Claptowte Railway – Coach No 11 1st/3rd

David1226 · 15 Aug 2019

Coach number 11 is the twelfth and final bogie passenger coach planned for the Claptowte Railway. This 1st/3rd class coach is the twin of number 10, which coincidently, was the first coach I constructed for the line. The original number 10 was converted from a well used LGB ‘Barmer’ coach, purchased from Ebay, which had already been chopped about by a previous owner, the buffers had been cut off and US pattern buckeye couplers fitted. Before I started my own conversion I had to refurbish the coach to get it back to approaching original condition. Coach number 11 has been modified from a green DR coach based on the same mouldings. This coach was also purchased from Ebay, this time being brand new. I noticed when working on it that it had a Marklin sticker on it, so this is probably my newest coach, while number 10 is the oldest.

Here is a link to the conversion of coach number 10 Claptowte Railway - Passenger Coach No 10 - G Scale Central

The DR donor coach based on old Barmer coach mouldings

David

David1226 · 15 Aug 2019

The aim of all of my conversions has been to alter the appearance of the original to make it different from similar ‘out of the box’ models, but primarily to ‘Anglicise’ them. I have never been a fan of moulded pipe work on models. One of the first tasks was to carve off the moulded pipe work and fittings on the coach ends to achieve both of the above aims. This was far from easy as the plastic on the coach body was very hard.

The balcony ends were similarly treated, with the brake stand moulding carved off. The balcony doors were removed and the gaps filled in with plastic offcuts. The moulded handrails were cut out and the filled sides drilled to take new brass wire handrails. GRS etched brass lamp irons were fitted to the balcony ends,

The biggest alteration to the coaches appearance was created by removing the narrow planked panels’ between the pairs of windows. The enlarged appatures were then lined out using 1.5 x 2.0mm plastic strip.

GRS lamp tops and roof vents were added to the roof. For some reason the roof sports two chimneys, which is strange as there are no stoves in the coach interior, the chimneys were therefore removed and the holes filled in. Plasticard table tops with cocktail legs were added to the First Class compartment. The bogies were re-wheeled with nickel plated turned brass wheels from Al Kramer in the US. These wheels add tremendous weight low down to give smooth running and low centre of gravity.