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Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 6:24 pm
by workwright
This is a short account of how I built a coach to be pulled by the loco described in a post in the Steam Loco section "Something for myself...." The coach is an odd and interesting one. It can be first seen in Satow and Desmod's book "Railways of the Raj". Although much rebuilt was photographed by a friend at Gwalior in the 1990s. The coaches and similar ones were supplied to the GLR by Kerr Stuart for its opening. In fact all the first generation stock had the same basic design. Tumblehome body with a double roof running on a steel bogie underframe. 3 different types can be seen in the photograph. One coach has no balcony and 3 side doors, The others are 4 windows one end entry and balcony, and a very attractive 3 windows with a double balcony. The type I wished to build was the one I had most photos of. A 5 window, single entry end balcony coach.
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No drawings exist. A long search found that drawings of the stock survived into the 1960s, and were then lost. What does survive are works photos of most of the stock supplied to the GLR. These are held by the Hunslet archive at Statfold Barn. So it was a case of try to produce a drawing for myself. The only dimension I knew was the width for the stock - 6 feet 3 inches. A dimensioned sketch of a shrt train is to be found in "Light Railways" by Mackay. So on this basis and after averaging the widths of widows and doors in 16mm scale models of contemporary stock a drawing resulted that could be overlayed on photos on the computer. This was altered and tweaked until it looked OK. I am afraid it is a case of if it looks the same it is probably as good as one can get .
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Construction of the model was mostly from parts I could draw and cut out on the laser cutter. The underframe was assembled from parts cut in perspex. It was detailed with lace pins for rivets. The bogies which look to be correct are Swift Sixteen's DHR pattern -assembly of these is simple and detail and running are excellent. The balcony rail was assembled from sheared 0.5mm nickel silver. This was soldered together on top of a printed plan extracted from the drawing. The coach body with its tumblehome sides needed a press to be assembled in. This was formed from 2 sheets of thick aluminium. The 3 part 1mm mount board sides were dampened on the glue face and glued up with PVA. The formed side was kept in the press for 24 hours. They come out formed and firmly laminated. There are slots in the middle layer to accept the droplights. The construction of the ends is similar.
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These pieces plus the double thickness floor are given a couple of coats of car primer, this being used instead of shellac. Assembly is with gel superglue. The interior of the coach is fully detailed with two bench seats. The droplights are made in 3 layers of thin card. The 2nd and 3rd layer have the slots in them raised by 0.4 and 0.8mm. This gives the illusion of a venetian shutter angled louvre. Simple to do with the computer art work and laser cutter, near impossible to do quickly any other way! Only the door and end window were glazed on these coaches. The panelling (pre-primed) was applied with PVA then the coach was well primed again. The roof is made from two preformed aluminium roofs separated by perspex strips.
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Assembly was with super glue(next time I will use rapid epoxy(super glue is too brittle). On the underside of the inner roof are the ribs that the roof had. These are used to retain the roof on the coach body. Painting is a mixture of Halford's car, and Tamiya acrylic. The finished coach has had a couple of coats of Gameworkshop, clear coat.
The choice of building this coach is quite sensible, since the GLR coaching stock is all of the same shape and general design. I think it will be a simple matter to generate drawings for all the coaches in the train at the start of the post. With a bit of luc,k at Statfold barn, there might be enough photgraphic information to build the luggage and brake van.
Lessons learnt - mount board is a wonderful material to use with a laser cutter, perpex varies a lot in its ability to be bonded. Aluminium does not easily glue with superglue. Tumblehome bodies should not be avoided, you just have to bend up some 1/8" aluminium and buy rather a lot of bulldog clips.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 6:44 pm
by ge_rik
What a masterpiece!

Rik

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 6:59 pm
by philipy
That really is lovely. The louvred shutters are simply genius.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:31 pm
by Peter Butler
Absolutely stunning piece of workmanship.... superb build and finish.
I have the 'Railways of the Raj' book too and it has some fascinating images to tempt me.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:21 pm
by workwright
Hi, thank you all or your generous comments. I have a question - Why can I no longer get my photos to go into the body of the post???? What the.... am I doing wrong?
The crispness of this card model is not really down to me. It is just for the first time in my model making when I draw a line on the computer the laser, cuts it where drawn on the centre/left/right of the hairline. You choose in the software. Cuts exactly to the size drawn first time, every time. I never managed that with saw, knife, or scalpel. Furthermore card is cheap and so far If well painted is weather proof. There are three alternative ways to proof it . Shellac, car paints, and for high quality weather proofing convert it to a card / plastic composite by using Ronseal wood hardener! What I like about this way of making things is if one day I want to make another or produce a kit there is no stock filling boxes unsold. It is all on a flashdrive, put in 3 sheets of mount board press the buttons and in 14 minutes all the parts a cut for another coach. Unlike etching there is no waiting or cost implications for making a mistake with the need to design a new cutting tool.
Many night classes, Men Sheds, and large model clubs have a laser and many have instructors and fellow learners who enjoy helping get new folk started.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 9:31 pm
by Peter Butler
The Men's Shed idea is one I have never considered before but there is one nearby which is very well equipped and has a great bunch of guys who meet there. Perhaps I should see what can be utilised to help with building for myself and our modellers group?.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:07 pm
by LNR
As has been said, that is an incredible build of an attractive prototype. I have a very soft spot for tumblehome coachwork. Those louvres are something else.
Beautiful work and paint job.
Grant.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:36 pm
by Soar Valley Light
ge_rik wrote: Sat Feb 10, 2018 6:44 pm What a masterpiece!

Rik
What Rik said!...... and Phil...............and Peter. :thumbright:

Andrew

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:02 am
by tom_tom_go
Hi Workwright,

Brilliant model and in answer to query of photo placement you need to click the place in line button as at the moment you are just attaching the images to your posts.

Re: Building a coach for Gwalior Light Railway

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:52 pm
by River Lin
Hi.
Wot the others said :D
D.