I'd said elsewhere that I needed to re-chassis some Gresley coaches I bought on the Bay.

Having read John's (Brossard) threads on brass modelling, I'm probably going to have a bash with the Comet offerings.

These are the coaches in question.  I bought them because I thought the on-screen paint job looked pretty good and, whilst these lousy photos don't show it off, it really does look quite decent in the buff.

Sorry about the colour in the first one - taken under flouro lighting in a rush ………………:oops:






I can't find any maker's marks or names etc. anywhere.  One coach does have a loose roof but again, there's nothing inside to suggest where they came from.  Anybody have a guess at whose kits they are ?

They seem to be a pretty accurate scale 61ft 6ins long. The set comprises a corridor coach, the brake coach and the buffet car.  All need a complete chassis replacement.  Should be fun ………………….:roll::roll::roll::roll:

From what I can see Peter, the teak finish looks quite good.  I would be loathe to mess with the bodies.  I see a wheel set missing from one of the bogies and since these are what the coach rides on, I would focus my attention on getting these right.  Are they whitemetal?

I've used MJT compensated bogies in the past.  These are available from Dart castings and there are wheelbases to cover most if not all coaches.  There is some soldering needed but you're game for that right

You can use the bogie side as cosmetic donors to complete the compensated bogie.

The other thing to examine is the underframe.  I'm a brake gear nut so I would try to represent that as well as possible.  Comet do a good selection of brake gear castings and etched brass.

John 

If they are plastic Petermac they may well be Kirk's offerings from some years ago. They did build up into nice coaches with care.

Everything except the swivel pins, wheels and bearings is plastic John.  The plastic bogie sides have brass pin point bearings in them and I'd guess the disc wheels will be Alan Jackson's or some similar make.

I wasn't going to touch the paintwork which is much better than I could do - all the rebuilding will be underframe stuff - with the exception of re-glueing the loose roof.  I think all the seats and tables are still in place.

I'll have a look at what MJT have available - thanks for the tip. :thumbs

Mick - I'd have thought Ian Kirk would have had his name moulded in somewhere but then it surprised me that there are no markings at all.  Whoever did them, had a full set of decent moulds and those don't come cheap !!!  I'd have thought he'd want to make sure people knew who he was. :roll:

No one these days does plastic coaches of this length.  The problem is the length of tooling I believe.  We are stuck with what was done decades ago via Kirk, Ratio and Kitmaster.

I know from building Ratio bogies that they are very fragile so making the core of the thing from brass will improve things no end.

John

Having previously seen Ian Kirk kit-built teaks, I think that's what they are.  Good luck with the renovation.

I too was going to suggest that they might be Kirk Kit's, having built a couple of 4mm examples myself in the past (ironically one of the them the buffet) but looking at the Brake end it doesn't step in at the beginning of the parcels compartment and I am fairly sure that a Kirk side would have been in two pieces to represent this. 
Even if the builder didn't know any better and chose to glue them edge to edge I would have expected there to be a joint at the very least?

Thanks Rob.  I did build the odd Kitmaster coach in a previous life - Ian Kirk offerings seemed too expensive and "professional" for an "Airfix" fan …………….  I will try to find some markings somewhere once I get them apart.  I did buy a kit for a pair of bogies - "Cambrian" I think they are - to try out.  Brass construction with white metal sides - no wheels included !!

I'm still trying to find some enthusiasm at present so haven't been doing much in the way of modelling this year. Attempting to sell the house in a post-Brexit climate has had a major impact on the railway - not much point in doing too much in the way of construction if we sell and it all has to be dismantled next day.  On the other hand, we could be sitting here in 5 years time saying the same thing……………………

Once Christmas is out of the way, I'll have to stop drifting and blaming a "what if" situation for my malaise.  One way or the other, I'll get back into "training" ……………..

 

Hi Peter,
It's not much different over here, the keep claiming that there is a housing shortage and building houses on every scrap of land that they can. 

If the number of houses for sale and empty around where we live is indicative, there isn't a housing shortage anywhere outside of London…..