GWR A30 Autocoach

[RichardL]

Could anybody help me with the colours used for the interior of the A30 autocoaches. Panelling (internal) is said to be 'cream plastic', presumably formica/weyrock, seat ends etc looks to be varnished timber, but I can't find any info on the upholstery colours used. I've seen photos of a striped fabric and also a photo which looks to be leatherette. Both photos are in b&w. No info on material/colour of the floor, brown lino?

 

Anybody able to help?

 

Cheers

 

Richard Lane

[The Johnster]

I concur with cream for walls and roof interior, and mahogany stain for the seat ends and woodwork.  I've painted my upholstery in a lightish blue/grey following a ride on the coach at the Dean Forest Railway, which was upholstered, I presume accurately, in a light grey with a blue swirly pattern that looked about light blue/grey when you applied the 10 foot rule in 12 inch to the foot scale.  Floors are dark grey.  I don't recall a distinction between smoking and non-smoking in terms of upholstery colours on the DFR trailer, which I'm fairly certain has been re-upholstered in preservation from the wear on the cushions (this visit was in the 1980s; been back since several times but this was the last time I rode in the trailer).  The later A38s, built after 1948 by BR and with a different sort of interior layout without the bench seats, more like the Swindon and Gloucester cross country dmus, may well have done, though, as might an earlier trailer reupholstered by BR, if there were any!  The A30s lasted in service until the early 60s, only the A38s survived to the very end of auto working at Gloucester in 1965.

 

I've painted the interior of my trailers' roofs white to improve the way the light diffuses about in there; you can't see it from most angles.

[EHertsGER]

On the subject of A30s, could anyone please let me know the type and diameter of their wheels; disc, mansell, 3’0”, 3’1”, etc etc?

Edited August 18, 2021 by EHertsGER

[Miss Prism]

3'7" disc

 

[Wickham Green too]

8 hours ago, EHertsGER said:

.....  could anyone please let me know the type and diameter of their wheels; disc, mansell, 3’0”, 3’1”, etc etc?

The vast majority of British coaching stock ran on 3'6'' or 3'7'' wheels from who-knows-when in the 19th Century 'til the introduction of a) B.R. not-so-standard Diesel Railcars and b) the B4 bogie.

Mansell ( and other wood-centred ) wheels began to be superseded by steel discs early in the 20th Century - though some were used late for sleeping cars and a few others survived into B.R. days under elderly stock.