Dear All - and in the middle of a house move, decided that some stock needed working on before the move to keep me sane! So I found an old Lima LMS 42 ft CCT I had in a box, partly converted to P4. looking at the other entries here on rmweb it gave me some ideas for a little more work to do - so I added extra strips to the side (as most in the photos on the web have them), replaced the roof vents and am flush glazing the windows, not complete yet - and of course, replaced those little hand brake wheel with a Mainly Trains etched hand wheels. A coat of paint, finishing the glazing and putting in the window bars, re-fixing the roof using the upper handrails as anchors (this another story) and numbering to go!

Here is progress quite a while later. I've flush glazed the windows, made frames to hold the window bars and representations of the 'things' behind the bars that look like either the back of shelves or the bars that CCTs had to lock down vehicles. Anyone know which these are? The roof is now retained by the top set of handrails, (Like many Lima model coaches, the roof and glazing are one piece, the roof painted. To accommodate the flush glazing, all the glazing material was removed apart from tabs for retention by the top handrails). To avoid using very small amount of paint, the window bars are white thread and the other 'bars' are unpainted plasticard strip. It seems these bars / strips were white at least in the BR period. The buffers were cut off and the stocks drilled out and MJT 18" heads and springs that MJT sell separately fitted. I haven't filed the buffer tops flat as the prototype, that will be done when I've summoned some extra courage!

Still waiting on a touch up of paint and the numbers / load markings. Can anyone tell me if its 8 or 6 tons load(my best guess as I've lost the Railway Modeller article that described them.

The photos:

Interior shot and roof to show the windows bars frame (20 thou plasticard):

Interior and roof

top handrails loosened to show new method of releasing roof

3/4 view assembled

side view assembled

Now numbered, and top handrails attached. Just need to touch up the handrails ....

and with a loco to shunt it ...