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Carflats and Cartic-4 Motorail Wagons
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A scratchbuilt Carflat by Greg Brookes utilising a Bachmann 64ft coach chassis, seen at
Wibdenshaw at the rear of a Motorail service. Motorail flat number B745027 built to dia
1/189 (1968/1969), built from redundant mark 1 coach underframes. Those in use with
long distance holiday and passenger traffic were in blue livery, whilst bauxite was
generally used for 'factory fresh' bulk car deliveries. Mainly built from scratch with
a few added proprietry items. Guard rail made from plastruct and styrene rod, the B1
bogies and underframe by Bachmann, and additional plastic parts.
A 57ft Carflat used in the supply of new cars. This is an Oxford Models wagons with
replacement bogies and 14mm wheelsets.
A pair of Oxford Models Carflats. As supplied, the wagon has under scale bogies and
incorrect 12mm wheelsets.
Showing replacement Bachmann LMS bogies being fitted. To provide adequate clearance for
the replacement 14mm wheelsets, some surgery is required underneath as shown.
Into service with new bogies and wheels. This 57ft vehicle can accomodate 3 Ford Cortinas.
This Oxford 57ft Carflat is fitted with a tail lamp and vacuum pipe, as the last vehicle in
the rake. The number plates have all been painted body colour since this image was taken.
Bachmann produce a 64ft Carflat based on a ex-BR mark 1 coaching stock chassis which will
accomodate 4 Ford Cortinas as seen here, next to a Oxford 57ft Carflat for comparison.
When released, the Bachmann Carflat with BR1 bogies was only available in Motorail blue livery.
Most of the markings have been masked off and the vehicle repainted bauxite, then finished off
with replacement designation and numbering.
Bachmann 64ft Carflat loaded with Oxford Diecast Ford Cortina mark 2.
Bachmann 64ft Carflat loaded with Oxford Diecast Ford Cortina mark 2.
A view of the car train at Hornsey Broadway, consisting of a mix of 57ft & 64ft Carflats.
Loaded Carflat traffice originating from East London consisted not only of Dagenham built cars
such as the Ford Cortina, but also several different versions of the Ford Transit, which were
manufactured at various plants around the UK and in Europe.
English Electric type 3 - D6947 heads north with a train of loaded Carflats. The first
wagon in the rake has been empty for a while and was reserved for a couple of Ford D cab
lorry chassis, however it's been decided to leave this wagon empty and the chocks have
now been glued onto the deck.
A new Bachmann Carflat has been acquired (in foreground awaiting detail & weathering)
for the D series chassis cabs. Rather than try to modify the existing Base Toys die-cast
chassis, new 3D printed examples of different lengths (and wheel sizes) have been
produced, with the cabs shown here awaiting repainting.
Showing the completed vehicles glued and chocked on to the new wagon in the fleet.
We can assume that wing mirrors will be fitted by the coach works, dependant on body styles.
The Cartic-4 articulated wagons by Revolution Trains is an easy conversion to EM gauge utilising
the existing wheels. With 0.45mm faced off the inside and the flanges polished smooth, each
wheel is pulled out on the axle by just over 0.5mm to EM gauge. Despite the insulated bush
staying in place, there's still a lot of width left on the bush to hold the wheel securely,
and in this conversion no trimming was required on the brake blocks. One essential thing at
this stage was to paint the wheel faces, as the factory chrome finish is somewhat glaring.
With the sets now ready to roll on the layout and looking very mid-60s ex-works condition,
they are crying out for some customisation to bring them more into their filthy 1970s condition.
The Motorail branded Cartic-4 sets had a relatively short life in Motorail service, instead being
used for deliveries of vehicles from the manufacturing plants to distribution centres. From the
late 1960s onwards, single deck Carflats were used for Motorail services.
The upper and lower deck tracks were painted using a mix of Humbrol black 33 and
chocolate 98, then stippled to remove any paint clogging up the holes.
The two finished Cartic-4 sets are captured here ready for service, and will remain as a
empty southbound rake with the addition of a few Carflats. Using photographs for reference,
the handrails were painted blue and then the wagons finished off with some light weathering.
With new Ford vehicles heading north on a mix of BR and LMS Carflats (with one borrowed from the
Motorail fleet), the empty car train is seen heading south to Dagenham for loading.
The Motorail panels were retained well into the 1970s, even after their change of use, with
some 4-car articulated sets noted with only 2 instead of the 4 panels. From an extensive collection
of photographs, it's noted that empty rakes heading south on the East Coast Main Line was quite common.
