Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Narrow gauge coaches


Rummaging around for some 009 stock to pose on a project, I found a pair of coaches bought at the 009 Society 50th Anniversary show. 

The sharp eyed will notice that they are a bit (gasp) foreign. And they would be right. Both are from Lilliput. The orange one is a Zillerfalbahn buffet car, albeit with no interior (replacements are available) and the green is labelled "Steiermärkische Landesbahnen", which Google translate tells me means Syrian State Railways. 

Technically, this means they are Hoe models, but I'm not fussy. They look nice, and didn't cost a fortune. 

Anyway, I added them to the 009 fleet because I don't have much luck with coaching stock. A rake of Dundas 4-wheelers built years ago are steadily falling to pieces. Admitedly, they were assembled in a hurry, but 009 kit built stock never seems to feel as solid as RTR stuff. 

So, I'm thinking these are a bit Welshpool-ish. They run foreign stick, so I don't think this is too horrible. They don't look iconic either - I have some Peco bug-boxes, but they say FR too much for me. I need stock that doesn't shout its location.

A long term dream is to repaint these into blood and custard livery, or at least a pastiche of it so they can be properly freelance models. I think that might look better than the current colours. Or maybe not. Opinions? 


 


3 comments:

  1. *
    Opinions? I rather like the orange and green as they are. Indeed the whole ensemble looks good. The Baldwin being a fairly small locomotive in 4mm scale does not look "wrong" with 3.5mm carriages.

    I would not normally comment on what is obviously an innocent typo, but in this case "SYRIA" for "STYRIA" mistakenly moves the relevant railway to the Middle East.


    Christopher Payne

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  2. In terms of distance from the UK the Baldwin is a lot more 'foreign' than the coaches!

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  3. Personally I'd keep the coaches as they are and repaint the loco :-)

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