Wright writes.....

[richard i]

A carriage takes longer to build than a loco…..discuss.

it certainly does for me with having to build the interior as well.

richard 

[MarkC]

13 minutes ago, richard i said:

A carriage takes longer to build than a loco…..discuss.

 

Tend to agree - even brass carriage kits which are soldered. Lots of intricate details which have to all be aligned - even more so than locomotives.

[MJI]

Try a plasticard DMU then, jobs involved

 

1, drawing up sides.

2, multiple goes throught the cutter, 5 layers per side.

3, Sticking ends in jig to align.

4, stripping donor chassis to ends and base

5, making masters then moulding and casting underframe bits

6, 5 MJT and 1 HL bogie

7, modfying roofs to match the cabs

8, Vents

9, basic shells

10, hinges

11, handle holes

 

and so on.

 

[Iain.d]

4 hours ago, t-b-g said:

Out of all the tasks in the hobby, I find building carriages the least enjoyable.

 

I rather enjoy it!!! Although, yes, there are some parts that can be very repetitive and unnecessarily time consuming.

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

[MJI]

I am currently doing some Comet carriages, they are OK, but I have found I am likely to buy in bits next time.

 

The etches are very good.

 

Interior, not used etches, too fiddly, nor most of plastic card, may use savings to buy more Ratio seats.

 

Bogies, tempted to use MJT castings instead IF available, will cost more but I prefer the castings.

 

For some Mark 1 suburbans in queue may go Replica for bogies. Interiors will replicate what I did for my C83s

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, richard i said:

A carriage takes longer to build than a loco…..discuss.

it certainly does for me with having to build the interior as well.

richard 

Good afternoon Richard,

 

One of the reasons I gave up carriage-building professionally (after only a few) was there was just not the money in it. In some cases, building a complex carriage (read into that, older ones) took as long as building a large loco, but try asking the same price for doing so.

 

I think Larry Goddard must have been a one-man production line!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

As promised..................

 

 

The Mailcoach 'Coronation' rake.

 

It's not what one might call 'top drawer', but it's reasonably well-made, and the complex painting is 'adequate'. It rides well (though I don't have a blue A4 to haul it). 

 

Some of the ride heights need a bit of adjustment (a washer here and there?), but it's a damn sight more level than another 'Coronation' I've had running on Little Bytham. 

 

I'm asking £400.00 for this complete 'layout train'. 

 

Two more from the collection.

 

 

Both these rather jolly 44XXs are built from K's kits. The nearer one (4403) has K's mechanics, but (astonishingly) runs quite well. I'm asking £40.00 for this. 

 

The further one has Romfords and a Mashima and runs beautifully. It's also better finished. I'm asking £65.00 for this. 

 

Anyone interested, please PM me. 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Tony Wright
typo error

[t-b-g]

1 hour ago, Iain.d said:

 

I rather enjoy it!!! Although, yes, there are some parts that can be very repetitive and unnecessarily time consuming.

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

 

Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully. In truth I enjoy every single aspect of the hobby. Track, signals, wiring, baseboards, structures, scenery, locos, stock and/or anything else.

 

I should have said that building a single carriage is great fun. It is having to build a whole rake that brings in the element of repetition that drops it down to my least favorite but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, just that I enjoy it less than other things.

 

If I didn't like it at all, I wouldn't be building things like the GER and District Railway 4 wheelers for others.

[MJI]

14 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully. In truth I enjoy every single aspect of the hobby. Track, signals, wiring, baseboards, structures, scenery, locos, stock and/or anything else.

 

I should have said that building a single carriage is great fun. It is having to build a whole rake that brings in the element of repetition that drops it down to my least favorite but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, just that I enjoy it less than other things.

 

If I didn't like it at all, I wouldn't be building things like the GER and District Railway 4 wheelers for others.

 

 

Even detailing RTR can take ages, I did a rake of 2CDEF and I still have to glaze the 2C as the Laserglaze was slightly too small.

 

I used Airfix aircons. Everything got etched window frames, Laserglaze if available, respray and transfers

 

Easiest was a buffet nothing but a modded interior, plus usual.

 

Next the 2F Firsts with modded underframes and roofs, oh and door windows.

 

The pile of 2E TSOs involves toilet window migration.

 

The brake first was the most work

 

Lets just say whole rake over 100 hours, for 8 blue grey BR carriages a lot of people at first would think all the same

[JamesSpooner]

Yes, I would agree with that comment. The thought of a quad or quint set would fill me with dread! I did complete twin art earlier this year, based on an Isinglass kit but that was at about the limit of my enjoyment factor.  Below is a photo of it leaving Elmham Market behind a modified Bachman Ivatt, converted to EM and with a Darlington chimney as befits the Cambridge allocated locos.

[PMP]

I’m putting an A44 by Comet together for a friend.

It’s going alright, but it’s not lighting any fires to do more. Conversely an effective makeover of a RTR model

like this below frequently hits the mark.

[Jesse Sim]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

As promised..................

 

 

The Mailcoach 'Coronation' rake.

 

It's not what one might call 'top drawer', but it's reasonably well-made, and the complex painting is 'adequate'. It rides well (though I don't have a blue A4 to haul it). 

 

Some of the ride heights need a bit of adjustment (a washer here and there?), but it's a damn sight more level than another 'Coronation' I've had running on Little Bytham. 

 

I'm asking £400.00 for this complete 'layout train'. 

 

Two more from the collection.

 

 

Both these rather jolly 44XXs are built from K's kits. The nearer one (4403) has K's mechanics, but (astonishingly) runs quite well. I'm asking £40.00 for this. 

 

The further one has Romfords and a Mashima and runs beautifully. It's also better finished. I'm asking £65.00 for this. 

 

Anyone interested, please PM me. 

 

 

If I ring you and say I could use the DS coronation as the west riding and buy this one off you….. I give you permission to yell at me for not saving money. Hang up. Stop all corespondents with me and tell my mum I’ve been a very very very naughty boy. 
 

and no, I’m not the Messiah! 
 

 

EDIT: well that idea has been shut down by a certain LNER stock builder who shall remain nameless for spoiling the fun. The DS kit has “Coronation” etched into the sides. 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Jesse Sim

[micklner]

45 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

If I ring you and say I could use the DS coronation as the west riding and buy this one off you….. I give you permission to yell at me for not saving money. Hang up. Stop all corespondents with me and tell my mum I’ve been a very very very naughty boy. 
 

and no, I’m not the Messiah! 
 

 

EDIT: well that idea has been shut down by a certain LNER stock builder who shall remain nameless for spoiling the fun. The DS kit has “Coronation” etched into the sides. 

File the name off the sides !!

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

If I ring you and say I could use the DS coronation as the west riding and buy this one off you….. I give you permission to yell at me for not saving money. Hang up. Stop all corespondents with me and tell my mum I’ve been a very very very naughty boy. 
 

and no, I’m not the Messiah! 
 

 

EDIT: well that idea has been shut down by a certain LNER stock builder who shall remain nameless for spoiling the fun. The DS kit has “Coronation” etched into the sides. 

Thanks Jesse,

 

These cars only have 'Coronation' in transfers on their sides, rather than raised letters; thus, they'll probably just scrape off with care. 

 

What I'd do, having removed the names, is to make it represent the spare (unbranded) set. That way, it could be any of the three LNER streamlined services.

 

That done, then sell the spare 'Coronation' Observation Car!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[jrg1]

8 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

Agreed.

 

There are just so many jobs like that on carriages. With a compartment carriage and soldered on droplights (another chore) every window needs its own bit of glazing.

 

Part of the problem is that every single detail like a hinge, door handle or grab handle has to be pretty much spot on, identical and all in line otherwise they stick out like sore thumbs.

I find carriage building a complete chore-boring, repetitive and time consuming.  I acquired a number of part built carriages from a deceased estate, and although all were around 90% completed, no roofs were fitted.  And no wonder-marrying up cast ends to aluminium roof sections, marking out ventilators and deciding where to locate the securing screws has to be the most difficult job, as far as I am concerned.  After finishing this lot, never again.

[Tony Wright]

Items are really starting to fly out! Thanks for all the expressions of interest and commitments to buy. A fair bit will be raised to help others and CRUK.

 

If I ask for addresses again from people who've bought items in the past, please forgive me. I create separate books (or Mo does) for every collection, including all the necessary names/addresses. The past ones are currently with our our accountant! 

[Ben Alder]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I think Larry Goddard must have been a one-man production line!

 

He's still at it, over on Western Thunder, turning out coaches for his latest layout set up- back to 00 again , for the moment.

[t-b-g]

31 minutes ago, jrg1 said:

I find carriage building a complete chore-boring, repetitive and time consuming.  I acquired a number of part built carriages from a deceased estate, and although all were around 90% completed, no roofs were fitted.  And no wonder-marrying up cast ends to aluminium roof sections, marking out ventilators and deciding where to locate the securing screws has to be the most difficult job, as far as I am concerned.  After finishing this lot, never again.

 

It all depends on what you want to model. If you are happy to limit your passenger trains to what can be commissioned, bought second hand or bought RTR then you can build a model railway without ever building a carriage. Many have and there are plenty of trains you can model realistically just using RTR stock. There are also lots of people who wouldn't know if a train formation was authentic or not as long as it looks right. It probably gets a bit more difficult of you are modelling a real place and need to reproduce the actual trains that ran there at a particular time. That is when the limitations of RTR really come into play.

 

When I chose to model pre-grouping GCR, I pretty much accepted that I would have to build whatever I wanted. RTR is non existent. I don't fancy paying somebody else to build them for me and second hand ones are not really my thing either. I will make an exception for items that were either built by friends, or items I regard as being of historical interest, like the Buckingham stock or the ones that came from the late Sid Stubbs. To me, building layouts is all about having somewhere to run the stuff I have built. If that means slogging away at some carriages, the end result more than compensates for the graft.

Edited November 7, 2021 by t-b-g
Spelling

[LNER4479]

5 hours ago, JamesSpooner said:

The thought of a quad or quint set would fill me with dread!

 

Someone mention a Quint?

 

This DID take a long time, with lots of repetitive work. And there's still no interior (other than partitions, as part of the structure). Built from a mix of Bill Bedford, D&S and Frank Davies etches, with some cutting and re-soldering to create the BC vehicle (end of rake in this view). But I did enjoy doing it and I think a very unusual / distinctive train is the result (anyone else had a go at creating such a set?)

 

This was a commission build, taking six months overall (not working at it continuously, I hasten to add!). Even despite not being the quickest of builders, I would have to agree that there's no money in such work (I ended up having to do an element of scratchbuild with the clerestory). I didn't dare tot up the total time I spent on it but I'd be surprised if I got anywhere near the minimum wage.

 

For me, someone is paying me to do something I enjoy doing - building things. And I wasn't displeased with the final result and the new owner seemed to like them so that works for me.

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by LNER4479

[Jesse Sim]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Jesse,

 

These cars only have 'Coronation' in transfers on their sides, rather than raised letters; thus, they'll probably just scrape off with care. 

 

What I'd do, having removed the names, is to make it represent the spare (unbranded) set. That way, it could be any of the three LNER streamlined services.

 

That done, then sell the spare 'Coronation' Observation Car!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

You know I was thinking earlier of doing that, you don’t often see the spare set modelled. 
 

I’m not sure if the DS kits comes with the observation car, but luckily enough I don’t model the summer so need for one. 

 

leave it with me

[Iain.d]

All this talk of how enjoyable, or not, coach builds are, got me thinking about my more recent modelling experience. I returned to the hobby in July 2015 – I did do a smattering in the previous 20 or so years, but that was mostly purchasing, collecting and amassing stuff for the big layout in my head!! – and since then, according to my build list, have completed 58 coach builds or rebuilds. They’re from a variety of sources – Comet, Slaters, Roxey, Kirk and BSL Phoenix but the bulk are rebuilds of Hornby, Mainline and Bachmann with Comet sides and almost everything else being replaced, a fair few of which I’ve shown on WW.

 

I too sometimes baulk at the prospect of fitting door hinges, door bumps, door handles, droplights and individually cut pieces of glass to something like this (Airfix/Comet LMS D1686 C):

 

 

I always like starting them, and look forward to it when they are at this stage (Roxey Mouldings GWR A2/3 Clifton Downs Trailer):

 

 

I become a little tired and jaded at this stage (Hornby/Comet LMS D1903 CO):

 

 

Perk up that they’re almost done at this stage (Airfix/Comet LMS D2159 CK):

 

 

And think its all been well worth it at this stage (Hornby/Comet LMS D1905 BTK):

 

 

Normally I do them in batches of two or three but currently I’ve only one on the go; there are about 8 in the queue to do and three more kits to purchase. There is light at the end of the tunnel…

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

Edited November 8, 2021 by Iain.d
change a word

[thegreenhowards]

20 hours ago, richard i said:

A carriage takes longer to build than a loco…..discuss.

it certainly does for me with having to build the interior as well.

richard 

Well if you do insist on building the chairs individually what do you expect!

[t-b-g]

51 minutes ago, Iain.d said:

All this talk of how enjoyable, or not, coach builds are, got me thinking about my more recent modelling experience. I returned to the hobby in July 2015 – I did do a smattering in the previous 20 or so years, but that was mostly purchasing, collecting and amassing stuff for the big layout in my head!! – and since then, according to my build list, have completed 58 coach builds or rebuilds. They’re from a variety of sources – Comet, Slaters, Roxey, Kirk and BSL Phoenix but the bulk are rebuilds of Hornby, Mainline and Bachmann with Comet sides and almost everything else being replaced, a fair few of which I’ve shown on WW.

 

I too sometimes baulk at the prospect of fitting door hinges, door bumps, door handles, droplights and individually cut pieces of glass to something like this (Airfix/Comet LMS D1686 C):

 

 

I always like starting them, and look forward to it when they are at this stage (Roxey Mouldings GWR A2/3 Clifton Downs Trailer):

 

 

I become a little tired and jaded at this stage (Hornby/Comet LMS D1903 CO):

 

 

Perk up that they’re almost done at this stage (Airfix/Comet LMS D2159 CK):

 

 

And think its all been well worth it at this stage (Hornby/Comet LMS D1905 BTK):

 

 

Normally I do them in batches of two or three but currently I’ve only one on the go; there are about 8 in the queue to do and three more kits to purchase. There is light at the end of the tunnel…

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

 

Do you find that when you have finished and you have a very nice looking carriage (as those clearly are), the satisfaction makes all the hard work seem worthwhile? I always get the greatest satisfaction from the less straightforward, quick and easy tasks.

[thegreenhowards]

I rather like building coaches and Gresley articulated stock is a particular favourite. My main current project is an O gauge quad from an Ian Kirk kit.

 It’s still wip with interior and underframe to finish off. The problem with quad arts is you need two of them to form a proper train! The other half has only got as far as putting the sides together and painting them.

 

[MJI]

I could not be bothered to cut all the partitions on a Comet kit so cut it all on a Cameo 4, rather nice job as well