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2FS GWR 4 wheel Coaches - U4


Ian Smith

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Slowly making a little progress on a train of 4 wheel coaches for Modbury. The first is a 1st / 2nd Composite to what became diagram U4 when the diagram books were set up. The bodies for these vehicles are from the Worsley Works range, and comprise the sides and ends, a roof and a floor which also includes the sole bars and top foot board, and finally the headstocks - these kits are described as scratch aid and do not purport to be complete kits. The full set of coaches are Brake 3rd to diagram T51, All Third to diagram S9, the U4, and another Brake 3rd to diagram T47. A little research indicates that the T51 looks more like a T38 (albeit requiring a little work to make it a better representation of that type).

 

To go with these bodies I am using a set of etched under frames made available by 2mm Association member David Eveleigh. These chassis kits are pretty generic, probably being for GER prototypes within David's range of etched kits. As such, there are two 18'0" under frames for 4 wheel coaches, and 2 19'0" under frames for 4 or 6 wheel coaches. Unfortunately, the U4 looks like it had a 17'0" wheelbase, and the 18'0" underarme isn't long enough for the S9 body! (so some work to do there!!)

 

I had already built one of the 18'0" chassis for my U4 before I discovered the error, so my U4 will unfortunately have a wrong wheelbase, hopefully it will not be too obvious. In building these chassis, I have removed the lower ends of the brake hangers, and also tried to round off the tops of the axle boxes to make them look less like the grease axle boxes that they look without any treatment.

 

Last night found me in the shed (workshop) turning up some gas lamp tops, vacuum cylinders and gas cylinders for these coaches :

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Looking at a broadside image of a U4 indicates that the gas cylinders were about 8'0" long, and about 1'8" diameter, so that is the size I have turned those to. The vacuum cylinders I have made just simple round bars (1'10" diameter), as from the side it will be impossible to see the actual shape as the piston part will be hidden behind the sole bars anyway. Unfortunately, i made these about 1mm too long so will have to correct them before they get fitted to the under frames. An article on coach lighting by John Lewis in BRJ many years ago also included a diagram of the flat flame gas lamp and associated fittings, this diagram showed the lamp top (the bit on top of the roof) was some 4 3/4" in diameter and stood 4" high on a 5/8" ring 8" in diameter, so that is the size (roughly) that I have made these turning to.

 

This afternoon, 4 of these lamp tops have been installed on the roof, 0.3mm wire bent up to produce the hand rails for the step end have also been fixed, and finally I have added the G scroll hand rails for the compartment doors onto the sides. These latter are marketed by N Brass, and have been soldered in place (the idea being that once I have painted the body I will scrape these back to bare brass.

 

A couple of images of progress to date :

blogentry-12089-0-84648600-1392407300_thumb.jpg

blogentry-12089-0-69769800-1392407311_thumb.jpg

 

The buffers are 2mm Association items (2-061).

 

Ian

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Thank you for the kind comments.  I only hope that I can do an acceptable paint job on it (and the others) - For my period, the upper panels will be cream, the lower sides and ends chocolate, and all of the raised moulding will be black (I think I am going to shy away from trying to put the gold line around each of the panels!!  Although it might be possible by scraping the paint back to leave a very thin line of brass showing through, but I'm not going to attempt that in 2mm!!)

 

The only real hurdle I can foresee is the lettering, does anyone market early GWR coach lettering in N gauge / 2mm?

 

Ian

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Thanks for that tip, Ian. I've never actually tried the rotring pens, but like the idea of using it for the black on the raised mouldings.

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Thanks for that tip, Ian. I've never actually tried the rotring pens, but like the idea of using it for the black on the raised mouldings.

Mikkel,

 

Here is one of my P4 coaches lined out as described above using a Rotring pen (and Rotring Black ink).

GWR U28? (IKB Models Kit)

 
It isn't finished (and probably never will be now I've moved over to the dark side :-) ).
 
Ian
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Ian  that looks awesome  almost make me want to mondel  gwr

 

Just doi ! Easy peasy ......

 

Ok I'll get my coat

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