNER wagon would be lettered:
20T E68932 LOWMAC EL 8.7 WB 18’ 6”\\
The lettering would be white on a black background, with the main lettering spaced out on the load deck level of the curb rail. With the wheelbase marking above the brake lever handle.
Conclusions? Well, there is nothing in the kit assembly that I think would stop a novice in their tracks. I could have done without all the fixing rings but that is a personal foible. If you want a kit with fewer rings, try Jim’s GWR equivalent.
If I have any comment (and this is not intended as a criticism – particularly given the age of the kit), it is that the model has a long rigid wheelbase. My model sits absolutely square; how it would perform on indifferent trackwork is another matter. If I were starting today from scratch, I would design in some sort of springing or compensation.
We showed the review to Jim McGeown of
Connoisseur Models, who responded as follows.
Thank you for the review of LNER Lowmac L. This
is a very fair reflection of the kit. A few points I
noted are:
* Push out the rivets, perfect example of how to do it without a rivet press.
* Resistance Soldering Unit (RSU), I don’t use one myself but if you have one in the toolbox, this is a perfect example of it being the right tool for this part of the job.
* The buffers and shackles do the job and I use them on all my own models but upgrading to turned steel and lost wax brass if desired is what kit building is all about.
* The educated guess about lettering appears exactly right to me.
* In operation on my layouts the long, rigid wheelbase has not proved a problem, particularly if the wagon load is a cast road vehicle of moderate weight, as I think the wagon deck tends to flex slightly; but if I was to design the kit now (kit designed 1993) it would have a sprung suspension option.
