Iconic Carriages

The Talyllyn’s ex-Corris railway carriage in traffic and decorated for a wedding. 

Following its horse tramway origins, the Corris Railway was furnished with four wheel tram cars built by Falcon, same as the locos, similar examples of which survive at the National Tramway Museum at Crich. These must’ve lurched and bounced along behind the steam locos and were rebuilt with two bodies on one bogie chassis. With two more bogie carriages of this design being built new by Metropolitan to create in my opinion one of the finest carriage fleets of the Welsh narrow gauge railways. The two Metropolitan carriages survived closure, one has operated on the Talyllyn since 1963 and has recently undergone an extensive overhaul. The other survives as an exhibit in the museum at Corris where the resurgent railway has built a fine set of replica carriages. Anyone who has ridden in these carriages can attest to the impressive all round view of the scenery they provide. 

Being short bogie carriages, these are ideal prototypes for the narrow gauge modeller and in 7mm scale, a surprising gap in the market. Yes there have been some Worsley etches, but that kind of origami holds no appeal to me and model making is supposed to be fun after all. 

Into the breach stepped IconicRail, a new name on the scene from a long standing Corris fan with not one but three coach kits, the Falcon and Metropolitan types, plus the clerestory conversion and the brake van. Made up of plastic, resin and white metal, these made their debut at Burton in June this year and I promptly came home with a pair as being perfect for the Upper Melyn Tramway. 

The kits lay dormant in a drawer until the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association’s Chairman made a comment on the Association’s Facebook Group that he was aggrieved that no one had rewarded this enterprise with a review for Narrow Lines. 

These comments from Komrade Nitpickin  coincided with me having an empty work bench, promptly filled by the two kits and a start was made. 

The kits comprise a number of lovely injection moulded plastic body parts, resin floor, roof and seats. Some whitemetal detail castings and bogies, which gives some handy weight low down. Wheels and even transfers for the intricate lining are included with instructions that mainly take the form of pictures and diagrams. 

The contents of the Metropolitan Kit laid out on the desk. 

An evening’s work saw the first body made up plus a set of bogies and a second afternoon saw a second body made up. They really are a joy to build. 

The Metropolitan carriage, goes nicely with my Fletcher Jennings. 

And then there were two. 

A second blog post will follow with a build review, it appears I have an article for the Editor for Narrow Lines to write too.