Peter Jary peels back hints and tips to reveal a number of conversions for a ten or more vehicle train as depicted in the BR 1950s and 1960s eras. Perish the thought!

ALTHOUGH IT WASN’T THE FIRST in their range, the release by Parkside Dundas, now Peco Parkside, of the LMS Banana Van and the possibilities that it created inspired two of us to consider creating a banana special for our club layout Grindley Brook. The key opportunity is the extent to which design of the LMS van formed the basis for all, bar the last of BR’s banana vans. What follows is a description of the Parkside kit together with how this can be adapted to its other LMS and BR derivatives.

However, I have deliberately kept this information to construction and have not described painting finishes or techniques.

Part 1: The LMS van and the BR derivatives as modelled using Peco Parkside kit PS114: 10 ton Banana Van (D.1660)

This kit is the basis for most of these conversions is this kit. As with any Parkside kit, the box is big enough to store the finished model. Inside, there’s a set of very crisp and superbly and minutely detailed body mouldings, with very little flash. The underframe less so, if only because it is the standard 9ft. wheelbase RCH underframe that Parkside have been using for years. The expertise in cutting moulds has been improving steadily and the equivalent 10ft. wheelbase underframe is noticeably finer in terms of the moulded detail. The kit includes a set of sprung buffers and a set of three-holed wheels, together with brass coupling hooks and three-link couplings. However, most of the stock, if not all, in this diagrammed range prototypically had screw link couplings. They were all vacuum fitted and intended to run in fast trains, so screw link couplings were fitted, along with the longer 20 ½ in buffers. The instructions and helpful tips are clear and easy to follow, but in my copy, the second page showing the vacuum cylinder and its parts as well as the side frames, has somehow become very underexposed and ended up as a black blob. There also appear to be a few numbering errors, but fortunately only in regard to parts that are easily identifiable. The colour schemes suggested can be represented in LMS pre-war, LMS from 1936 and in BR livery, and waterslide transfers are included to cover all these options.

Construction is straightforward, with the moulding quality and fit of the various body parts being exceptionally good. Being a 9ft wheelbase prototype, Parkside have used their standard 9ft underframe mouldings. Given the improvements in their aforementioned mould making ability, it does show its age when compared to the new underframes but is, nonetheless of good quality in terms of appearance. It needs no improvement other than the fitting of tie bars between the axle guards, necessary on the prototype to contain the loads on the ‘W’ irons when applied by the vacuum brakes. The builder is left to add the rain strips, which can vary in length and pattern from one vehicle to another depending on the practice at the time and the works where they were built, or re-roofed.

A feature of banana vans, at least in later BR days, was the application of poster-sized labels by the shippers, the usual being either Fyffe or Geest. These are not included in the kit but are available separately under the Hollar range to add on the model for that extra touch. Make sure that the label matches the period being modelled. I have found that when applying these labels it is best to separate the paper from its backing thus making the label thinner, as well as discovering, which at first is not evident, its sticky backing, making it look better when seated on the surface.

Because the design remained relatively unaltered by both the LMS and BR, this kit has the scope for several other earlier versions with relatively little effort. The completed model as built straight out of the box, is shown in Photo 1.

Photo 1. M265063 ex LMS diag 1660, the early BR version as built from the standard Parkside kit. It is unlikely that this vehicle carried the yellow spot.

The 400 vans to the D1660 design that the LMS built between 1926 and 1930 sufficed to cover traffic demands until after the war. In 1946, the LMS built a further 100 vans to a modified version of this design, diagram D2111. The body remained as per the D1660 design, save for the steam heating coils being relocated into the roof space, thereby necessitating the provision of an external casing running up each end to contain the steam heating pipe. The underframe was upgraded to the standard on the LMS for fully vacuumed braked stock at that time, i.e. 8- shoe clasp brakes and longer 4ft 6in springs carried by ‘J’ hangers. Unusually, the 9ft wheelbase was retained at a time when 10ft had become the accepted minimum for other wagons and for anything required to run at passenger train speeds.

BR built some 580 vans to the same designs as Diag. 1/240 and 1/241, the only difference being that the 150 vans built after the latter diagram were limited to a load capacity of only 8 tons (probably due to the use of second-hand wheel sets).

The next development and the simplest to model is the BR Diag. 1/242 (50 vans, B880680-B880729 built at BR Faverdale, Darlington Works in 1954 under Lot No. 2598). The LMS D2111 body was retained unaltered, but put on a standard 10ft wheelbase, Morton braked underframe (See Photo 3).

Photo 3. BR Diag 1.242

Apart from adding the external trunking for the steam heating pipe on the body ends, all that is required to model this variant is to order the kit with the 10ft wheelbase chassis from any of their available kits of PS 27/28/29 or 34. I also asked for spoked wheels instead of the supplied three holed sets. See Photo 4 for what you’ll need and the completed model appears in Photo 5.

Photo 5.

The next BR Diagram, 1/243 is simply the 1/242 design but with improved insulation (which doesn’t show) and without steam heating, which also doesn’t show apart from the deletion of the insulated casing on the van ends. So that they could work in amongst older steam-heated stock, through steam pipes were retained.

Photo 4. BR Diag 1.242

The addition of a more robust strapping on the sides and corners of this diagram is shown clearly in white plastic. Also shown are the new rain strips and tie bars. (See Photos 6 and 7).

Photo 6. Showing the new strapping

Photo 7. Adding new strapping to the sides and ends.

Diagram 1/244 marked the next significant change, in that the 4-shoe Morton brake was replaced by the BR 8- shoe design, although the standard 3ft wagon springs were retained. The standard RCH rod buffers that had been used on all designs thus far were replaced by 2ft Photo-pneumatic buffers, which were being adopted across BR as a whole as they gave reduced shock loadings. Modelling one of these requires a bit more cunning, in that it involves mating the Parkside body with the underframe from a Slater’s kit. (I have not done this version).

The final BR Diagram, 1/246, falls outside the scope of what can be done with the Parkside kit, as it used a modified form of the standard BR corrugated end van design.

Just Like The Real Thing issued kits for the two variants of the 1/246 van: the difference lies in the make-up of the corrugated ends. These hopefully will become available as MM1 kits following the demise of JLTRT.

It may be worth mentioning here the yellow spot marking on the van sides. This first appeared in 1958 on vans that had their insulation upgraded and steam heating removed. It isn't clear how many upgraded vans retained through steam pipes and how many lost them, largely because most pictures don't show the dangly bits on the end of the under frame too closely. Again, a photograph of your chosen subject is essential.

For modelling the LMS bodied variants:

• For D.2111 and BR 1/240 and 1/241, parts can be sourced from Slaters or possibly the old ABS range of parts. Slaters moulding ref. X7060G which is available to order, will provide the longer J- hangered springs, axleboxes and axle guards, and individual brake shoe/hanger mouldings, sufficient for one end of a wagon (i.e. you need two of these mouldings to build a wagon). What it does not provide are the brake shaft V hangers or the short brake levers. For these, the builder must either use the ABS LMS 8-shoe brake set or improvise. At the ends, the louvred vent is simply omitted and replaced by the steam pipe casing, which can be made up from Evergreen ⅛in square tube or solid section. For reference, the trunk runs vertically to just over 21mm above the bottom of the headstock, and then at an angle for a further 40mm, stopping a little short of the underside of the roof.

• For the Diag.1/242 and 1/243 vans, all that is needed is the substitution of the 9ft wheelbase underframe to the 10ft wheelbase version from Parkside, as referred to earlier.

• For Diag. 1/244, which is probably the most challenging, the underframe needs to be replaced by that from the Slaters Vanwide kit (7062) but with the brake levers and hangers from their Palvan kit (7070) to provide the lifting link pattern brake levers. The complication is that the spring hangers on the Palvans were to a distinctive fabricated design not used on the other vans.

In all cases the Parkside castings for the vacuum brake and steam heating pipes were replaced by equivalents from ABS and Laurie Griffin respectively.

As ever, there are variations in axlebox types and wheelsets, not just between vehicles but also within the same vehicle.

Banana vans are associated in many modellers’ minds with the prominent yellow spot marking that appeared on the sides. This did not appear until 1958 when BR started upgrading the insulation and removing the steam heating apparatus. Many vans would have retained steam heating through pipes so that they could be coupled in amongst older non-improved vans, although eventually even these were removed. Knowing when yellow spot vans did or did not have steam pipes is largely impossible, as on virtually all Photographs, the underframe end fittings are hidden away behind the wagon in front, or are lost in the gloom between wagons.

Sources

There is a superb works Photo in G. Gamble's British Railway Vans Volume 3, page 54.

Extra parts used are as follows: Slaters strip 0.23 x 090mm. Evergreen strip No.252. Parkside 9ft wheelbase frames exchanged for 10ft wheelbase from kit PS27. Kit wheels exchanged for the spoked type Laurie Griffin Miniatures Steam Heat Pipes Cat. No. 32-6 Screw link couplings for wagons (your choice), with Premier Components being pretty robust and reasonably priced, especially when bought in multiples. Railtec Transfers for 7mm Banana Van (early, middle and late era) are obtainable from www.railtecmodels.com

Recommended additional information can be found in the following:

LMS Wagons Vol. 1 by Bob Essery. Published by OPC.

British Railway Vans, Vol. 3 and Vol. 11 by Geoff Gamble.

The SR van and its BR derivative as modelled using Peco Parkside kit PS100: Southern and BR(S) Banana Van diag.1478

To produce this version you will need the following: From Parkside kits PS13: body/sides/ends and roof, and from PS100: the body sides only plus the rest of the kit with wheels and transfers except for the couplings and buffers. A set of PS77 Sprung 20 ½ in buffers is also needed

Having contracted the banana van bug, as it were, I started to look around for what other companies’ vans were represented in the 7mm trade offerings. All four of the pre-nationalisation companies had banana vans in their fleets, although in markedly differing numbers according to distribution of the different banana-importing ports.

Photo 8. SR D1470 banana van modelled from the standard Parkside kit showing addition of metal sheeting on the end.

The Southern Railway, serving Southampton, had two types of van in their fleet. One, to D.1478 is available from Parkside as PS100 and can be built as is. However, whilst modelling this version, I thought that I’d present it slightly differently. This version has a metal plate which conforms to the roof’s profile positioned at the top of each end of the body. To plagiarise this version, one has to use a rivet punch. I referred to the Photograph in OPC’s An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons Vol.4 by Bixley, et al., as shown at Plate 9.

The additional work required was as follows:

• Remove the horizontal mounting plate between both vertical stanchions on the end walls of the van body, which would have supported the vertical vacuum pipe, with a sharp scalpel and fine file.

• Two pieces of 0.25mm plastic card are cut to shape with the roof profile and end wall, placement commencing slightly above the twelfth plank up from the buffer beam.

• Mark rivet positions as shown in the Photo and carefully use the punch to punch out the rivets. Do not use excessive force in this operation as you may hole the plastic. When satisfied, glue in place. (See Photo 8).

• Add screw link couplings and paint the body BR bauxite with a black solebar.

• Replace vacuum pipes with a BR version (D-type), not the earlier supplied vertical version.

• Now construct the kit as per the instructions

The Southern/BR(S) Diagram 1479.

One of 125 built (S50775-50899) with no end vents. This differs by being based on the standard SECR elliptic roofed van design, but can be created out of Parkside parts and is the next conversion using the body sides/ends and roof from PS13 (the standard SR 12T goods van) and a PS100 kit complete except for the ends, and buffers, which are replaced using Parkside PS77 sprung buffers.

This is a relatively complex conversion as the door section from PS100 sides has to be fitted into the PS13 sides in place of the latter’s hinged doors, whilst at the ends, the recesses provided for the ventilator bonnet mouldings have to be filled in. Neatness is not too important here as the top section of the ends was plated across the full width of the ends, presumably to provide additional lateral stiffness instead of diagonal bracing.

Photo 9. SR D.1470 van, finished view

For the model, this can be reproduced using pieces of 0.25mm plastic card cut to shape to cover between and outside the end stanchions. (See Photos 9 and 10).

The body sides require the greatest alteration. Although the banana van body had the same length and framing as the standard goods van, the doors were differently arranged, being thicker and heavier due to the internal insulation. For this conversion, the simplest method was to cut the doors out from the PS114 body sides and transplant these into the standard PS13 body sides.

Photo 10. The SR D.1479 van with the end vents blocked out and door removed and about to have the replacement fitted.

The simplest method is to cut the PS13 sides inboard of the door stanchions and reassemble them with the PS114 banana van door in between. However, the snag with this method is that the back (inside) faces of the different parts of the body sides will not line up flush. An alternative method, employed here, is to keep the PS13 sides intact by milling out the doors to leave a space into which the PS114 doors can be dropped. The same could be achieved by cutting out the centre of the existing doors and removing the remaining material using a hand file. However, this method requires a fair degree of skill with a file to achieve a flat and true surface onto which the new door can be mounted. The sides on the D.1478 were deeper than those of D.1479, necessitating the new doors being shortened by removing the bottom plank. The cut is made at the base of the strap hinge right across horizontally to the other hinge before fitting the door. See Photos 9 and 10 (the completed model.)

10a-D.1479 finished van.

Photo 11. Southern diag.1479 showing close-up of door bumpers

Additionally, there are two door bumpers that have to be added on either side of the doors on the adjacent panels on both sides of the van body. These are made up from strips of Evergreen (131) plastic strip of 0.75 x 0.75mm. This is cut to a length of 6.20mm with a smaller piece of 3.35mm glued on top. This when made up, will form the required bumper block when glued in place 5.25mm from the side of the door frame edge as shown in Photo 11. In addition, I added a thin strip of plastic card to the end edges of the roof.

Once all has been accomplished, the kit can be finished as normal using three-hole disc wheels, PS77 20 ½ in. buffers or standard long-webbed spindle buffers and screw link couplings of your choice. (See the Photos of both modelled examples). Additionally, I have added the safety loops for the brake beams from 0.5mm brass wire bent and fitted into square pieces of plastic strip glued in place under the floor. These loops are often mistakenly modelled to sit right across the axle in one big square ‘U’. So how would you drop the axle on the prototype when renewing the wheel set? They actually comprise of a smaller wire ‘U’ which only goes over each brake beam, making four per axle. But having said that it can and does in practice usually depend upon the designer as much as anything. The colour scheme is the ubiquitous bauxite and black solebars with kit transfers being perfect for this model. This completes these conversions.

12a-A broadside view of the finished D.1479 van.

Photo 11a.The underside of the D.1479 van reveals the brake gear and safety brackets mentioned in the text.

Photo 13. The completed Y4 conversion of the Peco kit..

The BR(W) Y4, 10T Banana Van from Peco Wonderful Wagons 10 T Ventilated Box Van, W-606

These were adaptations of the standard Diagram V16 ventilated van, which had earlier been modified by the addition of insulation to become non-refrigerated meat vans under Diagram X.6 in 1918. These were subsequently converted for banana traffic in the early 1920s by the addition of steam heating equipment to facilitate the transportation of bananas from Bristol Avonmouth Docks. There are few Photographs of this Y4 in BR guise, but one example I noted was in Gamble’s British Railway Vans Vol.3 plate 47. Conversion from the meat van involved the fitting of steam heating equipment and a new adjustable sliding vent in the centre of the body ends, blanked off internally, with the external bonnets left in place.

Photo 14. Added detail above end vent.

As supplied, the kit is provided with conventional lever brakes, albeit of an incorrect type dating from the pre- 1900 era, and tapered buffer guides. For the banana van, the brakes need replacing by the correct type, with the shoes hung from links rather than bolted to a swing arm, plus the addition of Dean-Churchward cross-cornered brake gear. The Dean-Churchward brake levers can be obtained from Peco RO-6 conversion kit, which also proves the vacuum brake equipment, but the brake shoes and rigging will need to be found from the spares box. The buffers also need substituting/replacing by the GWR selfcontained type, which are available as white metal cast housings from NMRS F010A.

On vacuum braked goods vehicles the GWR fitted Instanter couplings in preference to the usual screw couplings; the special centre link can be sourced from either Slater’s (cast brass) or Parkside (plastic).

As an aside, the purpose of the GWR’s Instanter coupling was to provide a means of achieving closer coupling of wagons used in fast freight trains in a way that was cheaper and simpler to use than the screw couplings adopted by other railways. With the wagons buffered up, all that was needed was for the shunter to rotate the Instanter link to a short position using his coupling pole thus saving time compared to having to manually shorten a conventional screw coupling.

The kit comes highly detailed in hard plastic compared to a softer plastic used by Parkside. Although the body parts are very finely and accurately moulded, fitting together with a precision not seen on many kits, a negative feature is that the doors have been designed to be openable. A consequence of this is that the hinge edge on the individual door mouldings is rounded and a not unobstrusive pivot has been added to support the bottom of each door. Since we do not generally indulge in opening doors, the visual fit of the door against the inner body stanchions can be improved by first chamfering the outer hinge edge of each door to provide a flat seating for a section of Evergreen strip which can subsequently be filed back to give a square edge to the door. Door hinges are made up from Evergreen strip and the bottom door pivots dispensed with.

The ends of the van need no alteration save for adding a small washer plate above the sliding central vent that is probably associated with the internal heating (Photo 14.)

The underframe can be built following the instructions except that the brake shoes and push rods need to be replaced to correct the kit’s inaccurate use of the older pattern of brake blocks and hangers. For this conversion, I replaced them with the equivalent mouldings from the Parkside 9ft wheelbase underframe, some minor adjustment needing to be made to the legs of the moulding, so that they would fit into the locating groves provided on the Peco underframe. The cross shaft was made from 1.2mm brass rod and fitted through both ‘V’ hangers and vacuum actuator or lever. Now is the time to add the Dean-Churchward vacuum conversion kit, (RO-9).

As with all of the ex-Websters kits, the underframe is provided with compensation using a rocking ‘W’ iron on one axle. The only snag with the kit in this respect is that the rocking unit pivots and the small supporting brackets are all in plastic, so there is a risk, if care is not taken, that the whole can become glued solid.

The Peco buffers are a disappointment, in my opinion, harkening back to the old spring system with a wire through the middle of a ‘plastic’ hook … yuk. The plastic hook is best replaced with a metal version. However, I found if hooks are used other than the plastic kit examples, then the length of the hook shank that fits in the buffer beam’s compensating end needs to be shortened or bent to avoid interference with the rocking unit’s workings. The fit of the buffer brass shanks is poor necessitating a lot of reaming out. I found that fitting an already complete self-contained sprung, white metal set with a 7mm buffer head from NMRS fitted well and did the job elegantly.

The overall fit of this kit's parts is superb and it is well designed and thought out. It has been in production a very long time and has stood the test extremely well.

The colour scheme is the usual faded bauxite red body with black solebars and a dirty grey roof. There are no roof vents. The roof rain strips are, on this prototype, different to the Peco example, in that it is a shortened curved version directly above the door opening. (See Photo 16.) No yellow or white spot is shown on the body here. The vacuum pipe is the high type with a steam ‘D’ type positioned to the right of the former both of which are included in the conversion kit (RO-6).

Photo 15-(top) Banana Van-Y4 showing under frame detail from Dean- Churchward conversion kit.

Photo 16-(above) Banana Van-Y4 showing new buffers and roof guttering.

Finally, there is a round or rod type tie bar to be added to the bases of the two ‘W’ iron/axle guards on both sides. See Photo 17 for a view of the completed model.

Photo 17. Another view of the completed model