Author: Tibor Weidner

German version of this article at Modellbahnfrokler.de

The railway organisations of the Scandinavian countries bought in the Fifties and Sixties closed goods wagons which were of UIC type I, one of the standard goods wagons in Europe. As special item these wagons had a brakeman's-platform, which was at half height of the front wall. These platforms had ladders and the front wall had a niche for the brake handle. On the net I found several photos of wagons with those high platforms. See the following links:

 

• http://members.xoom.com/pobox36/europ/f861203.jpg (Per Top Nielsen)
• http://home11.inet.tele.dk/oleogadi/ (Ole M. Nielsen)

Older wagons with high brakeman's-platform can be found here.

This wagon was build about 3000 times in Denmark:

(Information by Per Top Nielsen on egroups/gueterwagen)

As model for this conversion I chose the closed wagon from Lima which is available for several European railways and can sometimes be found as sell out model. As alternative one could take the Gmhs 53 from Fleischmann, which has a door width of 1800 mm.

Before starting the conversion the not used lettering should be taken away, carefully with a sharp knife or with thinner. The hand rails on the front walls should be removed, too. (Why these hand rails have to be made as moulded on parts? If I want to have them, I use new ones anyway and have to be very carefully when removing the ones moulded.)

The first step is to cut away one of the front wall profiles to the height of the lower edge of the roof. Then it is to get the niche in the front wall. The easiest way is to drill two holes within the outer boundaries. With a sharp knife and little files these holes are extended to a rectangle and to the right dimensions. Then we have to drill all the holes with are necessary to hold the new components.

The surface of the platform is cut out from serrated sheet with half a millimetre more on the three outer sides, which are bend downwards 90 degrees. For the railing, the profiles of the front wall and the hand brake the platform has to became holes.

Then we mount the hand brake which is prolonged with 0,5 mm brass wire to the lower edge of the underframe. The wires for the railing are bend like shown in the drawing. They are put in the holes in the front wall. After that we glue the diagonal handrails on the front wall which are bend 45 degrees towards the front wall.

The perpendicular handrails should not be mounted before lettering because then it is easier to apply the brake symbols on the edges of the wagon.

The ladders have to cut for to be fitted here and have to be glued in the intended holes.

The niche in the front wall has to be closed on the inner side. Here we can use wood or polystyrol profiles, the inner wall is out of paper or thin pasteboard.

The new front wall profile which holds the upper part of the front wall is made out of the brass L-profile 1 x 1 mm. The outer thigh is sand off to half of the original height. The upper end gets a chamfer. So the difference to the other profiles is not so big.

As there are only two footsteps enclosed with the wagon, you have to omit one, add one new or directly replace all steps by Weinert ones.

Then follows the priming of the new components and the painting. A complete repaint is possible but not necessary.

As all of the above mentioned photos of the UIC-type I wagons have lettering from after 1968 (computer numbers with DSB in big letters), I had to look for older wagons with similar lettering for my Gs, for example:

http://members.xoom.com/godsvogne/dok/49800dsbhst.html

Most of the lettering can be taken from the Gassner decal set G 323 for the German Gmhs 53. The number and the type Gs must be cut out separately. Possible numbers are (with corresponding computer numbers in brackets):

• 40000 - 40874 (120 1 000 - 120 1 874) door width 1800 mm (Fleischmann model)
• 41000 - 42999 (120 2 000 - 120 3 999) door width 2000 mm (Lima model)

Source: Ole M. Nielsen, http://home11.inet.tele.dk/oleogadi/omlit65.htm

Additionally there are warning symbols on the side with the brakeman's platform. The problem is that the German sets don't have the DSB lettering and the crown. I have made them on my computer, printed them on paper and glued them on the wagon. Here are better solutions possible, you could use a better printer or in Denmark these letterings could be available ready-made.

• Brass wire diameter 0,5 mm
• Brass L-profile 1 x 1 mm
• Weinert 8690, footsteps for goods wagons, alternative 8712, 8718 or 8737
• Weinert 9267, brake handle for narrow gauge wagons, alternative 9255, both with prolongation of 0,5 mm brass wire
• Weinert 9337, serrated sheet, alternative polystyrol
• Weinert 9520, hand rails 10,7 mm, alternative self build hand rails
• Weinert 4385, ladders for excavator
• Gassner G 323, lettering for German closed goods wagons G 53 - G 61

In the meanwhile I found out that Roco had or has this wagon as ready-made models as exclusive series for Denmark with the catalogue numbers 46 690 "Lukket godsvogn type Gs, m. bremsplatform" and 47 336 (museum wagon era V). I didn't see one of this models so I can't compare them to mine.

A big thank you to the Danish goods wagons specialists without whom I wouldn't even know about those interesting "standard" wagons. Their homepages have a huge amount of good photos and additional information.

Thanks to John Oxlade and Martin Silz for revising this English version of my article.

[ last updated 31st Dec 2003 ]