Duke of Sutherland's 4-wheel saloon in 7mm scale.

Duke of Sutherland's small 4-wheel saloon.

The duke of Sutherland's small saloon was built in 1908 by the Highland Railway at their Lochgorm works. After many travels and tribulations the coach, along with duke's locomotive Dunrobin, were repatriated from exile in Canada to Beamish in 2011. This event coincided with the production of a model of the coach by Lochgorm Kits in both 4mm and 7mm scales. The coach, beautifully restored to original condition, though with modified seating, is in service at the open air museum, the loco is still under restoration.  

Detail of the step end of the coach with glazing in place, castings are all brass and from various sources. 

The kit is not designed with an interior other than a lavatory enclosure in mind. The coach, as I've modelled it, is not intended to be viewed without the roof, the simplified interior gives an impression when seen through the glazing that the interior is fitted out. In earlier days there were armchairs and a table in the saloon end.

The service end had built-in seating and the corner units hide the bolt heads that secure the chassis to the superstructure. The interior is simplified, the lavatory compartment in reality is a particularly fine Victorian survival, modelling this would have been a minor work of art in itself.

 

The coach was built in three modules, a departure from the design of the kit, these were the roof, the body and the underframe or chassis. The coach body has had a floor added and is fixed to the underframe with four hidden screws, the roof is a neat friction fit into the body. Above you can see some of the hidden detail beneath the coach. The cast brass springs and their "J" hangers were particularly challenging to construct, the hard castings proving particularly resistant to efforts to drill through them. The ride height of the coach was increased by 2mm to allow space for the springs and axleboxes. The rocking-axle compensation system works well and the coach glides smoothly, though I question whether the bother involved in making this is worth the effort.

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58A in 7mm scale painted by Paul Moore

The etched lavatory window was quite a challenge which took three of us to make. I thought the solution was a photo of the real thing, so I asked Paul Jarman at Beamish to take some photos for me. He took some photos in the shed where 58A is housed for the winter though the cramped situation of the coach made it difficult and the pictures needed some work on Photoshop which my daughter Alice, who knows about these things, managed in no time at all and printed them to size for the model. Paul Moore did the rest, mounting the print behind acetate to achieve what I think you'll agree is a most realistic result. The colour scheme of the coach matches that of my model of the duke's engine Dunrobin, which is in a private collection where 58A will shortly join it.

The duke's coach from the other side.