AV Dining Car - Under Floor Detail

Underneath the AV Dining Car is another subject of interest, so here is what I found for completion of my model of the AV whilst on a visit to the ARHS Museum.

 

Under floor detail AV 425 from Dining End Corridor side

Under floor detail AV 425 from Galley End corridor side
 

Essentially the detail underneath the Dining car is symmetrically balanced consisting of 4 Battery Boxes, 2 Water Tanks and 2 sets of Brake Gear.

Under Floor AV 426 Model

 

In S scale measurements, Battery Boxes are 37mm long and can be purchased from Railwest as their "Long" battery box. The Water Tanks are 28mm long and can be made from a section of 7.9mm Evergreen tube #230 with some #100 strip for the support straps. Railwest also supply Vacuum cylinders and V hangers to suit.

Av 426 Model Under floor Detail locations

The Battery Boxes and Water Tanks should all fit within the cast areas of the frames . The Water Tanks should be positioned with one end against the center frame casting and hang with 5.5mm of tank exposed/visible below the sole bars.

 

V hangers should be mounted on the external surface of the outside frame with the inside V on the inside frame 2/3rds over the center of the carriage frame. Vacuum cylinders are a close fit to the V hangers with a distance of 7mm between the cross bar and center of the cylinder.

Brake Gear  & V Hangers

The older style carriage Queen posts are also available from Railwest as is .7mm brass rod for the tension bars.

With any luck this information combined with the roof detail information, will enable completion of a few more models of the AV Dining Cars.

 

AV Dining Car - Roof Detail

 

 

 In recent times I have been asked by some members of our group about how I achieved the roof detail and its positioning on my model of the AV Dining Car. This was a problem that I faced back in early 2010 when I was looking to complete my own model of AV 426.

 

 WAGR - AV 426 Dining Car Model
 

Whilst discussing my problem with Rob Clarke who is a member of the ARHS Museum, it was suggested that we could go and measure the real thing at the museum. The agreed day arrived and I met Rob (who had come armed with a ladder) at the Museum and we climbed up onto the roof of AV 425 and carefully set about the task of plotting the positions of the roof equipment.

 

Here is a few prototype pictures showing what is on the roof

 

Kitchen End Stove Vents to right

Looking from Kitchen End over Dining Room

 

Kitchen End showing Galley Vents to left
 

Ok now that you have an idea of what is on the roof, next is to provide the important measurements  & modeling tips. All measurements shown are in millimeters. I have calculated these from the actual 1:1 measurements to suit placement onto the model.

 

To begin with you need to mark out the centerline of the roof.

 

As shown in Picture 1 below - From the kitchen end, measure and mark the positions of the standard Flettner ventilators that run the length of the coach.  

 

 

Picture 2 shows the position of the Stove vents using the first Flettner vent at the kitchen end as the start point for locating. First measure and mark the offset line and then mark the vent positions.

 

  

Picture 3 Shows the location of the Galley Vents again using the first Flettner vent at the kitchen end as the start point for locating. Measure and mark the offset line and then mark the vent positions.

 

 

On the roof I used WestOzModels Flettner Vents for the standard centerline vents

 

 Railwest's brass large carriage vents were used for the stove vents.

These need to have mounting plates to enable them to sit level on the curve of the roof and can be made from laminated styrene sheet or perhaps an old style knitting needle or similar solid rod sliced and filed to suit the arch of the roof. 

 

For the Galley Vents and Water Filler (on the Bullnose end) I used some styrene sheet circles cut to size with a smaller circle with the edges filed or rounded off and then glued on top of the larger circle to represent the lid on top of the mounting plate. To fit on the roof, some light filing with a rounded file will be needed on the bottom of the vent to suit the roof arch particularly on the bullnose end.

 

Here below is a close up picture of the Water filler. The Water filler and the Galley Vents are very similar being mounted with a 6.34mm diameter base. The diameter of the "Lid" is 5.35mm for the Galley Vents and 4.56mm for the Water filler.

 

Water Tank Filler

 

Another feature amongst the Galley vents is the long rectangular vent. Whilst the earlier coaches seem to have been fitted with 5 round vents, it would seem that a longitudinal vent was later fitted presumably for better air collection whilst travelling.

The picture below shows these vents fitted to AV 425,426 & 286. Note that the version on 286 is low and flat compared to the round top versions on 425 & 426.

The measurement for the long vent on AV 425 is 9.52mm Long, 4.36mm wide and 3.37mm high.

I constructed this from 4 sections of 2.5mm sq Evergreen strip styrene glued together and then filed to shape and then I used a dremel with a sharp point bit to mark in some vent veins on the ends

Long Vent

 

Hopefully the information I have provided above will help you all to be able to complete those dining cars you have been working on.

 

As with all of the WAGR carriages there are many variations with fittings etc that will always present us as modelers with a challenge. As always it is best to find a good picture of the prototype you are modeling and follow what you see.

 

A big thank you goes out to Rob Clarke for his assistance with access and measuring of the roof  fittings on AV 425. I promised Rob at the time that this info would be shared with all who may need it and thanks to this blog it has now been possible in a better way than could have been imagined at the time.