MOTW - 'Bowsider' 20

I've not featured many vintage carriages on Model Of The Week, so it's time to put that right.

This one, number 20, is the prettiest of our 'Bowsiders' which, I would suggest, could be considered the classic Welsh NG carriage design.

This model is made from one of the Worsley Works 'scratch aid' kits and it shows number 20 as it ran in the late 1980's when it was the first of the FR's balconied beauties to be repainted into the two-tone livery with the panels picked out in ivory, aping the style in which these carriages reappeared after the restoration in the 1950's.

It was quite a latecomer to our fleet. For years we only had the one pair of 'Bowsiders', 17 & 18, which were built from Langley brass kits.

Until Allen Docherty entered the fray there was no kit for the second pair of composites, 19 & 20, which differ from the older carriages because they have  two first class compartments, marked by an additional small vertical panel.

Because of the waisted body profile I was not about to attempt to scratch build these carriages in styrene.

We do have a fourth carriage - number 19 - which has yet to enter service.

It is currently sitting in a drawer awaiting a roof and a coat of paint.

You'll probably never see this one on Bron Hebog, though. The intention has always been to finish 19 in all over cherry red livery which is what it was wearing in 1988, the year we nominally set Dduallt when we began building that layout more than 20 years ago.

In time I suspect we will end up constructing a second set of 'Bowsiders' which are now running in a mix of high Victorian and economy 1930's liveries and will make the occasional appearance on Bron Hebog on vintage train duties.