EMU - ex-SECR 4SUB Drawings
Worsley Works is a company which will generally offer to etch anything you've got a drawing for, at any scale. It's a real godsend for people modelling in non-commercial scales, or those who can use these 'scratch-aid' pieces to build slightly more offbeat subjects. While one could hardly call a class of multiple hundreds of EMUs offbeat, there certainly were quite a few variants of them - and given how ephemeral their configuration and deployment was, it's less of a case of picking a specific unit and more a case of having a good set of drawings/models/etc. and just making that be the one you're modelling!
I have always wanted to have some ex pre-group EMU's - they are really evocative, to me! Most of these units were all being fairly comprehensively rebuilt in the 40's, but some lingered on into the 50's alongside more modern stock.
Allen at WW has very kindly agreed to do the artwork for, and etch, the suburban units on my behalf. We had a little back and forth, trying to establish where we might find
Exhibit A, your honour, is a drawing from B. Golding's "A Pictorial Record of Southern Electric Units", showing an ex-SECR-bodied EMU on 62'6" frames.
snippet of Brian Golding's "Southern Electric UNits: A Pictoral Record"
There are some rather strange points about the drawing when compared to one from Mike King:
snippet of Mike King's "ex-SECR 3Sub drawing"
The main differences:
- The panelling is much more rounded
- The Guard/Luggage cabin is longer, and the lookout panel is narrower
- The cnetre of the bogie rests approximately under the grab rail stanchion, and the rear driving axle centre-point is inside the line of the luggage door.
Doing some digging, I found the following prototype photographs which may help us:
snippet from 'Southern Electric: Vol 1' showing an ex-SECR bodied trailer third nee-composite (right) and ex-LBSCR unit (left) circa 1952
snippet from 'Southern Electric: Vol 2' showing an ex-SECR bodied DMBT circa 1950*
* Interestingly, 4492 was one of the batch of 3-car suburban units that was augmented with a steel trailer unit, but in the full version of the above picture, it shows history repeating itself with another ex-SECR trailer unit subbed in.
Clearly, these coaches have the rounded panelling. It is more difficult to establish the relationship of the guard/luggage compartment, but it would appear that the centre-line of the bogie is below the rear rail stanchion, and the panelling to the right of the luggage door matches the design in the King drawing (note: this side of the vehicle doesn't have a lookout, just a flush panel).
I am not sure what happened with the Golding drawing - there was a point that bogies were replaced on these units, which may explain that - but the strangeness around the lookout panel is something new to me. I have ordered the full set of Mike King drawings, so I hope that clarifies
Edited by Lacathedrale
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