Garden Railway Forum

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone has any experience of building these, and how straight forward they are? I'm looking at getting either a 2 or 3 compartment coach and a gaurds coach, but I'm unsure if my little 0-4-0 will pull the 3comp ones, anyone have a rough idea how heavy they are?
Cheers,
Ste

Most of the IP stuff is easy enough to build, with a couple of wrinkles:

1) use Peco track pins to hold the "box" together whilst the glue sets: you can either pull the pins out or leave them in when the glue's gone off: your call.

2) Where the instructions say "Mark x mm up from the bottom of the sides - glue the floor here" it's MUCH easier to glue a wooden coffee stirring stick (or two for a bogie coach) in the appropriate position as it provides something for the floor to sit on when you glue it in place.

Thanks for the tips Brian, which coaches do you have?

Yesterday saw one of the coaches started, they are fairly simple to do, I just used some wood glue and a large box of charcoal to hold everything down while it dried off

For some strange reason Photobucket isn't letting me make the pictures larger... Il'l try again tomorrow, but for now, some rather small ones ...
Inserting the bulkheads and benches;






Cheers,
Ste

hi all...i have 2 of the i.p engineering free lance coaches and having only been in to garden railways for nealy a year now i found them ever so easy and straight foward to build ..molr 1

They are a dream to build! Even with my hands of many thumbs!
I have a 2 comp/Guards carriage finished, it runs well! But I recommend adding lead to the 4-wheel, 3 comp carriages. It makes them so much better!

I know this topic is a little old, but what is an acceptable maximum wheelbase for the three comp 4 wheelers?
The instructions say to mark out a wheelbase to suit the curvature of your line. Well I don't have a line.  I am a complete novice, so please someone, give me a clue? I want them to look right, but still run around the sort of curves you might come across at steam ups.

Krusty

Its not building them Im scared of its paintin em. I got a luggage and 2 comp coach waitin but lord knows how to paint it.

Just to be different, why not use Scumble. It's oil based aand put on with a rag I believe. This would give you a teak effect. Look proper posh it would.

Hi Krusty,
Just measured my coaches for you and I have..
from the bufferbeam to the axle is roughly 7cm. I don't think there was any reason for this, just that it seemed to look right!
Hope this helps
Steven

Thanks Steven, I will be going to a local steam up soon, I have one coach almost finished. I will take it along and see how it performs around various radii. I may have to make some adjustments, by the looks of things I have put the axles too far apart.
I should have asked this earlier, but my eagerness to build was overwhelming.
Krusty