Garden Railway Forum

Back in the late 1980s I made a set of Cape Government 2'-0" gauge coaches in 16mm scale for the garden line I was building - the attachment should show them if I have done this correctly. There were 5, mostly on the standard 24' underframe, but with one of the longer vehicles with a toilet in the middle; for the last 20 years they have sat in my cupboard, but after I retired I began work on reinstating the railway and the first trains ran in September last year, so the coaches finally saw daylight again. All the information I had in those days was in Moir's book, "24 Inches Apart", and I was intrigued by a diagram of a dining car that was of the same general design; I made a spare underframe, complete with bogies in the hope that one day I would find enough data to make one. The time has come and the vehicle is coming together. While looking through the box where I kept all the parts I found another bare underframe and set out to make another coach to fit on it, so I will soon have 2 new coaches. I have kept the diner as close to the techniques and standards as the stuff I made 30 years ago, so everything has been made from the same sort of scratch; the only things I bought on the originals were Brandbright RSA14 door handles and, with the 4 compartment first I am making, I am going to need 10. I have 9 in stock, so I only need 1; the Brandbright website has been in maintenance mode every time I have looked for the past few weeks, so I am wondering if any one knows where there is 1 that I could buy. My 1996 catalogue tells me that they are now made in brass; whatever mine are, they aren't brass, but I don't suppose that it matters, so long as they are the same shape.

That whole set looks amazing. Brandbright is 'between owners' at the moment. The company passed from the founders to a new owner about 5 years ago. Andy has been ill, I understand, and has sold the company again, but there is a planned downtime whilst the new owners get organised .
In the meantime, this company will apparently make whatever you want, and may actually have made Brandbright's fittings for them https://steelriverengineering.co.uk/model-railway
Swift Sixteen also do some brass detailing parts, maybe worth a look? https://www.swiftsixteen.co.uk/detailing?page=2
Either way, good hunting and welcome to the forum.

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 4:13 pm That whole set looks amazing. Brandbright is 'between owners' at the moment. The company passed from the founders to a new owner about 5 years ago. Andy has been ill, I understand, and has sold the company again, but there is a planned downtime whilst the new owners get organised .
In the meantime, this company will apparently make whatever you want, and may actually have made Brandbright's fittings for them https://steelriverengineering.co.uk/model-railway
Swift Sixteen also do some brass detailing parts, maybe worth a look? https://www.swiftsixteen.co.uk/detailing?page=2
Either way, good hunting and welcome to the forum.

Wot he said!

Impressive!! I hope you manage to track down another one.

Rik

Thank you all - as there is a possibility of being able to get hold of some more of the original style I have decided to have a go at making some as a temporary measure. I have no idea how long the original coaches took, but I think that I started them during a spell of redundancy back in 1988, so I had more time on my hands than for most of the next 34 years. The 2 I am working on now seem to have been work-in-progress for a long while - the photo below was about 3 weeks ago when I brought them outside for the first time, after the body shells were about complete . The vehicle on the right was intended to be an exact match of the originals, and the body is made from 1/16" ply with the matchboarding represented by saw cuts about a third of the way through. On the very first two that meant using an Xacto razor saw and was a rather tedious job. I made a miniature portable circular saw, using Minicraft blades, where I could set the depth to about 20 thou and that made the job easier, though there is still the worry of making a bad cut. The other vehicle was to be an experiment in other techniques, particularly 3D printing, and as I wasn't sure that an all PLA side would be strong enough at 1/16" thick, and my printer isn't big enough to do a side at one go, I opted for 1mm overlays on 1/32 ply. The underframe was going to be one that I found tucked away in my box, but after I had got a long way into the project I found that it was badly twisted, so I have continued the experiment by using a piece of aluminium extrusion I found in the garage.

Nice work, steady and accurate scribing on the coach sides, looking good!

Interesting combination of construction techniques. Will follow your progress with interest. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas

Rik

I have had a go at some temporary door handles, shown here alongside the original Brandbright ones I can probably do a little better if it becomes necessary, but this will do for now

One can barely tell the difference there, your temporary handles are great. Though I certainly understand where you're coming from - we're all our own greatest critics.

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Sun Mar 13, 2022 12:59 am One can barely tell the difference there, your temporary handles are great.

I agree - I'd stick with those!

Thank you - I have long experience of satisfactory temporary solutions becoming permanent, but we will see.
I have taken the Hopefield diner outside to see how it looks in day light against the brake first that I made about 30 years ago, and from which the original was a conversion. I still had the tin of Humbrol enamel that the first 5 were painted with, but when I opened it the paint was solid and I had to buy some more. Experience with recent Humbrol paint has been that it lacks covering power but at least the shade looks very close, closer than I could mix

Progress is always slower than expected but I have finally got the roof planks glued and pinned on; before I did so I took a picture of the interior and my first attempts at some people The general period is Edwardian, but I am not going to be too tightly restricted by that and if something is sufficiently attractive then I will have Edward living a good deal longer. The picture is a good deal bigger than the reality and I have noticed that the handbag on the pink skirt still shows some Milliput white and there is still some paint on the handrail, but I have now fixed these!

Yes, it's funny the things you notice when you take a photo of something you've made yourself.
Grant.

jefran wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:31 am The general period is Edwardian, but I am not going to be too tightly restricted by that and if something is sufficiently attractive then I will have Edward living a good deal longer.

No problem - My model of the Welsh Highland's "Gladstone Car" as it was in the 20s features the man himself, 30 years after his death...

Those are looking really good - and no-one's going to notice a tiny bit of unpainted Miliput inside a dark compartment. I save my ropiest figures for compartment carriages, using the best ones in open saloons...

Those figures look really good. Were they originally cheap Chinese figures off eBay or did you start from scratch?

Rik

Thank you Rik! They are among the first ones that I have done on my Ender 5 3D printer. I have some more work-in-progress but the capacity of just this set is 126 passengers, so for the moment they will have to be rather more spread out than this.

The dining car interior is quite different from the compartment stock I was going to make bent wood chairs from copper wire, but I made a set as 3D prints, at least for now. The passengers have to be specific to this coach, and as I have 15 of other people still to clean up, the ones I have done are as they came off the printer. I thought of making the chef Swedish and from the Muppets, but for now he is more conventional.