Claptowte Railway – Passenger Coach No 18 Third Class

David1226 · 1 Aug 2022

Part 1 of 3

This coach is anticipated to be the last passenger coach to be built for the Claptowte Railway as there are no plans for any future builds of passenger stock. This build is one that I have wanted to try for some time, but it needed a reorganisation of the rakes of coaching stock before I could justify it. Apart from being a different design, to further enhance the mix and match appearance of the narrow gauge coaching stock, it has the merit of freeing up Coach No14, the four wheel Director’s Coach, to enable it to be added to any of the rakes of passenger coaches on an ad hoc basis, as was originally intended, or, if required, to be run on its own as a one coach train.

Previous coach conversions, if not based on LGB bogie passenger coaches, have been constructed using pairs of 4-wheel vehicles, from the LGB Toytrain range, joined together in different ways, and mounted on bogies.

For this conversion I am using a pair of LGB 4-wheel starter set coaches. The coaches were acquired separately from eBay, both being old versions, one in particular being very old.

The first step is to dismantle the coaches into their component parts. More recent offerings by LGB are held together with clips and screws and the dismantling is relatively easy and straight forward. Being older models, some of the parts, in particular the window frames and glazing material, are glued into place making dismantling virtually impossible without causing a certain amount of damage. In removing the glazing material, some damage was done to the surrounding plastic but fortunately without damage to the actual window-pains, so they were good to use again. The window frames were more of a problem, in order to re-use the mouldings some surgery had to be undertaken to remove damaged areas and graft repairs using plasticard. Once the repaired mouldings were spray primed with plastic primer, prior to painting, the repairs were un-noticeable.

The first stage of actual modifications concerns the coach bodies. There are raised mouldings on each side, two number ‘2’ and ‘LGB’.

I wanted to remove these raised areas and there was no alternative other than slowly and very carefully carving away at them with a scalpel, followed by a final sanding down with fine wet or dry paper.

Because I wanted to join the two bodies together to form a single open compartment, the next step was to remove an end wall from each compartment. The mouldings at each end are different, one having moulded pipework, the other being plain. As I wanted both ends of the finished coach body to be plain, I had to saw off the moulded ends with the pipework.

The result of this work was that I ended up with two halves of the new coach body.

Before the two halves could be joined, the new under-frame had to be created from the two 4-wheel under-frames.

The two tanks that hang below the centre of the under-frame simply unclip, so their removal is straightforward. The moulded ‘W’ irons incorporating the axel boxes and leaf springs are then sawn off and the cuts cleaned up with a file and wet or dry paper.

The modified ‘Half body can then be replaced on its under-frame so that the position of the saw line can be determined, flush with the sawn end of the body, and the unwanted balcony end can be removed from the under-frame.

The two halves of the new under-frame can now be glued together. I glued strips of brass along each of the longitudinal members to strengthen the joints.

On the underside of the under-frame, I glued a piece of plasticard across the centre. As well as further reinforcing the join, it gave a surface onto which I could glue two of the tanks, dismantled from the original model, having first cut off the locating tabs. I then created the mounting plates for the bogies, using plasticard and a plastic tube of the appropriate diameter for pivots.

David

David1226 · 1 Aug 2022

Part 2 of 3

Next, I glued together the two halves of the new coach body.

I glued plastic strips, of identical dimensions to the outside framing, down each side, to cover the join line between the two halves. I glued a plasticard plate across the underside of the floor to reinforce the join. I made the plate of an appropriate size and thickness such that it did not interfere with the body sitting properly onto the modified under-frame.

I then placed one of the roof sections, minus its clerestory, in position on the coach body, so that, as with the under-frame, I could determine and mark the position of the of the saw line, to create one half of the new roof. I then repeated this with the second roof. I glued the two halves of the roof together and reinforced the underside of the join by gluing a previously curved plasticard plate across the join. I glued plastic strips, shaped to match the roof ribs, either side of where the clerestory sits, to cover the join between the two roof halves.

I placed each of the clerestories onto their original roof sections, in turn, to mark where they needed to be sawn through to create a single clerestory. When this was done, I glued the two halves together. There was no scope for reinforcing this join, due to the internal glazing units. This was not an issue as, on final assembly, the completed clerestory was securely screwed to the roof using the original fixing holes. I used a bit of filler, which was then sanded down, to hide the join in the clerestory roofs. I drilled four holes, at appropriate spacing, in the top of the clerestory, into which I could then glue four Garden Railway Specialists (GRS) gas lamp tops.

The completed modified roof

Anyone who has read any of my previous conversions will be aware that I am not a fan of moulded pipework. The balcony end walls are a prime example.

I set about these with scalpel and wet of dry paper, to remove the unwanted mouldings. I then added a GRS etched brass lamp iron, with dressmaking pin bolt heads, to each one.

I wanted to add a pair of Toytrain brake pipes, salvaged from a previous conversion, to the buffer beams. On the older of the two donor under-frames, the buffer beam was plain, so it was just a case of drilling a pair of mounting holes for the brake pipe to plug into. The newer under-frame was obviously also intended to be used on models other than the starter coach, as there were already a pair of correctly sized holes in the buffer beam. However, on the starter coach, the holes were masked by the balcony connecting gate and floor plate. I had to glue a thin piece of plasticard over the existing holes and drill two new ones.

The modified under-frame was then fitted with its bogies. I used LGB Jackson Sharpe bogies, fitted with Al Kramer bright nickel plated solid turned brass wheels, which I imported from the US, and which are standard on all Claptowte Railway rolling stock. These wheels are really heavy and give an excellent low centre of gravity to the models. The bogies were secured to their tube pivots with a screw through a washer made from a plasticard off-cut.

The completed under-frame, balconies and running gear.