W & TR CIE Compartment Coaches

[Axle]

Hi everyone, i'm back again with more MOCs based on the Waterford and Tramore Railway, which was a small seaside branchline in Ireland that ran for over a hundred years! (1853 - 1960)

Today I'm sharing some simple coaches I've designed for this ongoing project to one day recreate the railway as a layout. I've previously shared the engine itself in this topic; it's only had minor updates since then, the main one being it's now self powered with a circuit cube motor! 

The W & TR featured a plethora of coaches from the many different eras it ran through, though I've mainly based these off of the six-wheeled compartment coaches, which were the main carriage the train hauled in the 1920s-30s era I'm basing it on. Although, for impossibility on curves reasons, I've kept them to four wheels.😁 

As the carriages are twins, I'll only include the one from here out. The decals you see on the side are just temporary ones I made using yellow electrical tape, and green sharpie. It looks fine from a distance, but when I have the means to, I'd like to use some proper decals I've designed myself. Despite the long wheelbase, they seem to pull fine by the little engine on curves!

The actual train only had functioning doors on one side of each carraige (the hinges and bolts being taken off the unused side), because there were only two stations on the line (or more specifically, a platform at one side), with a turntable and siding for the engine to get back around to the front of the train. I've included doors, although, they're a little less than conventional and functional, as they're either open or closed, which requires removing their section. I don't mind though, as I've made these on a budget and the fact they open at all is a bonus to me 😅

Each carriage dissassembles like this, easy access to put minifigs inside. I haven't furnished the inside yet - that'll be something I'll tackle much further down the road, but it'll be fairly simple seats.

Here's the actual carriage itself for comparison's sake, taken from The 5-Minute Bell by Frank O'Donoghue:

I know its not as detailed as many of the other amazing train MOCs I see here are compared to their real counterparts, but for me, I enjoy the more simpler Lego aesthetics of trains like 7710 (which helps when building on the cheap!) So in general I would try to strike a balance between aesthetics and details, leaning on the aesthetic side.

What's next for me in this project though? That'll be The Hearse! 

But its not as grim a coach as it sounds, in fact, its ironically near its opposite's namesake in function - but I'll save that story for when I share the MOC! 😁 I've designed it in Studio, just a matter of tweaking it a bit, and saving up for the pieces. It'll fit nicely as the last carriage on the train.

And after that? I've mentioned above that the train pulled coaches from all sorts of era's across its life time, so I may take a stab at some open Victorian era carriages, which were blue in colour in their heyday, long before the CIE Green i've emulated above. Maybe technically arachronistic, but variety is the spice of life! 😁 Way down the line is designing the large station which still stands today, but in the meantime I may design something smaller that I can afford 😅

 

And if you're still here, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think! 🙂

Also, don't know if I'm alone in this, but I quite like the look of using the 5-link chains to connect trains. Anyone else??

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Axle

[Andy Glascott]

This is wonderful to see, and a beautiful build. I grew up in Dublin, with a lot of family connections in Cork and have vague ideas one day of modeling some of the abandoned features from there.… 

Opening doors are something I always try and include, how easily do these open? While they might be out of proportion to the originals, they add a lot to the coaches. 

[AlexxInc]

Those coaches look nice! It fits perfectly in size to the engine.

[zephyr1934]

Those coaches (and the entire train) look really nice

[Axle]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:36 PM, Andy Glascott said:

This is wonderful to see, and a beautiful build. I grew up in Dublin, with a lot of family connections in Cork and have vague ideas one day of modeling some of the abandoned features from there.… 

Opening doors are something I always try and include, how easily do these open? While they might be out of proportion to the originals, they add a lot to the coaches. 

Thank you kindly! I believe a lot of the carriages on the Tramore line were 'borrowed' from Cork in the 1930s 😁  Unfortunately they do require their section to be taken out to switch between open or closed, otherwise they're pressed against the bricks beside them, if that makes sense? I'm sure there's a solution to make them easily open that i'm missing 🤔

[Andy Glascott]

9 hours ago, Axle said:

 Unfortunately they do require their section to be taken out to switch between open or closed, otherwise they're pressed against the bricks beside them, if that makes sense? I'm sure there's a solution to make them easily open that i'm missing 🤔

That does make sense alright. I have some 2 wide doors that open fairly smoothly, I’ll get some pictures later to show you the mechanism I’ve used.

[Andy Glascott]

@Axle This is how I've done a 2-wide recessed door. It's basically about having an upright bar on the door and one inside the loco/coach and then using the appropriate part(s) to connect them. I've used this before, as well as the sand coloured piece in these pics, which I couldn't find on Bricklink. 

Mechanism by andyglascott, on Flickr

The missing 1x1 plate is key to allowing the arm to move far enough for the door to open. It may not be necessary if you use a different combination of parts.

Inside of door by andyglascott, on Flickr

Inside of the door, I've used a 1x2 plate with bar for these.

Closed by andyglascott, on Flickr

Door closed, and the missing 1x1 plate isn't all that noticeable, particularly when the train is moving!

Above by andyglascott, on Flickr

And a view from above of the door closed.

Hope these help, feel free to ask if you need more.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Andy Glascott
Added text

[XG BC]

On 11/5/2021 at 2:15 AM, Andy Glascott said:

@Axle This is how I've done a 2-wide recessed door. It's basically about having an upright bar on the door and one inside the loco/coach and then using the appropriate part(s) to connect them. I've used this before, as well as the sand coloured piece in these pics, which I couldn't find on Bricklink. 

Mechanism by andyglascott, on Flickr

do you mean the droid arms?

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=30377&name=Arm Mechanical, Battle Droid&category=[Minifigure, Body Part]#T=S&C=2&O={"color":2,"iconly":0}

here you go!

[Andy Glascott]

@XG BC, yes, that’s the one, thank you.