Page created on 13/03/2025; updated on 13/04/2025.
Assembly of various parts
Brake wheels
It turns out that the original position ① of the brake wheels is too close to the stanchion. It is therefore necessary to re-drill (⌀ 0.5) about 2 mm to the left (or to the right on the other side) and a little higher ②.
The axle of the original Roco brake wheels is drilled to ⌀ 0.5 at a depth of 3 to 4 mm. I used a block of wood that conveniently had an ideal small hole of the right diameter to centre the wheel…
Click on the photo for a closer look at the drilling.
The brake wheel, mounted on a ⌀ 0.5 piano wire, is placed in its new position. The second brake wheel will of course be fitted on the other side.
Couplings
I fit these wagons with home-made drawbars because, at the time, Makette KKK1 drawbars were no longer available. In my opinion, other brands don’t offer sufficient elongation. The baseplate fits exactly between the buffer beam reinforcements.
Here is a problem! While the fit with the REE bogies is fine, the same cannot be said for the Klein bogies: you have to cut very deeply to make room for the NEM housing. This concerns both the chassis and the brake equipment.
After making an attempt by hand, which did not give a very clean result, I make a machining assembly that will allow me to do better. It consists of a U-shaped block of wood milled to the width of the bogie (26 mm), and a 3 mm diameter wood screw for fixing it.
The bogie, without its brake components, is placed in the support. It is fixed by the screw with the interposition of a wide washer. Machining with a ⌀ 2 milling cutter, milling width 5 × length 7.5 mm.
Click on the image to see the details. This plastic material needs a good deburring!
The front brake equipment has its crosspieces cut out. Leave about 1 mm on either side to facilitate refitting (unfortunately this has not been done on the example in the photo).
Here are the reassembled modified parts.
Another difficulty arises: the drawbar return spring attachments are just above the front wheels of the bogie, and may cause a short circuit in some cases. This is specific to my drawbars and should not happen with the Makette’s. I therefore have to remove these attachments, and transfer the attachment of the return wire to brass pins soldered to the rear. Here is a photo showing an evolution of these drawbars: on the left, the original assembly; in the middle, the elastic wire passes through a hook soldered to the drawbar shaft — not very practical; on the right, the wire passes directly in front of the shaft.
Stanchions
Roco stanchions have a square tenon, 1.2 mm square. To replace broken posts, I proceed as follows.
- Drilling the tenon’s location to ⌀ 1.2;
- Cutting the broken stanchion stub flush with the side panel;
- Rough milling with a ⌀ 2 cutter to level off the top of the side panel reliefs;
- Finish milling with a ⌀ 1.2 milling cutter for the hollows;
- Milling the groove under the side panel with a broken ⌀ 0.4 drill bit, then levelling the edges with a PCB engraving cutter;
- The hole is made square with the appropriate file. Caution: there is very little clearance because of the ballast just behind the wall.
As you can see, you’d better avoid breaking the original stanchions!
Milling in progress.
Stanchion removed.
Click on the photo to see the new Roco stanchion mounted.
It’s not perfect: I bit a bit under the side panel reinforcement and on the chassis bed. The new Roco stanchion is mounted.
Buffers
The original bushels’ location is drilled in two stages: first at ⌀ 2, which doesn’t remove any material, but allows the drill to be perfectly centred on the location thanks to the friction noise; then at ⌀ 2.5, which eliminates the remains of the old bushels.
The new buffers are made from:
- a ⌀ 2.5 × 1.6 tube, length 8.5, for the bushel;
- a ⌀ 1.5 × 1.1 tube, length 10 for the plunger;
- a ⌀ 1.0 rod, length 10 for centring the plate;
In fact, a ⌀ 1.5 rod would suffice to replace the ⌀ 1.5 tube and the ⌀ 1.0 rod.
- a plate cut out of brass. To do this:
A 7.5 mm wide strip is cut from a 0.5 thick brass plate. Marks are drawn every 8 mm or so, then the centres are marked, and drilled ⌀ 1 (or 1.5 depending on the diameter of the rod chosen). The strip is cut, then the corners are roughly trimmed to approximately 45°.
Soldering with silver solder, the drill holding the rod.
Turning first with a diamond disc mounted on a second drill. The disc provides a smooth cutting action that avoids the inevitable shocks as long as the plate is not circular. Finishing with a file to obtain the required diameter of 6.5 mm.
File the curvature of the plates.
Cut the flats with a diamond disc to obtain a width between flats of 4.1 mm. So, in theory, you need to grind (6.5 − 4.1) / 2 = 1.2 mm on each side. In reality, I had to remove 1.35 mm…
Finishing and burnishing. The reinforcing ribs found on modern commercial buffers will be missing…
The bushels are glued in place using CA glue.
Buffer handles
The dimensions of the buffer handles are: width 5, height 2. They are vertical, made of ⌀ 0.3 piano wire. They are made in a bending template made from an aluminium plate. Drilling ⌀ 0.4 holes in the thickness of the buffer beam is made easier by the reinforcements I glued to it.
Steps
The vertical distance between the fasteners is 1.3 mm, and the left-right distance is 24.5 mm.
The photo-etched steps are my own design, but they are commercially available. The nicest ones, in my opinion, are those from Decapod. But they are expensive!
Assembly:
- The step bracket is equipped with its two soldered “bolts”;;
- The bracket is placed in the vice, then twisted 90° using round-nose pliers to avoid damaging or tearing it.
- Result:
- The bracket is placed upside down in the vice equipped with its rubber jaws, then the step is slid underneath. I kept the tabs for the four steps to be installed to facilitate handling. Here, the first soldered part has been removed from the cluster;
- Coating with solder paste, then soldering. A small 14 W electric iron is more than sufficient here. All that remains is to cut the step out and clean the part a little (brass rotary brush);
Installation: with the drill positioned horizontally as for the buffers, drill at ⌀ 0.3. The first hole is 0.5 mm from the bottom, the second 1.3 mm above. Although the vertical adjustment is not very precise, the distance between the holes is correct.
The hole openings are slightly widened by hand using a small countersink. Installing the step is relatively easy, and the position is then adjusted.
Click on the photo to get a closer view on the parts.
Marking plates and braking equipment
Based on a photo published in DocRail, I created a rough drawing of the position and dimensions of the marking plates, as well as the various brake levers. Note: view from the opposite side of the wagon.
Photo Gilles Boivin.
The dimensions at the bottom are relative to the origin, marked 0 on the left. The dimensions used for the components have been rounded up. For the levers, the height does not include the mounting area:
- Load plate: 7 × 3,5
- Registration plate: 11 × 3
- Label holder and inscription: 10 × 4
- Isolation lever (yellow): 1,5 × 3
- Goods/Passengers lever (yellow): 3 × 4
- Empty/load lever (red): 2 × 4
Plate supports: I salvaged some scraps of 0.2 mm nickel silver or 0.1 mm brass, of varying widths. They were bent into a Z-shape.
The plates are cut and soldered.
The positions of the air tank and brake cylinder are as follows:
- Air tank ⌀ 5 × 12
- Cylinder, body 4.8 × 3.2
I made the air tank from a brass rod soldered to a nickel silver plate as a base; it will contribute somewhat to the ballast of the wagon. As for the cylinder, it is made of various polystyrene parts. I omitted the regulator, which is a complicated and hard-to-see part. Note that Hornby-Jouef also didn’t see fit to install a regulator on its latest Res models. There are three of each because I am also equipping my “historic” Res.
The parts are glued with CA glue.
To be continued:
- Install the various brake levers;
- Glue the marking plates and the buffer handles;
- Paint the assembly after masking off the remaining lettering;
- Lay the decals, install buffers, and drawbars.
End steps[HO]
Reference 1252
€7,90 per pair (price 2025)
at Decapod