Metropolitan Railway - 1913 Electric Stock in S7

[Fay Singpoint]

Having plenty of free time over the Easter week means that I can start work on building some rolling stock for my layout which is at last starting to show some progress. I already have a Met BoBo kit on the workbench which is my first attempt at brass kit construction.

 

This is my first attempt at scratchbuilding any rolling stock so I thought I would have ago at the scratchbuild challenge at the same time. I will have to use some "ready made" components but these are largely limited to the bogies and wheels.

 

First of all it's sort out some reference material.

 

Then it's check up on my stock pile of plastikard and fine ply sheet. No chance of running out of raw materials here.

 

Then it's sort out some working drawings. Hopefully between now and October I will manage a six coach train of 1913 electric stock which is formed of two 3rd class motor cars, two 3rd class trailer cars and two 1st class driving trailers. This makes a train of 3M, 3T, 1DT + 1DT, 3T, 3M. This effectively gives two 3 car sets coupled together.

 

First it's cut up some 2mm thick plastikard which will form the floor of each car.

 

The underframes are angle rather than the usual H channel so i have represented it here with Plastruct. The floor is a basic attempt to get the sizes correct. The bogie mountings will be sorted out later.

 

Progress so far with work starting on the cab ends. Here I am starting to look at building the various sections in batches.

 

Further fun lies ahead..........

[Western Star]

Very nice start here, through running into the world of Basilica Fields might be achievable with help from the Doctor. Not sure about passenger complaints regarding fare rises from 1895 to 1915.

 

Why have you chosen this period for your model?

 

regards, Graham

[Fay Singpoint]

Why have you chosen this period for your model?

 

regards, Graham

 

Hi Graham,

 

My layout is set around 1930 and the research I have carried out over the past few years has revealed quite a variety of Met electric stock that would have run in service at that time.

 

The first electric units, the 1904/1905/1906 stock had clerestory roofs and were typically American in their appearance. They looked quite elegant but for a first attempt at scatchbuilding I could see a disaster waiting to happen.

 

The 1913/1919/1921/1926 stock had elliptical roof sections and so appeared more easier to build. After that we have the MW/MV stock. The 1913 stock has less doors so I chose this as my first scratchbuild project. Most of the 1913 stock survived in one form or another until the late 40's/early 50's.

 

I will probably have a go at some 1904/1905/1906 stock as the next project.

[Guest oldlugger]

A really excellent idea Emma! Good luck with the project...

 

Simon

[Fay Singpoint]

A really excellent idea Emma! Good luck with the project...

 

Simon

 

Thanks Simon,

 

At least I have plenty of plastikard to keep me going through the inevitable cock-ups but that's half the fun of and part of the learning experience for a first attempt.

 

Emma

[iL Dottore]

So far, so good... It looks very neat, clean and tidy (better than my efforts in white plasticard - which always end up looking rather grubby before painting). Nice work.

 

I assume the bogies will be proprietary?

 

I'm looking forward with interest to how you will address the beading and the panelling.

 

F

[Fay Singpoint]

Hi,

I assume the bogies will be proprietary?

Yes they are.

The GWR 7' Plate Bogies are the closest I have managed to find to match those on the 1913 stock so they will still need some surgery on the white metal castings. The Slaters 3' 1" S7 wagon wheels are a pretty good match for the non-driving wheels but for the driving axles on the motor bogies I am using re-profiled DMU disc wheels. The motor bogies will be Wayoh SR EMU 8' 6" type modified for the 3' 1" DMU wheels.

 

I'm looking forward with interest to how you will address the beading and the panelling.

The photographs I have studied seem to indicate the beading was fairly simple so I stocked up on microstrip. Although I am following the David Jenkinson method the idea is to add the microstrip to the coach side rather than cut out what he describes as the panel layer. the panel layer can be shown to good effect in N15's thread. The panelling, as in real life, was a paint job so it's a case of plenty of practice before having a go on the vehicle.

[iL Dottore]

Thanks for the info.

 

In reading the post I was wondering why you are going to reprofile the driving wheels. I must have missed something in your earlier posts, as I had thought that you are building in 4mm, not 7mm. I don't envy you, 7mm may be less "fiddly" but you can't "fudge" things as easily as in 4mm - details have really to be spot-on exact.

 

Good Luck!

 

F

[Fay Singpoint]

Hi,

 

In reading the post I was wondering why you are going to reprofile the driving wheels. I must have missed something in your earlier posts, as I had thought that you are building in 4mm, not 7mm.

 

I am building for my S7 layout which is here http://www.rmweb.co....-widened-lines/ and which will actually have baseboards by the end of the week. I have set myself a little challenge to see if I can pose the completed 1913 stock on part of the (finished) layout by the time this competition closes.

[Fay Singpoint]

The first plastikard coach starts to take shape. This is one of the two 3rd Class Motor Coaches for the six car train. The inner sides are 1mm thick and the floor 2mm thick. I suspect the floor may need reinforcing with brass or nickel silver sheet to as the motor coach will need probably need weighting to give it adhesion.

 

 

I got a bit carried away by adding the underframe to the first set of floors (as seen in the 5th photograph) and soon realised that this was a mistake as it would make assembling the body a bit of a challenge.

 

Next its start on the outer sides from 0.5mm plastikard. The outer layer is where the panelling detail starts. The plan is to build the motor coach to completion in order to sort out the construction issues and then batch build the remaining five coaches.

[micknich2003]

Emma, I can't help with the rolling stock, which by the way looks very good, but I do have a couple of drawings of M E T semaphore signals. If you want scans (Ex Wartime Model Engineer) contact me direct micknich2003@yahoo.co.uk Best Wishes, Mick Nicholson.

[Fay Singpoint]

Emma, I can't help with the rolling stock, which by the way looks very good, but I do have a couple of drawings of M E T semaphore signals. If you want scans (Ex Wartime Model Engineer) contact me direct micknich2003@yahoo.co.uk Best Wishes, Mick Nicholson.

 

Hi Mick,

 

Thanks for the offer and compliment. Moorgate went colour light in 1926 so I shall eventually get round to building a number of "short range" outdoor colour light signals. I have actually brought a couple of Eckon 4mm signals to experiment with as the heads appear to be dimensionally correct and just require some surgery on the hoods.

[Fay Singpoint]

Progress on the 1913 stock build has resumed after a brief interlude.

 

The inner body sides have been tidied up and the outer body sides have now been cut out. The idea for using blue plastikard for the outer body sides came from David Jenkinson's book and is a perfect aid to getting the panelling detail right as well as making it easier to distinguish between the different thicknesses of plastikard.

 

 

The next 2 photographs show the packing layer being built up on the first inner body side. The strips are 1mm thick and 4mm wide plastruct. The drawings and photographs I have show that the 1913 stock had parallel body sides with a very slight (but noticeable) tumblehome down to solebar level.

 

 

 

Next it's cutting out the door openings.

 

And yes they did build underground trains with luggage compartments....

[Natalie]

Hi Emma

Nice to see the 5th British Main Line Railway Company feature in these pages again. Always very welcome. Can't think there can be too many female Met modellers around.

 

The Met I feel in the first 30 or so years of the 20th Century I find fascinating and much neglected compared to the later LPTB days. I have spent large amounts of time photting Met WTTs of the period which reveal a wonderful variety of stock in all manner of formations- very useful for ascertaining what generally operated what services. Certainly in the early 1920s the Met suffered from such an acute shortage of stock that they resorted to hiring two sets of GWR 4-wheel ML&City stock to use on Baker Street- Willesden Green/ Neasden and Uxbridge services loco hauled by electric locos which were also undergoing the change from the earlier Westinghouse and BTH machines to the new replacement MetroVic equivalents.

 

Shall follow your project (which is looking good so far) with interest as I fancy some of this stock myself. Can we look forward to the 'Hustle' train next? :-)

[Fay Singpoint]

The Met I feel in the first 30 or so years of the 20th Century I find fascinating and much neglected compared to the later LPTB days. I have spent large amounts of time photting Met WTTs of the period which reveal a wonderful variety of stock in all manner of formations- very useful for ascertaining what generally operated what services. Certainly in the early 1920s the Met suffered from such an acute shortage of stock that they resorted to hiring two sets of GWR 4-wheel ML&City stock to use on Baker Street- Willesden Green/ Neasden and Uxbridge services loco hauled by electric locos which were also undergoing the change from the earlier Westinghouse and BTH machines to the new replacement MetroVic equivalents.

 

Hi Natalie,

It is surprising on the variety of rolling stock operated by the Metropolitan especially when you take in to account the amount of rebuilding that took place. In carrying out the research for my layout we have the GWR (articulated City sets), LMS and LNER (quad-arts) rolling stock as well.

 

Shall follow your project (which is looking good so far) with interest as I fancy some of this stock myself. Can we look forward to the 'Hustle' train next? :-)

 

The 'Hustle' train lasted in service until 1931 which is just within the time period of my Moorgate layout so it's on the to-do list. However the next planned scratch build will be a set of 1905 stock.

[Fay Singpoint]

The last post said the next exercise was to cut out the door openings but it soon became apparent that I should really concentrate on the panelling detail.

 

Lengths of microstrip are used to represent the beading and, as mentioned before, the use of coloured plastikard makes it quite easy to line things up by eye.

 

After a good evenings work I have managed to complete the beading for both sides of the Driving Motor Car... No doubt you can spot the deliberate mistake but I am treating the first car as a complete experiment as I learn with progress. The next vehicle will be built using different methods from this one.

The bottom of the sides of the outer layer have been fixed to the inner layer to create the tumblehome.

 

And now it's start on the beading detail for the doors. Here we have the centre passenger doors. With the exception of the doors to the driving cab, all the doors are of the sliding type. It was only the 1904 stock that was built with end gates but these soon disappeared by re-building.

 

The prototype here shows the door and beading detail.

 

Soon it will be time to fit the sides to the floor ....

[Fay Singpoint]

With the beading detail substantially complete on the sides I can now look at starting to put the body together.

 

The first exercise is to fit the interior partitions to the floor. The set squares try to keep things (square) and the lump of ground stock is ideal for keeping the floor flat overnight whilst the mekpak sets hard.

 

 

Here we have the floor, complete with partitions, and the sides ready for assembly.

 

At last we have some sort of resemblance to the 3rd class Motor Coach.

 

This is definitely turning out to be a prototype as I seem to learn something new with each mistake.

 

Next it's the driving cab and coach ends.

 

The adventure continues................

[Xerces Fobe2]

Very impressive - a lot of patience and skill - I look forward to seeing the finished unit

 

XF

[Fay Singpoint]

Very impressive - a lot of patience and skill - I look forward to seeing the finished unit

 

XF

 

Thanks Nigel,

 

I've quite enjoyed the progress so far which has been one great learning experience. There are a number of cock-ups with the model which will get corrected on the next 3rd Motor Coach and the 4 trailer coaches.

[L49]

Very tasty, and a great prototype to start on for scratchbuilding. I have got to get some built in 4mm, but I think I will probably end up cheating and using card. Have you considered adding a couple of 1921 stock cars into the mix for a bit of variety. By the end of the H stock, they were certainly mixing and matching different batches in trains to keep things going until the replacement stock could be delivered. (I'm only saying that because the 1921 stock has got less panelling to do!)

[Fay Singpoint]

Have you considered adding a couple of 1921 stock cars into the mix for a bit of variety. By the end of the H stock, they were certainly mixing and matching different batches in trains to keep things going until the replacement stock could be delivered. (I'm only saying that because the 1921 stock has got less panelling to do!)

 

Hi,

 

The 1921 stock is on the to do list after some 1905 stock. Then it's see what takes my fancy as the combinations of different batches of rolling stock seemed endless.

[Fay Singpoint]

Work on the driving cab ends came to a brief halt due to having to go back in to research mode.

 

I only have black & white photographs and I wasn't convinced that the headlamps/marker lights on the driving cabs just showed a white light when running in a forward direction. Because the I am going down the DCC route the opportunity for correct working route codes was too irresistible to ignore so I wanted to get route codes correct. Thanks to the kind help of a fellow RMweb member, a copy of the Appendix to the Metropolitan Railway Working Timetable showed that the headlamps could show either a white or purple light giving a combination of 4 destination/route codes.

 

This stock is being built for the Metropolitan Railway and Inner Circle workings on my layout so they just have the 2 marker lights. The stock for the Hammersmith & City Railway services were distinguished by a third (purple) marker light mounted centrally above the door. All units carried a red tail lamp.

 

I am not exactly sure how I will achieve the white or purple light in each unit but the apertures have been punched out of the cab end to avoid messing around with the cab end fitted to the coach body.

 

 

 

A working template is an aid to speed up the building process and the next stage is to start on the panelling detail on the cab end proper. I will have to produce a different template for the trailer car ends.

 

[Fay Singpoint]

Work continues (albeit slowly) on the driving cab. I had intened to get away with representing the centre door by adding some panelling detail but the dry run experiments did not work out. In the end I cut out the centre door aperture and added a new door. You can see the effect I am trying to achieve in the lower picture on the cover of the “Metropolitan Railway Rolling Stock†book in the very first photograph. The picture is of a 1913 Motor Car but modified by London Transport to remove the luggage compartment.

 

 

 

 

Next up it's an exercise of bending [or setting] plastikard to achieve the sloped front charactistic of the 1913 to 1926 stock. No panelling detail has been added as this exercise was very much trial and error and I didn't want to ruin anything. The correct angle was eventually achieved by trial and error. The panelling detail can now be added.

 

 

 

 

Finally a quick dry run to see how the formed cab (without any detail) fits with the body.

 

[Poggy1165]

I could say I wasn't impressed, but I'd be a damned liar. Cracking modelling, and really good to come across someone with the bottle to scratch build coaches. Or rather, units.

[Fay Singpoint]

Progress continues with the ends of the Motor Car with the panelling detail complete. There are 2 different styles with the driving cab shown on the right and the intermediate end on the left which is now fixed to the body.

 

The driving cab has not been fixed to the body because I am currently experimenting with working marker lights so more on that later.

 

 

I wanted to make sure I had the body height correct so I have decided to concentrate on the running gear. The 1913 stock had 3 different sizes of bogie. The trailer cars had 7' wheelbase bogies running on 3' diameter wheels whilst the motor cars had 7' 6" or 7' 9" power bogies again fitted with 3' diameter wheels. The size of power bogie indicated the manufacturer of the traction motors. The motor first motor car I am building is No 97 which was fitted with 7' 9" motor bogies.

 

 

The motor bogies on the model are a bit of a compromise as I am using the Wayoh 8' 6" SR EMU power bogie kit. Only the outer bogie on the model will be powered as i can hide the motor inside the luggage compartment.

 

 

 

I started with the non-powered (dummy) motor bogie and after assembling fitted the mounting plate to the body. It soon became apparent that the next coach will have the bogie mounting cut-outs done BEFORE assembling the body. However the body work seems to have survived some butchery to the floor.

 

 

 

At last we have some wheels. This is just a test run to make sure the overall height is correct. I still have the roof to add but I am quite pleased as the height measures 11' 9" from rail to top of cab so (hopefully) adding the roof gives the proper 12" 0" height excluding roof vents.