MAP66

My awaited supplies arrived yesterday, so I am now able to continue my experimentations with the flexible vacuum hoses. That will be for Thursday, as today its Jill’s post op follow up, so will be off to Bristol for best part of the day. There has been some more progress with the passenger step levers and they are now attached to the partition wall. It was again a worthwhile decision to not yet glue the partitions in place, thus allowing assembly and attachment of the levers outside of the coach. The completed sub-assembly of the partition wall leading into the smoking compartment, complete with step levers. A glimpse of what's available to see through the window. And your overhead shot. The lever guards are made from brass strip, off one of the frets from the detailing kit.

Many Happy Returns old chap 🎂 and hope you find those darn elusive signal levers. I normally find what I'm looking for almost immediately after I have purchased more of the same 😄

Not much activity lately on the auto coach front, largely due to the fine weather which has led me into the garden instead. I’m also waiting on some more supplies to arrive which I need to complete the vacuum and steam hoses, basically, I will be trying to fabricate something together using small bore brass tube. In the meantime, I managed to find the Wills point rodding kit that had eluded me and have crudely adapted two of the ground frame point levers to use as the passenger step levers. It seems to work, you will only see a glimpse of then through the window anyway.

This interior malarkey is taking a bit longer than first anticipated. There’s a total of 10 partition sides and 8 door sides to deal with plus a whole host of other fiddly bits like corner trims etc. I’m not complaining, I’m actually enjoying the challenge, this is just to explain why it’s all taking longer than expected. The luggage compartment is now almost completed and I’ve moved onto the passenger entrance vestibule. I have gone with half glazed doors here, I have no idea if that’s correct or not but I liked the idea. A few more progress pics…

Work has commenced on the luggage compartment and I’m keeping the colour scheme all tan brown in here. I might try and replicate some scuff and scratch marks on the wood panelling and have some electrical conduit coming down the partition wall for a light switch. The door is no longer brass, I’ve gone back to card again and have scribed in the two panels and used some micro strip for architrave. The idea is to house the sound decoder and speaker in this area (both not purchased as yet) and disguise them as much as possible with luggage. That’s the preferred choice, if it doesn’t work out then maybe, I will be able to squeeze either one or both into the loco? I won’t know this for sure until I start working on the loco and reached the stage where the body shell is ready to be fitted to the completed chassis, then I will have more of an idea of available space.

I checked with my coach passengers and none of them suffer from any dust allergies or hayfever, so all good!

That's rather splendid old bean. I think your version is less nerve wracking than the way I went about it and of course, I will still need to partially glaze mine which means there's still a fair chance of making a horses ar5e of it.

I’m back on the coach interior and have installed panelling up to the bottom of the windows, above the windows I am just leaving as a painted surface. The other side of the driving cab partition is now complete, apart from some touch up detail painting. Luggage compartment next. Panelling profile sheet cut to size, painted and installed on both sides of the coach. Drivers cab sliding door installed, a few gaps around the edges to sort out still. Cornwall, next year perhaps.

Unusually for me, I have started to think about the coupling of the auto train before getting to that stage. I would normally only think about the details for that type of thing when I arrived at that stage and hope that a solution would materialise. The problem I need to solve, having made the decision that the loco and auto coach will be permanently coupled together was how to; Model the vacuum brake and steam hoses connected from the coach to the loco, with flexibility and the ability to hide several data cables within them as this will be DCC operated. I came up with the spring idea again, I wrapped 5a fuse wire around a length 0.8mm brass rod which seemed to be about the right OD for the supplied white metal hoses which I was aiming to replicate. I then coated the spring evenly, while still on the rod, with glue ‘n’ glaze. Before the glue ‘n’ glaze started going off, I carefully removed the spring from the rod and left it for the glue to cure. After which I had a spring which when bent through 90 degrees did not distort and returned to a straight position. The glue ‘n’ glaze helped the spring to better retain its shape when bending and flexing and provide a skin for paint to adhere to. Furthermore, the spring forms a conduit for wires to pass through invisibly from coach to loco. Further work is required, but it’s a promising start. I may need to increase the spring OD to 1mm to allow more internal space for cable routing, at present there is only room for 1 x 32 gauge pvc coated wire. However, up to 6 of the red coloured thin enamelled wire in the image below can pass through the spring with ease. Here is the flexible part of my brake hose with 1 x 32 gauge wire passing through it. So far the black paint doesn't chip or rub off. The hoses supplied in the kit are there for comparison. I still need to build the hollow rigid pipe section and attach to the end of the hose. Close up of the flexible vacuum brake hose and cable carrier. Bent to 180 degrees, without any of the spring coils separating, all held in place with glue 'n' glaze.

Thanks Neal. it was worth the effort when you see the end result. I just need to keep the standard up for the rest of the coach interior, still a way to go yet.

That’s it, the interior of the driving cab is now finally completed. I am not adding the glazing until absolute last for fear of marking it. Due to the interior detail, it’s a must for me to have cab lighting so as to see some of what’s inside. I tried to see what would be visible in normal daylight with the coach roof on, it turns out that the back of the cab interior is in dark shadow and the driver is not that visible. Now that’s actually a good thing as you do not want the driver visible when the auto coach is being pulled by the loco. Contrary to this, you want a visible driver when the auto coach is being propelled by the loco. So the solution is a cab light which comes on when the cab is driving and turns off when going the opposite way leaving the cab interior mostly in shadow. That’s the aim anyway, here’s some shots of the finished cab interior… View from above, managed to squeeze it all in. View from the rear, if you have the power to see through doors and partitions. Parking/hand brake on the left and vacuum brake on the right. From the front, lots of light and visibility with the roof off. The red wire is a trace wire in place for when I am ready to fit the front lamp. With the roof on, the driver is mostly in shadow and not clearly visible, hence the need for a cab light. Its good to still see the controls though.

Yes, there's lots of little silly things which only become apparent when you start to tackle a specific task. I've opted to remove that screw boss as I did with the driving cab one. I'm working on an alternative solution for securing the coach body to the underframe (work in progress). Now we've established which side the passenger stair levers are located and I'm sure you've got this sussed but just in case both lever handles point outwards towards their respective passenger entrance coach door when the steps are in the stowed (raised position).

The nearer lever has the steps in the lowered position, if you look at the video from 6:40 on, you will see the steps lowered to allow Rodney Cox to board the coach. I would suggest watching the entire video though as its quite informative about how the coach was coupled up to the loco.

This is a frame lifted from the South Devon Railway video which I posted on the 29th April (2nd video) which shows the levers for the passenger steps on the same partition wall (so not handed) the driving cab is to the right. Which makes sense to me as the Airfix model has a moulded drop down seat on the opposite partition wall so the lever could not go on that side. Also note that I think the coach in the video is a later version, hence the sliding doors to the passenger areas as @Neal Ball drawing shows hinged doors. I have some spare signal levers which look similar, so now I finally have a use for them.

Here's a final shot of the front cab panelling with items attached, I say again its much easier to work on the detailing when you can remove it. In addition to the regulator, we now have the communication apparatus or bell system for the driver, guard and fireman to communicate via the GWR bell codes. The next step will be to glue the 3 front panels in place, however, I must first make a concealed route for the two wires from the front lamp as they will need to pass behind the centre panel and through the cab floor. After that the two door panels can be fitted and finally the rear partition panel. How it should look.

The Dart Castings kit includes the regulator handle as a white metal part but not some of the other gubbings that attach to the base of the handle. I looked at images of the real thing and have had a go at adding a bit more detail by way of the crank rod and a few other bits. It’s a bit pointless really, as most of the added detail will not be visible. However, its good modelling practice scratch building, especially the small stuff. This should get me ready for adding some of the more visible cab detail in the 14XX. GWR driver Stan Shorthouse has just returned from the paint shop and I stood him in the cab to see how he fitted in, he is still about ½mm too tall. That’s annoying, I will need to file his shoes down. I’m not entirely sure what Stans left outstretched arm is meant to operate, I’m guessing the vacuum brake handle? Its not really modelled correctly, if it was intended to operate the regulator. Some more progress images…, starting with the real thing; Normal operation of the regulator would be with both hands, so the ModelU driver must be destined for some other pose. Hello, my names Stan Shorthouse and I don't know what my left hand is meant to do (perhaps waving out of the window) I'm a teapot 😄 The regulator handle with my added extras

Everything required in the driving cab has now been test fitted and painted, apart from the regulator shown at the extreme left of the image below. Its much easier working in this tight space to have the panels removeable for painting and for fitting detailing parts to. Just waiting for paint to dry and then, hopefully, tomorrow it can all be glued in place. I'm also glad to report that GWR Driver Stan Shorthouse survived his surgery and has been stitched back together again. His line of sight is now just below the top window edge which looks about right to me.

A change of scenery, ‘60103 Flying Scotsman’ on one of its centenary excursions en-route to Cornwall after leaving Bristol Temple Meads this morning. Taken just outside Wellington at 10:22. Being in Wellington, I should have donned my wellies as it was a very muddy down that footpath, but only had to wait 15mins to film 20 secs of footage. I can only upload a still from the video footage. I did try converting MP4 to MP3 to upload but I didn't work.

Thanks Neal, smoking compartment it is then. Did any of the diagram drawings or photos show that there were doors to the smoking section or rather to the partitions either side of the passenger entrance?

I'm now committed to completing the cab interior before moving onto the luggage compartment and then it will be the passenger areas. Once I have the cab interior panelling done, I can then fit the cab controls which the kit included. At this stage I have loose fitted the front panelling and the partition with sliding door. The interior of the two side cab doors are also completed. It's all dry fitted for now to check for a good fit. Some further filing around the window apertures is still required, below are a few more progress images; The interior front panelling still slightly visible through the front windows, bit more filing required. Sliding door is visible and so is the drivers overcoat hanging up. The small drill holes visible by the left grab handle will be filled with minute globules of cream paint. Dry fitting the front cab panelling for size. A paper cutting template was used, whereby I could draw in the window positions onto the cladding profile sheet. Side view of the profile cladding across the cab front. The interior panel on the far cab door is just visible. A more in focus view of the internal door panel. View through the front window.

That sounds plausible too, would also make sense to have a door to that section to keep the smoke in. We'll wait until you get in front of your books for the definitive answer.

That sounds like a plausible explanation, would be likely there was a door to that section to keep the riff raff out. Does this mean I will now require more plusher upholstery paper for 1st class seating 🤔

I know what you mean!!! Nice to hear you got the rods done, its one milestone out of the way. Re. the partitions, so far I've seen sliding doors, no doors, glazed and unglazed and everything in-between. I'm a little confused on this myself as not sure what would have originally been installed or in use for mid to late thirties period. Doesn't help that the model has a narrow partition gap one side and a wider one on the other side. Unless, someone here can shed any light on this, I will make another decision and probably just leave open without doors. I do intend to model the levers in this area though, the ones that lower the steps.

My attempt at the internal lower door panels for the drivers cab. Paint used is Humbrol gloss 9 (Tan). The leather window straps are made from thin strips of masking tape with holes made with a needle. I may try and attempt to get the straps more narrower? The retaining button knob is 0.31 brass rod and the rain strip at the bottom of the door is half round plastrut, 30 thou I think. The handle are brass 'T' style coach handles.