I've rediscovered the pleasure I get from disappearing for half an hour at lunchtimes to tinker with carriage construction - and so, as promised, here's a progress report.
I've not done a great deal, just finished one side of a "semi-open" summer car:
Don't look too closely, my inability to measure accurately seems to be getting worse!
The other side looks like this:
The bits where there's an extra layer are where the half-height doors are, in the other bits you can see the recesses where the glazing will slide in - there'll be an inner layer too to finish the job, but that's waiting until I know how high up the floor will come, which is waiting until I decide on and purchase some bogies.
The more I scratchbuild the more I realise that it must be paying someone else to think about all these little problems that is part of what you're splashing out on when you buy a kit... As it is the thinking falls to me, and occupies my mind far too much of the time, leading me to wonder - in darker moments - whether I shouldn't be using my limited brain capacity on something more worthwhile. But, in the absence of even the foggiest idea of how to cure cancer or bring about world peace, next week I shall start work on the other side.
The original plan was to build two of these, one open and one semi-open but, as I construct more of my line and realise just how short of space my loops and sidings are, I've decided that one of these lengthy beasties will probably be enough for now...
Cheers,
Andrew.