Netley Ambulance Coaches Model - A Centenary Project

[CommanderChuff]

After several months of modelling I have now finished my model of the WD Netley Coaches as my personal contribution to the Great War Centenary.

 

The Netley coaches were a set of five bogie vehicles which were produced by the London South Western Railway from 48ft fruit vans. The conversion to carry stretchers was quite substantial. This model is constructed from styrene plastic sheet. The coaches were used in the 1900-1904 Boer War to convey casualties from warships in Portsmouth harbour to the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, Southampton. The train was used in WW1 and WW2 for casuality evacuation.

 

At the painting stage the colour scheme of the coaches was given as French Grey on the top panels and khaki on the lower sides. The panels were lined in yellow with fine red lining. It seemed quite straight forward until the question of what hue is french grey and was the khaki a brown or green. The latter was solved by assuming that WW1 overall colour was brown for the fields of Flanders, (whilst in WW2 the army colour changed to green), but the french grey was a problem. A few weeks of researching and chatting with paint companies revealed 3 hues of the colour:- British standards gave green-grey, which was matched by Farrow and Ball, whilst Little Greene gave cream-grey. The third variation was provided by a very kind historian on paint who had written a paper on the subject. This description of french grey was written in the 1780-1830 period and stated that it was grey with blue, red and black. It turns out that the green shade came in to use in the 1930's.

 

There is an intention to hold a 100th Anniversary Celebration of the End of the Great War for the Gauge O Guild Exhibition 2018. Please let me know if you would be interested in exhibiting your models,

David.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ARABIS]

Nicely done, thank you for showing us.

 

ARABIS.

[CommanderChuff]

Some more images of the model ambulance train which is nearing completion,

 

 

 

 

 

[GWF1967]

4 hours ago, CommanderChuff said:

Some more images of the model ambulance train which is nearing completion,

 

 

 

 

 

Great work C.Chuff,  many  thanks for posting. I hope to see some more pictures when you've finished.  😉 

 What are the overall dimensions of the diorama? 

[better ole]

Very nice work indeed. Wish my eye sight was better and I had a modicum of skill to build some thing like that.

[johnboy]

Thanks for posting the pics

[Martin Bennitt]

It deserves a prize in my book. Do you have an appropriate locomotive?

 

Cheers Martin B

[CommanderChuff]

Thank you all for your generous appreciation.   The locos are matched for these periods: Boer War - LSWR Adams Radial 04-4 tender, Great War - SECR O class 0-6-0 tender, Second World War - SECR G class 4-4-0 tender.  The full rake of coaches will be completed soon with some nice cameos (i hope) in the sotry of how the train was used in three major conflicts.

 

The scale is 7mm to the foot, track gauge is 32mm, the coaches are 48ft or 14.5 inches, and the whole train just about fits onto a 5ft baseboard.

[Mike_n_Tracey]

Great work David.

 

I am new to model railways. I finished my first ever a couple of months ago which was a surprise Thomas the Tank Engine layout for a 4 year old's birthday:

but I am now working on a Great War exhibition layout on a 3 foot by 5 foot board and will post video on the same channel.

 

I am modelling 20 CCS and will have 00 and 009 locomotives. There is an ambulance train in 00 and ambulance wagons in 009. As you know, both scales met at CCSs. As a former RAMC medic, it is combining all of my interests in one.

 

I will be publishing the first photos of the board soon. So far, I have all the track down and ballasted. The point motors are working but need to be soldered in and I have put in the road. On the layout will be ambulances (engine and horse-drawn) and omnibuses. I am converting two former ROD locomotives back to RODs and have a third ROD ready to go. This is all being set in Boisleux au Mont where they were from June 1917 until March 1918. The Americans built the narrow gauge railway there after the Germans destroyed the village when they retreated to the Hindenburg Line. That is quite fortunate because I have a Baldwin locomotive.

 

The CCS will be a mixture of tents and Nissen Huts. For a bit of fun, I am considering having a couple of Sopwith Camels chasing a Fokker overhead and a ROD with three war flats with Mk IV tanks and some Quarante Hommes, Huit Chevaux cars.

 

It's a steep learning curve but fun.

 

Michael

Edited 18 September , 2018 by Mike_n_Tracey

[CommanderChuff]

Michael,  

 

Thanks for your appreciation, there is nothing more satisfying than to research the history of subject close to your heart, to build the model, and then to enjoy the fruits of your labours, I hope that we will see some good things from your model layout soon, perhaps we can get a military railway show together in the future.

 

please let me know if I can help we any background info, good luck,

 

david

[CommanderChuff]

Michael,

 

An overnight thought is that the official medical history of the Great War has much interesting info on the way that the medical evacuation system was run.  The scale of the operations and the variety of equipment used is mind boggling.  These could provide a good basis for organising your layout and diorama to depict the CCS on historical fact. The link to the histories can be found on this forum.

 

hope that this helps to set the scene,

 

David.

 

[CommanderChuff]

Really enjoyed the video of the TtT, good modelling, well done, 

[CommanderChuff]

Some images of the complete train on my uncompleted layout of Folkestone Harbour railway.

[johnboy]

Thanks for posting

[Sniper]

Commander Chuff,

 

What a splendid model. I believe that you went to York Modelling for the sides?

 

i have been trying to track down a similar van to the green “brake van / guard’s van in the photos you posted.

 

i am interested in an 00 (4mm) scale model, but have been unable to track down anything remotely like this. I should be most grateful if you could let me know the correct name for this vehicle.

 

Many thanks,

 

Sniper