- ex-Cambrian Railways 4-wheel Composite -
and an ex-Cambrian 4-wheel All Third
An alternative quick build to the usual Ratio 4-wheel GWR Composite
With various manufacturers now producing four and six-wheel coaches in a bewildering array of liveries and styles, vintage and non-bogie passenger trains are now easy to model, even in pre-Grouping schemes. However, pretty though those new coaches undeniably are, for me they all have one overwhelming disadvantage: they are generic, and whilst the GWR versions in particular look genuine, they are not.
If something closer to the prototype is required, then building one is the only answer. The ubiquitous Ratio 4-wheelers have filled this gap for decades and can be made up into acceptable models. Their age is beginning to show though and they have suffered from heavily flashed mouldings for some time, which can make their parts difficult to separate from their sprues without damage. Older scrap or broken Ratio 4-wheelers provide a ready source of donor parts for alternative builds however and it is from these that the current quick build has been constructed.
But before describing the build, some history of the prototype. This particular coach ran on the Tanat Valley Light Valley and is a 25'6" four compartment Composite. It was probably built late 1880s at Oswestry and was unlikely to have lasted more than a year or two in GWR colours after 1923 [if, indeed, the GWR even bothered to waste paint on it]. I'll stretch the condemned date somewhat though as it will be liveried - as are all of my others - in the 1927-34 scheme. The model is not a perfect copy, being 6mm overlength amongst other things. But it captures the outline of the original quite well and is very different from usual Ratio short Composites.
The donor parts for the sides came from a Ratio Midland Suburban First bogie coach. Comparing the sides with a drawing in Lloyd’s ‘The Tant Valley Light Railway’, the similarity in design was obvious. The photo below shows one of the donor sides and, below it, the cut-and-shut side for the new coach. Apart from careful cutting, the only adaptation made to the Midland sides was the removal of their characteristic grab irons adjacent to their doors. This will be reinstated later with more-typical etched brass ones. The obvious joint will disappear later under paint.
And both new sides below in primer and ready for painting. Whilst this may look like a Ratio 4-wheel Composite - and if so, why bother? - the difference is already evident through the fact that the body of the Cambrian coach is shorter and the windows are of a slightly different size and shape.
The next photo shows the sides in their final livery and the roof shortened [by 2mm at each end] and fitted with white-metal lamp pots [the original mouldings having been sanded away]. The over-shiny appearance of the lowr sides will be managed by an application of satin varnish in due course. The interior of the coach sides have been painted matt walnut.
The chassis, which was reduced by 1.5mm at each end, was constructed from the remains of a number of scrap Ratio 4-wheelers and plastic card, fitted with Monsell wheels running in brass bearings and sprayed black. The photos below show the finished product alongside its construction. I had no intact lower footboard mouldings amongst the scrap parts and constructed them out of an Evergreen moulding. I also extended the truss rods beyond the axle boxes upwards into the buffer beam as per the prototype [this can just be seen]. The chassis is extremely free-running.
I turned next to the ends. As the ends of the Ratio 4-wheelers were very similar in outline to those of the Cambrian coach, I used them in place of the Midland ends. This also ensured that the arc of the roof would fit perfectly. One of the characteristic features of the Cambrian coach is the semi-circular handrail fitted to the end above the steps. I decided to model this and had to carefully pare away the different Ratio moulded handrails the next photos show a before and after. The new handrail is a little overscale but it will look far better under black paint and the scratch marks will disappear then also.
With the coach ends painted and buffers, vacuum pipes and coupling hooks added, the coach sides were glazed and the whole then glued together. The inner sides of the ends were painted in matt walnut to match the sides.
Once strong enough to handle, the coach body was glued onto the chassis and set aside while partitions [card] and seats [Ratio coach seats] were cut and painted. These were then fitted inside the coach and held in place with expoxy glue. The roof, having been given two coats of matt black, was then glued in place.
The final tasks involved detailing the finished build: lettering and badging [Railtec waterslide transfers were used for this], picking out the door handles in brass and adding etched brass grab rails, painting the buffer shanks, coupling hooks and vacuum pipes, fitting small etched brass handrails to the roof above the steps and, finally, fitting some Bachmann couplings to each end.
This was a relatively straightforward cut-and-shut and one which adds a little variety to my growing rake of ex-Cambrian coaches.
The short All Third built to accompany this coach used the same donor materials and was built in, broadly, the same way. The only change involved removing surplus material from the centre of the mouldings and around 17mm was taken from the middle of the floor, the roof and the two solebar/axle-box/tie-bar mouldings. The roof and floor was pretty straight forward although care had to be taken to ensure that the rain strips matched up when the two roof halves were joined together. Cutting the solebar moulding was difficult however as the tie-rods are incredibly fragile and rejoining them was a challenge. The photo alongside shows how much was removed from the roof. The original lamp pots were cut away and white-metal replacements fitted in their place.
Apart from the comment above, the second build was quite straightforward and the finished model can be seen below.
