Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
Last night, I cleared the bench, tidied the tools, swept away the swarf and arranged things so I could dive into the next project.
I have received a commission, via JLTRT, to build three ex-GWR Colletts, a D94 Brake Third, a C54 Third and E127 Composite, to be finished in early BR "blood and custard" livery. Not being terribly familiar with things Swindon, I have borrowed some books and scoured the internet (not terribly successfully, I might add), and now feel fairly comfortable that I can construct the three coaches to a reasonable standard. Any queries I come across will have to be referred to the client, or I'll pipe up here. You have been warned.
The fit and finish has been agreed with the client. While the underframes and bogies will be finished in my patent mucky brown finish, the topsides will be in pristine satin finish for the client to weather as they wish. There will be basic compensation built into the bogies (oh my, no brakes again - must check with the client on that), the heating and braking hoses left "dangling", and there'll be real glass in the windows.
Mr Waterman's train set represents the railways he recalls from his youth, and I get the distinct impression these Collett coaches have been engineered to suit his requirements. I expect great things. So, having checked each box contained all the required components to build at least one coach, I set to. I've elected to build the D94 first, to get a feel for the way these kits go together.
I checked the sides and ends against the floor. There's about half a millimetre overhang of the sides against the ends. Careful checking of the photos doesn't show such a feature, so I guess there'll be a fit of sanding required to get a flush fit. That'll have to be done before painting commences, which will be done while the sides are in the flat.
As with most kits that have a varied internal structure, the roof is plain with no moulded holes for ventilators. There is a paper template to aid with drilling, matched to each prototype. The template also appears to show the transverse strips that covered the steel roof sheets. I need to check they are according to the drawings in the books, but I have marked the locations in pencil on the moulding.
Can you spot the deliberate mistake?
The ventilator holes are marked up over the brake end. They should be over the compartments. No problem, just rotate by 180 degrees - except the vents would be over the corridor. Assuming the marked holes should be the same side of the centreline, the template must be flipped.
(One photo reference seems to show ventilators all the way down the coach. Should I even go there?)
I pricked through each vent centre and taped the template to the roof.
Over to the pillar drill, I propped the roof up a little so the holes should let the vents sit on the curve of the roof properly. I drilled out each hole 2mm diameter.
In this shot you can see the pricked through centres on the right. I realise you could just prick through the centres onto the roof moulding, but I prefer to drill through the template (when it's printed the right way up, of course).
A neat row of holes. You can just make out pencil marks over the gutter. These mark the transverse strips over the roof joints. According to the references, it was a 2in wide strip, so I need 1.5mm wide Evergreen or Plastikard strip - or even cartridge paper! - to glue across. Of course, nothing supplied in the kit.
Contemplation moved to the interiors. For some reason that escapes me, the interior etches for the brake have had solid windows to the compartments for about a decade (the etch is dated 2004). No-one seems to have spotted this error, as I assume it to be an error. The reverse (compartment side) of the etch is half-etched away, so it looks like it should have gone right through like the other door and window etches on the fret. The other kits are etched through. Most odd. I will raise the question with Laurie when I see him at Reading.
It's been agreed that I will open these windows out. I think it'll be done with our little milling machine, with final finishing by file. I'll cover the mechanics of that when I come to it. Of course, the question arises, should the sliding doors to the luggage compartment also have clear windows?
I have to say, they don't look like they should be open. They will, therefore, remain solid.
I know the D94s were built in batches that included left- and right-handed brakes. This was done so the corridors could be marshalled the same side of the train all the way along, which is a nice, if somewhat OCD, touch. The coach I'm building is a south paw.
The underframe bits include brake cross members that allow for the vac cylinder to be mounted inside or outside. Obviously, the instructions mention this not, though the construction photos show an outside cylinder. The client has given me a running number (4758) which fits Lot 1353 of December 1925, but how the blinking flip am I supposed to work out where the vac cylinders were fitted? All the reference books I have can muster roughly four photos of D94s in service, and most are so small as to be fairly hopeless for such detail picking.
So, I can tell this build is going to be an adventure right from the start!
I have received a commission, via JLTRT, to build three ex-GWR Colletts, a D94 Brake Third, a C54 Third and E127 Composite, to be finished in early BR "blood and custard" livery. Not being terribly familiar with things Swindon, I have borrowed some books and scoured the internet (not terribly successfully, I might add), and now feel fairly comfortable that I can construct the three coaches to a reasonable standard. Any queries I come across will have to be referred to the client, or I'll pipe up here. You have been warned.
The fit and finish has been agreed with the client. While the underframes and bogies will be finished in my patent mucky brown finish, the topsides will be in pristine satin finish for the client to weather as they wish. There will be basic compensation built into the bogies (oh my, no brakes again - must check with the client on that), the heating and braking hoses left "dangling", and there'll be real glass in the windows.
Mr Waterman's train set represents the railways he recalls from his youth, and I get the distinct impression these Collett coaches have been engineered to suit his requirements. I expect great things. So, having checked each box contained all the required components to build at least one coach, I set to. I've elected to build the D94 first, to get a feel for the way these kits go together.
I checked the sides and ends against the floor. There's about half a millimetre overhang of the sides against the ends. Careful checking of the photos doesn't show such a feature, so I guess there'll be a fit of sanding required to get a flush fit. That'll have to be done before painting commences, which will be done while the sides are in the flat.
As with most kits that have a varied internal structure, the roof is plain with no moulded holes for ventilators. There is a paper template to aid with drilling, matched to each prototype. The template also appears to show the transverse strips that covered the steel roof sheets. I need to check they are according to the drawings in the books, but I have marked the locations in pencil on the moulding.
Can you spot the deliberate mistake?
The ventilator holes are marked up over the brake end. They should be over the compartments. No problem, just rotate by 180 degrees - except the vents would be over the corridor. Assuming the marked holes should be the same side of the centreline, the template must be flipped.
(One photo reference seems to show ventilators all the way down the coach. Should I even go there?)
I pricked through each vent centre and taped the template to the roof.
Over to the pillar drill, I propped the roof up a little so the holes should let the vents sit on the curve of the roof properly. I drilled out each hole 2mm diameter.
In this shot you can see the pricked through centres on the right. I realise you could just prick through the centres onto the roof moulding, but I prefer to drill through the template (when it's printed the right way up, of course).
A neat row of holes. You can just make out pencil marks over the gutter. These mark the transverse strips over the roof joints. According to the references, it was a 2in wide strip, so I need 1.5mm wide Evergreen or Plastikard strip - or even cartridge paper! - to glue across. Of course, nothing supplied in the kit.
Contemplation moved to the interiors. For some reason that escapes me, the interior etches for the brake have had solid windows to the compartments for about a decade (the etch is dated 2004). No-one seems to have spotted this error, as I assume it to be an error. The reverse (compartment side) of the etch is half-etched away, so it looks like it should have gone right through like the other door and window etches on the fret. The other kits are etched through. Most odd. I will raise the question with Laurie when I see him at Reading.
It's been agreed that I will open these windows out. I think it'll be done with our little milling machine, with final finishing by file. I'll cover the mechanics of that when I come to it. Of course, the question arises, should the sliding doors to the luggage compartment also have clear windows?
I have to say, they don't look like they should be open. They will, therefore, remain solid.
I know the D94s were built in batches that included left- and right-handed brakes. This was done so the corridors could be marshalled the same side of the train all the way along, which is a nice, if somewhat OCD, touch. The coach I'm building is a south paw.
The underframe bits include brake cross members that allow for the vac cylinder to be mounted inside or outside. Obviously, the instructions mention this not, though the construction photos show an outside cylinder. The client has given me a running number (4758) which fits Lot 1353 of December 1925, but how the blinking flip am I supposed to work out where the vac cylinders were fitted? All the reference books I have can muster roughly four photos of D94s in service, and most are so small as to be fairly hopeless for such detail picking.
So, I can tell this build is going to be an adventure right from the start!
.
