Dog Star
Western Thunderer
This topic was requested earlier this week, in another thread, and I shall start by giving some of the background... and a few of the constraints which apply to the construction. Peter has a liking of big diesels and decided that a Cl.37 is just the ticket and after browsing the internet he settled on some photos which showed 37 408 working services between Glasgow and Oban / Fort William. After a while the question of carriages came to the fore... what, when, where?
Our wish is to produce a realistic representation of Mk.1 carriages in service on the West Coast of Scotland, circa 1986, and in a formation which might have been hauled by a Class 37/4. The initial step was to search for photos of trains on the Oban and Fort William lines in the period 1985-1990, that search was to lead us to the gallery of Bob Lumley and a superb photo of 37 408 (ticking all the boxes:- location, era, service). Bob's photos gave us a starting point for Mk.1 carriage types although individual carriages were not identifiable. A chance discussion with Richard Carr pointed us in the direction of the Platform 5 publication "Loco-hauled carriages... 1985" and a copy was purchased via Ebay.
The choice of which supplier was driven by price and by articles on building relevant kits. Whilst Peter and I have high regard for JLTRT kits we were concerned by Heather's series in the S7 Group Newsletter - good kits let down by mis-match between components. At the time when we choosing the kits neither Peter nor I felt that we could do justice to MMP products and so that left EZ as the preferred choice. We read whatever we could find on the the internet about EZ kits, we looked at the models on the EZ exhibition stand, we spoke to Laurie Lynch about the provision of JLTRT castings, and then other WTers mentioned the EZ price offer for kits bought at Telford. Decision made and money spent - five Mk.1 kits travelled home with us.
The bodies of the carriages are to be done by Peter whilst my part is the research, the underframes and anything which represents a detour there and back again.
And so to the start of the research...
Our wish is to produce a realistic representation of Mk.1 carriages in service on the West Coast of Scotland, circa 1986, and in a formation which might have been hauled by a Class 37/4. The initial step was to search for photos of trains on the Oban and Fort William lines in the period 1985-1990, that search was to lead us to the gallery of Bob Lumley and a superb photo of 37 408 (ticking all the boxes:- location, era, service). Bob's photos gave us a starting point for Mk.1 carriage types although individual carriages were not identifiable. A chance discussion with Richard Carr pointed us in the direction of the Platform 5 publication "Loco-hauled carriages... 1985" and a copy was purchased via Ebay.
The choice of which supplier was driven by price and by articles on building relevant kits. Whilst Peter and I have high regard for JLTRT kits we were concerned by Heather's series in the S7 Group Newsletter - good kits let down by mis-match between components. At the time when we choosing the kits neither Peter nor I felt that we could do justice to MMP products and so that left EZ as the preferred choice. We read whatever we could find on the the internet about EZ kits, we looked at the models on the EZ exhibition stand, we spoke to Laurie Lynch about the provision of JLTRT castings, and then other WTers mentioned the EZ price offer for kits bought at Telford. Decision made and money spent - five Mk.1 kits travelled home with us.
The bodies of the carriages are to be done by Peter whilst my part is the research, the underframes and anything which represents a detour there and back again.
And so to the start of the research...