Suburban Stock

[martyn]

Thanks for the assistance, Steve.
When you could pick up Minitrix Gresley coaches for about £5-7, I bought some and converted them to non-corridors by cutting out the door side and building them on to Ultima or BH floors and underframe details. The left over carcass was converted to other Gresley types using Ultima etched brass sides. I described the conversion in the 'Journal', but it must be about 15-17 years go.
I think the results are not quite scale, but are very close; I suppose you could use Dapol coaches to do the same, but it could work out rather expensive....
Bogies are now easy to get; I used MTK ones, I think, for most of my older kits, but Dapol Gresley, N Gauge Society, and Ultima all do them now (check wheelbase).
Dave Cooper mentioned the W+K kits in the latest Journal- I was able to show him mine last week when we were at Steve's looking over stock for James St.
Martyn

[Stevie DC]

When you could pick up Minitrix Gresley coaches for about £5-7, I bought some and converted them to non-corridors by cutting out the door side and building them on to Ultima or BH floors and underframe details. The left over carcass was converted to other Gresley types using Ultima etched brass sides. I described the conversion in the 'Journal', but it must be about 15-17 years go.
I think the results are not quite scale, but are very close; I suppose you could use Dapol coaches to do the same, but it could work out rather expensive....
Bogies are now easy to get; I used MTK ones, I think, for most of my older kits, but Dapol Gresley, N Gauge Society, and Ultima all do them now (check wheelbase).
Dave Cooper mentioned the W+K kits in the latest Journal- I was able to show him mine last week when we were at Steve's looking over stock for James St.
Martyn

I bought some of the Dapol Maroon coaches when that was all Dapol produced and the prices plummeted due to the lack of sales. While I don't mind doing some 61' vestibule conversions using these, I think that suburban stock would be out as I'd need two compartment sides per coach. I suppose it could be done using the sides from the conversion (if I'm very careful) but I'm not sure if it would be me trying that!

I remember somebody else described such a conversion using Dapol bits more recently in the Journal but I can't remember which issue or year off the top of my head. IIFC they worked out at either 50' or 52' so pretty close all things considered.