Coach Interior Paneling

I had today off and ended up falling asleep in the afternoon for a couple of hours. It seems that ended up tweaking out my "tired" schedule because it's 2AM and I'm posting pictures on the blog!

Anyways, with the coach it's starting to feel that for the amount of time I'm putting into it, it sure doesn't look like it.

These next couple of shots don't look at impressive, but it's what I've been working on...

• The "window glass" has been mounted on one side
• I've started to cut and prep the interior paneling
• In the shots below, none of the paneling is glued in place (but the "window glass" is)
• You can also see one of the roof rafters is also in place

There's this real ugly orangy-brown line of glue where the "window glass" is glued down. That will, of course, be covered up by paneling eventually.

Chassis Update #2

Here's some progress shots of the chassis...





And my first bolted joint... It's a little rough, but this one will be on the interior (unseen) so I have some room to practice before I get to the visible ones.



And just for kicks I tried making a link-and-pin buffer coupler. It's very rough and I probably won't use it but it was amusing to try.

Coach Chassis

Being that I completed the basic form of the coach body and because I need to do some more planning for the coach interior, I started working on the chassis. I didn't want the body to get too far along before I began on the chassis because I'm trying to develop all of it kind of at once so that things get done on different parts instead of completely finishing one facet.

Anyways, I decided the chassis would be made of aluminum. My initial draw to this was that on the actual prototype Coach the chassis is metal and the body wood, so I feel I'm at least being true-er to the original by doing so. Also, the metal won't be glued but cold fastened. This, I'm hoping, will give it a lot more strength and pulling power.

The last time I worked with aluminum was actually when I did a robotics science fair project in the 10th grade. Fortunately one of the local hardware stores has an assortment of smaller sizes in 4' lengths. As far as aluminum goes, it's quite soft, so I'm assuming it's a lesser grade. On the plus side, it's easier to shape.





The chassis is made from channel aluminum with a strip for the end bar. I couldn't locate any L-brackets that were small enough for this, so I guess that means I'm making those too!



For now I'm waffling between bolting it all together with 0-80 or 1-72 hex head bolts -OR- using 1/16" rivets. If I can find a reasonably priced rivet bucker I might just go that route.

I found out this past weekend that Stanley Slack is squeamish about using hand tools, so just for him I'd like to point out that everything you see above was cut with this very hack saw...



The final chassis will be primered and then painted in black (that might have been a subtle Rolling Stones reference there). Here's what it looks like in it's natural silvery color...

Coach Paint Job

Here's the first preview of the 2-color paint job for the coach. The bottom is "Barn Red" (red oxide) and the top is "Butter Cream" (off white).

If you're wondering about the ragged lines, there will be trimwork covering it, both horizontal and vertical.

Coach Progress

Well I continued to do work on my 7/8n2 coach this Saturday morning. My primary focus has been getting the outer body sides cut and finished...

Even though you won't be able to tel the difference, I tried to match up the windows as perfectly as I could. They ended up being within 1/32" close to each other.

Here are all the body parts laid out together and a rough first coat of paint on the end pieces. The body panel on the left still needs to have the upper observation windows cut out of it. Speaking of cutting windows, I'm just about tired of doing that. In all I've ended up cutting 16 windows for both of these body sides. The original, mind you, had over twice that.

The paint looks really bad right now only because it's the first coat. I find it better to do many light coats than to do one heavy, overly-thick coat. The downside is the paint job looks bad for a bit.

And the finally a very important moment came... when the body first started to be glued together. Now, I'd like to point out, I was so excited about this happening, that I didn't bother to check and make sure that everything lined up. You can clearly see in this picture the body panels have shifted and don't line up. I discovered it about 15 minutes later, and had to go back and sand those joints and try again. They lined up the 2nd attempt. Lesson learned!

And here's the unit almost completely glued together. I still need to do the last joint, which I'll probably do after lunch when the glue is fully dried.

You can also see in that last shot that the interior has a very rough coat of dye on it. The interior walls will be covered with paneling, but I just wanted a rough darker brown color to be present if the gaps in the paneling board let any light shine down into it.

2-Axle English Coach

Seems like my 7/8n2 updates are getting farther and farther apart.

In any case, I set aside the Contractor's Diesel that I began working on in my last post. I need to do some more research and get more solid dimensions before I continue with it. Also, being a powered unit, I'd like to "solve" all of the electronics and batteries and build the unit around that instead of the other way around.

In the mean time it seems that I've been enchanted by Victorian era English coaches. These quaint little passenger cars range in size from about 16 feet long to over 60 and are typically box shapped. One thing I was happy to find is that in the UK preserving historical lines seems to be something that is taken seriously, and a handful of charming railways are restored and operational...

• Talyllyn Railway
• Welsh Highlands Railway
• Ffestiniog Railway
• Lynton & Barnstaple

...just to name a few. An interesting side characteristic is that many of these railways provide support to model railroaders, listing dimensions, characteristics, and other stats on the railway's engines and rolling stock.

I've taken to attempting to build a 2-axle coach (seating approximately 16) in 7/8n2 scale. The coach I've designed is heavily based on the Victorian era coaches from Lynton & Barnstaple, however I've shortened them down from full "bogie coaches" into a shorter 2-axle version.

As is starting to become my norm, I did a lot of research and planning before I even began construction. A particularly notable resource in all of this has been this website: Modeling the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway.





The body is being fashioned out of 1/8" MDF which was leftover from my HOn30 micro-layout's faschia board. Working with it, it's like a cross between cardboard and wood. I'd odd stuff, sometimes easily damaged, very workable, and generates a ton of dust. The jury is out on if I'll ever use this again. On the positive side, a sheet 4" x 2" x 1/8" is only $3 locally making is ridiculously affordable.





Thus far I've managed to cut out the front, back, and one side wall. As seen here is the outer shell of the coach. The exterior will be detailed with strip wood and the interior will be lined with detail as in the prototype, including strip-wood benches.

The walls are given a general shape with an electronic jig saw then cleaned up with sandpaper and files. The windows are being cut by hand with a coping saw, then cleaned up with files and sandpaper. The doors are currently scribbed in about 1/16" deep. I say currently because part of me wants to actually cut them out and make working doors; part of me thinks that will end up being a huge hassle.

What I need to start planning more of is the chassis. I'm considering building it out of aluminum and cold fastening (nuts/bolts/angles).