Coach No.3 - A new look for the WVLR

Whilst I am pleased with the result of my own design of carriages, I do feel that variety is not to be frowned upon, and concluded the best thing to do this was to scratchbuild a carriage in the style of those used in Cyprus. This provides interest and a more than suitable matching look with the locomotives.

 

The sides taking shape 29.03.2014



The boundaries were set by the materials I already have and since I had no drawings, I had to use photo evidence and descriptions to create a pencil drawn profile. The basic principals as used on the others remain the same; an open plastic box with a roof on an open plastic box with seats.



The interior box needs to be made before the sides
are finished to avoid warping 06.04.2014

Construction began with the sides, made from a sheet of clear plastic, taped over my drawing and built up using plastic strips (and a wooden patterned sheet to represent the matchboard sides). 

I completed and painted one side separately to both test the design and leave a subtle difference in the paint finish to represent the fading effect of natural sunlight. Then it was on to the ends and chassis before assembly and a flat roof. I decided to experiment with an aluminium can for the roof, with miliput to represent the domes. The main variation in the construction is that the balconies are fixed to the chassis, not the body, for reasons that should be obvious with this design!



The chassis is a Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol one, cut in half and lengthened. This gives an affordable, sturdy chassis with the compromise of unrealistically small bogies and straight, not fishbelly, solebars.

 

The Scrumpy Jack can was acquired empty... 29.04.2014

I have just given the roof a coat of primer and following the addition of a piece of lead for weight, will make the coach passable for service (paint, couplings and balconies). This means leaving the interior details behind, but since making seats is so tedious and can fit in with my busy schedule quite well, I won’t worry about it.

 

With Sunblinds attached the colonial background really comes through!





Introduction

Hello,

I am Matt, a 23 year old railway nerd that has stumbled into 009 modelling. Being young and busy I have limited time to work on my projects but through this blog shall motivate myself to spend time each week doing something WVLR related. However, since I am currently minus any of the railway itself you will notice the photos are taken on a desk-based test track in front of some other projects I have. These may interest people too so I hope to have a regular feature showcasing one of these, or perhaps a previous project (I have plenty of HBLR bits and pieces to display).

I will aim to credit all techniques I have clearly copied and all manufacturers without whom things would be different indeed! If you feel I have missed someone, just let me know.

I want to make it perfectly clear that this is a long term project and may not be finished before I'm grey or bald (though that is well underway already...)!

Challenge 1: A feature on my latest carriage (No.3) before the end of April.