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Some Maunsell coaches and a GWR Diagram C.54

pete_mcfarlane

Entry posted by pete_mcfarlane

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Not updated this blog for a while now - I must get a bit better at doing it.

 

I've built a couple of Phoenix/Branchlines "Goldstar" coaches - a Maunsell Open third and one of the 1935 type brake composites.

 

I'm not a fan of the original BSL/Phoenix coaches - nasty stamped aluminium sides and some strange pressing that are supposed to be the chassis. However these are much better, having much thinner etched sides for starters.

 

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I replaced the rather crude Phoenix bogies with MJT compensated ones - time will tell if these are worth the extra time and expense. The brake composite uses Comet underframe castings from their Bullied as these are correct for the later Maunsells. The biggest problem by far was attaching the rainstrips to the roof - eventually I managed to use a combination of superglue and Johnsons clear floor polish to hold them in place.

 

Next up is the first of some GWR through coaches - a C.54 open third. There's one of these parked by the buffers at Kidderminster Town station, and after a few trips to the Severn Valley I rather like choclate and cream GWR coaches. I can leave all those identical 4-6-0s and Pannier tanks though....

 

This was my first go at a complete Comet kit and it went together fairly well. My biggest mistake was to cut the chassis to length based on the assumption that the coach was 57' long as it says in the instructions... Once I'd noticed that the buffer beams were too far back I checked the drawing in Russell and discovered that these were actually 58'4" long. Some replacement solebars from Evergreen sorted this problem.

 

The other deviation from the kit was to use 247 battery boxes, and these look much nicer having a cutout to represent the daylight between the box and the coach floor (which to me is one of the key features of these coaches). I also fitted Slaters sprung buffers and Frogmore lamp irons to the ends (another key feature). All in all I'm quite pleased with the result.

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Lastly, a first look on my current coach project. A SR Continental corridor third (the 8'6" wide type). This is based on a Worsley works etch - here laid out on my ironing board.

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And after some basic assembly.

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The first big problem is width - the etch appears to be designed to go together with the side inside the ends. This would make it 2mm too wide - by putting the ends outside the sides I got this down to .5mm too wide, but now the chassis won't fit! Some swearing and alterations are needed.

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Mallard60022
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:rolleyes:Ooooohhhhhh niiiiccccceee! Got me twitching again.

I like the Maunsells; can you elaborate on the parts you used please?

Phil @36E

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pete_mcfarlane

Phil,

 

I used Evergreen 3.2mm channel for the solebars, and brass angle for the underframe trussing. The advantage of using plastic solebars is that you can just glue the stepboards (made out of Evergreen 3.2mm strip) in place.

 

The open third uses the etched battery boxes that came with the kit - these are very nice. The brake composite is one of the later Maunsells which have the same battery boxes as Bullied coaches, so I used Comet cast omes rather than modify the etched ones as the kit suggests.

 

The other underframe bits came from the kit, except for the brake cylinders and V hangers, which are Comet.

 

The coaches are meant to run as a pair, so I used Comet retracted SR buffers at the inner ends, and Slaters sprung GWR ones at the outer end. The Slaters buffers aren't quite right, but were the only sprung square shanked oval headed buffers I could find.

 

Roof vents and steam/vac pipes are ABS from the spares box. The outer ends have fixed corridor connectors using comet castings and some rather nice etched endplates from the Branchlines etch. The working connectors between the coaches will be some paper ones from Modellers Mecca - the first time I've tried these and they look rather nice.

 

These Goldstar Maunsells were very nice kits to build. I'd do some more if I can track them down on Ebay....

 

Pete

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scanman

Pete

'I can leave all those identical 4-6-0s and Pannier tanks'

 

Why change a winning formula?? But those coaches do look nice!

 

Regs

 

Ian

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