Passengers will no doubt appreciate its lavatory during the 2 hour journey and the bacon butties served up from the kitchen area will be welcome too, but I'm afraid I can't helping thinking it's the ugliest carriage on the railway....
A complication with this project is that, for once, I don't have the benefit of any design drawings to work from. I asked my usual sources if they could let me have a copy and they replied, "Drawing? What Drawings?"
You see, this service carriage has been a bit of a make it up as you go along job.
It started life as the WHR's original semi-open carriage, the same as this one...
Fortunately the Boston Lodge team decided to leave much of the original steel framing unaltered during the conversion, so the existing uprights determined the position of the new windows, and as I do have a plan for the semi-open design it means there are enough known knowns for me to knock up a 'guesstimated' drawing to build the model from.
The 'engine side' was very straightforward with each 'old' window divided with another pillar approximately two thirds of the way along.
The 'clock side' is a little trickier, because they had to cut into the frame to form a compartment for the generator and the window spacings are not identical all along the bodyside. That's why on my sketch - which is all I really need to get the pillars positioned right - there are some marked in blue which denote the position of the pillars on this side of the carriage.
So I shall head off now and try it out, and I'll post some pictures here soon so we can all see whether it looks anything like the real thing...
Just what you need on one of the most scenic railway jounrays in the world - tiny windows ! That one really did fall out of the ugly tree and collect some branches on the way down didn't it.
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