Eleshya
Eleshya
The carriages are based on Rhodesia Railways and American ones of the late 19th century. They all have girls names and this one is named after my niece -who was also a bridesmaid at my wedding. In order they are: Eleshya, Mille, Lydia, and Abigail.
They are all cut from 3mm modelling ply and the wooden framing is 5mm spruce stuck onto it. The cost of making then is around £15 each -this does not include the cost of the bogies, wheels, and couplings.
As you can see the carriages start off life as plywood tubes. The roof and base are 50cm long and the side walls 40cm long. The central clerestory of the roof is another plywood tube, the slopes and duck bills are carved from solid balsa . The ends are shaped with a belt sander and capped with 20 thou ABS sheet. The external woodwork is applied to it, and windows punched out with a craft knife, note: use 2hr epoxy to fix the glazing in NOT CA!!!. The internal seating is upholstered with old grey corduroyle (my trousers). The ornate iron work at the ends of the carriage is made by wrapping lengths of 1.5mm 'twin and earth' cable around drills and simply soldering the parts together.
The bogies come from Roundhouse RB3 and the wheels are Brandbright RSA30/0, the chopper coupling is the Tenmille AG046.
The lettering is a combination of Slaters letters and a cake decoration!
The shot of the partially built carriage is actually of Mille -which is destined to be the Restaurant car . However finding suitable fitting for the tables etc is proving to be difficult. Dolls house scales 1:24 looks a bit tiny and 1:16 a little large.
