GWR Ex-Cambrian Railways 45ft Bogie 3rd Coach

[RosiesBoss]

Disclaimer

Rivet counters beware! This project has adapted available RTR parts to make a representation of the chosen coach. It does not pretend that it is accurate in all respects. Rather, it aims to create a model that looks acceptable when seen in motion at normal viewing distances.

 

Introduction

Having an interest in ex-Cambrian Railways parts of the GWR, it has been a challenge to find images, drawings or sketches of relevant coaches. I’ve built a few from images in Ref.2 and recently an observation car from drawings in MRC. (Ref .3)

 

I was delighted to find sketches of a lot of pre-grouping GWR absorbed coaches in Ref.1.

 

This blog describes the construction of one of them – GWR 4128.

 

Parts

·         2 Tri-ang clerestory brake 3rds (R333)

·         Hornby GWR coach bogies

·         Hornby 14mm coach wheels

·         Comet C38  coach buffers

·         Ken Line shell roof vents & bases

·         200 gsm card for roof and compartment partitions

·         5 X 5 mm balsa rod for seat squabs

·         Evergreen 0.25 x 0.75 mm polystyrene strips for rainstrips

·         0.45mm phosphor bronze wire for handrails

·         Bachmann long slimline tension-lock couplings

·         8 BA screws & nuts

 

Paint & transfers

·         Tamiya XF69 NATO black

·         Humbrol 135 satin clear

·         Humbrol 98 matt chocolate

·         Humbrol 20 gloss crimson

·         Rustoleum 2X Ultracover Ultra Matt charcoal primer

·         HMRS Pressfix GWR coach transfers

 

Construction

Typical donor coach:

 

Bodies stripped:

 

Sliced and ready to assemble, GWR grab-irons removed:

 

Re-joined:

 

The choice of suitable bogies was limited to what was on hand. Three types were considered:

·         Ancient Tri-ang bogies from short Mk1 coaches. These looked the part and could have been modified with stepboards, but their wheelbase was too long.

·         Hornby Dublo coach bogies. These made the coach sit too high, even with 12mm dia wheels.

·         Hornby GWR bogies as currently used under their Railroad GWR Collett coaches. These had about the right wheelbase and could be disguised with stepboards.  This was the chosen design.

 

Bogies and underframe added, cracks filled and buffers added:

 

Basic painting complete; glazing, partitions & seats added:

 

Passengers added and roof attached; handrails, transfers & varnish:

 

References and Further Reading

1.       Hugh Longworth: “British Railways Pre-Nationalisation Coaching Stock Vol.1 GWR & LNER” (Crecy Publishing, 2018)

2.       C.C.Green: “Cambrian Railways Album – 2” (Ian Allen, 1981)

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/180331-another-cambrian-railways-observation-car

 

 

[Ross74H]

Very very clever! Tempted to get a couple more myself and copy your idea, maybe use the leftover brake sections to make a short full brake as well.

[RosiesBoss]

Thanks for the comment. I'm ahead of you, though, as I've begun using the offcuts to make a T34 4-wheeled brake 2nd. (Diagram here: http://www.gwrcoaches.org.uk/)

 

Watch this space!

 

Regards,

 

Rob

[Ross74H]

How long do the two leftover brake sections scale out to roughly?

[RosiesBoss]

G'day, Ross74H,

 

The offcuts appear to total about 197mm overall (measured over their buffer beams), as seen here against a 1cm square grid:

 

I hope this helps.

 

I plan to select sections of these for my version of a T34:

There will be lots of fun slicing and dicing here!

 

Regards,

 

Rob