Dundas Models OO9 DM22 Festiniog Railway Semi-Open Bogie Coaches Nos 37 & 38 Kit
These two coaches were built by the Festiniog Railway in the early preservation era using chassis from Hudson bogie flat wagons with bogies similar to the WW1 designs.
A number of narrow gauge railways had coaches built on former wagon chassis, often in the same semi-open style, including lines built to serve quarries and military depots, where passenger service was added later and coaches were built from stock on hand.
This kit offers a coach which has been built on a chassis similar to the WD railways wagons which provided the bogies for the Ashover coaches being produced by Bachmann. The kit represents two vehicles built by the Festiniog Railway soon after the start of the preservation era to provide a quickly built passenger coach to get services up and running. A number of similar cross-bench or toastrack style coaches were built by or for other railways over the years including exhibition and estate railways, military lines and as extra 'summer coaches' on lines with more fully enclosed coaches for year-round service.
Plastic is easy to work with and modify during construction, so changes can be made before final assembly. The most obvious change to reflect the design of a number of narrow gauge coaches would be to remove the door panels, making the model a basic open or semi-open side cross-bench design.
A further detail to add would be using suitably crumpled thin paper to recreate tarpaulin screens, drawn closed on one side to provide protection from wind and rain.