While our standard coaches have a passing resemblance to a traditional compartment coach, they always lacked detail. Basically they were the next stage up from a box.

Having looked at many traditional narrow gauge coaches to base a model on, most were not suitable due to their narrow window and door pillars. To build a ride on coach required wide sections between the windows and at the ends to accommodate the centre and end supports.   It was a drawing in the Railway Modeller which was the bases for this design. Don't ask which as I have long since lost the original drawing.   Once on CAD it was scaled to fit our standard coach profile. Only additions where the rounding of the window and panel corners as it produces a smarter cut on the laser.

The overlays were cut from 3mm MDF and glued to the MDF coach sides before fixing one of our roofs onto the body. The edges of the panels of the door lines had a chamfer routered on before fixing to ensure the door lines were not lost during painting.

Beware, while it looks really nice it does come with a price. There are 20 overlay panels which adds a hefty price onto the basic coach. The chassis is also slightly longer. I hope to do a guards coach, but with all the outstanding work, this won't be around until late Autumn.

If anyone is serious about one of these coaches please get in touch - we will be happy to provide a quote but delivery couldn't be until end of the summer.

Paul Middleton