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Don't look too hard and it could be a D15 Brake Third ....


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  • RMweb Gold

Nice job Tony. The paintwork looks superb.

 

The main compromise you appear to have made is in keeping the three panels either side of the rear doors, the D15's only had two, albeit they were much wider. You do appear to have addressed the positioning of the guards duckets though which should be opposite each other not offset like on the Triang donors.

 

I am in the process of making a pair of D15's. The bodies are complete and ready priming however I have done the opposite to you and removed the panel strips and made new ones out of 10thou strip to make two panels but have left the duckets offset. I've also gone a little further on the ends and removed the handrails and steps and adding then back in brass wire and etched steps.

 

I'm interested to know how you have done the roof and the glazing? I have tried bending plasticard for the roof but I'm not happy with it and I'm currently waiting for a friend to have a go at 3D printing the roof section. The glazing looks like it is almost flush ??

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Thanks for your comments nickwood - much appreciated.

 

You are quite right: there are too many panels in this compromise build. I didn't bother posting the link to my build blog for this coach as it pretty much - in essence anyway -  follows that of Rosie's Boss back in 2016. In it,  I acknowledged the fact that the coach was a little over-length as a consequence but even though I had quite a fine razor saw, it was not fine enough to remove the errant panels without creating a cosmetic disaster, one which no amount of careful filling could subsequently address. So, I aimed for what someone else on here aptly once coined, a 'train set' result, not a show-case model.

 

The glazing: SouthEast Finecast Triang Clerestory flush-glazing. Cheap and cheerful and, once fitted, all the better for a coat of Johnson's Klear on both sides [to improve the clarity / transparency].

 

The roof: this was my greatest concern at the outset. In my blog I said that I intended using stiff card [somewhat reluctantly] as bending plastic card to the correct profile along the entire length of the body seemed a bridge too far. However, half-way through the project I purchased [for a fiver] a poorly constructed D&S Models Dean Passenger Luggage Van, a 40 footer. The roof from this was perfect, almost an exact fit [so close you could not tell] and to the correct profile. It needed some attention, repairs and rain strips, but it has worked well. I wish that I could find a proprietary roof with this profile for other coaches.

 

The D&S kit also provided the bogies, although they needed considerable attention for them to be usable. They were also assembled to P4 standards and so the wheelsets required re-gauging and some desoldering was necessary to allow this to happen. The coach runs beautifully smoothly however on its compensated underpinnings.

 

I am kicking myself for not removing the moulded end handrails. They are simple enough to construct out of wire and look so much better. The twin gas tanks are 5 amp fuses. They actually look the part[ish] once painted.

 

31048062267_3c5d415534_z.jpg

 

Tony

Edited by Prometheus
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Thanks for your comments nickwood - much appreciated.

 

You are quite right: there are too many panels in this compromise build. I didn't bother posting the link to my build blog for this coach as it pretty much - in essence anyway -  follows that of Rosie's Boss back in 2016. In it,  I acknowledged the fact that the coach was a little over-length as a consequence but even though I had quite a fine razor saw, it was not fine enough to remove the errant panels without creating a cosmetic disaster, one which no amount of careful filling could subsequently address. So, I aimed for what someone else on here aptly once coined, a 'train set' result, not a show-case model.

 

The glazing: SouthEast Finecast Triang Clerestory flush-glazing. Cheap and cheerful and, once fitted, all the better for a coat of Johnson's Klear on both sides [to improve the clarity / transparency].

 

The roof: this was my greatest concern at the outset. In my blog I said that I intended using stiff card [somewhat reluctantly] as bending plastic card to the correct profile along the entire length of the body seemed a bridge too far. However, half-way through the project I purchased [for a fiver] a poorly constructed D&S Models Dean Passenger Luggage Van, a 40 footer. The roof from this was perfect, almost an exact fit [so close you could not tell] and to the correct profile. It needed some attention, repairs and rain strips, but it has worked well. I wish that I could find a proprietary roof with this profile for other coaches.

 

The D&S kit also provided the bogies, although they needed considerable attention for them to be usable. They were also assembled to P4 standards and so the wheelsets required re-gauging and some desoldering was necessary to allow this to happen. The coach runs beautifully smoothly however on its compensated underpinnings.

 

I am kicking myself for not removing the moulded end handrails. They are simple enough to construct out of wire and look so much better. The twin gas tanks are 5 amp fuses. They actually look the part[ish] once painted.

 

31048062267_3c5d415534_z.jpg

 

Tony

Brilliant ruse to use 5A fuses. I shall try it —-but being a cheapskate, I shall use 3A fuses in the hope they are a halfpenny cheaper! Been living in Yorkshire too long!
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Brilliant ruse to use 5A fuses. I shall try it —-but being a cheapskate, I shall use 3A fuses in the hope they are a halfpenny cheaper! Been living in Yorkshire too long!

You can't possibly live in Yorkshire too long. ☺

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Thank you Lofty. Be sure to post!

 

One thing that has surprised me though is the gradual rise in price for these coaches: they used to be two-a-penny, they ‘aint no more. I’ll not pay more than a tenner (inc postage) for one although many have starting prices in the 20’s and even 30’s.

 

Tony

Edited by Prometheus
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So, I aimed for what someone else on here aptly once coined, a 'train set' result, not a show-case model.

The wargamers' term for it is 'passes the two foot test'. :D

Nice job, though: I am suitably inspired (*eyes ever-growing eBay saved search list*).

Edited by Fleetfoot Mike
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Lofty.

 

You can use the original roof for the altered body.

 

After cutting the original clerestory roof to length, glue a couple of reinforcing pieces across the lower roof sides, so the two sides are joined independent of the clerestory. This is optional, but it helps prevent the roof from coming to pieces during the alterations.

 

Next, take a razor saw and cut the clerestory off, following along where the sides and ends of the clerestory meet the lower roof. This is fairly easy to do and, if you're careful, you should only have a little bit sticking up. The offending edges can be filed off.

 

Now that the clerestory has been removed, cut a piece of thin plastic card stock (I used Evergreen .010 inch if I remember correctly), to the length of the roof and wider than the opening, so it overlaps the roof sides. Glue this in place.

 

With the plastic card securely glued, you can then fair the edges with a sharp knife, file or sandpaper, until you have a smooth transition.

 

The thin card is strong enough by itself, but if you plan to drill through it you might want to reinforce it from below.

 

Otherwise, that's it.

 

Dana

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  • RMweb Gold

The coaches you remember stabled outside Cardiff General may have been Clifton Downs autos, especially if you saw them on the 'strawberry sidings' on the south side of the station by the Riverside (Clarence Road) branch.  Some of these ended up in the area and worked until the early 1950s, and autos were stabled on these sidings over weekends.

 

Nice coach, though; I'd be more than happy with that as a D15 on Cwmdimbath.  I have a 3 coach set of Triang shorties worked up to represent a miner's workman's, with replacement buffers and ersatz Dean bogies (the original B1s with the tie bars cut off and wooden footboards added). These probably don't pass a 2 foot rule, but might manage at 3...

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The coaches you remember stabled outside Cardiff General may have been Clifton Downs autos, especially if you saw them on the 'strawberry sidings' on the south side of the station by the Riverside (Clarence Road) branch.  Some of these ended up in the area and worked until the early 1950s, and autos were stabled on these sidings over weekends.

 

Nice coach, though; I'd be more than happy with that as a D15 on Cwmdimbath.  I have a 3 coach set of Triang shorties worked up to represent a miner's workman's, with replacement buffers and ersatz Dean bogies (the original B1s with the tie bars cut off and wooden footboards added). These probably don't pass a 2 foot rule, but might manage at 3...

 

'...might manage at 3...': that's good enough for me!

 

You could be right about those coaches although when i saw them [twice], they were stabled on the north side of the station in a siding just to the west of that splendid water tower, the same siding that seemed to hold some bogie Siphons for ages and ages. This would have been around '58, '59 or '60 though, so it could have been too late.

 

Tony

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Hello Lofty.

 

You can use the original roof for the altered body.

 

After cutting the original clerestory roof to length, glue a couple of reinforcing pieces across the lower roof sides, so the two sides are joined independent of the clerestory. This is optional, but it helps prevent the roof from coming to pieces during the alterations.

 

Next, take a razor saw and cut the clerestory off, following along where the sides and ends of the clerestory meet the lower roof. This is fairly easy to do and, if you're careful, you should only have a little bit sticking up. The offending edges can be filed off.

 

Now that the clerestory has been removed, cut a piece of thin plastic card stock (I used Evergreen .010 inch if I remember correctly), to the length of the roof and wider than the opening, so it overlaps the roof sides. Glue this in place.

 

With the plastic card securely glued, you can then fair the edges with a sharp knife, file or sandpaper, until you have a smooth transition.

 

The thin card is strong enough by itself, but if you plan to drill through it you might want to reinforce it from below.

 

Otherwise, that's it.

 

Dana

 

I did this years ago, but used car body filler to fill the gap Over the years it has shrunk (which doesn't say much for the product), so I'll have to do it again. I'll use plastic this time.

 

There are various roofs available, but they are all slightly different in profile. In addition the K's one is very thick and needs to be scraped down. It isn't even a particularly good fit for the K14/15/16/25 van and SIPHON F it's intended for.

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I have just completed one and will post photos in due course. I braced the bottom with 4 squares of 2mm plastic card, packed out the centre with a long strip of the same, overlaid .010 plastic card and then commenced the long, painstaking and quite tedious process of scraping, sanding, priming, sanding, priming and sanding until I got what I wanted. And do you know what? It worked!

 

Tony

Edited by Prometheus
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Here's the roofwork......

 

Starting point:

31467922467_5ceb06f797_z.jpg

 

Reinforced from below [before clerestory section razor-sawed out]:

31467922887_b65846a3ba_z.jpg

 

Clerestory removed and gap packed out from above with 2mm card:

44590529020_354fcf5905_z.jpg

 

.010 plastic sheet overlayed and endlessly scraped/sanded back with primer sprayed in between to check progress:

44590528820_8970971c79_z.jpg

 

Near final finished state with one or two very small areas of dressing still to attend to:

31467922967_4c120e1e47_z.jpg

 

It's near to impossible to completely remove all signs of the overlay and I wouldn't want to do too many of these but the finished product has a nice profile and fits perfectly. Once sprayed matt black it'll be fine.

 

Tony

Edited by Prometheus
  • Craftsmanship/clever 1
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