wheel construction

Today I finished the wheels of the carriage, they are ready to paint, as you can see already has the first coat of primer, to protect the wood and metal.
This carriage made very long and continuous journeys along roads with many holes, curves and inclinations, and the enormous weight it carried, so the wheels had to be strong, strong and compact, as you can see the rays are staggered to 3 and 7, which gives it great strength to torsion and traction shocks, the pins are also screwed to the wheel rims, thus reinforcing the whole set, in which each rear wheel weighed about 70 kg. particular attention was paid to these components of the malaposta carriages.
Some more photos from this compilation.
Given that this will be my last article published in this year 2017, I would like to wish all readers sincere wishes for a prosperous and healthy New Year. Jose. C. Brito.

 The hoops are silver-plated for strength

The spokes are staggered at 3 and 7 degrees, and the feloes are bolted to the rim of the wheel to give greater strength and solidity to the entire wheel assembly.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WHEELS

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WHEELS IN THE ROYAL MAIL COACHES

 In this image it is possible to see the scaling of the rays at 3 and 7 º.

 The various stages of wheel construction.

Jig to center and sharpen the spokes in the center of the wheel.

There were two components in the carriages, which the coachmen paid special attention to, the spear and the wheels, the first when it broke, the carriage was uncontrolled, and the wheels collapsed causing unpredictable accidents, each carriage of the original malaposta French, weighed approximately 1,900 kg. Empty, plus the passengers, up to 12, plus the mail load and other luggage, in total would be approximately 2,600 kg. That the wheels had to support along 300 km of the route between Lisbon Coimbra and Porto, for this reason the wheels of the carriages had special characteristics to withstand this enormous effort, to give an idea of ​​the robustness of these components, each rear wheel, therefore the largest, weighed between 60 and 70 kg, with the hardware, the cubes and the pines were made of hollywood, and with the semi-green wood, because in drought it was impossible to work it, had a behavior like iron , to give it even greater robustness, the rays were not symmetrical, but rather staggered at 3 and 7 degrees to the cube on the outside, in the investigations I have made in this respect, there are reports of, in the hottest months of the year I used to wrap a burlap soaked in water around the hub near the rays in order to keep the whole set more uniform and prevent the rays of the sun from falling on them, causing clearances and cracks and thus avoiding the collapse of the wheels. all the stations change a blacksmith's shop where they had spare wheels for all eventualities, the wheel axles were also lubricated with some regularity due to the great friction caused by the weight and great distances covered, the lubricants used were a mixture of oil with soap.
Regarding the wheels of this miniature that I am about to start, since they are very similar to the previous ones, I will not dwell on details, only the main parts that compose them, several people have approached me about the construction of the wheels, since it is a job that requires some skill and a lot of training, but here are some photos of this work.

MY NEXT PROJECT

Today I announce my new project for the coming times, it is the carriage of the malaposta with number 5, but of unknown origin.
 First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. Patrick Magnaudeix for his interesting article on the cultural and didactic history published in the blog, Attellage-Patrimoin, in which the whole history of the mailbag in Portugal is discussed in a first article. , as well as my miniatures related to this event, to him my thanks for the interest and availability in making and publishing this valuable article.
This carriage, nº 5 is in permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Portuguese Communications Foundation, in Lisbon, it is worth highlighting the scenery in which it is located, it is well worth visiting the museum and seeing live what life was like and the bustle at that time, lived in a moulting station of horses along the route between Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto in the century. XIX,
Here I leave some photos that attest to this scenario of reality, stopped in time.
http://www.attelage-patrimoine.com/2017/10/malle-postes-portugaises-originaux-et-maquettes-de-jose-brito.html

At the end of the construction of the carriage in the suitcase nº 7, at the end of a year and four months, today another work of my collection finished.
It is important to divulge some of the history that is associated with this carriage of the mail,
In 1859, with the completion of the road between Lisbon and Porto, the daily careers of the malaposta between Lisbon (Carregado) and Porto about 300 km were started with 23 moulting stations, taking about 5 minutes, to exchange horses, It took approximately 34 hours between the two routes and the price in first class from Lisbon to Porto was 13 $ 50.
But with the industrial and technological development of the time the train was a serious threat to the continuation of the carriages of the mail, which came to happen on July 7, 1864, with the inauguration of the train between Lisbon and Porto, thus making the last The journey of this chariot, and therefore most likely, in commemoration of the good services rendered by this magnificent chariot, was assigned the No. 7 date of the last service rendered in the transport of mail, passengers and parcels.
I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this compilation throughout the construction time, I also want to say that all comments, comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome as it is a way to improve and make the blog more participatory in the future.
My sincere thanks to all who accompanied this building, thank you to everyone.

Painting in tiles, immortalizing the passage of the carriage of the suitcase, where it was the moulting station of horses Nº 16 between Lisbon and Porto, this stop is today a magnificent restaurant that preserved this important memory, in the locality of Malaposta.

Painting the main cover and brake assembly and driver's seat.
As they can see the images, the carriage is very close to the end of the construction, the showcase where it will be housed is already under construction, missing the final painting, as they see already took several layers of primary, if everything goes well I hope to end the Next week everything will be finished, because the assembly of all the details like the lamps and other accessories, are very demanding and delicate work.
Some more photos of progress.

 The various stages of painting the cover, the brake line and the driver's seat.

Window base construction, where the carriage will be housed, still need to paint, the color will be black, condition with the base color of the carriage, the glass is in acrylic glass 3 mm thick, the next step will be the assembly of All accessories such as lamps etc

Construction of the railing of the roof, the structure of the railing is made of 2 mm metal and welded to tin, shims are placed along the lower railing so that the height of the rails is equal throughout the roof, Be welded washers at the base of the railing fitting with the cover, as a flap keeping it secured and welded, the same height all the way around, as you can see.

The various stages of construction of the railing.

 As you can see, shims are placed in 10 mm high wood in order to keep the same height of the railing all the way around. A corner mold is also made to weld the corners of the railing.

 The shims retain the same height (10 mm) to weld the back grid.

 Shingles in boxwood to border the entire roof.

The grid is finished, it is necessary to weld the washers in the fixing bases and to paint.

Continuing the construction of the carriage of the suitcase, today I will show the back compartment, already finished and ready to fix the main cover, as you can see this cover is glued and nailed with small nails in the corners for better alignment of the set, These steel springs, made from mattress springs, are very useful and practical for this purpose, some photos for a better understanding of this work.

View the inside of the rear compartment, testing every detail, before securing the liner and cover.

 The rear seat is articulated to allow passengers to enter and exit, in this model the seat is equally functional, as you can see.

 Everything is ready for fixing the liner and inner cover.

The liner will be secured together with the first cover, as it is very difficult to access the interior to secure the tape that borders the entire interior next to the ceiling, this tape is fixed before the liner is glued.

The lining is already fixed well as the strips that line the ceiling.

 Beginning the placement of the main carriage cover, this is a critical job, because if something goes wrong, it is no longer possible to repair such as the brake components or the lamps, for example. I use steel springs from the mattresses for this job, with very good results, as you can see