Parkside BR Vanwideby Russ Elliott
Triangular horizontal brackets were added between the inside faces of the headstocks and the solebars. The handles on the van doors were replaced by 8 thou wire. I adopted my now standard method of weighting and sound-insulation for vans: to the top of the floor I fix a layer of foam (chopped up Peco Streamline underlay), then a layer of sheet lead (sized according to the weight I wish to add), and then further layers of foam up the underside of the false roof fixed between the tops of the sides. There is little room for error on Parkside roofs, as they are moulded very close to the required finished size, but I'm happy about this, being quite keen to get a prototypical dimension in this area – very critical in my view in achieving a 'looks good' feel to a model. A 20 thou strip was added to the underside of the roof ends, to simulate the angled capping plate of the prototype, and a 5 thou rivetted strip replaced the one moulded on the top. Rain strips were added from 10 x 20 thou strip. The roof was supported on its underside by three longitudinal strips: these prevent bowing of the top of the roof and help with a good fit of the roof to the tops of the sides. The brake shoe assemblies are fixed to a plastic 'wrapper' around the base of each W-iron, and the brake shoes are tied together with 20 thou diameter pull rods. The central brake cross shaft is 30 thou rod. I used a spare brake cylinder from the Parkside Bluespot fish van kits, as these can be fixed direct to the floor. Brake rod safety loops were added from 10 thou brass wire, but this was a fiddly process, being difficult to bend the wire consistently, and then solder them to the inside of the W-iron base. Another excellent kit from Parkside. © Russ Elliott
|