Here's a radical thought...

[Vigo]

...that may have already been mentioned.

A fair amount of people on here seem to be converting carriages into something else, like myself with my Highland repainted Mk1's the west highlanders from Perthshire amongst others. These all involve stripping back existing coaches to something we can work with for repainting, vinyls, whatever.

Don't you think there would be a market for bare undecorated carriage shells from the likes of Farish?  I know I'd buy some, it'd save me ages as well as money. How much does your average carriage cost these days? Just so you can strip off all that detail and put your own stamp on it.

Makes sense to me anyway.

[70000]

You used to be able to buy "undecorated" US passenger coaches in N - I know, because I bought some in the past, so it is a sensible option for those who have their own livery requirements.
I've bought a number of the unpainted Dapol OO goods wagons that they sell over the past couple of years, but they are the only items available that spring instantly to mind for the UK market.

[Jollybob]

I don't know if Farish did it but I was able to get two undercoated generic brake coaches once. Ideal for my freelance railway.
Although I think 3d printing is the way forward there.

Rob.

[zopadooper]

...that may have already been mentioned.



Don't you think there would be a market for bare undecorated carriage shells from the likes of Farish?  I know I'd buy some, it'd save me ages as well as money. How much does your average carriage cost these days? Just so you can strip off all that detail and put your own stamp on it.

Makes sense to me anyway.

Whenever the NGS have produced undecorated carriages or wagons they have always been the last to sell, often only by reducing the price. 

One problem is that in the great scheme of things, leaving off the decorating does little or nothing to reduce the cost of production

[Dorsetmike]

I usually look for cheap ones on ebay.

[jacowin80]

with the old style Graham Farish stock becoming harder (and more expensive) to buy I myself am amazed that no one has produced clear Mk1, Mk2, MK3 and Mk4 shell and chassis.  This would be great for the Electra Rail vinyls and would probably buy quite a few, even though they do come up on ebay, there never seems to be enough of the same type etc.

[njee20]

If the price was right I'd buy them, but I imagine it would be far too niche. 

I stick to buying second hand or bargains when there are undesirable liveries. I try and keep a stock for future projects as and when I see them. Got about 35 coaches 'in stock' at the moment. Some stripped, some not yet.

[silly moo]

It might be easier to get coach shells from Dapol assuming they make the right type, don't they do some of their painting and printing in the UK?

I got some 0 Gauge wagon 'seconds' with misaligned printing at a reduced price, so there could be N coach blanks too. Whether or not they would sell them to modellers is another matter.

[dannyboy]

Peco do the DIY wagon kits, (which must be cost effective, else they would not do them), I wonder if they have ever thought of producing DIY coach kits?   

[Bealman]

Interesting idea, but you have to remember those kits go back a long way, and Peco aren't really losing money with unpainted kits.

I wonder if Peco would consider it, but I doubt it.

Major push from Beer seems to be OO9.

[geoffc]

I would be interested in buying unpainted Dapol mk3 coaches if they came on the market, at one open day I did manage to buy some Grand Central buffets less bogies at a ridiculously cheap price. I suppose they were just scrap as far as Dapol was concerned as being painted they could not be recycled . At one NGS AGM Farish wer selling painted mk3 shells for £1 a piece.

Geoff

[njee20]

The trouble with shells is that unless you have a source of bogies, roofs and underframes they're pretty useless. Even if you're hacking things into conversions you'll probably need some of those parts.

Stripping Dapol or Farish coaches (mk2s and mk3s at least) is pretty easy - I just leave them in a bowl of IPA overnight and the finish falls off. Given retail prices of coaches are c£25 it's hard to imagine they'd do unpainted ones for £10-12, which is the maximum I reckon on paying.

[PLD]

Don't you think there would be a market for bare undecorated carriage shells from the likes of Farish?

Often suggested;
Occasionally tried (mostly wagons and a few locos but the only coaching stock I can recall is Dapol Syphons);
but in reality.. Very rarely bought...

Partly I think due to unrealistic expectations of the cost saving - commentators (potential customers) seem to expect at least a third off the price of a fully decorated example, when in reality the cost of finishing is less than 50p per colour pass (so typically less than £3 for a coach/wagon, £5 for a loco)...