Paul's workbench

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've just finishes a project I started a while ago, the idea was to make something from the old Hornby Gresley coaches that could sit on a layout with the modern models and not look out of place. So this is my Mk1 effort, a full brake coverted from a sleeping car. I've filled in the windows and made a rough representation of a truss rod under frame (unwound paper clips). I followed the instructions in Steve Barnfield's book to produce the teak effect, I'm hoping to get better a it with a bit more practice. It rides on Mailcoach Fox bogies, which I don't think I'll buy again as the don't have much detail (and no brakes). It's hardly a good model but the home made teak looks ok next to the new Hornby models (Close one eye, take 4 steps back and all that).
Next i've started on a restaurant car using two composites cut in half, a bit more surgery that the full brake but these are fun projects even if the end result is only a rough representation of what it's supposed to be.

Cheers
Paul

[jwealleans]

Hi Paul,

Welcome and the finish on that coach is pretty good, I'd have said.

If you can find a copy, can I refer you to "Gresley RTR Conversions, Graeme King (whoever he is), BRM Oct 2006" which has some very good illustrations of what can be achieved with the old Hornby Gresleys.

[Danby Wiske]

New Hornby bogies are available as spares, if you want them to match.
Part numbers are X9305 (long footboards) and X9306 (one long and two short), supplied as pairs.

Good luck with the restaurant car - we'll look forward to seeing some pics!

[nzpaul]

Hi all
Thanks for the kind comments and for the potential reference material, Mr King , yes I think I've read all 167 pages of Atlantics thread, also the P1 build on RMWeb, which inspired me to completely disassemble the P1 that I built about 20 years ago and have a go at doing it properly, suffice to say it's still nowhere near as good as Mr King's but a lot better than the first effort.
I used the fox bogies under the full brake to try and give the impression of a Diagram 113 van, I found an article in a 1991 Railway Modeller by Steve Banks and I thought the truss rod frame and fox bogies would make a more unique model.
For the resaurant car I have some 8ft heavy duty bogies which I don't think are quite correct for a Resteraunt 1st but again it's more of a smoke and mirrors effort than a scale model.

Thanks again
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi again
I've made a start on the restaurant car over the weekend. The chassis for this retains all of the Hornby moulded bits in their original position and I've just added some extra boxes made from plasticard to bulk up the underframe. The 8ft bogies do have a more massive appearance than standard bogies so I'll keep those on. The simple dining room interior is made from cardboard, the guests will have to stand as there's no seats. At the moment the coach sides are a mess of cut up bits but I'm hoping they'll go back together to form something recognisable. I'll add more photo's once it's getting close to being in one piece.

Cheers
Paul

[Sylvian Tennant]

Nice work on the teak there mate

I have four of the blighters waiting for me to do something with them so I'll be keeping a close eye out on your blog

[nzpaul]

Thanks Sylvian
I'm now have the restaurant coach body in one piece and part way through painting. Hopefully get near to finishing it over the next couple of weekends. I'll post a couple of photo's once all done.

Cheers
Paul

[Robpulham]

The full brake looks very nice to me Paul. It knock spots of my efforts of improving that type of hornby gresley in the past.

[All thumbs]

If you can find a copy, can I refer you to "Gresley RTR Conversions, Graeme King (whoever he is), BRM Oct 2006" which has some very good illustrations of what can be achieved with the old Hornby Gresleys.

Is this online anywhere?

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've made an effort this week to get the restaurant car finished and although it has some doors in odd places, among other compromises, I'm pretty happy with it.
The coach body ended up being a fairly complex surgery. I cut opposite sides out of two composites and used the two corridor sides to get the basic coach body assembled. I modified the windows for the kitchen area with plastic strip and sheet, again using a picture from an old magazine as reference. Roof ducting also just bits of plastic strip. Anyway, a picture paints a thousand words so I'll let them do the talking

Cheers
Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

Astonishing! A bit more ambitious than the cut and shuts that I did.

I found it beneficial to appearance to fill and smooth the gap between the end and the roof. You can even make a simple representation of the alarm gear, plus the tank fillers and grab rails where appropriate.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

That looks excellent, pity I can't use one at Edgware.

manna

[nzpaul]

Thanks for the comments, they're very encouraging. The next victim will be a repaint of a composite brake, so no major cutting to do but I'm going to have another go at a truss rod underframe, the one under the full brake looks more like a cross between the truss rod & stress bar types so I'll try to make it more convincing, I'll have a go at improving the roof ends while I'm at it.
I've got ideas of making corridor 1st and 3rd coaches from a pair of composites but this will require cutting the sides away as I did for the restaurant and then further cutting up to get the correct window spacing for the different classes, sound complicated and probably is, but I'll see how it goes.
I'm sure it would make more economic sense to build Kirk kits and most likely a lot easier but I have a bunch of these old coaches and I'm enjoying the challenge.
I've also decided thet the completed train will need a loco with similar home made appearance so I've dug out an A3 I built years ago using a Trix body on a comet chassis with a SE finecast tender, originally powered by a DS10 so although it did run it was pretty hopeless, I have acquired some Hornby motors from the D49 that should be adequate to repower it, depending on how it goes I might write about it.

[nzpaul]

Hello again
It's been a while but I've finally completed the redecoration of the composite brake. The mark 2 version of the truss rod underframe is a bit more convincing than that on the full brake (accurate would be too much of a stretch). I've acted on Graeme's suggestion about filling the roof ends and adding the train alarm, I'm not sure if it's any good as I took a bit of a stab at what the alarm detail should look like, based on photos but guesswork on the dimensions. I've also discovered I was overdoing the lining of the coaches a bit, thanks to some photo's of the Severn Valley set, so I've eased up with the bow pen.

[B3nj1_p]

Hi,

This thread is very interesting to me as I am doing exactly the same at the moment
Which colour are you using for the edges of the chassis?

Many thanks,