Vintage GWR coach kit

[BernardTPM]

Rummaging around ebay I came across this listing:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Graham-Farish-Bromley-BR-3rd-Suburban-Coach-Kit-boxed-/272712412826?hash=item3f7eed2e9a:g:QggAAOSw~FJZFDHd

 

Clearly, while the box is Graham Farish (1950s?) the kit inside it is not. It looks to be a 'Sunshine' Collett Composite (E158 or E162?) with a one-piece pre-formed aluminium body, complete with roof vents and printed (some pre-shaped?) thin wood/plywood paritions and ends. Truss rods look to be bent rail. There's an opaque bag that may contain buffers. So, does anyon recognise the make? I'm pretty sure I've seen similar coaches in old magazines.

[Steamport Southport]

Looks Westdale to me. Possible a very early one as they were still available until the 1980s.  I've got an LMS Stove R, 42 foot parcels van and Inspection Saloon from the same parentage. Sill unbuilt.

 

 

Jason

[BernardTPM]

I had some Westdale kits in the 1970s and they didn't have roof vents pressed into the shell like that and the underframe was a piece of hardboard with an aluminium pressing for the trussing, ends and corridor wall, all different in this kit. In addition the windows with sliding vents had the vertical divisions which this coach doesn't have, so I don't think it's Westdale.

 

Incidentally, just to prove some Westdale kits did get used, here's a C70 1936 TK I built in the late '70s, running on Mainline (or possibly Replica) GWR Pressed Steel bogies.

Edited June 14, 2017 by BernardTPM

[Il Grifone]

My thought was Westdale but I don't think they had wooden bits for the ends *or did they?). I only ever had a body shell (for a Hawksworth autocoach), but there were no other bits with it - My attempts at soldering aluminium were less than sucessful so it ended up on eBay.

 

The construction is rather like the Jaypee kit I have, which does have wooden ends.

[Steamport Southport]

The wooden ends is why I was thinking it might be an early issue. My ones have aluminium ends. Jaypee is a new name to me. You learn something new every day.

 

The only other aluminium kits I can think of is BSL which normally had flat sides and a wooden roof, and MTK which had whitemetal ends. 

 

 

I forgot that I've also got a Hawksworth autocoach somewhere as well.  All mine were cheap Ebay buys. Bought because I've seen that some people have made decent models out of them, as in the above post.

 

 

 

Jason

[BernardTPM]

I have a feeling they may be contemporaries to the Jaypee kits. Both Ratio and CCW were making plywood based coach kits (joined by the Kings Cross ones later) so it's not going to be them. Exley used pressed metal, but I suspect there were several others too, possibly short-lived.

[St Enodoc]

I have a feeling they may be contemporaries to the Jaypee kits. Both Ratio and CCW were making plywood based coach kits (joined by the Kings Cross ones later) so it's not going to be them. Exley used pressed metal, but I suspect there were several others too, possibly short-lived.

There was an outfit called Traction Scale Models in the 1970s that produced one-piece pressed aluminium sides and roofs. These also had no roof vents, door handles or other detail. They were very similar to, and may in fact have been the precursors to, the Westdale range.

[hayfield]

My thought was Westdale but I don't think they had wooden bits for the ends *or did they?). I only ever had a body shell (for a Hawksworth autocoach), but there were no other bits with it - My attempts at soldering aluminium were less than sucessful so it ended up on eBay.

 

The construction is rather like the Jaypee kit I have, which does have wooden ends.

 

As the box clearly differs from the contents, it may well be the wooden parts come from a different company to the body shell.

 

From what I can see the wooden parts do not look like Ratio, CCW or Kings Cross kits I have. Cannot remember any form of printed wooden parts

 

I could be wrong but I thought Jaypee were made from a harder (brass coloured) metal

 

I thinks its a Bitsa kit, bits of this and bits of that

Edited June 17, 2017 by hayfield

[Il Grifone]

I'm not sure about Ratio, never having had the joy of a Ratio wooden coach kit, but I'm almost sure that CCW and King's Cross had cast metal ends. My Jaypee kit is stashed away somewhere (forgotten where!), but I think they are indeed a harder metal than aluminium.

 

It could well be a Bitsa or maybe an Asp (All spare parts!)  

 

EDIT

There's a bit here on Jaypee kits, confirming brass. I assume from the description "sprung" and rather high price that the bogies supplied are Nucro.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Il Grifone