LarryG's loco & coach WB (4mm/00)

LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
A good pal of mine wanted a GWR Dining Car. A bit of research unearthed Comet etched sides from Wizard Models. The H33 looked a good option so I also bought two Hornby bow-end corridor coaches. One as a donor for chassis, ends and roof and the other is for my layout. The deciding factor were the GWR 7' bogies. Had I built the whole coach in metal, I would have had to fit whitemetal bogies (too heavy)...

WEB GWR H33 Diner 1.jpg

As usual, the sides were slotted to take my standard lower door hinges. The sides were also shortened a tad to fit the Hornby roof & ends. Then a stip of brass was soldered edge-on inside the coach side at the very top. It acts as a strenthener and provide a larger surface area for glue...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 2.jpg WEB GWR H33 Diner 3.jpg

The sides were cut away and the roof drilled to take new shell vents (after the Hornby ones had been cut off and the roof filed smooth)...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 4.jpg


Construction has reached the stage where it's all gluing from now on...WEB GWR H33 Diner 5.jpg

To be continued...
 
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LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
The full length foot boards were mostly removed leaving three per side under the doors...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 7.jpg
The sides were sprayed, lined out, lettered and satin varnished. Glazing will be fitted and they will eventually be attached to the roof and ends when the shell vents arrive that I've been waiting for fer two weeks...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 8 jpg.jpg
 
LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Normally I would be showing a finished vehicle, but roof vents still havent arrived. In fact, I've ordered more from another source this morning. Glad things werent like this when my wages depended on it! So all I've done is fit door & grab handles and glazing. In order to give the impression of corridor handrails showing through frosted glass, they were lined on in white cellulose, then the glazing was painted with grey acrylic...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 9 jpg..jpg

Although these coaches were built in the 1920's high waist era, they had a lower waist than the low-waist coaches of the mid 1930's. Replacement windows with sliding vents were fitted around 1939. Only four were built, yet they are well known to modellers because they were produced rtr years ago. BSL did the original version in aluminium.
 
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LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Seagull poo, megga monchetta and all that.....I just opened a drawer and all these little things were waving to me....."Look, shell vents".

WEB Shell vent mecca..jpg
They've been there for years!
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
I'd have to get the finer ones from MJT if I could build like you. Still got it Larry! Class will always out...

Mike
 
LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Gas cylinders were added longnitudely along with a third battery box...
WEB GWR H33 Diner 10 jpg..jpg

Despite looking like an easy proposition using a rtr Hornby donor, this diner was even more time consuming than building an all-brass coach. It looks the part I think, and I'm sure many modellers would welcome a H33 in the Hornby catalogue
WEB GWR H33 11D.jpg
WEB GWR H33 11E.jpg
WEB GWR H33 11B.jpg
 
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LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Having built a few coaches, my thoughts turned this morning to fitting Kadee couplings just to the brake end vehicles. I had decided to use Kadee's on the locos when planning the layout because the couplings on the ready-to-run 16xx Pannier Tank stick out a mile and would have to be replaced with the very shortest Kadee's. Tension-lock couplings will remain in use as intermediete couplings on passenger train rakes.

I had by me some scrap Hornby Hawksworth coaches and had already put the bogies and interiors to good use. They were also a source of swivelling NEM sockets so I fitted one to a brass coach this morning. A strip of brass was soldered behind the buffer plank to prevent the socket arm from drooping, then a second strip was soldered close to the bolster to keep it in place. 10BA nuts were used as spacers for this strip and then removed afterwards. Finally, a hook was soldered in a hole for the spring...

WEB Kadee 1.jpg

A Hornby Pressed Steel bogie off a Hawksworth coach fitted without any problems. The Kadee is a 17-1 short coupling. I will know which length to fit once a loop is laid at one end of the layout...
WEB Kadee 2.jpg

Ready for action. While the inner couplings will remain tension-lock, all the wagons and locos will have Kadees both ends...
WEB Kadee 3.jpg
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Larry

Have you used this method of joining coaches before before? How close is the coupling? And lastly will the gangways partially hide the coupling? If it does, then you may have solved a problem I've had for years. I've been planning an M set, all the coaches for it are already in my stache. I usually use the Brassmasters type - the cast type, but sometimes I'm sure they catch and throw the coach off line.
The restaurant cars are a fantastic build, I did the H38 a number of years ago.

Mike
 
LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
I used Kadees on previous layouts. I have a box full of size 18's so they must have been the most usefull in the past. Tension-Locks between coaches will stop rakes accidently uncoupling.

There are three more GWR coaches to build (four if I can find a Hawksworth non-corridor all-third). Then a start can be made on some LMS coaches for excursion traffic from Manchester and elsewhere.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
My pal, John, uses TLs, as do a couple of guys on RMW, within the rake. It’s a logical approach, I guess. The beauty of the Kadees is that you can easily uncouple by lifting one vehicle, whereas TLs are somewhat more fiddly to uncouple.
 
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