The base of the tender and coach unit uses a plan from the American magazine ‘Garden Railways’ for a 26ft Business car. This new base is longer to accept a small (coal only) tender. The water which is mainly what tenders are used or has been moved to under the floor of this base; there will be a long, fairly wide suspended tank below the floor in between the two bogies. The total length of this combination, with the engine, is 34”.

The bogies are both different – the front one is a standard tender bogie (for a C16 2 8 0, from Hartland Loco Works) and the rear bogie is a standard coach bogie, also from Hartland Loco Works; these were part of my special order fore this loco.

The base is cut from 1/8” (or 3mm) plywood is stiffened underneath with strip wood. The bolsters for the bogies, are of different heights and some adjustment was necessary to make it level. Both bogies have a large pivot hole, so I have added a piece of plastic tube that fits inside the bogie pivot hole, this will have through the centre the fixing screw. Any minor adjustments can be made by adding washers to the bolster; check it with a small spirit level before doing anything else. Cut out some slots for the steps for the coach unit, after carefully measuring and allowing for the tender. The steps are made in plastic card and the design and sizes are taken from the plan mentioned above. Make all four required and put them on one side till later, the front ones here are slightly smaller than the rear one; I marked them accordingly.

The top surface needs to be scribed for the floor planks; for the tender and access area for the coach the planks run across the base. Those for the interior of the coach are lengthwise, add some plank joins for interest as well, these can be penciled in and later enhanced with a black ball point pen. The bogie location points are made from PVC solid foam, and have a spigot that bogies are screwed over in due course. The end beams are made from two pieces of glued strip wood, and then shaped to have tapered ends as the plan. The front one which will be where the connection to the loco will be is be thicker, and deeper to match the locomotives rear drag beam. I have also given this a curve to give some freedom when entering curves. There will be eventually a ‘fall plate’ covering the gap here; otherwise the crew could fall down the gap! The rear end beams vertical face is covered with a plastic card cover to give a smooth finish; this will be detailed with the (cosmetic) ends of the truss rods etc. Both bogies will be used for extra power collection, with the front one being sent to the loco, and the rear one being used for a power source for a sound unit. But that is a way in the future, with a lot needed before I arrive there.



The coal tender is a smaller version of a standard double bogie American narrow gauge tender. I had a lot of thought as to whether the rear corners should be round or square; eventually I decided that the standard round design of the rear corners would look better, so that settled the design for the tender; this tender only holds coal, and a water filler, to the water tank which is slung underneath the centre of the coach/tender unit, and is made from PVC foam board..

The tender is David Fletcher’s standard construction, with 2mm plastic card inner sides and ends, with pieces of tube for the corners. Tube is also used at the front half circle extensions that contain the screw down valves for water supply to the boiler. The front of the tender has a cut out at floor level to allow coal through the gap that it makes. Fill the gap in at the back, and eventually some loose coal will be added here. I marked out the centre of the front plate, to indicate a set of removable boards, add a couple of side strips to show the ‘U’ shaped section that they would slide in. All the pieces are glued to the tender floor, and allowed to set. Now the cosmetic sides need to be added; these are from 1/2mm plastic card that has had the fixing rivets impressed from the rear, I use a rivet embossing tool from London Road Models, in England, but they can be done with a slightly blunted compass point. Measure and cut the two pieces for the front extensions – round from the front plate to just past the start of the coal area; the single rear plate which wraps round both corners; these have rivets along the top & bottom edges. The final two pieces are for the sides; these have rivets all round the edges. Curve the font and rear plates, against a rod, and check their length, mark the end positions on the inner sides. The pieces can now be glued in position one by one. I glued and located the front pieces first, and then the rear one. All the gluing is done with 2 part epoxy resins, which are spread over the rear of the riveted sheets and held in position whilst the glue sets with clamps and sellotape. When they are dry ‘chamfer’ the edges for the sides so they can ‘sit down’ better, and add the sides as well. Ensure that the glue is also applied to the sunken rivets to keep them from possibly collapsing.

The basic tender is now complete; it needs the flared upper pieces adding ; these are again as David Fletcher’s methods, made from two layers of 0.5 mm plastic card; the complicated bit is at the corners – these are a couple of segmented pieces of a circle, and I have a tracing that is always used to make them. The outer one is longer than the inner. This allows the side pieces to have a lap joint as they are also of two different sizes to match, fit all of them, but make sure that an edge is left inside, this is especially the case on this small tender as the deck that contains the water filler is fitted to this edge. The rest of the side edges are capped with a filler pierce; in a normal tender there would be a plate on each side over the water tank here. The outer edge is fitted with a piece of round rod reduced to a half round section along the top edge. Add the coping in two parts pre-curving the front edge before gluing it on, the join is at the centre back. Smooth off the top edge and add three rivets (tiny plastic card cubes) per joint, on the outside at the joins in the coping plates.

The water tank filler at the rear of the tender fits onto a plate that is the full width of the tender, mine is from 1.5mm thick plastic card, with a .5 mm layer for the filler base which is riveted around the edge, a piece of tube for the filler, and capped off with a .5mm disc for the top. The disc has a couple of hinges, and a (bent copper wire) handle fitted. Stiffen it with an extra (vertical) piece, 2mm deep underneath

This method is also used to make cover plates for the two water legs at the front, these are just slightly larger than the legs themselves, make sure the edges are riveted, from the inside don’t forget, mark the centre of the ‘rounded off’ part. This is where the valves are fitted, these are made from a piece of 1mm diameter wire, with a double bend to them, add from epoxy resin glue a blob on the top to give them a thickening for a handle. These handles sit inside a couple of pieces of tube that then sit on a plastic card disc that is the baseplate; when glued together they can be fitted in position. Still to do is a handbrake that will be fitted on the fireman’s side; this will be from 1mm wire with brackets to hold it in position, the brake wheel will be from my scrap box, and the ratchet at the base will be yet another plastic card disc.

Inside the tender I have added a sloping plate; this sits on some bearers from the scrap box, and will have the coal glued to it. Add near to the centre a wire loop that will be virtually hidden by the coal so it can be removed if required. I will fit a lump of lead inside sitting directly above the bogie to give it some much needed stability. The coal is added with plenty of PVA glue, and left to set overnight – the result will be a solid unit.

Add some fixing brackets to the base of the tender, made from scrap plastic card, there are two at the front and two at the rear also add the handrails for the crew to use; these are from 1.5mm brass rod. To the sides of the beams under the tender add a cover plate, to the depth of those under the cab, and onto the outer face add some plastic cube rivets. . There are also steps added at the front so the crew can gain access, underneath the front of the tender I have added some extra pieces of wood and plastic to make a location for the cut down nail that is for the drawbar between tender and locomotive, the drawbar itself is made of a strip of 2mm plastic card.

The tender steps, are very vulnerable; are made in 4 pieces: the step supports, these are the outer strap supports and are made from 1mm plasticard (add some plastic cube rivets when they are fixed), a central layer of .5mm that matches the side plates below the tender, then a piece of scrap brass strip shaped like a set of steps, (that is two right angles at different directions). At the rear of these I have added a long thin triangle to stiffen the whole assembly. The step itself is made from 1.5mm plastic card with a piece at the back (to stop the boots of the engine crew poking through) from 1mm plastic card .Glue the whole assembly together, and then I suggest that they are carefully removed till later as that way they will not be damaged – that is the voice of experience talking, I have repaired mine already!

At the front edge of the water filler deck I added a piece with a curved top to stop coal falling onto the water deck, and equally water falling into the coal! These are complemented by a couple of triangular pieces on the front, which are slightly sloped backwards. There is also, raised from the water deck with a couple of 5mm square pieces is a toolbox, made from scraps of plastic card to the same design as Bachmann use on their Spectrum Mogul, and 4 4 0. Here is a photo of the underside of the base, which shows the water box, and in the centre is the weight that I have added; there is about 2lbs in weight, and it is all glued in with Evo-stick

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Complete picture