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Deutsche Bundesbahn Silberlinge coach


steverabone
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If you have travelled by train in Germany anytime from the mid 1960s onwards you will almost certainly have travelled in one of the 'Silberlinge' coaches used on most locomotive hauled suburban and regional trains. There were thousands of them and only recently have the last been removed from service. They were known by the British as "Silverfish" although that is really an incorrect translation as a Linge was a coin - their appearance was unusual in that the stainless steel sides had a cicrcular pattern on it which could be said to resemble the scales of a fish.

 

In S Scale this model is very long being 412mm (26.4m in length). It's built entirely out of card apart from the inner framework of the bogie and the wheels

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To get the patterned sides I found some really clear images on a German website of the latest Brawa  Ho Scale models. The images were cropped and resized to S Scale and printed on card. Further details of construction will follow if anybody is interested.

 

 

Edited by steverabone
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That looks superb Stephen! I think card is a greatly underestimated material and I would like to read more about how you have built this model. I am faced with having to scratchbuild a rake of 6 wheel panelled coaches and am thinking of using photocopies glued to an inner frame and shelaced for strength. So any hints and tips you can give would be much appreciated. 

Happy New Year to you!

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To scratch build these coaches is a challenge as representing the body side finish is difficult. In the end I decided to use close up photographs of models (the latest version by Brawa in HO scale) that I found on the internet. As the vehicles are in S Scale about 16 inches long I broke the sides into three pieces.

 

One section was made from photographs of the short compartment at the ends of the coach with the ends spliced in between the end section as below:

image.png

 

The longer central compartment also included the double doors at each end. It is obviously essential to get the height of each section exactly the same but this is easily done using a photo editing program. I use the freeware program Irfanview.image.png.5e4d5a0fe3b47178863613d2fca79ff1.png

After printing out on thin card the windows were carefully cut out and the centre window bar hardened by running superglue along the inside edge. I now cut the end sections into two along the dividing line of the corridor connection. These will later be joined together when the body is assemble. The three sections of the sides were joined together with strips of card under the body sides near the doors.

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The glazing strip was now glued to the inside of the sides using tiny dabs of epoxy. A card strengthening pieces was added with the window areas cut out and a strip above the windows folded at right angles to act as a strengthening bar and a location point for the ceiling of the coach.

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The ends have now been rejoined and the basic body shell is complete ready for the floor and ceiling. I've also added the orange curtains which were a distinctive feature of the real coaches.

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The carriage floor has been added - it is made from two layers of mounting card cut to fit tightly inside the body. Great care had to be used to get the doors on opposite sides to align with each other. The floor was permanently glued in place. Then the six internal partitions were glued in place after cutting out a hole to represent the sliding door windows. The toilet walls were added at each end and the walls in these areas and the door lobbies were painted light green.

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The carriage ceiling was placed loosely in place to ensure that it still fitted correctly after the partitions had been  added.

The Silberlinge had a considerable number of seats - 96 in total in the second class coach plus some tip up seats.

I've modelled them by making 48 double seat units using the net above. The model seats were supported at one end by gluing them to a representation of the heating duct that runs along the side under the windows. The seats at the end of the compartments were simply glued to the compartment walls. The rest of the seat units were glued back to back before gluing in place - a touch of epoxy underneath the base end fastened them to the coach floor and another dab held them against the heating duct.

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The seats were painted in the reddish brown of the original seats.

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The body has now been sealed permanently with a ceiling made thick card glued in place on top of the longitudinal tab above the windows. A thin layer of epoxy was also spread along the joint between the ceiling and the top of the body sides. This will ensure that the card above the windows stays completely straight.

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The roof is going to be a separate unit to avoid damaging the body whilst it is constructed. I've cut two templates - one is for the cross section of the roof and the other gives the end profile for the domed ends of the roof. The transition between the end domes and the rest of the roof has been marked by adding curved profile strips.

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The roof profile has been built up using strips of mounting card. At the ends the domed shape will be built up using epoxy resin filed to shape. In the photo I've masked off the end from the rest of the roof ready to begin this process.

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The roof is now complete with the domed ends filled with epoxy resin and sanded to shape, the main part of the central curved roof is thin card sheet reinforced underneath with epoxy. The ventilators and rain strip are plastic strips.

 

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The bogie side frames and centre stretcher bar are made from a single piece cut from brass sheet and then folded into a U shape. The springs in the centre are short sections cut from a brass bolt and soldered onto the side frames. Brass wire is soldered across the ends of the side frames and a length of wire soldered along the top of the side frame on the front to represent the strengthening bar on the original bogie. A thin piece of card cut to the shape of the side frames as in the small diagram above and glued to the brass. This includes a square shape either side of the axleboxes which is presumably a type of compression spring.

Another thicker piece of card was cut out for the shape of the heavy main frame and glued on top of the thin card.

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The corridor connection and buffers have been added.

The corridor connection are circular section plastic from 4mm scale wagon kits.The buffers are made from nickle silver sheet cut to the correct shape and soldered to a length of brass tube. The tube is the passed through a short length of plastic tube from a biro pen and glued into a hole in the lower body.

 

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The rather complex steps for the doors were made by:

  1. Removing a small amount of the body side under the door so that there was a recess.
  2. A strip of thin card was glued in place under the body for the top step.
  3. The outer step support with its triangular ends was added together with a backing piece of card.
  4. This was then glued in place under the doors with strengthening pieces behind to hold it vertically in line with the body side.
  5. A thin strip of card was glued to the step cut out.

image.png.b2e7386be19f1410701214e38e277195.png

 

The model is now largely finished with just a few underframe details to add. The roof was secured to the ceiling of the body with epoxy resin and held tightly in place with elastic bands. The handrails for the shunters are nickel silver. The roof was painted with Humbrol silver and then the panel lines drawn in pencils. Finally a dirty grey/brown wash was applied to tone down the silver to the more typical grey of the original roofs after the end of steam.

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For comparison this is a composite 1st/2nd coach that I photographed in 1980 at Wilhelmshaven.

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image.png

Edited by steverabone
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37 minutes ago, Rosedale said:

That looks superb Stephen! I think card is a greatly underestimated material and I would like to read more about how you have built this model. I am faced with having to scratchbuild a rake of 6 wheel panelled coaches and am thinking of using photocopies glued to an inner frame and shelaced for strength. So any hints and tips you can give would be much appreciated. 

Happy New Year to you!

Hi Paul

Thanks for the comments. I've used the photocopied method for both panelled and plain side coaches. For panelled coaches I've used Mekpak to secure the microstrip to the card. My coaches were all square panelled but dropping a tiny amount of PVA in the corner should produce a rounded corner especially after painting. The method of construction I've used is on this page of my website;

http://www.steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/lms_coaches.html

 

The internal part of construction is exactly the same for both panelled and flush sided vehicles and also whether you are using card or etched brass sides.

 

I don't used shellac but Ronseal wet wood hardener. This is painted on the card in several thin coats and hardens the card considerably. For thin strips such as the metal sliding window frames I run a layer of superglue along the rear of the card which produces almost meta (e.g. brass etch)l like strength.

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9 minutes ago, eastwestdivide said:

A propos of nothing, the internet tells me that a Siblerling was originally a silver coin, and "Dreißig Silberlinge" appears in some bible translations for Judas's 30 pieces of silver.

You are absolutely correct - I suspect that the English translation as Silverfish was a marketing idea used by model manufacturers - when clean the lower sides did indeed look like the scales of a fish.

 

After years of using the term Silverfish I'm now determined to correct my ways and use the German word!!

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11 hours ago, steverabone said:

You are absolutely correct - I suspect that the English translation as Silverfish was a marketing idea used by model manufacturers - when clean the lower sides did indeed look like the scales of a fish.

Also, a ling is a fish.

 

Happy New Year!

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