Claptowte Railway - Coach No 1

David1226 · 7 May 2018

This is the sixth passenger coach build for the Claptowte Railway but is actually Fleet Number 1. It is a well known conversion, executed by many G Scale modellers before me, joining two LGB Toytrain 4-wheel coaches back to back and mounting it on bogies. I would like to think that various embellishments have taken this conversion a few stages further than most.

The starting point is two LGB 4-wheel Toytrain coaches. These were purchased some years ago in anticipation of this construction.

David

David1226 · 7 May 2018

The next set of photos show the conversion of the underframes into one bogies mounted frame

A pair of un modified Toytrain frames

Close-up of an un-modified frame

The first stage is to saw off the dummy W irons and axel boxes

Next cut out the unwanted bits either side of the centreline, keep and clean up the tank for re-use later.

Now cut out the centre buffer, from the non-balcony end, and clean off any raised mouldings so that the two framed can be glued/bolted together at this end. On this coach I found that I did have to insert a plasticard shim to fill a small gap between the two ends, the frame length being determined by offering up the frame to the assembled coach body and lining up the mounting screw holes.

I keep the salvaged buffers and vacuum pipes to use when modifying my LGB US outline coaches.

David

David1226 · 7 May 2018

The next stage is to construct the mounting points for the bogies. This was done using plasticard sheet of appropriate thickness to form a mounting plate and bearing surfaces. The pivot is a short length of plastic tube.

The bogies are fixed using a washer and self taping screw. I am using LGB US Passenger Trucks for the bogies. They are fitted with Al Kramer nickel plated solid turned brass wheels, which are the standard wheel across all Claptowte Railway stock.

The salvaged tank can then be cemented into the centre of the newly formed bogie frame.

David

David1226 · 7 May 2018

The roof was formed using the two original roofs. A few millimetres had to be trimmed off the length at the ‘joint’ end to get the fit/length right. When glued together the join was covered with s strip of thin plasticard between the roof ribs. The roof was dressed up with Garden railway Specialists (GRS) lamp tops and vents. Conduit was made up from brass wire and plastic rod.

Each end of the joined 4-wheelers has a window. The body below each window was cut out to form one open plan body. When the bodies are joined, there was a slight gap between the two bodies which was lined with thin plasticard to cover it up. Before the two bodies were joined back to back, shims of plasticard of appropriate thickness, were glued to each end to present a flush surface when they were brought together. There are mouldings on the corners of the 4-wheel coaches which when brought together form a rib down the centre of the new coach. I carved off this rib and re-scribed the planking in order to give the coach a flush side.

The windows were framed using 2x1mm plastic strip to give the coach a more Anglicised appearance. The balcony railings were modified with an infill of wire mesh, actually expanded aluminium mesh as used for car body repairs. A GRS etched brass lamp iron is mounted on a plastic strip stanchion. The bolt heads are dressmaking pin heads.

Thin platicard boards were glued to the sides of the coach to take the various sign writing decals

David

David1226 · 7 May 2018

Moving on to the interior, I disliked the height of the seat backrests, they were too high for my taste. To remedy this I made two saw cuts through the backs to cut out the board section, then re-glued the upholstered sections to make a seat of reduced height.