DC460000 optical car

[darren.c]

hi everyone
im lucky enough to of know the late bill Avery one of his scratch  built models was of this wagon which is now owed by another member of the Crawley modelrailway society of which i am a member, having looked at the model it was very crude and i want to make a better model of this in n gauge does anyone know the true length of this wagon or has built one them self
kind regards daz

[Tank]

Would love to see a picture of the model.  I was reading up about this piece of equipment a month ago.  Here is a parapgraph I found.....

This is one of the two prototype SPA plate wagons, diag SP019A. The underframe differs to the production batches of SPA, being a more standard design similar to those used on OAA and VAA, VBA. 33ft. 6 in. over headstocks with a 20ft. 9 in. wheelbase. Converted 1982.  From Departmentals.com

[Adam1701D]

I've seen this scratchbuilt in 4mm by a member of DEMU with working lights. Love to see one in N, especially as I do the matching coaches to go with it.

[Tank]

Terrible advertisement Adam!  *shakes head*   

[darren.c]

funny you should say that Adam
i have one of your coaches done already.
that's whats made we want to do a model of it i know that the march 1994 issue of the railway modeller had had plans for it just cant get my hands on a copy 

[Tank]

I used the VBA wagon as suggested by Bob at N-Train.  Most people seem to have left all of the features on the chassis, but it doesn't take much work to get rid of the brake handles etc.  It's a shame that the axle boxes are wrong, but you have to compromise sometimes - unless you want it to be a major job! 

[BernardTPM]

The axleboxes must have been changed when it was rebuilt into the optical car. If you were to use the springs and axlebox support sliced off an old B4 bogie (perhaps the Minitrix as that didn't have moulded-in brake blocks which makes chopping up easier) and glue those over the existing suspension units cut-back you'd be pretty close. The two prototype plate wagons were built at Ashford in 1977 (see Model Railways Nov. '88) and had the '1st generation' A.B. chassis. The production plates (Shildon 1979-81) were about a foot longer with completely different shaped solebars and different brake levers (the latter irrelevant for the Optical Car) so the oAA/VAA type is a beter starting point than the production SPA type.