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.
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