​These attractive and highly distinctive vehicles were constructed by the Gloucester Carriage works in 1925 for The Clay Cross Company in order to provide passenger services on the newly opened Ashover Light Railway . The design was something of a hybrid combining a Gloucester built body with second hand WD bogies acquired by the Clay Cross Company following WW1 service.
 
This kit is a scratch aid pack. The kit contains most of the main parts necessary to construct the basic body and underframe, but excludes bogies, steps and handrails / handles.
 
The resin works easily with common modelling tools, parts glue together with superglue and paint well with any good quality modelling paint. Instructions giving guidance for construction are included. As with my Standard gauge Coachbuilder packs, the aim is to give the builder a good head-start, compared to starting completely from scratch. For anyone who enjoys rolling stock construction and maybe has a good spares box, this pack should provide a straightforward and satisfying build.
 
The kit comprises the following parts: Coach sides and ends, internal partitions, underframe and head stocks. A styrene roof section is provided which will require trimming to size, together with a strip of styrene for the floor and glazing. Finished size measured over roof approx. 212mm x 45mm
 
The photographs show the parts similar to those you will receive, a test build body in grey undercoat, and a demonstration build illustrating how a completed model could, look but on ordinary bogies.
 
Note for 'might have been' layout builders - if you favour the freelance approach to layout construction, the Ashover body pack could be very useful. It has been said that the body was taken from an existing Gloucester design for a Tramway style coach. Modifications only being done to the underside to allow the fitting of WD bogies, presumably a cost saving measure requested by the Clay Cross Company, and supplied from their own stock. This raises the intriguing possibility that the body was originally designed to run on more conventional bogies. With this in mind, I have built the demonstration model with conventional bogies to suggest what the original Gloucester design may have looked like, and I feel it makes into an attractive vehicle.
Other builders with a taste for kit bashing have found that the Ashover body makes the ideal starting point for a freelance narrow gauge rail-car project.