Building the Fence Houses 21t hopper Part Four

Fitting the hopper body to the chassis

Now we're getting near to the final assembly, firstly if you haven't done so check your chassis is still all square, then with a few dry runs test fit the hopper body to the chassis, If it sits too high (there should be no sign of the central cut out above the chassis), this could be down too three things, a) the half etched part of the inner cross member is stopping the hopper from going down, b) the gussets sit too low and this can be rectified by gently filing the bottom of the gussets until corrected, or what I kept finding was c) the bottom of the legs on the two end stanchions was siting on the inner cross member, again a gentle filing off the bottom of the end stanchions soon rectified this.

Once happy with the fit turn hopper body upside down and fit chassis, I tack soldered where the half etched cross member meets the underside of the hopper body, then checking all was square between chassis and body at sides and ends and that all four wheels were touching, I then just soldered at the point where I had tack soldered earlier, when the end supports are fitted later this will be more than enough to hold the two parts together

Next job was to fit the end supports, I tinned the edges and fitted in the slots in the chassis floor and the slots in the end stanchions mentioned earlier, I found it best to fit one at a time then checking the chassis was still square and all the wheels were touching the floor, then if there was a problem it would probably be the down to the support I had just fitted.

Once all fitted it was time to fit the etched handrails which are bent to shape as per my photo and fitted in their appropriate holes, do not bend the end of the longest part of the handrail as this needs to be threaded through the two holes on the end supports first and one of the longer brackets fitted before bending to shape, once happy all is square and straight the handrail can be soldered and the excess cut from inside the hopper body.

Finally if not fitted earlier you need to fit buffers and coupling hooks, then a final clean up before painting and weathering.

Well that was my insight to building the "Fence Houses" 21t hopper, which followed the instructions as laid out. All the three kits I purchased have now been built, the first one took a couple of evenings which is the norm when building a different kit, but by the time I got to the third one I had put it together in one evening and if you follow the instructions you cant go wrong.

The kit went together and all the parts fitted as they were meant too, which is more than can be said for many kits I have built over the past in larger scales! and I will certainly be purchasing a few more to add to my collection.

Wow!! sorry for going on, this write up took a lot longer than expected, in fact longer than it took to do the third kit.