Carriages - Marsh Bogie All Third (D67)

Prototype History

After becoming CME of the LBSCR in 1894, Billinton drew on his experience in the draughting office of the Midland Railway and proceeded with a program of bogie carriage construction. Almost all were 48' long, and all had 1'6" buffers and 8' bogies.

Over 150 of the D67 8 Compt. All Third carriages were built. Those constructed pre-1900 were gas lit and those after were fitted with electric lighting. Conversion of the gas-lit vehicles continued until 1912. 

My Carriages

My carriages represent the two variants of the 48' Billinton design - one gas lit in the 1903 umber/white livery, and one with electric lighting in the 1911 all-over umber livery.

The Conversion

The Ratio MR 48' Suburban All Third is a fair representation of an LBSCR D67 8 Compt. All Third. 

Chassis

Under the solebar the main change is to replace the 10' MR bogies with 8' LBSCR bogies. These are available from Roxey  but I bought a cheaper gemeric set from Wizard. 

Queen posts and footboard supports should be removed from the solebar and a single queen-post and truss rods fitted. I used 1mm square styrene rod for the post, and 0.8mm round styrene rod for the trussing. Technically the queen posts should be shaped like an upside-down chess pawn, but life's too short!

For a gas-lit coach, there is one gas tank in place in the top-right when viewed from below. For electrically lit coaches, there are two accumulators: the top-right and bottom-left. 

Body

Those carriages that were gas-lit would have gas lamps in the roof, similar to those supplied in the kit - and electrically lit carriages would have a conduit running down the centre. There were no roof vents by default on these carriages, except for 'Havok'-style vents above the smoking compartments - which were either at the ends, or either side of the centre.

Carriages - 4w Suburban First (D95)

 The venerable Ratio GWR 4w coaches provide fertile ground for conversion into a number of prototypes with varying degrees of accuracy. I had bought a box of half-built stock to use as painting dummies, but as an experiment I wanted to test my mettle in converting one to an appropriate LBSCR carriage.

Whilst there are superficial similarities to various Brighton carriages, once you dig a little deeper it's more complex, and navigating the various liveries, build specifications and eras can be challenging.

So, is it possible to convert a GWR Composite into an LBSCR First? Yes - there are three potential options, but the one requiring the least rebuilding is a D95 Billinton Suburban 4w First and is the subject of this article.

The Conversion

There are two minor compromises with the use of the Ratio carriage - the compartments should be equal in width, but in the model the inner compartments are slightly wider than the outer ones, and the roof should really be arc rather than elliptical. I am willing to overlook these in the interest of the principle of diminishing returns, but one could slice and splice the compartments and fit a new roof if one was inclined.

Body

The tumblehome at the carriage ends must be removed. This is achieved by inverting the carriage and cutting out the bottom corner of the ends. I used a razor saw behind the solebar up to where the carriage end flattens out. This section can then be packed with a piece of 2mm styrene sheet, carved to the profile of the coach.  Putty should be used to fill any gaps. To restore the moulding on the size of the carriage and the ends, strips of 10 thou styrene can be attached with plastic glue.  

The GWR-style grab irons must be removed, this is done with a sharp knife and a chiselling action. At some point they will be replaced with LBSCR pattern grab irons.

Chassis

Foot boards and the Vacuum Brake cylinder should be removed. Small cylinders can be mounted transversely to represent the Westinghouse cylinder & Reservoir. 

Painting and Lining

I have chosen to paint the carriage in the Umber and off-White scheme of 1903-1910. I tried both Vallejo German Camo Black-Brown (too dark, see bogie coach top-right in the following picture) and SR Freight brown (too light, top left in the following picture)

D95 (centre bottom) alongside E4 No. 579 and various other test coaches.

The final choice for lining was 7:1 Chocolate Brown and Black, providing a fair approximation of the Dapol/Bachmann/Hornby RTR umber locomotive colours.

Lining was always going to be a challenge, the above picture bottom-right shows my efforts with an Easi-Liner pen - which is a little overscale using acrylics even with the smallest nib. As a result and with advice from Tony G, the coach was lined using a fine dip pen and Vallejo Sunny Skintone with a little Vallejo Retarder Medium added:

It still requires a little touching up!

Locomotives - Edwardian Terriers

Given I've been checking the liveries, numbers and names of the E1's and the E4's I thought I'd better check the A1's. Annoyingly, none of those offered are correct for the Brighton area in 1911-14:

Rails A1 Terrier No. 643 (Gipsy Hill) - too late

The new Rails/Dapol Terrier A1 No 643 (Gipsy Hill) was only de-named in 1919 and would need to be  renumbered.  Maybe 679 (ex-Minories), 662 (Martello), 663 (Preston), 677 (Wonersh), or 680 (Bookham)?

Dapol A1 No. 82 (Boxhill) - too early 

Boxhill and Beulah are two very interesting Terriers: they underwent successful motor train trials whilst converted as 2-4-0T's from 1905-1911, and over that period they were both de-named, re-numbered, fitted with A1x boilers and painted in umber. They were converted back to 0-6-0T's in 1913.

I own this already, but unfortunately while the Dapol model is perfectly accurate, it is for the pre-1905 condition. I think for now I'll leave it as is and use it as a pilot at Brighton, just as the real Boxhill was after 1913. Long term my plan is to repaint it into one of the Umber A1's that were around at the time, as per notes for No. 643. 

Dapol A1x Terrier No. 662 (Martello) - just right?

The 1980's Dapol release was No. 662 (ex-Martello, de-named in 1909) and is the closest match, albeit post-1912 condition, and was based in New Cross and thus acting as an interloper from London: a little bit of a stretch. It could alternatively be re-numbered as No. 678 (ex-Knowle) which was an A1x motor train fitted loco allocated to Littlehampton so ideal for East Coastway services. 

It's a little unfortunate the livery is rather approximate, and the running characteristics not all that great.