When I started railway modelling nearly sixty years ago there were really just two accepted materials for making carriage roofs. One was wood as produced in the popular 0 gauge CCW kits of the period, and the other was cardboard, popularly called Bristol Board, which we coated with shellac to stiffen it and seal it for the application of paint. Some people made a roof former of balsa wood and made a covering of paper as a top surface. There may have been other methods, but the above is really all that was popular at the time the Gauge 0 Guild was founded. I tried all of them.

At about the same period George Slater revolutionised the modelling world with the introduction of Plastikard. Soon we were using it instead of cardboard for buildings and rolling stock. Some even used it for locomotive superstructures too, although that was frowned up on by all those who could use a soldering iron. Back in those mid-20th century days, boys were usually taught how to solder at school and I was soon cutting up syrup tins and the like with the kitchen scissors and constructing my first locomotives. I soon learnt how to avoid burning my fingers, but the bleeding cuts were another thing. Tin plate was (and is) admirable material to work with and is sadly rather out of fashion these days.

I still have my first scratch-built locomotive made out of tinplate, and I also have two 0 gauge locomotives with bodywork constructed from Plastikard. My tinplate Isle of Man tank engine is fifty years old and nearly as good as new, but the two plastic bodied locomotives from the 1970s have not fared so well.

The one area where Plastikard or any other styrene sheet lets you down is the aging process and the material becomes brittle with age. This is no problem in most cases, but when used for

the roof of a carriage, goods van or locomotive cab roof, it will in due course break away at the corners. That is a big shame because it is so good for most other applications.

Aluminium

Faced with damaged roof corners on rolling stock after a running session or more often than not after transport to an exhibition, I looked for something more suitable for purpose. Brass and nickel-silver were to hand, but in the thinner sheet they also bent at the vulnerable corners and accepted dints too readily (for which there was no real remedy) and did not hold paint all that well. I did find that a first coat of gloss black primed the surface well and the appropriate matt grey as a second top coat did not rub away that easily. Nothing looked worse to my eyes that matt paint coming off along the edges and revealing the shinning metal underneath. If the black showed, that was acceptable.

It was then that I stumbled on some thin aluminium sheet. The local hardware store stocked everything, but that kind of shop is almost all gone now; replaced by DIY super stores. You know, the sort of shop made famous in the Two Ronnies 'fork handles' sketch. My local shop sold piercing saws, pin chucks, drills as thin as a needle up to ones that might be used in the construction industry. They also sold sheets of aluminium about one sixteenth of an inch thick in sizes about thirty inches square. I believe they were intended to be used to block off a fireplace when fixed gas fires and central heating became the norm. I had a better use for it . . .

The material cuts like Plastikard. A straight edge and a Stanley knife scores the line (several times to get around half way through the thickness) and then the aluminium will bend along

the cut and subsequent bending makes it break along the line just as we do with styrene sheet. It can be trimmed with large scissors for shorter cuts. Long bladed old scissors from the kitchen are highly suitable for the purpose.

The advantages of aluminium are that is not only easy to work, but that it will hold paint better than most materials. It does work better if cleaned with abrasive paper first, just as any metal requires. It is light in weight and an old fashioned wooden roof put weight just where you didn't want it, high up in the vehicle. It is easy to bend to the desired profile.

Detail of prototype coach roofs

A simple arc roof is straight forward; an elliptical profile takes more work rolling it over a broom handle or dowel as a suitable former, but it is not all that difficult. Once bent to shape it stays in the intended curve too.

When it comes to drilling holes for torpedo vents or gas lamps, it is easier to drill through than other metals. Araldite sticks well to it too, as long as it is relatively clean.

I use Plastikard micro strip for the roof edge gutter and in 7mm scale some of the rain strips. In many cases the rain strips on the roof are better cut from thicker Plastikard. I have measured the roof rain strips on old L& Y arc roof carriage bodies and found them to be made from timber 1½ inch square, but with a taper to one side with the upper edges rounded. In 7mm scale anything less than 1mm strip is undersized.

L&Y Rain strip section

Many people cannot get along with Rapid Araldite. I have no problem with it and the advantage of getting on with the job rather than waiting until tomorrow is paramount. I coat the underside of the moulding generously with the adhesive and position it in the desired arc on the roof, holding it in position with dabs of Sellotape. Within the hour the tape can be removed and all the spare Araldite pared off with a sharp blade while it is still in the toffee stage. Tiny blocks of Plastikard positioned about 2 scale feet apart hold the gas piping off the surface, again stuck with Araldite. Gas lamps and ventilators are similarly stuck in place with a holed drilled to take the sprue of the casting. The grab rails at the ends of carriage roofs are similarly fixed. I even have added the tiny eyelet rings along the edge of old LYR and LNWR carriages by twisting fuse wire around a pin to form the loop and sticking them under the edges of the roof. The extra detail gives me satisfaction, but in truth, nobody seems to ever notice them.

Roof lights as found in van roofs are made of Plastikard with my favoured glazing of 2mm picture glass. Nothing reflects the light like real glass. If I have to use transparent plastic for glazing, I chose the cases from old audio cassettes boxes. That material is also my favourite material for lavatory windows. To make the glass frosted, merely rub it with fine abrasive paper for a perfect result.

For good vans, aluminium works just as well. Most prototype vans had a planked roof covered in fabric to seal it, and the planks would more often than not show indistinctly through the covering. Many cattle vans didn't even have the cloth covering and so avoided nails through the roof planks that could damage the livestock inside. The planked roof was all the more evident on these vehicles. I simply score the planks on what is to be the

underside of the roof and when bent to the required profile they show just enough to suggest they are under a covering.

Obtaining useful thicknesses of sheet aluminium is now not all that straight forward. I will work with whatever thickness I can get. The first sheet I obtained forty years ago came from the local corner hardware shop. It was in the region of one sixteenth of an inch thick. I obtained some thinner sheet when that ran out, but I prefer the substantial stuff. Even the very thin aluminium used as printing plates on small office litho machines has a place, but I have laminated two sheets together for 7mm use; again, Araldite was my chosen adhesive. I bent the two layers before sticking them together bound with tape around a wine bottle. Latterly I approached a local vehicle body builders firm. It seems that small delivery vans need re-bodying from time to time and so there are lots of off-cuts about the place. The most recent one I visited gave me a sheet about four foot by two foot six; it was of no use to them, they had no way of charging for it, so I went home with enough to keep me happy for the next few years.

I have now used aluminium for roofing since the 1970s in 4mm scale, 7mm scale and now in half inch to the foot scale (Gauge 3) and wouldn't change to anything else. Only the MR clerestory carriages retained wood for the roof just as the old CCW kits did. The prospect of Gresley and Pullman coaches may call for some ingenuity but what is life without a challenge?

More roof detail