Hi I'm Alasdair,
I'm building a new garden railway at present (See new members forum), and looking for some UK outline stock to run. As expected there's very little to none available, especially of anything beyond 1900.
So to get things started I thought I'd try and mock up a rather basic approximation of a class 153. The reasons for going for this are:
I have a Hornby version which has excellent detail as a starting point.
On reviewing the model I noticed that the original construction was highly modular, essentially a rivetted body shell, which lends itself to surface imperfections.
It's a nice short passenger train, which does not need a loop to reverse (my line is an end to end layout).
So after getting a ruler out and measuring it's key dimensions, and those of my PIKO GE 25 loco to determine the rough G scale loading gauge it appears that the OO gauge body shell will need to be multiplied by approx 3 times. Note: This is not going to be a Gauge 1 or finescale model, but closer to the difference between HO and OO.
Using the tools and materials at hand, I used Powerpoint to design the basic body panels, then used a B/W laser printer to print off the sides and front/rear of the train.
These were then glued to cereal packet cardboard and left overnight to dry.
Then everything was cut and glued together the next day, only a single end, and single middle module were completed to demonstrate the proof of concept and iron out any design and construction errors before I put any more time/effort in.
The following day I was sufficiently happy with the overall shape that I decided it would be worth mocking up a rough livery so that I could get a better sense of how it might look at full length and in the correct colours etc.
The next steps are to refine the cab ends so that they taper in, I had tried this on the first example, but it didn't work out, hence the slightly odd taper on the current cab end.
Other improvements needed include:
Change to increased thickness of board to reduce flex in body panels.
Include tabs on front panel to allow better connection of roof to front panel.
Cut all windows and opening while panels are flat.
Paint interiors and exterior while flat, before assembly.
Redesign connection of segments to reduce gap between each part, perhaps construct entire body panel before then assembling into body.
Longer term I need to find some appropriate style bogies, and move from card to plasticard or wood construction.
If someone could help with suggesting a source of cheap, representative bogies this would be much appreciated, I've considered FOS motors so far (https://fosworks.co.uk/) and IP Engineering (Chassis & Bogies | IP Engineering).
Comments and suggestions would be welcomed, but please remember this is not intended to be Gauge 1 or fine scale, the chances of it ever getting rivets added are zero, ok well I might include graphical representations if I get time, but you get the idea.
Thanks for reading, I've included a picture and the powerpoint file (PDF as the forum won't allow the Powerpoint) if you're interested in taking a closer look.
I'm building a new garden railway at present (See new members forum), and looking for some UK outline stock to run. As expected there's very little to none available, especially of anything beyond 1900.
So to get things started I thought I'd try and mock up a rather basic approximation of a class 153. The reasons for going for this are:
I have a Hornby version which has excellent detail as a starting point.
On reviewing the model I noticed that the original construction was highly modular, essentially a rivetted body shell, which lends itself to surface imperfections.
It's a nice short passenger train, which does not need a loop to reverse (my line is an end to end layout).
So after getting a ruler out and measuring it's key dimensions, and those of my PIKO GE 25 loco to determine the rough G scale loading gauge it appears that the OO gauge body shell will need to be multiplied by approx 3 times. Note: This is not going to be a Gauge 1 or finescale model, but closer to the difference between HO and OO.
Using the tools and materials at hand, I used Powerpoint to design the basic body panels, then used a B/W laser printer to print off the sides and front/rear of the train.
These were then glued to cereal packet cardboard and left overnight to dry.
Then everything was cut and glued together the next day, only a single end, and single middle module were completed to demonstrate the proof of concept and iron out any design and construction errors before I put any more time/effort in.
The following day I was sufficiently happy with the overall shape that I decided it would be worth mocking up a rough livery so that I could get a better sense of how it might look at full length and in the correct colours etc.
The next steps are to refine the cab ends so that they taper in, I had tried this on the first example, but it didn't work out, hence the slightly odd taper on the current cab end.
Other improvements needed include:
Change to increased thickness of board to reduce flex in body panels.
Include tabs on front panel to allow better connection of roof to front panel.
Cut all windows and opening while panels are flat.
Paint interiors and exterior while flat, before assembly.
Redesign connection of segments to reduce gap between each part, perhaps construct entire body panel before then assembling into body.
Longer term I need to find some appropriate style bogies, and move from card to plasticard or wood construction.
If someone could help with suggesting a source of cheap, representative bogies this would be much appreciated, I've considered FOS motors so far (https://fosworks.co.uk/) and IP Engineering (Chassis & Bogies | IP Engineering).
Comments and suggestions would be welcomed, but please remember this is not intended to be Gauge 1 or fine scale, the chances of it ever getting rivets added are zero, ok well I might include graphical representations if I get time, but you get the idea.
Thanks for reading, I've included a picture and the powerpoint file (PDF as the forum won't allow the Powerpoint) if you're interested in taking a closer look.
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It's a definite possibility, although from the post I saw it's coming with a commonwealth style bogie, which isn't ideal. 
