Christmas Special..... Toplights not Fairy Lights!
I shall be releasing the STL/3MF files for the body of GWR F14 "Toplight" 57ft Slip Coach on Christmas Day. Any Great Western enthusiast unwrapping a shiny new printer will have something to print! The longest files will fit a 220mm print bed.
https://gauge3.info/3D_print_4_yourself/GWR_F14_Toplight/GWR_F14.zip (not until the 25th December and available only to G3 Society members who have registered with the 3D Print 4 Yourself service).
Photos of the sides in white primer and ends (in black and difficult to photograph) are attached and photos of the test build will be added after Christmas.
I shall laser cut the floor, corridor and compartment divisions from plywood and SVG files for these will be provided. The SVG files can be used for laser cutting or printed onto paper/card and used as templates for marking sheet material for manual cutting.
This and a C27 70ft "Concertina" Third are "spur-of-the-moment" additions to the list of 3D-Print-4-Yourself projects previously announced. The C27 will be released early next year, together with underframes for both. The bogies are already available to download from the "Monobloc" range ("American" 8ft equaliser for F14 and "American" 9ft equaliser for C27).
About "Slipping" and the GWR dia F14 single-ended slip coach.
The GWR employed the "slipping" procedure on a number of services and produced both single-ended and double-ended slip coaches.
The double-ended type were self-contained and isolated from the remainder of the train to which they were attached, having a guard's compartment and slipping gear both ends (this saved having to turn the coach so the slipping gear was at the correct end for the next service but meant no gangway connectors could be fitted).
The single-ended type had a normal gangway connector at one end so that additional coaches could be attached to the section to be "slipped" and passengers had access to those additional coaches. Prior to 1910, the maximum number of coaches permitted in a "slip" section was five but in that year the number was reduced to four.
The diagram I have chosen is F14, of which two (Nos. 7101 and 7102) were built in 1908 and were of the 57ft panelled "toplight" pattern. F14 had two First and three Third Class compartments, two lavatories plus luggage/ guard's compartment.
A small detail worth noting is in relation to the Ash's Patent roof vents (usually called "shell" vents) : The vents were a single row, off-set from roof centre line, on the the compartment side of coach with one vent per compartment shown in mid-century photos but the drawings show two vents per compartment (as does the 1908 ex-works photo) but later photos show alternate vents as having been removed. This would appear to be the case with most (if not all) the "Toplight" coach diagrams.
"Slipping" was suspended during both World Wars and the gear removed (with the vacuum tanks being left in situ) but slipping was resumed in peacetime. After WW2 not all slip coaches had the gear restored and those which did not were used on branchline services (easily recognised from photos since the vacuum tanks were not removed). These two F14 coaches were among those not restored for slipping after WW2 and were withdrawn in the mid-1950's.
The last "slipping" on a British railway, from the 5.10 pm Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill service, took place at Bicester in 1960. It was said that the expense of allocating specially-trained guards to the slip coaches outweighed the benefit of the ten minutes saved by not stopping the entire train.
Note on the Ends of "Toplight" and other early GWR coaches.
A "quirk" of many GW coach ends is that the lowest step, on the left hand side only, is inverted, in contrast to the remainder (the tread is above the mounting plate instead of below). No idea why but the practice persisted at least until the early "Toplight" diagrams. The "Dreadnought" and "Concertina" designs both carried this feature but it appears to have been discontinued with later "Toplight" diagrams. It is shown on the GA drawings, so was not an error during construction.
comp1.jpgcomp2.jpgcomp3.jpgcomp4.jpgcorr1.jpgcorr2.jpgcorr3.jpgendsboth.jpgslipend.jpg
Excellent work John - as usual
Merry Christmas :)
IanT
John
I love the GWR coach, how do I register for the build 4 yourself files.
Thanks
Mike
Mike,
Glad you like the F14 Toplight..... I aim to please!
I will email login details to you.
Merry Christmas,
John.
P.S. For anyone not aware of procedure to join the project, send message (using this forum's message system) to John Candy, subject line to be "STL access request by <your G3S membership number>" > A password will be sent with a download link .... remember to check that the email address you have linked to the forum is still valid!
The Curse of the Curly Commode Handles.
The one component which I was dreading having to fabricate from wire was the G-shaped commode handles which persisted on new GWR carriages well into the Collett era (around 1930 the straight design supplanted them). Producing the 12 required for the F14 (with repetitive accuracy) would, at best, prove tedious.
More in hope, than expectation of success, I decided to attempt printing them. If they were to fail, it would be the mounting spigots which would be the weakness.
Much to my surprise, they printed perfectly and (in Creality hyper-PLA) are very strong....you can bend them and they spring back to shape. In resin they would almost certainly have snapped. A batch of 15 were printed (at 80 microns) in under 12 minutes.
An example (attached to my Toplight test panel) is in the photos below together with a screenshot of the render of the 3MF file.
The STL and 3MF files have been added to the 3D Print 4 Yourself library.
https://gauge3.info/3D_print_4_yourself/GWR_F14_Toplight/commode_handle.stl
https://gauge3.info/3D_print_4_yourself/GWR_F14_Toplight/commode_handle.3mf
ch1.jpgch2.jpgcommode handles.jpg
An unscheduled arrival in the 3D Print 4 Yourself series of STL downloads is the Dean 40ft PBV, to dia. K15, the last of which were withdrawn from revenue service in 1952.
The sides of diagrams K14/15/16 were the same, only the end panelling being different.
Dia. K15 had gangway connectors at both ends but K14 and K16 had fully panelled blind ends.
Like all Dean era coaches, many had their guard's side lookouts (duckets) removed in later years and any rotted panelling was replaced by plain sheets of timber. Over time, many also lost their gangway connectors.
Following withdrawal from revenue service, several found their way into departmental use.
Many ran on Dean 8ft 6ins bogies but some were fitted with "American" 8ft bogies, both types being available to download from the "Monobloc" series.
The test build is in progress and the sides are shown in oxide primer.
The STL files will be added to the download catalogue next week.
K15_1.jpgK15_2.jpg
K15_3.jpgK15_3a.jpgK15_3b.jpg
K15_3c.jpg
Hi John,
Do you print the coach sides in filament or resin?
I want to have a crack at some GER ones but not sure what to print them in.
Thanks.
Hi Anthony,
I print in Creality hyper-PLA using a Bambu Lab P1S, which produces far higher quality finish than the other filament printers I have.
The coach sides in the photos have not been fettled in any way, simply spray primed to enable them to be photographed (the PLA I used is black).
PLA is extremely strong and will withstand bending and hard knocks, which could break resin.
Regards,
John.
Great work John.
Quote from: John Candy on Jan 04 2025 00:38Hi Anthony,
I print in Creality hyper-PLA using a Bambu Lab P1S, which produces far higher quality finish than the other filament printers I have.
The coach sides in the photos have not been fettled in any way, simply spray primed to enable them to be photographed (the PLA I used is black).
PLA is extremely strong and will withstand bending and hard knocks, which could break resin.
Regards,
John.
Thank you.
GWR K15 files are now available via link:
https://gauge3.info/3D_print_4_yourself/GWR_K15_PBV/README.pdf
Updated download for GWR F14 Slip Coach
Upon reviewing the files available for download, I noticed that a few files were missing from the ZIP file for the F14 Toplight..... an updated file is now available.
Apologies to anyone left scratching their head trying to make sense of the files.
The ZIP file was originally compiled/uploaded on December 25th....need I say more!!
Hi All with Johns help I am going to attempt to 3D print the F14 GWR Carriage to go with my 1:32 3D Printed Hall Class Hogwarts Castle.
My be a big order I don't know but I have t ogive it a go.
The Loco files are from here and have been my 1st forry into Railways and 3D printing.
https://www.pocketrailwaymuseum.com/
Enjoy it. I will get around to them eventually but not until further down the line.