Sparmac Gresley Coaches

[Heather Kay]

Some time ago, one of the WT members was clearing his storage and came across three partly-built Sparmac coaches. Not having any use for them, he posted them for sale, and I couldn't resist. Another member said he'd like to buy them when I'd finished them, so they arrived in my lengthy build queue.

For those that don't know, Sparmac kits were early resin kits, very similar to the later JLTRT stuff. The models I bought were pretty much assembled. They just needed to be completed, painted and away they could go. Early on I decided to treat the models to decent underpinnings, and attempted to acquire a set of Kemilway etched bogie kits. The build thread has the tale of woe, so let's just say we live in hope of the final 8ft heavyweight bogie appearing one day. Until then, the full brake has been equipped with rather untidy MM1 (ex-JLTRT) cast whitemetal jobs.

The full build thread is on this link.

So, to the gallery shots.







Diagram 113 Full Brake, E70163, built Doncaster 1929, withdrawn June 1965. One end has been given detailing on the headstock, with dropped knuckle coupler and the buffers extended with the collars fitted. Like the other coaches, I decided to fit modified Slater's SR Pullman gangways rather than use the rather ropey rubber efforts that came in the kits.







Diagram 114 Brake Third Corridor, E16248, built Birmingham 1930, withdrawn March 1962. Aside from bogies and gangways, the kits were pretty complete. I added some internal detail to the full brake and brake third guard's compartments. It is quite surprising how much can be seen peering through the windows. Coupling between coaches is by Kadee knuckle couplers, with only the outer end of the full brake being detailed in any way.





Diagram 115 All Third Corridor, E12264, built York 1929, withdrawn January 1962. With the help of @Mike Trice I modified roof details, worked out the toilet filler pipes and passenger communication pipework, and sourced clear images of the seat moquette so I could recreate it more or less at scale.

Getting the lining to run neatly along the beading proved a trial. The end result is far from perfect, but there came a point where I was going round in circles and had to stop! The finished coaches are imposing models and do look rather smart in their clean BR maroon livery. I haven't weathered above solebar level, knowing the client may prefer to weather to his own tastes.

Thanks, as ever, to everyone that followed the build process, and helped with research and information.

 

[john lewsey]

Stunning Heather............ Just stunning

 

[LarryG]

Getting the lining to run neatly along the beading proved a trial. The end result is far from perfect, but there came a point where I was going round in circles and had to stop! The finished coaches are imposing models and do look rather smart in their clean BR maroon livery.

From what I can see of the lining, it looks fine even if the getting there was a nuisance. I used to put the black on first which doesn't have to be tidy. Then applied the yellow lining as close to the top and bottom of the raised beading as possible by turning the coach upside down. In other words, the ruler was always resting on the waist beading.

 

[Heather Kay]

Thanks Larry. That technique was more or less what I did, but I found getting the pen to hop over the beading at the panel ends a chore. More practice needed!

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Superb models Heather.

Col.

 

[Bill Bedford]

You asked in the other thread about the history of Sparmac. As I understand it went something like this:

It was started in the early 90s by Bert Collington, who developed a system of resin reaction injection into, I believe, aluminium moulds to produce the parts for a range of Gresley coaches. In 1998 Bert did a deal with Pete Waterman and they are described in MRJ as joint-proprietors. Within the next couple of years, the pair had a disagreement and Bert left leaving PW with the workshop and the production machinery.
I'm not sure what happened to the original Sparmac moulds and IP but all subsequent JLTRT production of coaches, and possibly diesels, used the same reaction moulding technique that Sparmac had developed.

 

[hotblack]

All the Sparmac moulds, masters and IP are now in the hands of Chris Smith of Invertrain, and he currently produces some of the detail parts and bogies. To date he has not done any full kits.

There's a common misconception that PW bought Sparmac; what he actually got was Bert, and AFIK the Sparmac name and property remained in the hands of Bert's brother. All JLTRT Gresley coaches were produced from scratch with new design masters.

I spent a very pleasant afternoon with Chris helping him sort through boxes of various parts when he acquired Sparmac.

 

[Heather Kay]

I spent a very pleasant afternoon with Chris helping him sort through boxes of various parts when he acquired Sparmac.

Thanks for this information, Donald. It would be nice if the full kits could be reintroduced one day, but I can understand why that may not happen.

 

[michael mott]

Very Nicely done Heather.

michael

 

[warren haywood]

A little late to the discussion, but I do it the other way round, two parallel yellow first then the black.
Regarding the yellow, i find signal yellow or whatever it’s called is a little stark straight from the tin. I add a little red which gives at a warmer feel. Looks a bit like rich duck egg yolk