Hogwarts-Inspired Coach Projects for Craftcutters

And - to be honest - I'm a fan of the Hogwarts Express, from the Hall class locomotive to the oft-shown compartmented passenger cars.

Unfortunately, the Hogwarts Express has never been properly modeled in Large Scale, which I run. Lionel once made some battery-powered toys that ran on 45mm track (now they run on 2" track), but that doesn't really count.

So I got to wondering if it would be possible to use my craftcutters to create Large Scale coaches that would look right for a 1:32 or so Hogwarts Express train

UK modelers know what I did not, that the Harry Potter movies use the standard MK-1 coaches that were made by the thousands and ran on just about every bit of railroad in Britain, Scotland, and Wales for decades, starting in the 1950s.

Encouraged by the little bit of information I could track down, I thought I would try creating svg files for those coaches.

One of the most helpful bits of information came from a June, 2013 RMWeb post by user "Hilux5972":

In case you still wish to know, the train consists of the following, in the following order:

• Hall Class No.5972 Hogwarts Castle
• BSK No.99723 Brake Corridor Coach
• SK No.99716 Composite Corridor Coach
• SO No.99317 2nd Open Coach
• SK No.99718 Composite Corridor Coach
• BSK No.99312 Brake Composite Corridor Coach

As far as I can tell from my research, this is the correct formation as used in the Half Blood Prince movie when Harry listens in on Draco's conversation.

I had a bit of trouble tracking down builders' drawings of the various coaches. And since many of these were made in slightly different configurations, I may not have chosen the best configuration to model. That said, once you have the .svg files, you should be able to tweak any of them to achieve the configuration you prefer.

I figured I'd start with an "SK" "Corridor coach" that reminded me of the one Harry, Hermione, and Ron ride in the movie. After looking at a lot of drawings and photos, I decided to use what seemed to be the most common configuration I could find, as shown in Dave Coxon's photo below.

If you want to see an MK1 SK in more typical UK colors, click here.

This configuration has three doors on each side, both restrooms at either side of one end, and eight compartments, each with a wide window.

As far as I can tell, the child in the photo above is sitting in one of the compartments. If you saw a child sitting in the same position on the other side of the car, it wouldn't be a SK - there aren't any seats on the other side.

I also compared the real thing to Universal Studio's version in Orlando, shown in the photo below. You'll note that they've removed the restrooms and widened the doors, at the expense of two "compartments." Presumably the wider doors make the ride more accessible.

As far as I know, these coaches, like the locomotives that ostensibly pull them, are fiberglass mockups with no detail to speak of on the side you can't see. But the parts you can see are pretty convincing.

After I designed svg files for cutting the SK's sides, I started on a BSK "Brake Corridor" coach. These have room for passengers, but they also have compartments for "guards" working the train, and doors wide enough to accommodate baggage and freight. In other words, they're pretty analogous to "combine" cars used on many US railroads at one time or another. That said, passenger trains of the MK1 era typically had "brake cars" of one sort or another at both ends of the train.

Because these were made in several configurations, I may not have chosen the exact configuration shown in the movie. A real-world example of the design I chose from the Coaching Stock Library is shown below:

I selected the BSK configuration with two double doors and four compartments.

There is a common alternative configuration, with five compartments and one less door. If you want to make that one, it shouldn't be hard to tweak my svg files.

I also wanted to make an SO, but the first SO I tracked down and modeled turned out to be a mislabeled MK2. So I made that file available below.

Then I went back to the internet again and found an MK1 SO drawing. I guess what "threw me" on my original search for these was that the window and door arrangement is the same as the SK coach I started out with.

In other words, my first pattern should work just as well for the MK1 SO coach where Draco Malfoy was holding court in "Halfblood Prince." When you put the seats in, though, they'll be different.

Downloadable Patterns

So here are the patterns for the sides of the cars I've attacked so far:

• SK Corridor Coach Side SVG - This pattern will work for the sides of a Standard (or Second-class) "Corridor" coach. That's the sort that Harry, Ron, and Hermione ride in. It's also the kind that Universal Studios simulates for their Hogwarts Express ride.

  At the moment all I have is the patterns for the sides. As far as I can tell from the blurry builder's drawings, the side is 64 feet long, so you can hopefully do the math and rescale it to whatever scale you need. (Note: one writer says the length is 63 feet, so I'm open to corrections from people who have better sources.)

  In 1:32, the "correct" proportion for standard gauge trains on 45mm track, each side would be 24" long, so you'll probably notice that the .svg files I've created seem pretty big. But of course they're scalable to any size.

  The top row of each pattern file shows all the layers together. It's just a guideline for your assembly. Please delete it before you cut the other rows. In its place, put another set of the windowframes from the bottom layer - they're a little more fragile and may not all come out.

  Also, I understand that the other side is an exact mirror image of this one, so if you use this pattern, you can simply flop it to get the pattern for the other side. If you know differently, please let me know - I'm trying to offer a service, not rewriting history.

• MK1 SO Open Coach - As mentioned above, the window and door arrangement for the MK1 Standard/Second Open coach is the same as for the SK Corridor coach above. So when you want to add this car, just reuse the side patterns from the SK above.

  Like the SK, the other side is a mirror image of this one, so you can simply flop the pattern to make the other side. (In both cases, the restrooms are at the same end, if that helps you visualize.)

• BSK Corridor Coach Side SVG - This pattern will work for the sides of a Standard (or Second-class) "Brake Corridor" coach, something like the "combine" coaches on US railroads.

  Though you don't see any characters riding in these in the movie, I'm told that it was standard to have these "brake cars" on both ends of passenger trains of this era, and that the trains are shown that way in the movies.

  Like the SK and SO cars we've discussed, the other side of this car seems to be a mirror image of this side, so you should be able to just flop the pattern to cut the other side.

• MK2 SO "Second/Standard Open" - Technically, this is a car from a different, later series than the other cars on this page. However, since I designed the svg file before I discovered that the drawing I was using was mislabeled, I figure I might as well include it, too.

  Unlike the other cars on this page, the far side of the car is different than the near side - both restrooms are on the same side of the car, so it's asymmetrical. I've included extra patterns for the other side of the car. You'll notice that the last two patterns are "missing" the restroom windows.

  Again, if you want to cut a car from this pattern, be sure to take the top row off first - it's just there to show you how the layers go together.

Conclusion

Of course, once I was well into this project, I realized that Accucraft has made a line of MK1 coaches in 1:32, a common Large Scale ratio. And they're very nice, even if they do list for $275 apiece and are hard to find.

Mostly, though, I just wanted to see what it would take to create craft-cutter-friendly patterns for anyone willing to build their own MK1 coaches in ANY scale.

I may not even do these in Hogwarts colors - I like GRW and some of the other UK lines. I also have a dozen other projects to get to before I start actually cutting sides, but I wanted to make these resources available as soon as possible for any hobbyists who wanted to try them.

Watch this page: more articles are in the works.

As always, we want to hear your suggestions, criticisms, additions, etc. Enjoy your hobbies, and especially any time you can spend with your family in the coming months!

Paul

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