Many years ago, it stuck me that the Great Western Shirt Button logo had a similarity to the VW badge!
The GWRs successor BRs Western Region also seemed to have a Germanic link demonstrated through their adoption of Hydraulic transmission for their diesels and in particular their version of the DB V200 in the form of the D800 Warship class
I also thought the VW beetle van family seemed to have something of the DNA of both the V200s and the GWRs 1930s streamlined railcars
So when passing a Toyshop with an impressive display of Kinsmart 1/24 scale VW minibuses in its window, it isn’t surprising that I came away with two for a future project.
They sat on a shelf at home until the Grail 2019 show at Nottingham when at the Fosworks stand a Fosmotor was bought along with three further matching non powdered wheel sets.
With these materials in hand the whole lot sat awaiting their turn in my build queue
Lockdown meant that they eventually got to the workbench !
The task of creating a rail car from these components seemed relatively straightforward
The Idea being that BRs western region looked for an ultra cheap option to rescue low usage branch lines before Dr Beeching would do his worst
The conversion involved using brass angle to mount the wheels
These would also double as footboards on the vehicles sides
The floor pans of the two vans were set about with a power file to accommodate the wheels and axles
All went well until I realised the supplied wheel sets were non insulated
Being one of those bods relying on powered track it meant removing the wheels from each axle on one side, drilling the wheel centres and then insulating the axle shoulders prior to reassembling
With a bit of painting and the addition of the GWR logo on the bonnets the conversion was relatively swift and relatively simple
The GWRs successor BRs Western Region also seemed to have a Germanic link demonstrated through their adoption of Hydraulic transmission for their diesels and in particular their version of the DB V200 in the form of the D800 Warship class
I also thought the VW beetle van family seemed to have something of the DNA of both the V200s and the GWRs 1930s streamlined railcars
So when passing a Toyshop with an impressive display of Kinsmart 1/24 scale VW minibuses in its window, it isn’t surprising that I came away with two for a future project.
They sat on a shelf at home until the Grail 2019 show at Nottingham when at the Fosworks stand a Fosmotor was bought along with three further matching non powdered wheel sets.
With these materials in hand the whole lot sat awaiting their turn in my build queue
Lockdown meant that they eventually got to the workbench !
The task of creating a rail car from these components seemed relatively straightforward
The Idea being that BRs western region looked for an ultra cheap option to rescue low usage branch lines before Dr Beeching would do his worst
The conversion involved using brass angle to mount the wheels
These would also double as footboards on the vehicles sides
The floor pans of the two vans were set about with a power file to accommodate the wheels and axles
All went well until I realised the supplied wheel sets were non insulated
Being one of those bods relying on powered track it meant removing the wheels from each axle on one side, drilling the wheel centres and then insulating the axle shoulders prior to reassembling
With a bit of painting and the addition of the GWR logo on the bonnets the conversion was relatively swift and relatively simple
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