Building 'Millpool' (a 4-wheel T34 brake 3rd)

RailHoliday have four historic railway carriages adjacent to St Germans station, near Saltash, on the Cornish side of the Royal Albert Bridge. One of these carriages, a converted brake 3rd diagram T34 christened 'Millpool' by its owners, is the subject of this conversion.

'Millpool' viewed from the western side. Note some windows have been boarded up as part of the holiday let conversion.    Photo: RailHoliday

Eastern side visible from the B3249 road. Photo: Google StreetView

These two photos show that the sides of the carriage are mirror images, with the lookouts and Guard's door directly opposite each other. (Unlike the T47 brake coach on which the Ratio kit is based.)

This conversion needs the ex-Ratio 4-wheel Brake Third coach, currently in the Parkside range under catalogue number PC613, and its stablemate the 4-wheel All Third PC610.

Using a razor saw and mitre block, slice the two sides of the brake coach along the red vertical lines as shown, with the hatched areas to be discarded (or go in the 'bits box'). From one of the sides of the All Third, remove the leftmost three compartments, and one other compartment, with the remainder again to go in the bits box. As an alternative, you could take the right-hand three compartments from the other side which would avoid one join in the finished model. However, keeping one side of the All Third intact means it can be used with parts from another brake coach to make a second T34 if required.

Cuts to be made to the Brake Third. Hatched areas are discarded. Cuts to be made to the All Third. Hatched area is discarded. Original photos: Peco/Ratio

The parts were then cleaned up and assembled in the correct order. Note the light blue plastic is the Brake coach kit and the light grey plastic is from the All Third.

The carriage was then assembled in the usual way using the chassis from the Brake Third coach kit.

For the interior, I used a cut-down 3d printed seating unit from ebay.