While on our trip on the Swanage Railway - thoroughly recommended if you're ever down that neck of the woods, by the way - I made it my mission to get detail photos of some of the Mk1 coaches the line runs. Particular attention was paid to gangways, as well as interior fittings.
BR Mk1 details by
Snaptophobic, on Flickr
Having assessed where I'd got to before the trip, I was pleased to note I had got further than I thought. I trimmed out the flexible material, scored it carefully with the back of a scalpel blade, and folded it so it could be trapped in a brass etch sandwich. Just like the real thing, only without the working bolts.
A smear of Evo-Stik on the brass gangway frame, and some careful poking with a pair of tweezers, and the material was in place. Having done both sides of both ends, I let things mull for a while as my brain tried to work out how to do the same fixing routine on the outer plate of the gangway.
Today, I made a decision to break the back of the gangway construction, if not actually complete it. The outer plates are made of various parts, and needed only a little attention with the RSU to get to a point where I could begin to work out how to put it all together.
You probably don't need reminding that the kit's designer has tried to be as faithful to the prototype as possible within the limits of the materials at hand. While it can be fiddly, and sometimes frustrating, the results are worth the effort. The thing is, sometimes you have to be pragmatic about things. Let me explain…
You may recall earlier I fitted the gangway support spring doodads to the buffer beams. These cast rams are supposed to attach to the gangway outer plate assembly, and slide into the spring supports. Just like the prototype. Incidentally, castings have to be trimmed so they clear the body fixing bolts, and I worked out a length of 11mm is sufficient. Now, I don't plan on attaching the frames to the body until the main painting has been completed. This means the gangway outer plates have to be left loose, because once they're attached, you can't really take the body off again. I could leave the lower spring rams out completely - I'd wager almost no-one would even notice. What I've decided to do is glue them into the buffer beam parts, and not attach them to the end plates. That way, the end plates can be fixed to the gangways proper, leaving the body free to be removed.
Anyway, after some soldering, and some gluing, here's where we are. The outer plate here is not attached at the moment, but I've posed it to show how it all looks. Very effective, I have to say.
.
