Hi all,
Having finished Van 2 I fancied trying to complete my Ffestiniog rake - for now, that is, I've got plans for another couple of bugboxes, Van 4 or 5, etc etc. The original plan was to save for a Triassic kit for carriage 15/16, but running my WHR stock over the first section of my new garden line was enough to make me realise that something that long just isn't going to work for me at the moment. So I needed a stop gap (until I'm hugely wealthy and can buy a small estate), which is where this IP kit comes in.
The idea is that I'll "Ffest" it up, with modifications to the balconies and a coat of green paint. I've already started by moving the bogies inwards, and raising the corresponding sections of floor, a feature of the real things. The two end compartments have reduced headroom as a result - in the inner ones the raised section ends under the seats so it's not an issue. For that reason one of these will be designated first class - the two third class compartments that adjoin each other have had the partition reduced in height to create a longer saloon as per (some of?) the originals.
I did have plans to mess about with it further, adding a tumblehome to make it a "bowsider" and altering the panelling so that the door handles sit in the right place. When I opened the kit I found that the wood was thicker than I'd envisaged, so I've dropped those ideas in favoutr of an easy life.
I think the finished carriage will become "number 14" - the original was a 4-wheeler but I'll rewrite history so it becomes a prototype for the later carriages 15-20 instead. It would make a sort of sense that such a vehicle would be shorter than those that followed I guess...
Cheers all,
Andrew.
