The Bentall Coach (a private coach in the 1890s)

[David Waite]

Hi Richard
On a practical point of view the only problem I see with the toilet door opening outwards, is when l looked at the other plans and if the servants door is left open when someone was in the toilet when they try to exit the toilet the door handle on the toilet door would hook onto the edge of the servants door preventing them from getting out, not only that the toilet door would damage the servants door and visa versa at some point, could the servants door be sliding into a cavity along the toilet/servants dividing wall which would solve this problem.
David.

 

[Richard Gawler]

It seems, a similar discussion between client and coachbuilder took place at the time; and rummaging through the archive, I found this drawing and some notes:

View attachment 185063
. . .

This takes us back to post number 40

I am not a fan of sliding doors but the servants can have theirs, it is more practical in this application. This will be the only internal door with a window.



The towel rail is now below the wall lamp.

I am happy - the design has evolved usefully but the process has returned to where I had the idea to use the first/third composite coach. I can even open the kit, it still sealed up in case I had to sell it on.

 

[Richard Gawler]

These kits for dolls houses are a mixture of laser-cut card and MDF parts, plus a plaster casting for the toilet bowl and (unused) some beads and wire for the toilet plumbing.


I left the basin pedestal unpainted because I was thinking of a wall-hung basin, but I probably need the pedestal for strength. It will never be seen, even with the coach roof removed. The toilet has a lid which I can put raised to hide the lack of plumbing in the far corner.

The lavatory compartment will be better if I can take a millimetre or two from the guard's compartment - and this is with 1:48 not 1:43 fittings.

I am a bit doubtful about the pale cream colour on the ceramics, there is plenty of time to repaint them but white might look too good to be true. I am less doubtful about having ceramics instead of steel fittings, I think a private coach could have posher fittings than a public one.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I can even open the kit for the coach, it still sealed up in case I had to sell it on.

I'll be looking forward to it's build progress.


BTW - the other 1/48 dolls house furniture to look at is Jane Harrop Miniatures but is probably too modern.

 

[Richard Gawler]

BTW - the other 1/48 dolls house furniture to look at is Jane Harrop Miniatures but is probably too modern.

Yes, the styles are too plain. The octagonal table would work in a 1920s setting but even the church table will look utilitarian. The coach doesn't need much furniture, I can try to make the rest.

Edit:
The model toilet from the kit by Petite Properties is large, even by domestic standards let alone railway standards. The seat and bowl measure 9 mm wide, this scales up to 390 mm in 1:43.5 scale (this is 30 mm wider than a present-day domestic toilet) and a whopping 430 mm in the claimed 1:48 scale. This is fortuitous - maybe some of their other kits are useful for the larger scale too.

 

[Osgood]

Too late now, but some lovely drawings and novel layout ideas in this excellent new publication:

WRRC - Books

Just one example:

 

[Richard Gawler]

It is not too late at all. It shows how bijou these internal compartments were - about 500 mm width for the inward opening door and the same for the width of the pan. Moving around inside was just as bad as in the ones on a Pendolino. Pans located near the centre line of the coach allow discharge neatly between the rails.

 

[Richard Gawler]

The last item of dollshouse furniture for the private coach is a traditional desk from Petite Properties. This was out of stock for a while.


The slips of paper are to represent the drawer fronts, I missed these out.


I used CA glue to hold the parts together and reinforced the internal corners with PVA.


I could not face getting six drawer handles all lined up so I settled for four.

I now have all of the kits I can hope to find to help me to build this coach. It will be freelance but hopefully plausible; and being a six-wheeler it will be something completely new for me.