Tralee and Dingle composite brake coach 13 is my first build for 2012. The brass etched sides and ends were produced for me by Allen Doherty of Worsley Works. He scaled the parts up for me from his 7mm scale kit of this coach.
I started construction with the bogies, which are castings by Garden Railway Specialists ref AM325. The wheelbase of the bogies is a little longer (57mm) than the 52.5mm of the T&D originals, 3ft 6ins in full size, but they were the nearest match I could find. I drilled out the axleboxes to 5mm and fitted brass bearings to the enlarged holes. I have used GRS 30mm diameter spoked wheels. The bogies were assembled using 10ba brass screws and nuts and I have left some slack in these to give a bit of compensation when running on uneven track. I also glued some lengths of brass channel between the axlebox keeper plates (see photo on the right) to bring the appearance closer to the T&D originals.
A floor (3mm basswod again) was cut to size and glued in place sitting on top of the solebar wood strip and headstocks (buffer beams) (6mm x 12mm basswood) were glued on the inside of the brass ends.