B set Drawings

Details of the undersides of coaches are hard to come by, so I thought some sketches I made might be useful. From my researches of diagram E140/E145 coaches, I found that as modelled the undeframe is quite wrong. There are 2 large battery boxes on the nearside, with a regulator box on the far side. Castings from ABS are available for the large battery boxes, but I used some rather nice etched brass components from the "Frogmore Confederacy". For those without access to their kits, a drawing is shown of the regulator box. The basic underframe I used is from a Comet kit. It is possible to retain the original plastic underframe, but removing the incorrect battery box does make a mess of the truss rodding. Some dimensions from my notes; battery boxes are 8" and dynamos are 1'4" from rail level. In plan view dynamos are 1', vacuam cylinders are 6" and battery boxes are 1'3" from the edge of the chassis. The pulley on the dynamo is 1'6", and the steam heat pipe is 4-5" diameter.

The bodies are wrong. The door handles should be recessed and not raised as in the model. This is correctable after considerable work. The buffer beams should be straight, and not bowed. There should not be a window by the guards’ door on the far side. As supplied it has an extra first class compartment branding, the correct compartment can be easily seen with the extra width of compartment.

I have scanned in some drawings from an article in the "Model Railway Constructor" September 1980, by RD Naylor. He does not give the source of these details, but they do seem to accord with photos I have seen.

The inner ends have acquired some extra detail that should be removed (sketch attached). Some extra handrails need to be put around the guards doors, and on the ends. This drawing is in 2 halves, the "a" side is apparently the earlier period, and the "b" side later BR period. Destination board holders are shown.

The bogies as supplied are very "thin" on detail, and really need replacing. I have replaced a lot of the 7' bogies with 9' ready to run plastic bogies, from Bachman and Dapol.  They run very well.  Branchlines nickel silver wheels run very true, and give a satisfying sound over the rail joints.  

Buffers are a definite replacement on the plastic underframe. Sprung GWR pattern buffers are hard to come by, the MJT ones suffer from springs that are too strong. I have had a go with the John Hayes ideas on springing buffers in his wagon articles.