Coach bodging

[uax6]

Being a modeller (sans layout still!) of the Highland Railway in the early grouping period (upto about 1932 ish) I am in need of quite a lot of coaching stock of various heritage. The Highland in this period was a fascinating place with the indigenous coaching stock being replaced/supplemented by better quality pre-grouping stock from elsewhere. This stock was moved around so that as newer stock was introduced in England, the older stock was cascaded to the North to improve facilities there.

 

Other than the indigenous HR stock I have identified the following other pre-grouping stock running around the HR lines at this period:

 

MR:

Clipper sided dining cars, both round and square panelled 12 wheel and round panelled 8 wheeled versions. The 8 wheeled versions lasting on the Far North Line well into the BR age.

 

6 Wheel clerestory full brakes. No Highland branchline train would be complete without these vehicles at this time, they were everywhere!

 

Various clerestory (round and square panelled) corridor (and non-corridor) vehicles.

 

LNWR:

Dining Cars. It would appear that almost any of the 12wheeled diners could be seen running on the HR main line during this period. Towards the BR era it would appear that the later eliptical roofed versions where still in use.

 

Sleeping cars: Again almost all versions where seen, including the odd ex WCJS compo sleepers. (more on them later!)

 

The 'Ratio' express stock was seen, along with lots of full brakes of all versions, 6 wheel, 45ft and 50ft arc roofed, and the later coved roofed examples too. Indeed there were double brake ended compos and toplights too. 

 

6 wheeled stock was also used on the branches.

 

L&Y

 

Dining car, at least one L&Y dining car made it's way north in this period, along with 6 wheeled coaches and bogie recessed brake end vehicles.

 

 

There are probably lots of other stock (Caley Grampian brakes seem to have been popular too) that I haven't noticed.

 

This thread will track my journey of bodging the various types that will be import to reflect this interesting period.

 

keep tuned!

 

Andy G

[uax6]

So far I have made several of the above coaches (the ratio stuff I'm not going to show as these are quite old kits and there are threads on here already). I started with building a MR 6wh clerestory full brake, for which I can't find any photos (and its at work!). So I'll move onto my Caley Grampian. This was made using the Tri-ang Caley coach as a starting point.

 

The first thing I did was to gut it. The bogies were removed and given away, as I had a pair of BSL LMS 12wh ones that I was going to use instead. These are of slightly wrong pattern, but by removing the axlebox tie rods and using filler to make them look more Fox pattern they turned out ok. All the underframe trussing was removed and round bar truss rods were fitted using handrail wire (with a bit of pvc telephone wire insulation as a turnbuckle) and handrail knobs on plasticard spacers for the queen posts. The battery boxes were made from plasticard, the dynamo is a ratio bit and the westinghouse cylinder is a plastic tube with wire to hang it.

 

The ends of the coach were hacked off and new ones made from plasticard, with a plasticard panel layer over the top. Just by fitting flat ends the whole look of the coach changed. The roof was shortened and fitted with L&Y cast vents in the correct locations, and the rainstrip is 0.45 handrail wire. This is put on by finding the centre of the roof and the highest part of the rainstrip. Then put some superglue on the roof at that point. Stick the middle of the wire to the roof and let set. When set draw each end down to the lowest part of the rainstrip, and stick. This way the curve is even across the roof. The roof itself is still held on with the original screws.

 

On the inside I built up compartments and a corridor and this has made a huge difference again.

 

Some photos:

 

The corridor ends have been left until I can decide on what tightness curve it has to get round (Its a theme with all my corridor coaches!

 

Now what is this?

 

I'll tell when as I run through it building over the next couple of days!

 

Andy G

 

Edited December 5, 2013 by uax6

[JCL]

Well, I've no idea at all, it looks impressive though!

[Londontram]

Please sir please sir I know I know........ I'll pm you  Andy so as not to ruin it for the others

[Buhar]

Isn't it a rood screen? You can still find the odd one in country churches.

[uax6]

Well in contains a couple of RUDE things that are a bit SCREENED!

 

Andy G

[uax6]

I have to say that London Tram was correct, it is a West Coast Joint Stock D26 Composite Sleeping Car. They were a development of the WCJS D28 compo. They were designed for places where there wasn't enough demand for a full sleeper. The earlier cars started life as 1899-1902 vintage WCJS corridor coaches (compos and brake compos), in about 1905-8 they were converted to compos sleepers by the crude expediant of cutting off thge first class end of the carriage and replacing it with a sleeping section that exactly matched the latest design, which meant that the new end was 9ft wide, standard Wolverton twelve-wheel panel style, while the unrebuilt end remained at 8ft 6in wide, and apart from the addition of the clerestory to match the new end. A very strange looking vehicle resulted!

The later D26 version was the other hand to the originals, as the brake compos cut about were the other hand to the earlier ones. They also differed in that they had eliptical roofs as opposed to the clerestories of the earlier cars.They lasted until about 1936.

 

The reason why I fancied building one was this. I had aquired a job lot of ratio LNWR corridors via ebay for next to nothing. Weeding through them I found I had a few brake compos, and that I really didn't need all of them. One was allocated to be chopped and as duly dismantled. The other reason was to see if I really could make Wolverton panelling, as at some point in the future I need to make quite a few of them!

 

I presumed that not only are these cars strange, but they would probably have made their way up to the Highland lines (and about a month ago I found a book showing one of these cars, in LMS days, behind a Castle on the lower section of the HR main line), and I also had a 4mm scale drawing in Jenkinson Illustrated History Of LNWR Coaches.

 

The way I started was to scan the drawing into the computer, which then allowed me to print it onto a sheet of 10thou, and also 20 thou styrene sheet. These would then be cut out to form the panelling.

The following photos shows how I did it:

 

Then I started laminating the sides together:

 

They took a long time to cut (from memory a weekend of 8 hour shifts, which was great, as the trains broke up the concentrated cutting), and were fragile until laminated. BTW the corners were rounded off using the tip of a small round file, that was the worst part of it all!

 

Andy G

 

 

 

[JCL]

Hi Andy, I was confused for a second there, I thought you'd sent the cutter back. That coach looks great, and was definitely worth the amount of time you spent on it, I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

 

J

[uax6]

Ah, this is all BC (Before Cutter!) at the minute, I'm leading in gently! Hopefully people will get the reasoning behind the move.

 

Andy

[Londontram]

Andy, you have roused my curiosity 

[uax6]

It'll become clear in a couple of days, I promise!

 

Andy G

[Colin parks]

It'll become clear in a couple of days, I promise!

 

Andy G

Are are all waiting to see this machine Andy!

 

The test pieces you sent me produced on one of these machines are really very good and need little tidying up. On a different note, I had seen the picture of that curious 'cut and shut' coach before, but never appreciated the change in width before. What an odd thing for a railway company to do! They must have been really strapped for cash. 'Unique' is a dangerous word to use, but I have not seen anything like it before.

 

All the best,

 

Colin

[Londontram]

I believe in Caledonian days the staff used to nick name them "thick & thins" for obvious reasons, lovely looking coach though.

Going off at a tangent if I may I've got one of those old Hornby Grampian coaches to do as well, much to big for what I will ever need but they do look so graceful on there 6 wheel bogies (I originally got it with a view to chopping it down to a Caledonian 57 ft 8 wheel bogie coach but it seems such a crime for such a lovely coach plus after looking at the diagrams for the 57 ft coaches it would need two Grampians to get the paneling right on one 57 ft coach which is a bit of a waste really) never thought of changing the end panels though so I'm glad I've seen yours first before I do mine. Steve

Edited December 11, 2013 by Londontram

[uax6]

The ends were done the same way, but each one is different, and you can't reuse the ratio end as the roof is a different profile now:

 

The poor end:

 

The 1st class end:

 

Now the Wolverton style has recessed ends, with panelled doors. These have a window at the top and a panel at the bottom. The bottom panel was made by scraping the plasticard with the knife blade:

 

Then the end was built up on the underframe (this is the standard ratio 50ft LNWR one, which is correct):

 

I continued with the sides, they needed another layer underneath to get the panelling correct:

 

I scored the rear to allow a bend to be formed:

And cut some profiles to make sure it held it's shape:

 

Note that the white panels have bits that hang over the edge of the cream sheet. This is because the Wolverton panelling has 'round the corner' panels, which is a devil to make!

 

I could now start to erect the body sides. I firstly filed a mitre in the ratio side:

 

And my end:

 

And then the sides were fitted to the underframe (the 1st clas end is not glued at this point as I hadn't done the round the corner panelling as I need to know how much to trim off):

 

That corner panelling was next, just a case of making sure the edges of the sheets underneath were smooth and then gently bending the beading round and securing with solvent:

 

Then the waist bead was added. This is just a strip of 10 thou:

 

The shape is now begining to take shape:

 

The other side was done the same way. There may be some eagle-eyed readers that have noticed that the ratio sides have been swapped. This was because of an unfortunate accident with fingers that happened to have solvent on them, I grabbed the sides and melted my finger prints into them!

 

Next installment will be roofing, I know you just can't wait!

 

Andy G

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2013 by uax6

[uax6]

Roofing.

 

This posed a problem as the roof is nominally the same profile, but one end is narrower that the other. The way I did it was to cut loads of profiles that are the correct shape (copied from the narrow end, the wider end just having them sliced down the middle to widen them!) and then laid them out on top of the sides. They were spaced at approx 10mm centres and then glued to a couple of bits of 2mm square plasti-strut. The roof itself is two bits of 10thou sheet wrapped around the profiles. The join is at the join of the two roof shapes. The roof sheets were carefully cemented to the profiles while holding it and pushing down while the solvent evaporated. They were then trimed down (which ended up looking ragged!) and the gutter formed with a length of 1x1mm angle run along the bottom edge.

 

 

At the ends I placed a piece of 10thou microstrip along the extreme edges, this forms the beading that is found at the ends. This finishes them off and also makes the roof a tight push fit.

 

Holes were then drilled for the vents, and the rainstrips added. These were done just like the Caley coach using lengths of 0.45 brass handrail wire glued at the highest point and then brought down at the ends and glued. This gives a good curve:

 

Then the roof was given a coat of dark grey, which was followed by lots of filling to get it smooth(ish).

 

The body was then sprayed BMC Damask Red (Which is spot on for LMS Crimson):

 

Next installment will be the interiors, basic lining and other stuff!

 

Andy G

 

 

Edited December 13, 2013 by uax6

[JCL]

Well, that was inspiring! You make it look so easy!

[uax6]

Well, that was inspiring! You make it look so easy!

Did I mention that this was my first essay at round panel stock (only my second scratchbuilt body), certainly not an easy coach to do. The bits over the 1st class door were a pain, and had to be made in pieces to fit, after the sides had been made. But I had fun making it, and it looks good too!

 

Andy G

[Buhar]

It looks excellent, Andy, an impressive piece of work well worthy of the craftsmanship recommends you've acquired. Also, I can confidently say (and without breaking any embargos) that there's no risk of an RTR version to frustrate you.

[uax6]

I think I will be very safe with most of the designs I need to make. Although I would have thought that LNWR diners and sleepers would be a good seller! At some point I will have to make the LNWR Royal Train.

 

BTW does anyone have any drawings of the Duke of Sutherlands coaches?

 

Andy G

[JCL]

How about chatting to this gentleman? http://www.lochgormkits.co.uk/html/7mm_scale_coaches.html#7HRC22 click on the Duke of Sutherlands saloon to get a smallish plan. Would you believe that it used to live just over an hour down the road from me at Fort Steel, And I didn't know it was there until after it left? We still have a Mk1 SO - guessing it's possibly the record for longest distance of an SO from its home country. http://moverightinternational.com/html/canada_2011.html

[freebs]

Wow, this is excellent. I've got a rake of pullman coaches that I inherited sans-roof. Now if I ever get round to the project of roofing them, I know were to come for inspiration

[Portchullin Tatty]

 

BTW does anyone have any drawings of the Duke of Sutherlands coaches?

 

 

 

Wait two months and you can buy this.....................

 

 

and having seen the proofs last weekend; I can confirm it includes details of the Duke of Sutherland's several coaches.

 

It should be launched at the Glasgow show and available from Noodle Books (and no doubt others) as of then.

[JCL]

Wait two months and you can buy this.....................

 

Carriages and Wagons.jpg

 

and having seen the proofs last weekend; I can confirm it includes details of the Duke of Sutherland's several coaches.

 

It should be launched at the Glasgow show and available from Noodle Books (and no doubt others) as of then.

 

Isn't RMWeb a wonderful place at times?

 

I hope you've been good this year Andy so that you can get a second supplementary present from Santa!

[Alister_G]

Well done Andy, that's a great bit of modelling, and you make it look so easy.

 

A lattice footbridge should be a snip for you now

[uax6]

The interior of the 1st class end is basic. It's just a corridor wall and the partitions, so basic I haven't even taken photos of it!

 

The 3rd class (skinny) end has more detail. I started with the normal ratio partitions and added ratio seats with the backs cut down:

 

I then made beds up with plasticard:

 

They are basic bits of 60thou scraped with the edge of the knife to give a bit of bed shapeness. Putting them in place shows through the windows:

 

Curtains were added to the corridor side. I had no clue what colour they would be, so I used blue tissue paper. The windows to the outside world were painted 'old gold' (mix of yellow and a hint of black) as this was the colour used. They were painted on the rear in various states of downness:

 

As you can see I've also put basic lining on the BMC Damask Red body now. This is just satin black humbrol. At this point I didn't have a bow pen, and figured that you would see more black at normal viewing distance than the 1/4" yellow line. I now have a bow pen, but I've not plucked up the curage to have a go yet!

 

I also had a little fun by placing some nudes in the 3rd class end (well you just wouldn't get them in 1st class would you?). Those of a nevous disposition please avert your eyes!

 

The gangways were next. I still haven't decided properly, so they haven't been fixed.... But I took the ratio ones and trimmed them down so that they didn't stick out so much. I put a black cover on the outer edge too (which will help when they are in contact with the next coaches. Foam from a kitchen sponge was added to the rear, and the housing is wide enough for the ratio bit to go into it. Not tested properly yet, but should work!

I intend on covering the foam with some black tissue paper so that you can't see it.

 

Well thats about the lot on that coach! I'll start on the next one soon for you!

 

Andy G

Edited December 19, 2013 by uax6