Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Martin S-C]

Very nice. I quite like the distorted frames and paper roof. It looks like something Col Stephens would run on a bad day.

[BernardTPM]

Yes. In fact it might make quite a good grounded body (but I'm not going to do that to the poor thing, not after all these years!).

 

Talking of freelance coaches, it struck me that the older Hornby 'Southern' coaches with their mix of Collett sides and wooden roof might make the basis of usefully generic early 20th Century coaching stock. Change the bogies, battery boxes and add flat ends, maybe replace the obviously GWR pattern commode handles too. The doors used thin raised lines so on the corridor side it wouldn't be too hard to loose some if you wanted to.

Edited January 8, 2019 by BernardTPM

[James Harrison]

I'm wondering if I could get a late pre-grouping GCR full brake through the same route using Mainline/ Bachmann carriages. 

[Martin S-C]

Yes. In fact it might make quite a good grounded body (but I'm not going to do that to the poor thing, not after all these years!).

 

Oops! Sorry! I didn't mean that to come across as derogatory. I meant it had a lot of character!

[BernardTPM]

No, don't worry, I didn't regard it as derogatory, but I just have a sentimental attachment to my remaining early conversion and scratchbuilt stuff. Thanks for liking it!

[phil_sutters]

My teenage self enthusiatically hacked a Triang Clerestory Brake about to make one of those. It comes out quite close but there are certain crudities (not least the old Triang bogies and papered over hole in the roof where the clerestory was) that make this model somewhat less than ideal. I did correctly rearrange the guard's door and lookout on this side though, which is why that door is slightly broken!

 

GWR38ftBrake.jpg

I had a go at one of those back in about 1967-9, although I don't think I tried moving the doors on that one. The foot boards seem to have got lost in storage over the years and the absence of battery boxes/gas cylinders/brakes etc. is thus revealed! The crests were all hand-painted though.

I did loads of Triang clerestory into S&DJR stock, but never got brave enough to change the grab handles. The middle is a K's kit - a plastic one. Did you ever try one of their white metal coach kits? The 6-wheel clerestory never stayed on the track and weighed a ton and the autocoach sagged under its own weight.

Edited January 9, 2019 by phil_sutters

[BernardTPM]

No, never one of their metal coach kits, but I did have a 40ft brake that I was reworking to a departmental vehicle. The one I was modelling had the duckets removed so the blanked area where the kit ones fitted was perfect as it was, though I did loose some of the vertical panel divisions and 'plated' over some other areas to accord to the photo I had (very like this). Painted in Humbrol 33 Matt Black back in the days when you could rely on matt black to be matt!

[Nile]

Someone mentioned shortening the Mainline brake coach by one compartment to get a 50ft coach. That's what I did with the other WMR coach I have, details here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82968-niles-mostly-freelance-bodging-bench-cattle-wagons/page-12&do=findComment&comment=1734725

It would look better on a Bachmann 50ft chassis.

I noticed that I'd done the area around the ducket differently, this is the earlier one.

 

I prefer the way the newer one looks, so I modified the older one to match. The 'lump' above the ducket was carved off and repainted. A piece of 10x20thou microstrip was painted maroon and then stuck to the panel with some matt medium. The two coaches now match.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Nile

[Compound2632]

The "lump" was supposed to represent the housing for the fixed sidelights. I presume the guard could set a red shade in the trailing direction from inside his compartment.

[Nile]

Continuing in the same theme I found these, leftovers from earlier conversions.

 

Trimming off unwanted passenger sections results in this short full brake.

 

Similar treatment to some roof parts completes the body.

 

It looks a lot like one of Phil Sutters coaches, like his this will be a four wheeler.

[brumtb]

Continuing in the same theme I found these, leftovers from earlier conversions.

01.JPG

 

Trimming off unwanted passenger sections results in this short full brake.

02.JPG

 

Similar treatment to some roof parts completes the body.

03.JPG

 

It looks a lot like one of Phil Sutters coaches, like his this will be a four wheeler.

 

Looks really promising.

 

Tony

[Skinnylinny]

They do make for rather nice 4-wheeled brakes - will it be in your blue-and-white LMWR livery too? Something like this design of the GSR?

 

Makes me wonder if the two railways bought their coaching stock from the same builders...

[Corbs]

The L&B C&W Co.?

[phil_sutters]

The third class passenger bit was needed to make this tri-composite. The rest came from one or more of the non-brake clerestorys, with the wider panels between the windows.

 

This and the other three were made 50 years ago and for most of those years they have been in store. The hand painted lettering and crests look terrible now, but transfers were a luxury to me and Dad in those days.

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by phil_sutters

[Poor Old Bruce]

Continuing in the same theme I found these, leftovers from earlier conversions.

01.JPG

 

Trimming off unwanted passenger sections results in this short full brake.

02.JPG

 

Similar treatment to some roof parts completes the body.

03.JPG

 

It looks a lot like one of Phil Sutters coaches, like his this will be a four wheeler.

 

That will fit nicely on a Ratio underframe.

[Skinnylinny]

Unfortunately the solebars are part of the body on the Triang clerestories. The Ratio kit has the solebars and axleguards as one piece, so unless you're prepared to do some serious hacking which will affect the structural integrity of the body, it's much safer to use fold-up etched axleguards. Plus, this means you can build in compensation, which is especially helpful on a relatively-long-wheelbase rigid wheelbase like this.

Also, thank you for the inspiration, Nile - I'm now back to hacking these clerestories up again!

Edited January 13, 2019 by Skinnylinny

[Poor Old Bruce]

Unfortunately the solebars are part of the body on the Triang clerestories. The Ratio kit has the solebars and axleguards as one piece, so unless you're prepared to do some serious hacking which will affect the structural integrity of the body, it's much safer to use fold-up etched axleguards. Plus, this means you can build in compensation, which is especially helpful on a relatively-long-wheelbase rigid wheelbase like this.

 

Also, thank you for the inspiration, Nile - I'm now back to hacking these clerestories up again!

 

"... serious hacking which will affect the structural integrity of the body." What??? If you are prepared to take a saw to the coach body in the first place, it's not much more of a job to chop off the solebars which still leaves the original floor intact. Looking at mine which I did a couple of years ago it seems I had to shim parts of the floor to bring it level with the cut edges. I used the Ratio floor as a template to drill the mounting holes to the recipient floor and built the rest of the chassis per instructions. Extra layers on the headstocks brought the chassis to the same length as the body. New roof and away you go. I would not think compensation was necessary unless you do P4, there are RTR vehicles available with much longer rigid wheelbases. I wasn't after a scale model, just a plausible representation.

 

Com ca!

 

 

I've got another one somewhere which is fitted to a Hornby 4-wheel track-cleaner coach chassis (that chassis has the right buffer height).

Edited January 14, 2019 by Poor Old Bruce

[Martin S-C]

Wow. Is that really a chopped up Hornby clerestory? Amazing.

[Skinnylinny]

"... serious hacking which will affect the structural integrity of the body." What??? If you are prepared to take a saw to the coach body in the first place, it's not much more of a job to chop off the solebars which still leaves the original floor intact. Looking at mine which I did a couple of years ago it seems I had to shim parts of the floor to bring it level with the cut edges. I used the Ratio floor as a template to drill the mounting holes to the recipient floor and built the rest of the chassis per instructions. Extra layers on the headstocks brought the chassis to the same length as the body. New roof and away you go. I would not think compensation was necessary unless you do P4, there are RTR vehicles available with much longer rigid wheelbases. I wasn't after a scale model, just a plausible representation.

 

Com ca!

 

P1000642.jpg

 

I've got another one somewhere which is fitted to a Hornby 4-wheel track-cleaner coach chassis (that chassis has the right buffer height).

I must say, that looks very good! I stand corrected. I must have mis-measured - when I measured the model years ago to decide on how best to approach the chassis, I'm sure I found that the bottom of the floor was below the top of the solebar. I wouldn't say compensation is necessary, but it does allow for a multitude of sins, and, speaking diplomatically, not all the layouts mine has run on have had perfectly flat track.

 

Thanks for sharing, always good to see other approaches!

[Poor Old Bruce]

I must say, that looks very good! I stand corrected. I must have mis-measured - when I measured the model years ago to decide on how best to approach the chassis, I'm sure I found that the bottom of the floor was below the top of the solebar. I wouldn't say compensation is necessary, but it does allow for a multitude of sins, and, speaking diplomatically, not all the layouts mine has run on have had perfectly flat track.

 

Thanks for sharing, always good to see other approaches!

 

There is a bit of a difference in level between the bottom of the body side and the underneath of the floor but it's the right way to sort out and nothing which can't be overcome with a bit of plastic card.

[Poor Old Bruce]

Wow. Is that really a chopped up Hornby clerestory? Amazing.

 

It's two actually but who's counting?

[Poor Old Bruce]

I've got another one somewhere which is fitted to a Hornby 4-wheel track-cleaner coach chassis (that chassis has the right buffer height).

 

This is the aforementioned Parcel Van. The only mods to the chassis were new headstocks, the addition of extra footboards to the solebars and different couplings. Oh, I removed the track scrubbing skates as well.

 

 

Edit to add that the new roof was a piece of a two-litre pop bottle.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Poor Old Bruce

[Martin S-C]

That looks really nice too, though the Hornby subframe looks rather coarse after seeing the Ratio one. Not half bad though. GWR.org has a similar job using two Ratio 4-wheel brake thirds and a Ratio chassis.

I have two of the Hornby track cleaners and plan to run them in a push-pull configuration with a loco in the centre. Currently they are in bits awaiting extra weight. Rather than the sandpaper scrapers (which can cause scratches that fill with dirt) I am wondering about an IPA tank in them and a cloth wiper. I'm just a bit cagey about using IPA around Hornby plastic and am unsure of the do's and dont's.

If I am off topic and such discussion please let me know Mr Thread Owner and I'll take this elsewhere.

[BernardTPM]

Interesting that they reworked that chassis to the correct height. Right from its introduction back in the late 1950s (in diecast metal originally) that longer chassis has always had the Tri-ang overheight curse.

[Nile]

For the chassis the simplest solution (to me) was to use Comet W-irons.

 

Some 30thou plastic card on top of them brings the coach up the right ride height.