jetmorgan Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 I've just taken delivery of 3 old 00 guage Grafar GWR coaches from that old online auction site. I appreciate these are really just a generic moulding that Grafar used like Hornby did in the 1970's & 80's but can they be modified to be closer to an early design of GWR coaches??? One of the things I do know needs to be changed are the bogies as they seem to be more of a Southern design. I don't have access to the those well known GWR coach plan books. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
relaxinghobby Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Have you painted the insides of these, I had some of the compartment stock. I seem to remember they had plastic wheels but ran very well. You could replace the bogies with some of the Bachmann spares and those come with metal wheels? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Legend Posted September 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 22, 2015 I rather like them as they are. A great level of decoration considering they were available in the late 70s. I don't have any GWR coaches but I do have a rake of 3 LMS Non Corridors and a Corridor Composite which are very nice . They also run very well and have no issue with the couplings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted September 23, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 23, 2015 if no moulded panelling they will be passable for early Collett stock Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 The corridor stock is loosely based on the 1929 Southern Maunsell stock with the heightened corridor windows while the non-corridor coaches are pretty close to PII LMS non-corridor stock. Neither are scale models: IIRC they scale out around 54 or 55 foot long. If they had based the corridor windows on the earlier SR 'low' window stock then they would have had an even more 'generic' look. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 The corridor coaches do have the low windows. The nearest I could see is to Maunsell 1920s 'Hastings' stock (D2104 and D2003), as there is no recessed luggage area, but they are a bit too wide and I believe these should have flat sides. Being Brake/third and full third doesn't help either to make up a set. (It claims to be a first/third, but all the compartments are the same size.) I started converting one of the non-corridor coaches* to a GWR third (diagram C66 IIRC), but this is yet another stalled project........ * These have a general LMS air about them, but again are not really correct for anything (but the moulding does date back to around 1950, when "It looks like a coach" was generally quite enough). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium petethemole Posted October 13, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 13, 2015 I started turning one into a LSWR Ironclad by lengthening it slightly but stalled mid-project; it's still in the 'to do' pile. It won't be finescale but I hope it will turn out okay. I have the appropriate bogies which should contribute to the overall effect. Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 The corridor stock is loosely based on the 1929 Southern Maunsell stock with the heightened corridor windows The corridor coaches do have the low windows. Look at the GWR livery - the cream has to be thinner above the intermediate corridor windows because of the step up in height. It's no where near as much as it should be, of course, but it's definitely there. The brake section is like Restriction 1 stock except they should be flatter as you say. I'm not 100% sure but I think the corridor stock was a later introduction from around the time they first did N gauge coaches (circa 1971) though the early 00 kits still had tin roofs and cast bogies. The non corridor stock is much older, 1950s as you said. The later 1970s versions are generally a lot more useful with their virtually all-plastic construction and neat printing. None of that unstable cellulose either, unlike the 1950s versions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Bit of a delay as I haven't looked here for ages. True, the centre windows are slightly higher (I've never noticed this before as the difference is so small - thanks for pointing it out), but they should rise nearly to the roof. It just means they look even less like Southern coaches than I thought. The corridor coaches date from the mid sixties. The first 're-introductions' were the four plastic wagons (around 1962 IIRC). followed by the Pullmans* and non-corridor coach kits with the tin roofs and (awful) die-cast bogies (they can be made to run, but it's a struggle). We had to wait about a couple of years for the corridor coach kits, which still had the tin roofs. (Sometime in the middle of this we got a reissue of the 81xx with a decent motor at last, an all new 94xx and the Formoway track range. Later on (around 1970 again IIRC), the coaches were revamped with plastic roofs and pin-point plastic bogies. Then in the eighties (?) all 00 production ceased in favour of N gauge. * Now in polystyrene and a weight that could actually be pulled by a locomotive! (The heavy (and extremely prone to the dreaded 'pest') die-cast floor, coupled with bogies fitted with wheels that are particularly reluctant to turn, mean that more than one of the early production in a train is problematic. The use of a plastic related to cellulose acetate ensures that they are are all warped anyway, making this academic. The floor has often expanded too causing the ends to slope outwards at floor level. I have several of which only one is reasonably straight. They came in a variety of names (Pauline, Lydia and Minerva plus two or three others I have forgotten) and a blue 'Wagon-Lits' version. EDIT I've found this from which the missing names are Iolanthe and Phyllis. http://www.precisionlabels.com/gfpulls.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 The corridor coaches date from the mid sixties. The first 're-introductions' were the four plastic wagons (around 1962 IIRC). followed by the Pullmans* and non-corridor coach kits with the tin roofs and (awful) die-cast bogies (they can be made to run, but it's a struggle). We had to wait about a couple of years for the corridor coach kits, which still had the tin roofs. I had one of the tin-roof corridor brakes - you're right about the running, but I'd bought mine to make into an engineer's coach anyway so it only had to stand on a siding. It was handy that it came moulded in black and with no corridor connections - ideal for the job! The half-hearted slightly higher windows are a shame, making them neither fish nor fowl. I see Dapol have chosen to do the low window Southern stock in N. The Thirds and Composites could easily be repainted into pre-group liveries and look pretty convincing if they kind of thing were still legitimate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poor Old Bruce Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 To my eyes, the nearest main line stock I could suggest for the GF corridor coaches would be Lancashire and Yorkshire stock. They are probably miles out but,to me, they look the part. Tin hat ready for the flak Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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