It's been far too long since I built anything railway related, so I've started a new project:
I’m guessing the KÖB bought the design above around the turn of the 21st century; at the time railways were realising that people with pushchairs and bicycles, and more importantly people using wheelchairs, wanted to travel as well, so there was a big push to make access possible. This was especially difficult for European railways because often rural station platforms were a flat space barely higher than the track.
Making platforms higher was more expensive than lowering train floors, especially as railways quickly realised they only really needed to have one “low floor” section in the train which could theoretically cater for everyone. These often turned out to be the driving units, possibly because many were being built or rebuilt at about this time, possibly on the basis they won’t forget to take the bit the driver sits in.
If you are wondering, the four side pieces are not because I'm getting ambitious again and trying to make two units. they're a reflection of my continued inability to paint cleanly around windows meaning that once again I'm going to have to make a sandwich of card and slide the glazing in when I've completed everything else.
Now I've got it into three dimensions. The "sandwich" shows up in the gaps between the inner and outer wall, which is where I'll slide the transparent plastic glazing. That's simple enough in the straight side walls, now I've got to work out how to make the angled windscreen in the same way.
