Tyteford Halte

[Neal Ball]

My epiphany moment was yesterday, when I finished 1 carriage; almost finished another - both of which have been hanging around for ages; plus the new Metro tank....

 

I stood back and realised that I had achieved a lot and in fact the results are great.

 

You will have that moment as well, so stick with it @MAP66 - your results are terrific.

[MAP66]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

That’s looking good @MAP66

 

Re: lamp positions, the red lamp should be on the lower right bracket, but given you can’t change them, I would stick to the lamp under the window in both directions. It’s a compromise worth making.

 

 

Thanks Neal for that information, very useful. Like you say, I cant (change) remove or add lamps once fitted as they will be wired in. Would it also work as a compromise if I fitted a red lamp as you have said on the lower bracket and a white lamp on the upper bracket and when the coach is driving the white light comes on and when trailing the red light comes on. Would that look more acceptable in your opinion, as I think that would look better at the loco 14XX end as well.

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, MAP66 said:

Thanks Neal for that information, very useful. Like you say, I cant (change) remove or add lamps once fitted as they will be wired in. Would it also work as a compromise if I fitted a red lamp as you have said on the lower bracket and a white lamp on the upper bracket and when the coach is driving the white light comes on and when trailing the red light comes on. Would that look more acceptable in your opinion, as I think that would look better at the loco 14XX end as well.

 

Under low light situations yes that would be ok.... but that is not normally how we view our railways.

 

Personally, I would accept the compromise and only have one lamp.

[MrWolf]

Talk of finishing coaches and 14XX locos has reminded me that:

 

I have about eight coaches to build or finish.

 

I have a 48XX to build from a 14XX as I did the 517.

 

Should keep me going for a while!

[MAP66]

Well I’m still waiting on the Shawplan glazing to arrive, so in the meantime I’ve been fathing about with internal doors and areas of panelling which won’t interfere with fitting any of the glazing later. I’m adapting some brass LNER internal coach compartment doors from MJT. In an attempt to loosely copy the style of door on the Didcot autocoach, I tried to make them more GWR’ish in appearance, so I opted for non-glazed 2 panel doors for the drivers cab and the luggage compartment (the drivers cab being a sliding door). There is still some trial and error with getting the colours looking right on the panelling. When I’m happy with a colour match I’ll let you all know the colours used.

 

Top glazing bar removed and card inserted into top glazed panel. I probably need to fill the bottom panel with filler to hide the grooves.

I also removed about 1mm from bottom of door.

 

Drivers sliding cab door, when properly fitted it will be slightly recessed back from the panel so as to give the effect that it slides open to the left behind the partition wall.

 

Drivers door from inside the cab, slides open to the right, just use your imagination.

 

 

[MAP66]

I made a start on painting the droplights, I’m still working on one side, it’s had 2 coats so far and 1 more required. The colour I eventually settled on is Humbrol Satin 133, which is a reddish brown. I then thought I would be adventurous and model one of the drivers cab windows in the lowered position. This required removing all of the droplight, retaining the top quarter section and then gluing that back onto the bottom of the window aperture which you can see in the image. I am only doing one side, as I consider it more luck than judgement that I got away without breaking anything in the process.

 

 

 

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, MAP66 said:

I made a start on painting the droplights, I’m still working on one side, it’s had 2 coats so far and 1 more required. The colour I eventually settled on is Humbrol Satin 133, which is a reddish brown. I then thought I would be adventurous and model one of the drivers cab windows in the lowered position. This required removing all of the droplight, retaining the top quarter section and then gluing that back onto the bottom of the window aperture which you can see in the image. I am only doing one side, as I consider it more luck than judgement that I got away without breaking anything in the process.

 

 

 

Interesting you have done that with the drop light… I was wondering if you could do that…. Obviously the answer is Yes!

[MrWolf]

I did that on a B set years ago, but chickened out of doing it on the autocoach.

 

Than someone raised the bar so I might just be having a go. Besides, it definitely makes it easier to see into the cab.

[MAP66]

8 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Interesting you have done that with the drop light… I was wondering if you could do that…. Obviously the answer is Yes!

 

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I did that on a B set years ago, but chickened out of doing it on the autocoach.

 

Than someone raised the bar so I might just be having a go. Besides, it definitely makes it easier to see into the cab.

I made a decision and went for it, about 20 minutes later I made a further decision and that was to ‘not do the other side’. I can only describe the procedure as nerve wracking and I was glad when it was over. You definitely need a new scalpel blade in the Swan Morten and the more senior of us (me included) would benefit from some optical magnification, I had my trusty optivisor.

 

The glazing has now arrived and I’m at a point where I feel it’s time to tackle the cab interior. I found some informative reference material on YouTube from the South Devon Railway, links below;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf_ir-1-Ji8&ab_channel=KV12543

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkC8Ox5k6PA&ab_channel=GarethHarrison

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by MAP66
Typo

[Neal Ball]

54 minutes ago, MAP66 said:

 

I made a decision and went for it, about 20 minutes later I made a further decision and that was to ‘not do the other side’. I can only describe the procedure as nerve wracking and I was glad when it was over. You definitely need a new scalpel blade in the Swan Morten and the more senior of us (me included) would benefit from some optical magnification, I had my trusty optivisor.

 

The glazing has now arrived and I’m at a point where I feel it’s time to tackle the cab interior. I found some informative reference material on YouTube from the South Devon Railway, links below;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf_ir-1-Ji8&ab_channel=KV12543

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkC8Ox5k6PA&ab_channel=GarethHarrison

 

 

 

I’ve just watched that first video at the South Devon Railway, which shows a very tatty Autocoach 163, which we rode in during our last visit. Personally I think it needed to be taken out of service, but that’s a different matter….

 

The video shows off the operation on the carriages and the controls very well. The driver certainly uses a lot of effort to get the regulator open from the carriage end. It would have been interesting to see how much that moved the regulator on the loco - I suspect not as much.

 

Anyway a good video to show off the carriages and the operation. 
 

What was even more fascinating was that the video was immediately followed by a chap (uses the name Scooby), who shows how he did his conversion of the Autocoach…. Plus! It was shown running on his model railway of…. Henley-on-Thames…..

 

I wonder how many models of Henley there are? I thought it was only Paul Karau and I.

[MAP66]

My attempt at the internal lower door panels for the drivers cab. Paint used is Humbrol gloss 9 (Tan). The leather window straps are made from thin strips of masking tape with holes made with a needle. I may try and attempt to get the straps more narrower? The retaining button knob is 0.31 brass rod and the rain strip at the bottom of the door is half round plastrut, 30 thou I think. The handle are brass 'T' style coach handles.

 

[MrWolf]

You're certainly getting into the project, I've managed to fit the rods underneath!

 

Note: Superglue is a misnomer.

 

Do you know how the partitions should look either side of the passenger entrance doors?

[MAP66]

41 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Note: Superglue is a misnomer.

I know what you mean!!!

Nice to hear you got the rods done, its one milestone out of the way.

 

Re. the partitions, so far I've seen sliding doors, no doors, glazed and unglazed and everything in-between. I'm a little confused on this myself as not sure what would have originally been installed or in use for mid to late thirties period.

Doesn't help that the model has a narrow partition gap one side and a wider one on the other side. Unless, someone here can shed any light on this, I will make another decision and probably just leave open without doors. I do intend to model the levers in this area though, the ones that lower the steps. 

[MrWolf]

I take it that the smaller section ahead of the luggage compartment was first class? Perhaps there's a door there and steerage class just get a couple of draught deflectors?

[MAP66]

5 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I take it that the smaller section ahead of the luggage compartment was first class? Perhaps there's a door there and steerage class just get a couple of draught deflectors?

That sounds like a plausible explanation, would be likely there was a door to that section to keep the riff raff out. Does this mean I will now require more plusher upholstery paper for 1st class seating 🤔

[Neal Ball]

17 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I take it that the smaller section ahead of the luggage compartment was first class? Perhaps there's a door there and steerage class just get a couple of draught deflectors?

 

6 minutes ago, MAP66 said:

That sounds like a plausible explanation, would be likely there was a door to that section to keep the riff raff out. Does this mean I will now require more plusher upholstery paper for 1st class seating 🤔

I thought Auto coaches were all Third class with the smaller area being non smoking…. I could be wrong of course as I’m not in front of my books at the moment.

 

However, I have found a couple of drawings at Great Western archive of different Autocoaches, that show a smoking compartment: http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/drawings/coaches/draw7.jpg

Edited April 29, 2023 by Neal Ball

[MrWolf]

1 minute ago, Neal Ball said:

 

I thought Auto coaches were all Third class with the smaller area being non smoking…. I could be wrong of course as I’m not in front of my books at the moment.

 

I thought after I had posted that the rear part of the train might have been smokers corner instead and you beat me to it.

All the upholstery is the same pattern and colour.

 

 

DRS 

[MAP66]

6 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

I thought Auto coaches were all Third class with the smaller area being non smoking…. I could be wrong of course as I’m not in front of my books at the moment.

That sounds plausible too, would also make sense to have a door to that section to keep the smoke in. We'll wait until you get in front of your books for the definitive answer.

[MAP66]

I'm now committed to completing the cab interior before moving onto the luggage compartment and then it will be the passenger areas. Once I have the cab interior panelling done, I can then fit the cab controls which the kit included. At this stage I have loose fitted the front panelling and the partition with sliding door. The interior of the two side cab doors are also completed. It's all dry fitted for now to check for  a good fit. Some further filing around the window apertures is still required, below are a few more progress images;

 

The interior front panelling still slightly visible through the front windows, bit more filing required. Sliding door is visible and so is the drivers overcoat hanging up. The small drill holes visible by the left grab handle will be filled with minute globules of cream paint.

 

Dry fitting the front cab panelling for size. A paper cutting template was used, whereby I could draw in the window positions onto the cladding profile sheet.

 

Side view of the profile cladding across the cab front. The interior panel on the far cab door is just visible.

 

A more in focus view of the internal door panel.

 

View through the front window.

 

[Neal Ball]

There are some lovely photos of Collet Autocoach no 190 at Didcot here: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/120/no-190-collett-auto-trailer

 

The carriage was built in 1933 to diagram A30

 

Diagram U was built in 1912 and is the trailer that usually runs with the steam Railmotor: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/110/no-92-churchward-auto-trailer

 

Looking across Russell vol 2 there are loads of Autocoach photos and diagrams - no mention of 1st class and the small compartment seems to be for smokers.

[MAP66]

50 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

There are some lovely photos of Collet Autocoach no 190 at Didcot here: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/120/no-190-collett-auto-trailer

 

The carriage was built in 1933 to diagram A30

 

Diagram U was built in 1912 and is the trailer that usually runs with the steam Railmotor: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/110/no-92-churchward-auto-trailer

 

Looking across Russell vol 2 there are loads of Autocoach photos and diagrams - no mention of 1st class and the small compartment seems to be for smokers.

Thanks Neal, smoking compartment it is then. Did any of the diagram drawings or photos show that there were doors to the smoking section or rather to the partitions either side of the passenger entrance?

[MrWolf]

3 hours ago, MAP66 said:

Thanks Neal, smoking compartment it is then. Did any of the diagram drawings or photos show that there were doors to the smoking section or rather to the partitions either side of the passenger entrance?

 

I'm struggling to find any clear pictures. The drawings of the A28 in A Pictorial Record of Great Western Coaches (1903-1948) by J.H.Russell appears to show a door both sides of the partitions, four internal doors total.

There's photos of the A30, but no drawings.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by MrWolf

[MAP66]

A change of scenery, ‘60103 Flying Scotsman’ on one of its centenary excursions en-route to Cornwall after leaving Bristol Temple Meads this morning. Taken just outside Wellington at 10:22.

Being in Wellington, I should have donned my wellies as it was a very muddy down that footpath, but only had to wait 15mins to film 20 secs of footage. I can only upload a still from the video footage. I did try converting MP4 to MP3 to upload but I didn't work.

 

 

 

[Neal Ball]

4 hours ago, MAP66 said:

Thanks Neal, smoking compartment it is then. Did any of the diagram drawings or photos show that there were doors to the smoking section or rather to the partitions either side of the passenger entrance?

It’s hard to tell in photos about doors. However all the drawings show internal doors.

[MAP66]

Everything required in the driving cab has now been test fitted and painted, apart from the regulator shown at the extreme left of the image below. Its much easier working in this tight space to have the panels removeable for painting and for fitting detailing parts to. Just waiting for paint to dry and then, hopefully, tomorrow it can all be glued in place.

 

I'm also glad to report that GWR Driver Stan Shorthouse survived his surgery and has been stitched back together again. His line of sight is now just below the top window edge which looks about right to me.