Which wood, would one use?

I am quite new to the whole carriage and wagon world, I have been working with timber for the last decade or so (Theatre set builder) but have only recently got involved with my railways C/W doing some repairs to some rotten door bottoms and building a disabled half door to match an existing door.



I have now turned my thoughts to having a go at building a few more things, I may have convinced the other half that our garden shed will be a replica FR quarryman's carriage, the thought was then if I am building one, why not make a second for the railway while I am at it.

I have produced a rough cutting list and have started to look at costings for the timber, but my question is what should I really be using.

I used sapele and exterior Ply for the disabled door,

I have costed the FR carriage completely in Planned Oak and come out with around £5500 worth of timber, sapele is about double the cost of Oak. I had looked at doing the chassis and Body frame in Larch and it is about 1/4 of the cost of oak, however am I going to regret this when I am struggling to stop the thing from rotting in 5 years time. The Mahogany I was replacing in Carriage No.7 above was over 25 years old and appeared to have no or very little in the way of preservative applied.

If I did the frame in Larch, exterior cladding in oak, could the internal cladding be in soft wood?

I also appreciate that the working carriage will need about £6K or metalwork/wheels/Drawgear... Hence my desire to reduce the timber costs a little.

 

Keruing used to be a good cheap timber for structural work, and has been used extensively on the LNERCA's Thompson TK 1623 but its a very long time since the material was bought and prices may have increased since then. The LNERCA is looking at buying and sawing up a log of Khaya, which is from the mahogany family and is said to be as close as one can now get the Honduran mahogany. We want mainly panels from the log, so there should be plenty of material suitable for structural use in addition. Last time I inquired the price was ca. £100 + VAT /cu ft, which was then comparable to sapele, although availability is much more limited.. If you are interested, please get in touch and I'll start investigating again.

 

We use Keruing or Oroco for Wagon floors, it does give good longevity but it rather harsh on saw blades.

 

From the LNERCA website.
http://lnerca.org/frame.htm

In my own case.
The restoration work on NER Snowplough involved the use of Oak Beams to replace the entire underframe,
Pitch Pine for the Plough Slope and decent grade new softwood for the 3 different thicknesses of T+G for the bodywork.
The T+G we made up ourselves using a spindle moulder.
http://yorkareagroup.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/snowplough-18/thumbs/thumbs_front-rh.jpg

 

Iroko-is-similar-to-teak-in-strength,not-quite-as-durable-but-nevertheless-a-good-timber.-several-vintage-road-coach-bodies-are-built-of-Ash-framework-either-American-or-European-which-is-widely-available-although-not-considered-durable-..,
Malaysian-Miranti-is-another-useful-construction-timber-which-is-moderately-durable.....We-have-also-used-Idigbo-which-is-quite-a-soft-hardwood-but-also-considered-durable-and-is-quite-cheap.-Sapele-being-another-ideal-candidate,-Utile-we-have-used-more-for-interior-finishing-work-rather-than-constructional.-
Keruing-is-good-for-floors-and-floor-supports,but-blunts-tools-badly-and-has-a-sticky-resin-it-extrudes-in-warm-temperatures-and-tends-to-have-a-rough-grain-and-splits,so-not-brilliant-for-machining,-but-is-relatively-cheap.

There-are-other-stronger-constructional-grade-woods-such-as-Greenheart-and-Azobe(often-used-as-a-replacement-for-Jarrah-on-point-timbers),-but-they're-strength-probably-wouldn't-be-justified-on-a-railway-coach-body.

Sorry-about-the-dashes-my-spacebar-has-packed-up!

Daniel-Smith
LMSCA

 

Thank you to everyone who has responded. I will do a bit more research on your suggestions and see how they pan out on the cost front. I know that the price should not be the overriding consideration, however with a self funded project it will be a limiter.

 

From my construction background i'd usually use sapele, but the other option worth looking at is Accoya :http://www.accoya.com/ This basically treated soft wood, its not cheap but based on the industry tests is very durable and stable. Were being lead to believe its the future! Ive just had some sapele wardrobe's remade in accoya after the sapele moved, and so far they are completely stable.

Have a look on the TRADA website : https://www.trada.co.uk/techinfo/tsg/ You have to log in but their timber selection gismo is very useful.

 

One thing that hasn't been mentioned about keruing... the dust — it's bloody awful stuff & will do you no good at all. A decent face mask & dust extraction is a must.

Another thing to watch out for is so-called alleged 'Marine Ply'. A lot of this seems to come from SE Asia & falls short of the relevant British Standard by several miles. Cheaper (in the long run) is solid birch ply sourced from Scandinavia or Canada.

Pete S.
C&W Dept.,
GWS Didcot.