Modelling Coach 1T
described by Ken Elliott

The ends were cut from 1/8 inch ply, planks scored with the grain, and faced inside with my white card. The floor is 1/4 inch MDF, cut to fit between sides and ends. The seating is represented by a strip of 3/4 inch square softwood along the floor, each side. I left a space each end, the width of the door. The seats were glued to the floor before assembling the body, and help to keep the body square, as well as adding strength to the whole assembly. The ends fit between the sides. The draw beams are 3/16 inch softwood, with a piece of 1/2 inch ally angle behind the coupling pinned to the floor. The end steps are 1/4 inch pieces of 1/16 inch ply, the hand rail cut from my stiff garden wire. The carriage underframe is represented by two strips of 1/4 inch square Ramin, with a 3/8 inch strip of 1/16 inch ply glued to the outer side of the Ramin strips. These assemblies are glued under the floor, and to the drawbeams. The truss bars were bent up from wire coathanger, and go into holes drilled in the Ramin. The vertical parts of the truss bars are split pins, again sunk into the Ramin. The bogies were made up from 1/2inch. aluminium angle for the sides, with 1inch. flat aluminium for the stretchers. Each bogie has a ball bearing turntable. One has a 1 inch. circular brass disc, with a 3/4 inch. circle within its circumference drilled to take six 1/8 inch balls, with a central hole for the retaining bolt. The other has a 2 inch. by 1/4 inch. strip of brass, with holes set at 1/4 inch. and 1 inch. from one end, with the retaining bolt hole between the two. The other end of the strip is limited in movement by two panel pins, 1 inch. each side of the centre line in the floor. This bogie is then able to rock from side to side to allow for variations in the track. The ball bearings run on brass plates pinned to the floor, on 1/8 inch. ply bolsters to get the correct ride height for my other stock. The roof was built up on an inner ceiling of 1/8 inch ply which drops into the carriage. Five roof bows, cut to the end profiles, are spaced along this ceiling. The roof was then planked with 3/8 inch strips of 1/16 inch ply, then covered with a sheet of thin cotton material. This is held in place with coats of 50/50 mix of PVA wood glue and water. The painting of roof and body was then completed. The vacuum pipes were made up from copper wire from a car battery cable, the centre buffer couplings are from brass sheet, copper pipe and copper wire, with a 3/4 inch 6ba bolt holding each one in place.

Ken Elliott describes...

This carriage is listed as being in the first eight, delivered in 1890, from Bristol Carriage and Wagon Co. I believe that some time during its life on the line, it was damaged in an accident, and rebuilt in the T & D workshops. The photo I worked from shows it had been rebuilt with eleven windows each side, not nine as original. Also the vents above the doors and windows were omitted. Probably experience had shewn that enough cold air got in without them. At the end of passenger traffic in 1939, the coach went to the West Clare Railway, and I have a good photo of it on that line, with paint faded and patchy, renumbered as No. 46C. The body was later scrapped, and a new one, similar in design to motor coach bodies was built onto the chassis. I also have a good photo of the carriage in this guise. The 'new' carriage was used behind the WCR diesel railcars as a trailer car until the WCR closed, then it was sold to the Irish Peat Commision, presumably to carry workmen, and I believe it is still in use today. It has certainly had a full and varied life ! I built all the carriages to a scale of roughly 15mm to one foot, as they were quite large vehicles, also to bring them into scale compatible with my Roundhouse locos.

The outer panels of the model are 1/16 inch ply, planking scribed with the grain. The beading is 1/16 inch strips of 1/16 inch balsa, glued in place then painted with wood hardener. An inner panel was cut from white card, using the outer as a template. The glazing is Acetate sheet, used for Dolls House windows. The panel was cut 1/4 inch wider, top and bottom, than the window openings. A strip of card of the same thickness as the Acetate goes above the glazing to the top of the side panel, and a wider strip extends down to the lower edge. These card strips were glued in place , the glazing was removed, and the side outer panels were painted. When the paint was dry, the side panels were assembled, with glazing and inner panels fixed in place. The safety bars across the drop lights were added, cut from stiff garden wire. They are glued into indentations in the balsa beading.