How I constructed a Directors' Saloon Coach

 

It has always been my intention to construct a Directors' Saloon coach for the railway but until recently other jobs prevented this from happening. However, after making some four wheeled Glyn Valley tramway coaches for the railway, it occurred to me that one of these could easily be converted into a Director's Saloon. But which of the various designs of GVT coaches would lend itself to conversion?

After consulting Bernard Rockett's excellent booklet on GVT coaching stock, I opted for the 1901 Third Class coach as this had only one central door on each side, rather than the two doors per side of the 1892 coaches.

Source: NGRS Collection

Fortunately, according to Rockett, the coach had exactly the same overall dimensions as the 1892 coaches which I had already constructed (see How I constructed a GVT Third Class coach) and so I was able to reuse most of the 3D drawings I had already created, 

The only additional parts I needed to design and 3D draw were the sides and the steps. I decided to make the sides multi-part.

This would not only allow me to insert the glazing appropriately inside the thickness of the wall, ....

.... but also allow me to add detailing to the interior wall. Something which I'd not been able to do with the single part walls of the other coaches. 

The interior would, of course, need to be modelled in its full elegance. To achieve this, I downloaded some dolls house furniture from Thingiverse and resized it for 15mm scale.

By the way, the floor also needed to be redesigned slightly to change the positions of the bolt heads supporting the brackets for the centre step.

Once all these parts had been modified or created using TinkerCAD (my preferred 3D drawing package), they were sliced in Cura and printed out on my filament printer.

Some of the finer detailing on the furniture was lost on the filament printer and so they were printed instead on my AnyCubic Proton resin printer.

I started with the sides. The 1mm thick glazing for the main windows was cut, using the apertures in layer #2 as a template.

NOTE: It is a lot easier to paint the outer and inner layers of the sides before assembly. I chose not to do this because a) I wanted to check the fit was ok as this was the first time the parts had been assembled and b) I am a bit impatient.

 Then, the outer wall was glued to the second layer. 

The glazing for the droplights was then cut out, using layer #3 as a template

The main window glazing was inserted into the apertures in layer #2 and layer #3 was glued to layer #2, aligning the top of the layers and the window apertures. Layers 3 and 4 are slightly narrower and shorter than the other two layers to allow the sides to fit between the ends and above the floor.

The droplight glazing was then inserted into the apertures in layer #3 and layer #4 was glued in place.

NOTE: Being a cheapskate, I decided to use some redundant packaging material for the glazing - not something I will repeat. Acrylic sheet is far better - it is thicker (I use 1mm or 1.5mm thick) and is less likely to go foggy.

I decided to simulate interior wood panelling with coffee stirrers. I started in the corner of one side ....

.... and then work my way along the rest of the side.

The same process was repeated for the other side, .....

.... and the ends.

NOTE: I'm not convinced that the coffee stirrers add much aesthetically and certainly add too much in terms of thickness. On refection, it should have created the panelling in TinkerCad and 3D printed it. But hey, scratchbuilding tends to be somewhat experimental!

The sides were then glued to the floor. Some trimming of the interior panelling was required to ensure a snug fit.

Then, the ends were glued into place. Again, more wood panel  trimming was required to improve the fit.

The underframe was then added. As my railway is 45mm gauge, I used the 45mm underframe (one is provided in the download for 32mm gauge).

NOTE: If you are using this post to guide the making of a similar coach, make sure the recess for the brake gear is on the same side as the brake lever on the end of the coach.

The solebars were then tidied up.

I used the solebars designed for ball bearings (the download includes solebars for pinpoint or stub axles) and so the ball bearings were inserted in the apertures.

One solebar was then glued to the underframe.

The ends of the Bachmann 24.5mm diameter wheelsets were inserted into the ball bearings (3mm ID x 7mm OD), .....

..... and then the other solebar was glued into place, trapping the wheelsets in place.

The brake gear was then glued into its slot.

The two halves of the roof were then ......

.... glued together and smoothed off with a file.

The end battens for the roof were then glued into place.

The coach then entered the paintshop. A couple of coats of Halford's grey primer from a rattle can, were followed by a couple of coats of Halford's filler primer. These were rubbed down with a tiny sanding block ......

.... before a couple of coats of my coaching livery (Halford's Rover Burgundy Red) were applied. These were rubbed down before another couple of coats were applied and rubbed down again.

The PLR emblem (printed out on self adhesive vinyl) was glued to the middle of the door before the exterior of the coach was given a couple of coats of Halfords Satin lacquer.

The steps (primed and then painted with acrylics) were then glued in place beneath the doors.

Cast brass door handles and grab handles (from Brandbright) were glued to the door and beside it.

The wood panelling of the interior was painted with brown acrylics and then the masking tape was carefully removed from the windows.

The furniture was assembled ......

.... primed with grey primer and then painted with various shades of brown acrylic paints.

A picture frame was downloaded from Thingiverse and printed out in two different sizes (rescaled in Cura) ....

..... primed and painted with gold acrylic paints.

A portrait and a railway map (of the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway) plus a Persian rug were downloaded from various sources on the internet, re-scaled in Libre Office Draw and printed out.

The furniture and fittings were then glued into place (using UHU) inside the coach.

Binnie Engineering medium sized Carmarthen buffers were added to the ends together with my own style of hook and loop couplings. And then the coach was given a short test run.

NOTE: Once I had removed the masking tape from the windows, I was unhappy with the result - the windows were hazy partly due to residue from the marking tape and possibly because the fumes from the superglue used to join the sides together had affected them. So, I managed to ease them out from and insert slightly smaller glazing panels instead - they are less hazy but not a clear as acrylic glazing material would have been - another less learned!

My intention is to produce the parts to complete a standard version of this 1901 Third Class coach (ie draw the seating and half-partitions) and then upload all the parts to the gardenrails.org forum for free download.

But, for now, I am more than happy with the outcome, despite a few trials and tribulations along the way.