CarriageShed

I'm very glad to hear it. I still have hopes of a four-car unit of Emigrant stock. I did consider hacking these out of Farish suburbans, but they'd need quite a lot of work and the bodyshell still wouldn't really be right. As for saloon No 17 on Shapeways, what kind of quality is 'smooth fine detail plastic' in comparison with a Farish suburban? I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to 3D materials.

Well done indeed, Railway Modeller. I keep hoping for something LSWR to come along!

That sounds okay. The Farish chassis is flat enough and the bogies are pretty representative of the real thing, so many modellers may prefer to use that, safe in the knowledge that they will have a chassis which doesn't need any fettling. Ignore the fact that I've cut this one into pieces. It's just to display the Farish bogies and the pivot attachment: Possibly the alternative is building up the 3D chassis with extra detailing and bogies...

I'd agree that Weddell's books were a good investment, even without the 3D modelling. I've used them to hack four Graham Farish suburban carriages (so far) into something far more representative of pre-Grouping stock. It takes quite a bit of time for each coach, though. I can certainly see the benefits of 3D replacing this, even without the fact that my hacks are still compromises, even if they may look the part. What would you do about a chassis for this (in N)? Would it fit onto a cut-down Farish suburban chassis?

In just a day (or less)? I'm assuming that's pretty good going, seeing as I know nothing about 3D design! It looks very good though.

True it wasn't that special after being converted into a picnic saloon, but I'm always on the hunt for the unusual that can be run in a 1930 setting. Adding this with its clerestory roof to a race or summer special would be an interesting sight. Anyway, just plying you with ideas until you give up and print one of them

As a brief aside, have you seen Peter Snow's Great Rail Restorations, Ep 4 of 5, Channel 4, 27 June 2018? Having found out that this LSWR royal saloon was still in service until 1931 (I model 1929/1930), I'd have to add this to the collection if you'd one day care to produce it (in N gauge, of course). Until then, keep up the good work on this current project. Although they're no good for me, I'm still following with interest.

Well we certainly know the answer to that question now... thanks to Peter Snow (Great Rail Restorations Ep4 of 5, Channel 4, 27 June 2018).

Well we certainly know the answer to that question now... thanks to Peter Snow (Great Rail Restorations Ep4 of 5, Channel 4, 27 June 2018).

That plastic coal load will be straight out and replaced with the real thing, but the rest of the loco looks superb.

There are a few scraps online, but not many at first glance. This is an SECR royal saloon: https://www.mediastorehouse.com/royal-train-bl17842/print/4215857.html This is an artist's rendition of the LBSCR royal train: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/london-brighton-and-south-coast-railway-royal-train-9370 Not much use in respect of Pullman carriages, unfortunately.

The T9 has six feet seven driving wheels, so it's not far off. Not sure about the wheel spacing but, visually, the photo of the real thing seems comparable enough for N.

Out of interest, what are the size of the wheels for the Class F? And distances between them too? It may be worth comparing them against an RTR chassis in N, just in case.

Well, if it would fit on something like a Union Mills T9 loco chassis with tender drive in N then I'd be interested too. Fabricating my own chassis is way beyond my skills.

Although it should be pointed out that the 2mmSA isn't an option that's available to a large number of N gauge modellers...

Hmm... I could justify having one of those if a horse from Essex is running at Newton Abbot or somewhere similar. Horseboxes must have been sent all over the country...

A lot of N gauge kits (Gramodels, the NGS, Peco, Etched Pixels, at least) use Peco wagon chassis and just concentrate on making the body. The Peco chassis would ensure that the wheels don't rub on the body, but I wonder if it would be possible to 3D print separate chassis pieces that could be assembled bu the kit-maker? That way you could produce custom chassis length when a Peco chassis just won't do it. An alternative, possibly, would be to leave the underside of the body open, or raised (so that it's easier to add a weight), to remove any risk of wheels rubbing. I have two tight radius curves on my unfinished layout and the 6-wheel brake chassis seems to be fine on those. The lack of flexibility doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, probably because the wheelbase is so short. A shortish 6-wheel carriage would be different.

The six wheel bogies in N/2mm have been a bit hard to come by, but the solution has been mentioned! I think we can get a pretty fair representation of a Pullman in N with a bit of detailing (in my case it will be the Bournemouth Belle, 1931 variety, hauled by one of my Urie Class N15s). Nice spot, Si! I wonder if they're new? I've not seen them on EPs site before. As for the mentioned couplers that are required extras, someone we both know very well does a great 3D printed version here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/3dr_designs_for_n_gauge

When it comes to the SECR brake van, the axles were very tricky. It was virtually impossible to open then up with a horizontal drill as the axles on the other side got in the way. So my drilling was done at an angle (roughly 45 degrees) and the wheels ended up being located a little higher inside the body than they should have been. It meant cutting off the very lowest part of the Rapido coupling (the vertical bar that helps with uncoupling) to prevent it jamming in the points when it ran over them. There's not an N gauge RTR chassis for an LSWR cattle van as far as I know. They're an awkward length. Also, I'd say that the print material needs to be the next grade up (FUD?). The striations on the brake van are still visible close up (mostly via the camera lens), although the van's planking hides much of that. Considering the fact that it's been three years since I spoke to Graham of Gramodels about cattle vans, I'd say I could wait a while longer for a proper design process to take place for these. The watercart tender is something that I could do with now though.

Hi Alex The N gauge Pullmans were produced by Poole-era Graham Farish as, as far as I understand, they don't specifically match any particular diagram of Pullman coach. Still, upgrading them and detailing them is certainly possible, and any detail from original drawings (thanks for those as I don't have them) and even 4mm versions will be helpful. Peter

Something that's definitely missing at the moment is an LSWR-pattern cattle wagon. Gramodels were thinking about it several years ago, but the longer wheelbase was holding things up. Nothing has ever materialised there, so you have a gap in the market that could be filled. It's probably best to ensure the N gauge version can fit onto a Peco wagon chassis, even if the chassis needs to be hacked to make it fit the body. That's an easy job. The other thing that would be really handy is a Drummond watercart tender to fit over a Fleischmann tender motor. The motor is quite chunky so that would need to be taken into account, but it can also be filed thinner by someone who's really dedicated, so a slimmer tender version would also be handy. So that's a watercart tender with 'fat' and 'thin' variants! Filing down the motor block is something I haven't tried yet, but I know someone who has.

And for comparison here's the N gauge version, although it took a while to complete.

Here's the (finally) completed N gauge version. Drilling out the axle boxes was a bit of a headache but I'm very pleased with the finished effect.

Are you doing 12-wheeled brake cars with that? That's a conversion I'll need to be able to produce the Bournemouth Belle (1931 style). Peter

That sounds pretty reasonable to me too, and would provide the required information without the questioning. I'm looking out for delivery info on the SR birdcage coaches, and it's far more likely that I'd look for it here than elsewhere.