Coach footboards

[009 micro modeller]

I’m currently building a model in 1:32 scale, of a freelance 20 or 21 inch gauge coach. This is right on the boundary between narrow gauge and miniature railways, especially considering the type of park or leisure railway that has inspired me. Currently, when on a piece of code 100 track the floor and the bottom of the doorways are about 22mm above ground level, despite the coach sitting relatively low on its bogies. Assuming rail level (rather than absolute ground level) platforms are used, this actually reduces the step up by about 3 or 4mm, taking it to just under 2 scale feet. I find myself wondering whether this is still too much of a step up and whether I should be providing a footboard, and if so at what sort of height.

 

I’m reluctant to try and derive any ideas from standard or 2ft gauge practice (or measuring 009 coaches that I already have), especially given that it’s for a 20 inch gauge park/leisure line - the obvious prototype inspiration is Scarborough North Bay, however this uses raised platforms (in keeping with its more obviously miniature aesthetic). For my purposes slightly raised platforms are a possible solution but may not be very suitable given how wide the coach is - ideally future stock to run with it will be slightly narrower, which would not be an issue with rail level platforms but would introduce a noticeable gap with raised ones. On the other hand the footboards will make the current coach even wider…

 

Any thoughts?

[Hobby]

They can vary, but I've never seen a two foot step, I'd say that was far too much! I'd either halve it (one step, 12") or do 8/9" ones (i.e. two steps), personally I'd go with the latter.

[009 micro modeller]

4 hours ago, Hobby said:

They can vary, but I've never seen a two foot step, I'd say that was far too much! I'd either halve it (one step, 12") or do 8/9" ones (i.e. two steps), personally I'd go with the latter.

That’s what I thought. Two steps is probably going to look wrong for this (it’s a board running the whole length of the vehicle rather than steps at each end), but I think roughly halving it should do the trick.