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Roxey SECR 'birdcage' Push-Pull


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As a teenager I used to help Dave Hamersley of Roxey Mouldings fairly regularly at exhibitions, and about 15-20 years ago I aquired from him a number of miss-etched coaches to practice my soldering on. Fortunately these two survived unbuilt long enough for me to be finally able to do them justice - so off the workbench in the last 6 months have been a pair of push-pull driving trailers.

 

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One is etched in 20thou (not 12) and the other lost its V hangers to the etching bath, but both have built up quite nicely. I now need to decide between going back to Dave and buying all the castings (and bogies), or simply sticking them on ebay as abandoned projects.

 

Joon

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Yes the O guage coaches are tempting - unfortunately the Birdcages were one of his early ecthed kits, so no seperate body and chassis, which means he would have to go right back to the drawing board (literally - no CAD for Dave) and start again to do these in 7mm - I know that he wants to do them in the senior scale.

 

Jon

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I wish I had your skills. On that basis, I urge that you bite the Roxey bullet and complete them, because I feel you've already cleared the major hurdle in coach construction, and they are sure to look the biz. Fine coaches, fine models.

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  • 5 months later...

A couple of weeks ago at a swapmeet I found two unbuilt Roxey 'birdcage' coaches at £10 each - they were snapped up to provide castings for the two I already had, and therefore here is the result, my brirdcage push pull trailer now sits on bogies, and the roof has been cut to shape.

 

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I feel I may have to buy the detailing kit from Dave to provide some partitions, so that I have something to glue the roof to, at the moment its held on by a little bit of double sided tape at each end.

 

Jon

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  • 3 weeks later...

Having caught a cold from someone at work, I have spent the day in self imposed exile in the workshop so that I don't infect the rest of the household. This has proved to be a remarkably productive exile, and I'm now substantially through a SECR composite that provides the trailer to go with my push pull driving coach - I have almost finished, and then decided to look at the instructions - hmmm.

 

The instructions tell me that the toilet windows on the composite for set 660 were plated over - whats not entirely clear from the instructions, or Mike Kings book on push-pull sets, is if this would have a appeared as a plate on the outside, or flush with the side, or with the window frame showing - anyone know the answer?

 

The other small query I have, is which way round in the set the composite went - one end has steps, the other is plain - so plain end coupled to loco and steps to driving coach, or v/v?

 

Thanks,

Jon

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So the state of play today is more or lass as you see it. The Driving coach is just waiting on couplings, vac pipes and roof fittings, and the trailer needs some compartments/roof hoops before it reaches the same state. I turn out to only have 3x queenposts (not 4) an so the trussing has been left off the underframe until I can aquire another from Dave.

 

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They look so nice unpainted I can't quite bear the idea of spoiling them with paint. Is crimson legitimate for set 660?

 

Jon

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Mike King's Pull-Push book has a pic of 660 at Bexhill West in 1957, stated to be in unlined crimson lake, with left hand numerals (i.e. the set number over the left hand observation window), which he records as typical of a 1949-51 era repaint.

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  • 1 month later...

Whilst I had the camera out, I think this is the final body I had in stock - I think this is a 50ft tricomposite brake. I can't quite work out how the partitions/coridor are supposed to work, but I haven't tried very hard...

 

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Jon

 

 

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Whilst I had the camera out, I think this is the final body I had in stock - I think this is a 50ft tricomposite brake. I can't quite work out how the partitions/coridor are supposed to work, but I haven't tried very hard...

 

 

 

Jon

Jon,

 

Looking in a borrowed SECR Carriages, I think this is a Bi-composite.  There were seven of them built in 1907, SECR 902-08, SR 6630-36.  6632 was scrapped in 1935, the rest went in the 1950s.  They were Bi-comps because they went through the Widened Lines to the Midland Railway. 

 

Internally they were lavatory / 1st / 1st coupe / (internal door) / 3rd / 3rd / 3rd / lavatory / 3rd / (internal door) / Guard.

 

But you could do with confirmation from another party.

 

Bill

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Bill is correct in this being a bi-compo, although I was under the same impression that it was a tri-compo which may have come from an old Roxey catalogue now corrected.

 

There's no doubt though that this is an SR Dia. 425, 6630-6636.  Gould has photos of the corridor side of 6634 and 6636 in his Oakwood book on SECR coaches.  Some were painted in blood & custard and paired with Maunsell Thanet thirds in the 50s - I have a photo of such a pairing on the Romney-Ashford line.  For this reason I painted mine in B&C when I built it many many years ago - not the easiest paint job on a panelled coach and it looks a bit rough now!  (View from the same angle as yours Jon).

 

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Need to get the Thanet 3rd to go with it now!

Edited by 10800
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  • 8 years later...
Guest Jack Benson

Was set 662 diffirent from set 660?

It comprised brake third 3546 and compo 5503, the Blood and Custard website seems to indicate that 660 and 662 may have been identical.

 

Thank you

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Guest Jack Benson

Thank you, I bought a Bachmann compo from their birdcage set in the hope that it might be suitable as the basis for the trailer.

 

Oh well, it won’t be wasted.

 

StaySafe and enjoy Easter.

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