This is probably the first passenger coach that I ever bought many years ago. It’s a brown version of the LGB ‘Barmer’ bogie coach that has appeared in many guises and liveries over the years. I bought this example second hand off Ebay. It had been modified by its previous owner by cutting off the centre buffer, moulded as part of the buffer beam, and replacing the hook and loop couplings with buckeyes. I retro fitted the hook and loop couplings and made replacement buffer bodies, using laminates of plasticard, filed to shape, with new LGB buffer heads fitted. This brought the model back to basic spec before I started my own modifications. I have had this coach for so long that the only photographs of it in its original state, as purchased, are 35mm colour negatives.
As I said, I have had this coach for many years, most of that time spent in pieces, while I experimented and prevaricated over how I was going to alter its appearance in order to Anglicise it. In the end the project went on the back burner while I concentrated on the line’s freight stock. Now that I have made a concerted effort to crack on with the passenger stock, it is time to wipe off the considerable accumulation of dust and get on with it.
Starting with the roof, I experimented with various layouts, with and without the clerestory. In the end I decided to keep the clerestory roof and add lamp tops and roof vents by GRS. The roof has two chimneys but as the interior does not have, and no room to fit, stoves, they were removed and the holes were filled in.
I am not a fan of moulded on pipework or handrails. The coach body ends have pipework detail moulded on, as this is going to be a freelance kitbash, I decided to remove these superfluous details by carving them off with a scalpel and sanding smooth. For the same reason I removed the brake stand detail from the balcony ends and buffer beam.
I removed the balcony doors and filled in the hinge points with plasticard off cuts. The sides were then drilled for full height brass wire handrails. The addition of GRS brass etch lamp irons completed the modifications to the balcony ends.
The extensive lining and ornamentation of the coach sides were all sanded off. The biggest alteration to the appearance of the coach was to remove the narrow panels between the window frames to create four large windows on each side, instead of eight small ones. The window apertures were then framed out using 2.0 x 1.0 mm plastic strip to give the coach a more Anglicised appearance. The original glazing was by means of four moulded clear plastic strips, one long and one short for each side, These clear moulded pieces simulated curtains at the windows but crucially had shaped retaining slots into which the coach roof clipped. I had to fabricate new glazing pieces from 1.5mm clear plastic sheet and had to drill and file them to replicate the fixing slots for the roof.
From the photos you can see that at some stage in the past I started to paint the model, which was by way of experimentation. This was a mistake as the first thing I should have done was to give the relevant parts/areas an undercoat of plastic grey primer. This was done before any further paint was applied. The door windows have been masked of ready for the paint shop. The only modification to the interior was to add tables to the first class compartment. The tops were offcuts of plasticard and the legs cut from wooden cocktail sticks
The bogies were re-wheeled with Al Kramer nickel plated turned solid brass wheels. These give tremendous weight low down to give a low centre of gravity to the model. As with all of my conversions, probably the biggest change in appearance comes from the re-paint.
David
As I said, I have had this coach for many years, most of that time spent in pieces, while I experimented and prevaricated over how I was going to alter its appearance in order to Anglicise it. In the end the project went on the back burner while I concentrated on the line’s freight stock. Now that I have made a concerted effort to crack on with the passenger stock, it is time to wipe off the considerable accumulation of dust and get on with it.
Starting with the roof, I experimented with various layouts, with and without the clerestory. In the end I decided to keep the clerestory roof and add lamp tops and roof vents by GRS. The roof has two chimneys but as the interior does not have, and no room to fit, stoves, they were removed and the holes were filled in.
I am not a fan of moulded on pipework or handrails. The coach body ends have pipework detail moulded on, as this is going to be a freelance kitbash, I decided to remove these superfluous details by carving them off with a scalpel and sanding smooth. For the same reason I removed the brake stand detail from the balcony ends and buffer beam.
I removed the balcony doors and filled in the hinge points with plasticard off cuts. The sides were then drilled for full height brass wire handrails. The addition of GRS brass etch lamp irons completed the modifications to the balcony ends.
The extensive lining and ornamentation of the coach sides were all sanded off. The biggest alteration to the appearance of the coach was to remove the narrow panels between the window frames to create four large windows on each side, instead of eight small ones. The window apertures were then framed out using 2.0 x 1.0 mm plastic strip to give the coach a more Anglicised appearance. The original glazing was by means of four moulded clear plastic strips, one long and one short for each side, These clear moulded pieces simulated curtains at the windows but crucially had shaped retaining slots into which the coach roof clipped. I had to fabricate new glazing pieces from 1.5mm clear plastic sheet and had to drill and file them to replicate the fixing slots for the roof.
From the photos you can see that at some stage in the past I started to paint the model, which was by way of experimentation. This was a mistake as the first thing I should have done was to give the relevant parts/areas an undercoat of plastic grey primer. This was done before any further paint was applied. The door windows have been masked of ready for the paint shop. The only modification to the interior was to add tables to the first class compartment. The tops were offcuts of plasticard and the legs cut from wooden cocktail sticks
The bogies were re-wheeled with Al Kramer nickel plated turned solid brass wheels. These give tremendous weight low down to give a low centre of gravity to the model. As with all of my conversions, probably the biggest change in appearance comes from the re-paint.
David
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