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

[Nile]

Next thing to do was deal with the raised details on the body sides.

Before.

 

 

After.

 

 

Looking better.

 

 

I didn't like the look of the cabin end pieces, they lacked plank detail and the windows were a weird shape. So using some odd bits of Slaters planking I did this.

 

 

This is what it looks like in the body.

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Nelson Jackson]

Coming along really well.

[Spitfire2865]

Oh wow. You got those handrails off clean! The cabin walls look good as well.

[Nile]

New handrails made from 0.4mm brass.

 

 

And handles for the doors.

 

 

Now stuck together.

 

 

I'll be adding detail to the chassis next.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Onto the chassis. First, the couplings. I cut a small slot in the buffer beam and glued a hook into it, a leftover from a Slaters kit.

 

 

I then filled the remaining gap in the buffer beam with some plastic strip.

 

 

Next, the brakes will be made up from these leftovers from Parkside kits.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Those stepboards look so nice. I just had a try at making some from brass bits and its next to impossible. What did you use for the actual plank? A cut L beam?

[Nile]

Yes. Take a right angled beam and cut along one side length ways to make an L beam.

[Nile]

Here's how I modified the Parkside brake bits to form the brake gear. I cut it up to end up with two separate brake shoes.

 

 

This shows how they will be used in relation to the wheel.

 

 

Glued in position either side of a wheel.

 

 

Repeat three times and this is the result.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Coming along very nicely.

[Nile]

The rebuild is now complete, it's ready for painting.

 

 

After the addition of paint and transfers.

 

It's nearly there.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

I had to take a double take there between photos. The transformation is shocking.

Any reason you chose the 3 letter abbreviation rather than 2 letter on the rest of your freelance stock? Honestly curious. Maybe its my LMS preference but it looks good with the letter on the ducket.

[uax6]

I like the proper spelling of the word 'Break'

 

Andy G

[Nile]

This is for another freelance railway, the West Midland Railway, which did exist in reality for a few years.

[Nile]

After fitting some glazing the body was re-united with the now painted roof and chassis.

 

I've left the molded on tail lamp in place and painted it black.

 

For the couplings I've fitted 3 links to each. To keep them in place a small piece of micro-strip was glued across the top.

 

 

Finished!

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Very interesting 3 links. Would never think to use the moulded ones. Though as a brake van, they wont need to hold up to much abuse.

[Nile]

The hook is plastic, the links are brass/iron from Ambis. I agree a metal hook would be a better choice for a wagon.

[Nile]

For my next project I shall emulate what some railway companies (such as the GER) did, combine two old 4 wheel coaches to make a 'new' bogie coach. This is a way of making use of the Hornby 4 wheel coach, which isn't much use on its own.

The first donor model is this, one I painted and added seating to many years ago.

 

 

The second is still in original condition.

 

 

This gives an idea of what I'm going to do.

 

The chassis' won't be reused. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Frappington Jct]

This looks really interesting - mostly as I plan to do this in the future!

[Nelson Jackson]

I shall be following this rather closely, I've seen people put 2 together to make 6 wheel BCDR carriages, but never a bogie coach and its something that I'd be interesting in also doing.

[WD0-6-0]

I've seen a similar conversion done in the past but using three coach bodies. It's one I plan on doing for my pregrouping railways. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Rhys

Edited October 29, 2014 by WD0-6-0

[uax6]

Looks like a good idea, I wonder if it would be better if you shortened the compartments down a tad, as I always feel that they have the look of a 1s class ones. Whats the length between partitions? Anything over 6ft is a posh class!

 

Sadly it might mean you need another body to make up the length to something like 46ft.

 

You could add a pair of lavs between the outer two compartments using bits of a door, mainly the droplight. But again you'll need another body.

 

I look forward to seeing the result.

 

Andy g

[Tiptonian]

The compartments of the Triang Hornby 4-wheel coach are about scale 7' (i.e. Super-Posh!). I never understood this. They could have made a slightly mean 4-compartment body in the same length and it would have looked more realistic.

[WD0-6-0]

What are planning to do with the chassis?

[Nile]

With all this interest I'd better get on with it.

The plan is to stick the two coaches together. The inner ends need filing smooth to allow this.

Before.

 

 

After.

 

 

Bringing the two together.

 

The slight miss-alignment shows that the bodies are not perfectly symmetrical. 

 

We now have one, multicoloured, coach body.

 

 

The size of the compartments indicates these were originally first class coaches, long ago. Over the years they were downgraded to second class, and with this rebuild will become third class. In the future I will do a proper third class coach with bits of Ratio coach sides that I have in stock.

As for the chassis, all will be revealed in time. In other words, I'm making it up as I go along, although I do have ideas.

The combined coach body is 43 feet long.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Nile

[Londontram]

I think I would be tempted to cut the ends off so the two end panels could be blended into one so as to match the others although it was not uncommon to rebuild coaches like this it was a major job and often involved a trip to a carraige works and stripping the bodies down to there bare frames rather than just butting them up to each other.

As a rough guide there would have been 8 third class compartments on a 45ft coach and seven first but that's just a rough guide so 6 in a 43ft coach sounds about right. Even in there prime many coaches were regraded to other classes to suit traffic requirements many full first becoming composites.

       As Andy says many coaches of this period had lavatorys just for the use of the adjoining first class compartments with a fold up seat to give access to the compartment the passengers in the other compartments just having to cross there legs and make a quick dash when the train stopped at a station but also people would travel with much more luggage in those days so the center compartment might have been turned into a luggage compartment with a pair of double doors sometimes fully paneled and sometimes with barred windows often these luggage compartments were turned into a guards compartment as well.

     Keep it up knowing how well you've built wagons and coaches in the past were al looking forward to how this turns out.

                                                                                                                                                                                         Steve