Clerestory Bogies GWR

[kandc_au]

Hi all,

In the books by Russell, the Clerestories are shown to have 10' bogies.
Did they have these all their lives or did they go to shorter ones?
If so, when did the change start please? (approx)
 

Khris

[Brassey]

Some earlier ones had 6' 4" and then 8' 6" before 10" became standard.  If and when these changed I do not recall.

[Miss Prism]

6'4", 8'6" and 10' types coexisted. Coaches did not change type as far as I know.
 

[The Johnster]

Agree with Ms P.  Which clerestories are we talking about?  So far as RTR goes, the Hornby gangwayed clerestories have the correct 10' bogies with footboards that these coaches carried from new until withdrawal, but better detailed whitemetal cast ones are available from 24/7 Developments and 3D printed from Stafford Road/Shapeways.  If we are talking about the Hornby 'shorty' clerestories reintroduced earlier this year, the tooling dates from the early 60s and the coaches are fitted with Triang's B1 BR standard bogie.  This is not a bad representation of a B1, and has the correct 8'6" wheelbase, but looks nothing like a Dean bogie.  

 

You can (and I have) convert these to a tolerable ersatz representation of a Dean 8'6", bearing in mind that these are not any sort of 'scale' model to start with.  Cut the tiebar off between the axleboxes, and make up a footboard.  I used coffee stirrers as available for the right price in any supermarket caff or motorway services, cut in half lengthways; one stirrer is enough for 4 footboards, one coach.  Trim to the bogie overall length, and cut rebates for the board to clear the axleboxes, and simply superglue in place; level is half way up the axleboxes.  

 

Better versions are available from the above sources, and the Stafford Road prints have NEM pockets printed in.  I have some of their bogies on other vehicles and they run very well with Hornby coach wheels and no bearings.  The 6'4" bogies were used on earlier short bodied stock and some auto trailers designed to go with steam railmotors, and often did not have footboards.  Some of the auto trailers lasted until early BR days.  Again, they are available from the above sources; Hornby sell the 10' bogies as separate items as well.

 

Changing bogies on real coaches did not happen TTBOMK, and would have led to possible problems as the mounting pivots can not be moved to compensate for the different wheelbases.  This could lead to clearance problems on curves, especially with platforms, and even possibly buffer locking.  Even the diagram A31 auto trailers (K's whitemetal kit), which were rebuilt from steam railmotors and had the bogie pivots assymetrically postitioned, had bogies of the same size at each end.  3 types were used, the Churchward 'fishbelly' 8'6", 'American' 8'6", and Collett 7'.  I believe the coach end of these vehicles carried fishbellies in railmotor form; they definitely did not have Collett bogies until rebuilt as trailers.

[Coach bogie]

On 04/12/2019 at 16:26, The Johnster said:

Changing bogies on real coaches did not happen TTBOMK, and would have led to possible problems as the mounting pivots can not be moved to compensate for the different wheelbases. 

 

Bogie changes did happen. Here are just two sets of replacements under clerestories. Some of the dining cars switched from 6 to 4 wheel and vice versa. Many of K15 series Dean vans had replacement Americans.

 

Mike Wiltshire