UTA exNCc Railcar No 4

[colmflanagan]

Well, I suppose it had happen eventually, before I get either too old or too short sighted, or too lazy (delete any or all as appropriate). In 1968, i think, three of us from  Coleraine Inst Railway Society paid a visit to Mr. W A McAfee, the chief engineer of NIR at the time, in his office at York Road, and after some discussions in his office, he said would we like to have a walk round the yard outside. (Today?? No chance) He left us to wander around and just said "keep a  good lookout and don’t go on any running lines" and we set off.

We walked down a long siding and clambered in and out of various vehicles, including the then derelict North Atlantic diner; at the end of the row was a railcar, ex NCC No,4, the last of the pioneering cars of the thirties, and the only one i have ever actually been in. Seats were strewn around inside and I recall stepping up from the front saloon into the "cab" in its little cupola or turret. At that time we had notions of forming a Diesel Preservation Society (fat chance at that time) and running No 1 and No 4 to Portrush. It was never to be and 4 was destroyed the following year in fire.

 

All of which brings me to my build of No 4 in 4mm. I’d done No 1 and it seemed only right, given what I write above..

 

 

 

The plans overlaid with some bits, to “prove” that I could get something approximating to what I want. Mine will be slightly shorter than scale (dictated by the “panels” of old  Mainline LMS coaches I am going to use - but not by too much. This also lets me be lazy as I do not need to alter the wheelbase of its underframe –just lengthen the soleplates and fit new buffer beams. As usual, a “Black Beetle” will provide more than adequate  power.

 

 

[Glover]

Colm,

 

Fantastically inventive modelling, as we have come to expect.

 

Regards,

 

Glover

[kirley]

Looking forward to seeing it finished and running....

[Hunslet 102]

Looking good Colm,great to see these iconic railcars making it to model form

[colmflanagan]

Any of you who’ve seen Tony Ragg’s 7mm layout “Stamfording” will know that he has an excellent accurate model of No 3 railcar in LMCNCC livery. Mine will not be in that league but will hopefully look the part using the “two foot” rule!   Anyway, on with my No4.

 

I used mostly the sections of the Mainline panelled 57’ coach, with some sections, chiefly at the ends, from the Stanier 50’parcels van, also produced by Dapol.

 

Each side has eight sections. Fortunately I did quite a lot of conversions using these coaches and so had a good selection in my box of bits. There is a slight complication, though (as always!) No 1 had more panelling and so I had been able to leave the sides pretty much as is; 4 has really just the strips below and above the windows.  So it’s out with the sanding/emery paper. But the complication is that the luggage van sides, (which seem attractive for the job due to the fact that you don't have to sand away any panelling) – aren’t the same thickness and have an indent for glazing, making matching them up tricky; the ones I had were also slightly less high and needed a fillet of strip across the top….which then needs sanding. Then you have to add the panel lines anyway, as I did for most of the panels.  Get eh picture? In the end, I found the two sides were slightly different lengths 9comesd of using chopped up bits and pieces) so that needed a bit of tweaking with strip at either end. Hopefully it’ll be mostly concealed when completed and painted.  The ends were made from 20 thou plastic card, and 60 thou strip provided the end frames to give the curved outline. For glazing I use an excellent product which Comet use for their kits, the previous owner provided me with a supply of this 30 thou clear strip.

 

The roof of these vehicles was low profile and if I'd had any left, I’d probably have used Ratio GWR 4 wheel coach roofs glued together, they give both rigidity and a reasonably close to the “look” I was after.  However when I scrabbled through my bulging “bits of old carriages” box I had none left!  So, in the end I had to bodge it, from parts of old Hornby clerestory roofs and thin plastic card, and ended up with some wrinkles which I hope a liberal coating of matt grey roof colour will conceal. It all felt rather flimsy.

There are lots of fitting, sanding, emery paper scrubbing and all that in these conversions; it’s never my favourite job.

 

 I realized I’d need to have something reasonably strong in terms of the body structure with my thin skinned roof, and the many panel joins don’t make you want to stress them with too much digging and hacking. I therefore decided to build the sides, added interiors, some people, then fixed the sides to a fairly heavy (40 thou) floor of plastic card, then glazing, before gluing down the roof. (I now try and put people in my vehicles as it really does look so much better; even half a dozen bring the unit “alive.”)

 

 

One thing I realized just after this, was that 3&4 were definitely lower on the track than a standard coach, (see the picture of 4 below), so I sanded down the top half of the side panels above the windows, , and put plasticard strip guttering along the tops of the sides to emphasize this. I am quite pleased with the result after all.

Round about this time I began to think that, although i didn't set out with any intention to build No4 to a deadline, the Modelrail Scotland show in Glasgow was approaching. Bleach Green will be there and maybe I might be able to get her out of the shops before that. So I plugged on with that in mind. You'll know whether I've been successful if the completed railcar features here before the 25th February!

 

 

 

 

 I also dropped the body panels on the underframe, about 1mm lower than they were originally – I’d already glued a floor in so this wasn't as easy as I would have expected. If I ever build another railcar of this type( a BIG IF) I’ll know to do it earlier on. I left the “skirts” on the lower panels till later. At this point, just before fixing the roof, I fitted the power bogie and tested the thing for running, and all was well. I plan to have a coupling at one end so No 4 can pull a brown van or similar.

 

 

 

 

The LMSNCC built rather uncomfortable trailers for these railcars which had huge passenger carrying capacity. In theory 4 and her sister, 3, could pull one and push one.  One ended up as a signals van – and no, I have no interest in modelling one.

 

 

So now, I had the roof on, sides and interiors finished apart from external detailing, and a working chassis, as seen above. Time to move on to the bit I'd been putting off  - the driving turrets and roof ends.....more anon.

 

[Glover]

A lot of hard work there Colm!

A suggestion for the roof (for the next time......): the old Airfix now Dapol Park Royal railbus. It has quite a "flat" profile.

I'm currently using the sides to produce CIE tin-vans; the old Bulleid 4 wheel luggage vans.

I have this notion that I might use the roofs for the Sligo Leitrims railcar B; some day!

 

Cheers,

 

Glover

[colmflanagan]

A lot of hard work there Colm!

A suggestion for the roof (for the next time......): the old Airfix now Dapol Park Royal railbus. It has quite a "flat" profile.

I'm currently using the sides to produce CIE tin-vans; the old Bulleid 4 wheel luggage vans.

I have this notion that I might use the roofs for the Sligo Leitrims railcar B; some day!

 

Cheers,

 

Glover

A good thought, I also had thought of using that kit as base for a sort of SLNCR railcar B. I travelled in it once -from Connolly to Inchicore in 1968!  Like you...some day.

 

Colm

[colmflanagan]

It was now time to face up to the roof ends and the driving cabs.  We have sometimes referred to the latter as “turrets” and indeed the word “cupola” might be applicable – I will stick with “turret” for now.  I recall on my visit that I thought the driving position positively lethal – and I expect the front glass wasn’t safety in any sense either! The man was cooped up in this tiny enclosure with levers and things sprouting everywhere.  I bet it was draughty too. The arrangement in theory allowed the driver to see over the low roof of a trailer and propel it, which meant that there was no need to “run round” at a terminus. I glued the roof to the body sides –it is a bit flimsy in construction . Then, after a bit of sitting musing about it, I took the plunge and roughly filled in the roughly triangular section where the roof comes down to guttering level, with a piece plastic card and a glob of filler on top; lost of filing down to so, as usual.

The turrets in the end weren’t too bad. I used 40 thou plastic card and built them as “boxes – remembering to cut holes for the windows at the front and the sides.  Well to be honest, I did remember these, but only after building them and then had to cut them out with the assembly in situ.  If I had remembered them in time, I’d have saved myself some work. Then, filled round any gaps and once again a bit of sanding/filing down the edges to provide curves and angles (you need photos for this). Finally they looked OK, and I put a driver in each (you can’t see them both at the same time anyway!).  Ventilators (torpedo type were then fitted – as far as I could tell from the photos I have,  there was a  single row on either side of the roof radiators – no doubt someone will come across a pic of the roof and I will know for sure if it is right of wrong. The radiators were made from bits of plastic tubing, as No 1.

 

 

Once this was done, it began to look quite like No 4 – thank goodness. There were lots of little details to add, headlights, (round tubing cut thinly), wipers, mouldings above and below the windows, buffer beam pipes, and air horns.. As with No 1 I have a coupling at one end so No 4 can pull a  brown van or two from time to time.  And plenty of fettling and  fiddling with clearances for the bogies, especially the power one. I fitted the trailing bogie with extra pickups.

Two coats of UTA green applied by hand (glazing was already in place!), and the roof was LMS grey.  I finished the ends in the last livery No 4 carried, with yellow “wasp” panels and green uppers (cream until 1964) – this was what she carried on the day of my only viewing.

I haven’t any space for the little “4” above the end windows so put two on each side, as well as late UTA crests on the sides of the turrets. I wasn't happy with the front windows -they were a bit too big - the stranraer picturess were taken before I altered them.

 

 

 

The last thing to do was to fit the “skirts” which No4 has, along the undersides of the body panels – as they are attached to the chassis and the body comes off for the inevitable maintenance, they aren’t smooth like the real thing ,nor do they flare outwards.  But it’s not that noticeable in 4mm but I know if I did them attached to the body the first that would happen would be a motor failure or adjustment that would be needed for decent running, and I’ve have to hack them off.

Anyway, there she is, I will be taking No4 to Glasgow at the end of this week, for the show there and hope she will run OK on Bleach Green’s many curves and gradients. Still, I am pleased at last to have paid my homage in 4mm scale, to the men who designed and built these pioneer vehicles some 80 years ago.

 

 

[janner]

Congratulations Colm, she is a beauty.

[£1.38]

A very nice bit of modelling. I really like to see things just that bit different to all the RTR stuff!

[PhilJ W]

What you said about placing the driver in the turret to enable propelling another vehicle is correct. But the drivers view of the road ahead was still restricted and IIRC resulted in a derailment leading to a ban on propelling moves.

[colmflanagan]

Indeed that's true, the story I heard was that the car involved 3 I think was in collision on the Portrush branch and the unfortunate victim was a cow! I don't know when though.