London and Birmingham Railway Carriages

Purchased by Bo’ness Gauge O Group, built and reviewed by Hugh Gibb

This was new territory for me. I have built my share of plastic and etched kits using traditional solder and glue, but this was the first time I had built any of the new generation of laser-cut rolling stock kits which have suddenly become more widely available. I had seen the Parliamentary Trains kits at Telford who were one of the first traders to offer this type of product, but as my own interest in the pre-grouping period did not go as far back as the time of the railway mania of the 1840s, I did not pay it too much interest at the time.

Interest was re-awakened when the Bo’ness O Gauge Group acquired from the estate of the much missed George Davidson a nice model of one of the locomotives from the original Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. Having no contemporary stock to run with it, the club decided to buy two Parliamentary Trains coach kits and I took on the task of building them.

The kits came in two substantial cardboard boxes and contained a number of sheets of laser-cut parts in MDF and card which were pre-painted with shellac solution as an aid to final painting. A good quality metal etch provided metal overlays for axle frames, buffer beams, coupling hooks, safety chain hooks and eyes.

Good quality whitemetal castings were provided for buffers and axlebox assemblies. Laser cut door hinges were supplied on acrylic sheets, which I later found to be very difficult to cut to shape. I would have preferred to see an etched hinge provided for these.

Comprehensive assembly instructions with illustrations and a drawing of the vehicles were provided and assembly was very straightforward. Main structural sections are provided in MDF with detailed overlay panels in card. An ingenious underframe assembly is built up from MDF which is quickly assembled. The design of these kits eliminates the need for any soldering, although it was my preference to use solder to secure the axle bearings and the axlebox assemblies to the metal frame parts. The majority of assembly can be completed using only a super glue of your choice - I used Loctite gel control. A rocking compensation option on one set of wheelsets is provided in the kit design, which I followed. Etched parts to construct early Brees pattern couplings are provided but I chose to fit 3 link type to be compatible with other stock.

When I started the first of these kits, my initial reaction was not at all positive. I found that the laser cut MDF parts were not properly cut out by the machine, and many parts had to be cut out manually breaking many craft blades and raising my blood pressure considerably in the process. This obviously consumed a lot of additional time and effort on my part which I had not expected.

I opened the second kit box with fair degree of trepidation, but was delighted to find the laser had done its job properly this time and the parts just fell out into my hand from the sheet. On reflection, I think that if I found this again I would return the kit to the supplier and ask for a replacement. I am sure my experience of the first kit is not typical and overall I am very pleased indeed with these kits. They have made up into solid, smooth running and attractive models that are typical period vehicles with some nice touches. The steps on the solebars and the safety chains/hooks are particularly pleasing features. Rolling stock of this early period was commonly built by both contractors and railway companies to a standard design, so these kits are very versatile in their potential application to a wide range of different operating companies.

Any reader interested in building vehicles of this early period should consider Railway Carriages 1839-1939 by Geoffrey Kitchenside and 19th Century Railway Drawings in 4mm by Alan Prior both of which I found particularly helpful when building these kits.

I think these kits are good value as all the parts required and wheels of your choice come with the kits. Mine came with Bramah type wheels, but split spoke, 8, 9 and Loch spoke types can be supplied. Painting and livery choice is a matter for the individual modeller to choose but I would recommend using Humbrol enamels on the model as some MDF parts can be a real challenge to paint. The shellac coating provided in these kits does make a difference, however one application of Precision Paints on one model took absolutely ages to dry. I would certainly build another of these attractive kits. My only criticisms are the faulty laser cutting in one kit and the provision of acrylic plastic door hinges which I would replace with etched metal hinges.

A copy of this review was sent to Parliamentary Trainsinsert and their response was as follows: Thank you for the opportunity to reply to the review by Hugh, which is fair and which we are happy with. When we started out we used MDF as this seemed to be the material everyone was using. We did, however, after a lot of research, find an engineered plastic which we now use and allows us to tab the pieces. It is stronger than MDF and decidedly less ‘brittle’. Also we have rediscovered ‘Fish Glue’ which the older members will remember from school days and is easier to use and better than superglue. We no longer use acrylic as this was tricky to cut; the hinges are now in thin engineered plastic. We are more than happy to replace any faulty piece, as well as replacement parts if the modeller gets things wrong. Peter@ Parliamentary Trains