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Bodmin Bob

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  1. Bodmin Bob

    Maunsell Coach advice

    By Bodmin Bob,

    Can any fellow Southern followers help me.
     
    having recently purchased an O gauge Westdale Restriction 4 Maunsell 'high window' 1929 composite coach on Ebay for a very reasonable price and having now successfully built it, it is now primed and ready for painting and numbering.
     
    I am looking to run it as a loose CK alongside a 3 car Bulleid set that I have previously built.
     
    However having done my research (rather late in the day), David Gould's excellent Maunsell Carriage Stock book indicates that in the period I am modelling (1958 - 1961) there was only one Restriction 4 Maunsell CK coach that was running as a loose vehicle and not as part of a set at that time, and that was coach S5586S.
     
    Here is my dilemma - S5586S was one of four identical CKs built as part of a batch of coaches (diag 2303) specifically for inter Regional services in 1929 which were used on Bournemouth - Birkenhead services. These CKs were externally identical to Maunsell's other high window composites (diag 2301) but internally they differed as they were the only Maunsell composites to have three first class compartments and four third class compartments (the normal layout was 4 first class and 3 third class). The middle compartment in these 4 coaches was simply narrowed to normal 3rd class dimensions by having thicker partitions. This variation was so that the seating layoutin these vehicles would match the capacity of LMS and GWR stock that used to share the running on these inter regional services
     
    As S5586S seems to be the only loose Maunsell in the period I am modelling, I am trying to find out if it's non standard internal layout was still retained by the time it became a loose coach in 1959 or if it had been converted into the standard internal layout to match the rest of the SR's Maunsell composite coach fleet once it's inter Regional duties had ended and it had taken up more mundane duties. Logic would dictate that four non standard coaches would cause headaches for the seat booking clerks once these coaches integrated into the wider SR fleet - therefore it would seem unlikely that in its latter years it would retain its non standard layout.
     
    The coach remained in service until November 1961 but neither Gould, nor Mike King in his publication indicates whether it or it's 3 fellow diag 2303 colleagues where subsequently converted into the standard diagram 2301 layout.
     
    Would anybody have any further knowledge on the latter days of these 4 coaches
     
    Bob Hoskins
  2. Bodmin Bob
    It seems the thing to do these days is to let people know exactly what you are building - you never know there might be somebody interested out there.
     
    Well my passion is coach building both OO and O gauges - primarily Southern region coaches but not necessarily restricted to just that region (if the right kit comes along at the right price then I will try and build it!)
     
    New out of the works over the last couple of weeks have been:
     
    Maunsell Un-classified Corridor Brake S4440S from a Roxey Mouldings kit. These were interesting vehicles in that they could be used as 1st, 2nd or even 3rd class vehicles depending on need with the class indicated by stickers placed in the windows - you would have known your luck was in if you were travelling 3rd class in one of these - the seating was apparently amongst the most comfortbale on the Southern at that time.
     
    Roxey's coaches are great to build - the only tricky bit with thier OO coaches is their plastic roofs which are not easy to get right when fitting, but with care and patience a good result can be achieved. I believe Roxey's O gauge coach roofs are or metal construction but I have yet to build one of their O gauge coaches.
     

     
     
    The second new arrival is not a brand new coach but a complete strip down and overhaul of a Comet Bulleid SO S1481S. I originally built this coach about 5 years ago as E1469E and it represented one of the batch of Bulleid SO coaches transferred over to the Eastern and Scottish Regions in exchange for a number of Mark 1 coaches during the mid 1960s. The model was originally finished in lined maroon and was used as part of a 9 coach ER inter-regional train that we run on Bodmin's club layout 'Old Elms Road'. I was never 100% satisfied with the finish on that model for a number of reasons so I retired it after we appeared at Warley last year and it has now been fully stripped down to bare metal and undergone a change of both livery and a number.
     
    That said I clearly suffered 'senior moment' as I had intended to number it after the preserved example on the Bluebell Railway that I recently travelled on i.e. S1482S - however it wasn't until after I had numbered it and added a couple of coats of varnish that I realised that I had given it the wrong number - oops!
     
    However I am pleased with the result and whilst Bulleid coaches did look attractive in maroon - anything but green does not seem 'right'. With many of my Bulleid/Maunsell coaches I have used Bachmann's SR coach bogies for smooth and reliable running but this coach represents a slight departure as I have used a set of Hornby's excellent Maunsell coach bogies for this coach for the first time. They look slightly better than the Bachman versions and run really well.
     
    Bogie kits do come with most of these coaches but I tend to use RTR bogies if possible purely to save weight - a 9 coach rake of brass coaches can be heavy so this can be reduced by using good RTR bogies where possible - you also always know they are very free running and can be easily replaced if one gets damaged during an exhibition.
     
     

     
     
     
    In works at the moment is a Comet Bulleid loose Brake Composite which will be used to supplement one of my SR express rakes from 8 to 9 coaches. I already have a crimson and cream one so this one will be in BR green. The body shell and chassis are complete and now the roof fitting and detailing will take place - I estimate this one will be ready in around 4 weeks (I'm not the fastest coach builder).
     
    Awaiting construction is a Comet Thompson SK which will be finnished in crimson & cream and will replace the Bulleid SO mentioned above in my ER inter regional set.
     
    I also now have all the bits required to add a second Bulleid 2 car BSK+BCK set to my fleet having built my first one a few years ago so I have a number of projects to keep me going for the next 4 months or so.
     
    All these coaches will run on Bodmin club's Old Elms Road layout which is scheduled to be at Tolworth Showtrain in South London in November and also at Stafford exhibition early in 2016
  3. Bodmin Bob
    After a couple of weeks off from work on holiday I had hoped to complete both my Comet Bulleid BCK and Thompson SK coaches but the glorious weather has actually hindered me as my wife has found a number of things that needed doing around the home instead. However the Bulleid BCK is now completed and has been finished as S6723S in BR Southern Region green. The Thompson is still in pieces in its box.

     
    This Bulleid coach unusually caused me some frustration at the final stages because when I came to give it its final coat of matt varnish, all was well until after about 15 mins after the coach had been sprayed. All of a sudden a few patches of white 'clouding' suddenly appeared along the top edges of the bodies on both sides where they join the roof. Not sure what caused this but it did have to be rectified as it looked a mess. I did this 24 hours later by carefully respraying the affected areas green again and then giving the whole coach another matt varnish spray a couple of days later.


    The coach is shown in the pictures on some temporary old Bachmann bogies as everybody currently appears to be sold out of Hornby's very nice Maunsell bogies at present which I intend to fit to this coach. When I am able to get the bogies, they will be fitted and the coach chassis and ends will be subject to some light weathering.

    The purists will see that that the coach (and the coaches in my previous entry) are incorrectly fitted with 3 link couplings at each end at present. My 'loose' coaches used to be fitted with Smiths 'screw link' couplings but this caused the odd problem at exhibitions when the odd coupling occasionally broke - trying to replace a small Smiths screwlink in a dimly lit exhibition hall on a coach in a large, crowded and busy fiddle yard tested my patience more than once - to the point where I decided that all my brass coaches in my longer rakes would have 3 link couplings instead - they don't break and are able to take the strain of the weight of a trailing 9 coach train a lot better than their predecessors.
     
    I have not yet decided where this Bulleid BCK will run in my coaching set formations on our Old Elms Road layout but if it does end up at the rear of a set then I will remove the 3 link from the brake end and fit a dropped buckeye coupling casting from the MJT range (and of course a tail lamp).

    I have now started to build the Thompson SK coach kit. On Old Elms Road I do run an inter Regional train from the North East that currently comprises 4 kit built Thompsons, 3 Bachmann Mark 1s and a Hornby Gresley Restaurant car - this new Thompson will enable the set to be increased to the 9 coach maximum that we are able to run on the layout. The intention is to finish this coach in crimson and cream livery.
     
  4. Bodmin Bob
    After a few weeks delay I have now formally completed the construction of my latest coach kit which is a Comet kit of a Thompson Corridor Third no E1469E in early crimson & cream livery.


     
    The coach will run in my Eastern Region inter-regional set on Bodmin Club's Old Elms Road layout which will be at the Tolworth Showtrain event in November.
     
    It is one of 5 kit built Comet Thompson coaches I have built for this 8 coach set (the other 3 coaches in the set being Bachmann Mk1 stock).
     
    These kits are great to build and the added bonus with this one is that I bought the whole kit on Ebay for about £25 several months ago.
     
    As is my standard practice I have used Bachmann's Thompson bogies on this one in order the try and reduce the overall weight of the 8 coach rake as it runs through the curves when leaving and entering our fiddle yard. The construction was actually completed a few weeks ago but I have been waiting to pick up a cheap Bachmann Thompson TK on Ebay so that I could use it's interior in the kit built coach. A Modellers Mecca corridor connection is filled at one end in order to fill the gap between this and the next coach in the set.
     
    3 link couplings have been fitted temporarily as they are both strong and discreet when used between corridor coaches in a long set
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