Scratchbuilding a Gauge 1 Private Owners Wagon


c1906 Private Owners Wagon, RCH Standard wagon with body and wood underframe.

The wagon has been produced using various materials and production processes. drawings, photos and other data to produce the wagon are sourced from a very useful publication 'Private Owner Wagons from the Ince Waggon & Ironworks Co' by A. J. Watts and published by The Historical Model Railway Society.


The side and end panels of the wagon are made from plywood. The side panels are cut from 0.8mm plywood and the base panel is cut from 1.5mm plywood. All plywood panels were cut out using a Roland MDX-15 3D plotter. Two of each of the side and end panels was produced and then glued back to back using wood glue. This doubled the thickness of the panels and at the same time added strength. These were then glued to the single base panel to create a box structure.

 


The subframe for the wagon and end vertical bars were made from Obeche. These items were produced using either Proxxon circular saw or Roland MDX-15 3D plotter. The holes in the subframe for the Axle Guard and Stay, were drilled using a drilling template made from 0.032" brass plate.

 

During the production of various parts of the wagon, we found that the software supplied did not allow for some of the basic operations requirement, these included the drilling of a hole and also the manual jogging of the x, y and z axis. We therefore, had some additional software specially developed by SpiralArm to allow us the do these operations. These included the spotfacing of the brass sheet to show rivet positions etc.


The ironwork on the main wagon body is made from brass sheet and brass rod. The rivets were produced with a riveting tool and the bolts turned from brass rod. The brass work on the body was glued to the wood using cyanoacrylate. The coupling hook is injection moulded in GS Nylon from a mould made in-house for this model.

 


The ironwork on the subframe is made from 0.032" brass sheet. These parts were profile milled on the Roland mdx-15 3D plotter.

 


The holes for fixing the Axle Guard and Stay etc. to the subframe were drilled using a brass template made for the job and the parts were then fixed to the subframe using 14BA screws and nuts.

 

A number of parts have been produced for this wagon using 3D printing. The printer used was a ANYCUBIC 3D printer Photon UV, this is a resin based printer which gives much greater detail then some of the other 3D printers currently available, as well as improved surface finish. The parts produced include the Buffer Guides, Brake Gear, Axle Boxes, Springs etc.


All drawings for the 3D printed parts were drawn using the Rhinoceros 5 CAD programme both MAC and Windows versions. The drawings were then exported as .STL (stereolithography) files for import into the slicing programme used for the printer.

 

 


Once the supports were removed from the buffer guide, a brass tube was fitted into the back of it. This helps to align the buffer guide to the buffer beam and also helps the free movement of the buffer head/buffer rod in the guide.

 


The Buffer guides were fixed to the buffer beam using cyanoacrylate. The steel buffer head/buffer rod is inserted into the buffer guide and retained with a brass collar on the inside of the subframe.

 


A new mould was manufactured to produce the required 3' 1" 8 spoke wagon wheels for the model. The axles for these wheels have a 2mm journal to suit the brass bearing that is fitted into the 3D printed axle boxes.

 


This CAD drawing shows the general arrangement for both the axles boxes and leaf springs along with the brake gear that is used on the wagon. This drawing is also used to output the .STL (stereolithography) files that are used to 3D print these parts for the wagon. Again the printer used is a ANYCUBIC 3D printer Photon UV.

 


A standard brass top hat bush is used for the axle bearing and is a push fit into the 3D printed axle box.

 


Once the axle bearing is fitted into the axle box, the axle box and bearing assembly can slid easily into the axle guard and stay.

 


The spring stop, spring shoe and leaf springs are fixed to the subframe with cyanoacrylate. The leaf spring and axle box are not fixed together, this allows for the wheel sets to be removed just by removing the bridle from the axle guard and stay and sliding the axles boxes and wheel sets out.

 


Side view of wagon showing the 3D printed axle boxes and leaf springs along with the complete brake gear assembly.

 

Photos showing various views of the completed wagon.


Top view

 


Side view

 


End view

 


Underside of Subframe

 


Wagon and LMS class 3F 'Jinty'