New Rolling Stock for Ffarquhar- Henrietta & Elsie

Entry posted by WhitehouseFilms July 24, 2017

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The next models that would need new models made are Toby the tram engine's rolling stock, Henrietta and Elsie.

As the character bio describes, Henrietta is Toby's coach, a 4 wheel balcony coach used on the Wisbech and Upwell tramway. She has been with Toby since he was given the task of running his own line somewhere in East Anglia after working at Great Yarmouth Docks, Norfolk. Elsie is Toby's Luggage van, based off the no.9 luggage van of the W&U. When Toby's line closed in the 1950's due to bankruptcy, the two were brought along with Toby to work on the North Western Railway where they are still in working order to this day, taking quarry works to Anopha Quarry.

The original models of Henrietta and Elsie are still operational when the original model of the Ffarquhar Branch is on exhibition. Henrietta was a brass kit which the Reverend Awdry didn't know how to assemble. It was given to a modeller called P.R.Wickham who got it put together to go with the Rev's model of Toby. Elsie was a simple model to make. She was made from 1mm plywood and card and her chassis was a cut down screw on wagon chassis. Both models were fitted with Spratt and Winkle MRK1 couplings.
When I began modelling the Ffarquhar branch, Henrietta first started off as a Tomy Tomica toy, screwed to a wagon chassis. But this made the model too big and sometimes catches the tunnel walls. A second model was knocked together using an old broken Marklin Tinplate coach that I got from a bargain bin for 50p. This model was alright but wasn't what I wanted. The third model was a lightly modified Bachmann model which only required the balcony gates to be moved further in and a small repaint. A 4th model is in the building stages and it is a 3D printed model that I found on Shapeways. in order for the wheels to fit, the axle boxes had to be drilled out but these will be filled in when it comes to the painting stages.

Elsie's model also went through several builtins stages. the first was made from scraps of balsa wood and glued to a coach bogie. But this model looked too crude and bulky so I scraped it and made a second model. This was made from scrap bits of Ratio kits. The model performed alright but still wasn't right. The third model was made using a scaled drawing of the van and WILLS plasticard. This model is still being used to this day and is a much closer version to the real van. A back up model will be made from 1mm ply using photo reference of the original model as guidance. I will need to find a suitable chassis first if anyone has any suggestions?