For the past week I have been cutting parts from the etch sheet and removing cusps... plus drilling holes for casting spigots. At the last count over 100 of 0.45mm holes in the two sides alone.
So what is the mystery carriage? Actually a bit of mystery in respect of the records, here is a photo to illustrate the prototype:-
The photo above was taken at Swindon and is credited to Roye England by Jim Russell, the copyright is probably with Pendon Museum. I make no claim as to either ownership or copyright, I have included the photo here under "Fair Use".
Here are a couple of photos of the etch sides as removed from the etch sheet and after fitting the door catch / plates plus drilling the holes for castings.
In the photo below the top side has been reversed so that one can see how the corridor arrangement matches to the compartment side.
So what is this coach and what is the mystery?
The prototype photo shows the corridor side of a GWR Toplight Double Slip carriage and that is replicated in the model parts... four third class and two first class compartments separated by a toilet compartment. "Double slip" means that there is a Guard's compartment with "slip gear" at each end of the carriage. For convenience, let us refer to this carriage as Diagram F16 - just that Harris ("Great Western Coaches") makes no reference to diagram F16 and there are no such carriages in his lot list. Russell ("Great Western Coaches", four different volumes published by OPC) confuses the issue by including a drawing of the body arrangement under the reference Diagram F15 (which is included in the Harris Lot List). Operationally, there is no difference between F15 and F16 because the body difference is in the arrangement of the compartments and corridors.
Suffice to say, John Lewis (HMRS Steward for GWR Carriage Stock) has sorted the matter and he has advised that Diagram F15 and Diagram F16 were built on the same Lot - advice from John is freely given and is a real benefit of membership of the Historical Model Railway Society.
People often start a build of loco or carriage with photos of the contents of the box... such is not possible with this build as the model is a CPL kit and there are omissions (deliberate) in the kit as purchased, the "kit" is a single etch sheet to cover sides, ends, corridor screens and partitions plus bolections, droplights, door hinges and catch plates. The builder is left to source a roof, a floor and all castings. Thankfully there are a good number of appropriate castings in the CPL catalogue and photos of those items shall be included as the build progresses. Where I have no idea as to source at the moment is a rolled brass roof... vacuum brake cylinders... vacuum brake reservoirs... gas reservoirs... and what ever else I have yet to identify as needed. If WTers are interested I can create a list of what is required beyond the etch sheet from CPL.
Following on from advice from Heather (
@Heather Kay) and Robin (
@Rob Pulham), I am detailing the sides with overlays that are included in the CPL kit... so door catch plates, door bump stops. At some point I shall have to form the turnunder (advice received from Rob) and fold the angles at the top and bottom of the sides. Here is another request for advice... the half-etch slots along the top and bottom of the side are rather wide... something like 2mm in width for brass sheet which is 15thou thick, see photo below:-
Given the width of the slot, where would you place the edge of the bending bar?
And finally, the CPL etch underframe is limited to headstocks, solebars, some transoms and truss bars. Given that a GWR slip coach has a considerable amount of hardware hung from the underframe then I shall be trying to build something closer to the prototype. One of our midst, Barry of Metalsmith (
@lankytank), has been very helpful in sorting milled brass section which are appropriate to the sections used by the GWR - even to providing the material in a postal tube for collection at the recent Reading Trade Show.
regards, Graham