hartleymartin Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Has anyone else tried these out for 7mm Narrow or standard gauge coaches? I'm looking at the possibility of doing a Colonel-Stephens style light railway coach with these parts. Not so sure about the body width, but I'm sure that the sides and perhaps the clerestory roof would be the good basis of a kit-bash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMR CHRIS Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Has anyone else tried these out for 7mm Narrow or standard gauge coaches? I'm looking at the possibility of doing a Colonel-Stephens style light railway coach with these parts. Not so sure about the body width, but I'm sure that the sides and perhaps the clerestory roof would be the good basis of a kit-bash. Hi Marty the Rail Car http://www.railcar.com.au/san_juan_car_co.htm had these in stock last year may still have some had a look for the same reason. The only issue is that they are 1/4 inch scale so are a little small when considering 7mm standard gauge. For Narrow gauge 7mm anything goes so would not be an issue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted July 24, 2015 Author Share Posted July 24, 2015 They are 8'0" wide in 1/4" scale so about 7'3" in 7mm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 7, 2015 Author Share Posted October 7, 2015 So, I went ahead and purchased a set of these, although for some reason the square window variety were $5 cheaper so I bought that instead. The bodies would measure 7'3" wide and the height of the coach side is about 6'3" in 7mm scale. I think that these would make into a nice end-platform style carriage. 35'0" long (over the coach body, not including the end platforms) in 7mm scale, this would have to be a bogie carriage, but it would make a rather nice 4-wheel tramway style coach if cut down a little. I might be able to make the coach bodies a little wide by filing off the curved corner pillars at each end of the coach side and using some quarter-round styrene rod. The round corners are 1mm radius. The coach ends are 47.5mm (more or less) wide. Evergreen styrene make quarter-round in 2.5mm (largest size) which would bring the total width of the coach up to a scale 7'6" - still a bit narrow, but more believable in O scale. How deep should an end-platform be? I'm estimating 2'6" to 3'0" or so based on some guesstimates. Reducing the sides to 7 or 8 windows would give me a nice 4-wheel tramcar style coach with end platforms. I would then have a panel with about 3 windows and a blanked off window to do something with. Height of the coach side could probably be increased with a thin styrene strip forming a wider headboard, or by adding some material to the bottom. I'll figure it out as I go. I imagine that with a narrow-ish coach like this, that I would have seats down each side of the coach rather like the surviving Wisbech and Upwell coaches. Give me a few weeks and a chance to purchase some new building materials and I'll see what I come up with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NeilHB Posted October 9, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 9, 2015 I'll be following with interest Martin as I've had similar ideas myself. I think your guesstimate for the end platforms sounds about right - wide enough for a person to move around comfortably. Idea for the seating sounds right as well - that's what I've done for my 4-wheel tramcar on Elsbridge Wharf as it made more sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 You could have a bogie coach. The passenger compartment would be 35' long (or thereabouts). Add 2'6" for each end platform and it would be a 40' coach. But I want a four-wheeler. Sort of after the style of the Wisbech and Upwell coach, and these Colonel Stephens coaches: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 One thing I am debating is whether to use smaller wheels such as the 2'8" wheels from slaters. Split-spoke or 8-spoke is a definite possibility for a "tramway" style coach. This is definitely a free-lance coach, but it is based on a mash-up of several prototypes. At the moment I am also considering to build it with a sprung chassis, as I know from experience that a wheelbase much over 70mm starts to get picky with the track. I think it will make a nice companion to my short free-lanced brake van - actually, very loosely based on the type found on the NSW coalfields, but much shorter than any real prototype: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 An interesting idea, which I'll think about. It also occurred to me, that if you take about 5 scale feet (2 window bays) off the length of these coach sides, you can make a coach about the same size as the Falcon Coaches on the Selsey Tramway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NeilHB Posted October 12, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 12, 2015 Martin, I will admit that I was thinking of a bogie coach (or a pair) for running on a later time period of Elsbridge Wharf - though I do think that you could get a pair of short 4-wheelers from a pair of sides perhaps? I would about using Slaters 2'8" wheels as they would give the coaches a lower centre of gravity better suited to balcony loading in my opinion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Running some numbers:You could get a pair of bodies each about 15 scale feet in length. Add about 5 feet in length for end platforms and they are about 20 feet in length - not bad ey? You could probably get away with a 10'0"-12'0" wheelbase then. The bodies have 13 windows, so you will need to cut out a side 6 windows long plus a few boards to make up matching ends. You would still need to use 2.5mm quarter-round rod to build up the corners. The problem with trying to make two coaches out of one set of sides that that you only get one set of ends. You would have to be prepared to scratchbuild either one or both sets of ends. I bought the sides with square windows and the last window is blanked off. Perhaps a corner for the heating stove to go? I do not imagine that tramway coaches would have been fitted with lavatory compartments. I think that a guard's lookout or ducket would probably be redundant on an end-platform carriage. I'm looking through some of my collection of bits. I have the 1/45 scale "Vulcan Saddleback" locomotive kit which has some nice plastic mouldings which could represent some nice lead springs and axleboxes for such a coach. I've been entertaining the idea of splicing a couple of the coach sides together to build a compartment coach - perhaps a Brake 3rd? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NeilHB Posted October 13, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2015 The length of body sounds about right, and the wheelbase is nice and compact and perfect for a light railway...hopefully not too much of a bumpy ride for the passengers! I think if you are making two pairs of sides out of one coach it won't matter about there only being one pair of ends - I thought about simply cutting two new pairs of ends that are the right width which would kill two birds with one stone. Agree with your comments about the square window version, nice little corner for the stove which would be very suitable for a windswept light railway - I suppose it could also be the guards area with brake wheel etc.? Good thinking about using the bits from the Minitrains Vulcan kit. Really wish I hadn't sold mine now! Splicing a couple of the sides together would give you a nice short brake third - perhaps running on a pair of wagon bogies maybe? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 You can still get the Minicraft models kits online and not for an unreasonable price. I've got two sets of this kit and may purchase a third. I had wanted to make a standard gauge locomotive out of the plastic parts there. I would modify it though to be an inside-cylinder 2-4-0 unless. Always intended it to be a cheap-and-cheerful locomotive build. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NeilHB Posted October 15, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 15, 2015 Thanks Martin I will keep an eye out for one going cheap. I think it would look nice as an inside cylindered 2-4-0T - kind of like Hesperus on the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead - ooh now there's an idea, the minicraft 2-4-0T and a couple of San Juan coach kits in bogie format...! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 If I remember correctly, I think that the ideal wheel sizes were either 2'9" or 3'0" for the front wheels and about 3'10" to 4'3" for the driving wheels. Those sizes were based on known measurements of similar prototypes, and measurements taken off the plastic wheels in the kit, bearing in the mind that it is nominally 1:45 scale. It also does rather depend on what is available from slaters! I would think that a new chassis built in brass would be necessary. I don't trust the moulded styrene to be dimensionally stable enough to just drill out the axle holes and put brass bearings into it. If you were to go narrow-gauge, they are nicely sizes to suit a 3'0" gauge layout (21mm) The loco is rather too big for On30. You would have to shorten the boiler considerably to make it look proportionally right and make it an 0-6-0 with outside cylinders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.