British train designs

[Siwi]

Hi all,


I made a design thread for my Class 158 model, which is now with a beta tester. This thread will document the creation of its variants and also other models. I plan to do multiple units and diesel/electric locomotives at first before tackling steam types, and release the kits in both 1:148 N scale and 1:76 OO scale. Note that those are British railway modelling scales, and the kits should be scalable down to the worldwide 1:160 N and 1:87 HO scales. Perhaps one or two super detailed ones will be made in O or S scale.


I am drawing all these in Inkscape from plans with a tiny bit of help from Sketchup for difficult curves.



First, the 158 which will also be a 159 with the addition of a centre car. As mentioned this is currently with a beta tester who seems to be getting on ok with no issues to report. My final test build is in South West Trains colours, who operated these diesels between 1997 and 2017.






This will be available in:
- Regional Railways (2 versions, the only difference being logos)
- Yorkshire Metro red and white

- Central Trains green
- South West Trains early with red doors
- South West Trains late with orange doors
- East Midlands Railway 'transitional' white with orange doors
- Wessex Trains Alphaline silver (two versions)
- Scotrail purple multicoloured
- Northern Spirit crimson

- State Railway of Thailand (same as Regional Railways)



The Class 159 will be available in:
- Network SouthEast red white and blue
- South West Trains



My other project is a Class 20 diesel which is initially being drawn in OO scale. Today did the second test build and made revisions accordingly:

[Siwi]

Design and test build of a London Underground D78 stock train. Done both original and refurbished colours and test build of the interior. Wheels are too big and tall so corrected those to accurate size. Going to do these as the rebuilt Class 484 and Class 230 D-Trains too.












Test build of the 158 came back from beta tester who reported no problems!

[Siwi]

A test build of the original D78 stock in unpainted aluminium, and one of its evolution into the Class 484 D-Train built by Tim Crowe. Both will be available on Ecardmodels soon.

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Fun bunch of rolling stock.
I can see how the scale is too small to make "accordion fold" vestibules between cars. Though it would be quite the neat trick, if it could be done! Perhaps with black tissue paper... and a microscope.

[Siwi]

The D78 in Underground service did not have connecting corridors, only regular doors which were for emergency use only. The 230 and 484 upcycled versions do have them but I gave the builder the choice between a more realistic version similar to what you can see on the Class 158, and a simpler version which is just to use a stack of card layers to thicken the template for the corridor.

[Siwi]

A Class 411 3-CEP electric multiple unit in its last days operating on the Lymington branch line around 2000, in the same 1:148 scale. These were originally 4-car units, and part of a family all derived from the Mk.1 carriage outline. A few small revisions to make to this, but it will be easy to design the other family members.
The connecting corridors are much simpler than more modern trains as the concertina part is hidden behind the external walls. I included some tiny parts such as the door handles and roof ventilators which can be added at the builder's discretion over printed details. Maybe the front jumper cables could be made from wire. Still experimenting with how to get the wheel bogies/trucks a convincing thickness, as the wheels have to match the track gauge but the frames are thick and extend to the side profile. I think just specifying to double them with multiple layers and colouring the edges will work. At this scale having the underframe equipment as a 2D silhouette is fine, rather than tiny boxes and very thin parts.


Already got underway with creating the 'missing' buffet car from the original 4-car units, a related model called a 2-HAP, and some historical liveries in southern green, BR blue and blue + grey.

[Michael Mash]

Enjoying your British Train Designs. Nicely done.
Mike

[yankeekilo]

very cool colection Simon!

[Siwi]

Thanks everyone.

Next one in this series is WIP on the Class 414 2 HAP - HAlf (lavatory) electro-Pneumatic (brakes), a suburban 2-car unit introduced in the 1950s with slam doors for every seating bay (which weren't centrally locked: like all 'slammers' passengers usually opened them and jumped off as the train was still rolling into the platform, which would give safety ninnies a heart attack today). Not at all glamourous, but these were real workhorses of the lines out of London and as such the National Railway Museum decided to restore and preserve one about ten years ago. Unlike most of the other Mk.1 EMU types, they do not have any connecting corridors, hence why they are only half lavatory - you couldn't get to the loo from the front car of the unit!
I say next one, but every time I make a new Mk.1 design I tweak some new improvement from the previous version, so this 2 HAP will gift some design improvements to the 3/4 CEP already designed. These include a seperate roof with gutters, which hides cutouts in the false roof to allow the builder to stick the front and rear in place better; corner tabs for the front and rear, better bogies with seperate relief layer for the leaf springs and current pickups, and better shaping on the base plates and stiffer buffer beams. Please shut the door...

[Siwi]

The 2 HAP is finished. Bogies are thickened with mount board which gives a much more realistic profile, and happy to find when placed on display track the current shoes line up with the contact rail too. Couplers are actually strong enough to pull the whole train along. Got more realistic window reflections and some colour variation on the sides by using pen and gradiant tools.

I didn't add every teeny tiny optional detail like the mounts for the front jumper cables and hoses, or the tiny ventilation bobbles on the roof. You can see the toilet was right by the first class part of the train: the class system was alive and well in 1950s Britain when these were designed. The black triangle, by the way, is present on several types of train from this period and is used to show the platform staff which end of the train contains the guard's compartment for parcels (which was also used as cycle accomodation and about the only place wheelchair users could access - disability laws were amongst the reasons Mk.1 types were retired).



Whilst I can keep scratching my chin and trying to find ways to make the design even better, what I have now works and goes together fine so we'll keep as is for these rolling stock outlines. A piano keyboard is also perfect for placing trains for beauty shots too - now we know a 2 HAP reaches an octave and a third!