Project FG

One of the carriages that will be run on Murringo will be an ACS composite sleeper, which I will be converting from a Lima MFE in future. However the ACS requires two doors from a donor MFE. I have two cars, however it seemed a true shame to hack up a whole carriage for just two doors. A discussion with James McInerney lead to a solution being formed. Convert a 72'6" MFE into a 50'6" FG second class sitter.

Six of these centre door saloon cars were built on the underframes of BKG horseboxes in November-December 1942 to counter a coaching stock shortage. Unlike any other class of carriage in NSW, the FGs had no first or composite counterpart. Seating capacity was 28 persons in each saloon on either side of the central doorway in a 3-2 seating arrangement, except the rows adjacent to the doorways and end vestibules which had a two person seat either side of the aisle. The seats came from N type cars which had been requisitioned to form an ambulance train. The FGs were built as independant carriages to bolster services. More info and a plan can be found in the December 1982 issue of AMRM.

FG 648 in Tuscan & Russet as delivered . NSWPTC photo.

Now, onto the conversion,

 The plan is mostly cut and shut, however the differing ends, means scratchbuilt ends will be needed. The centre doors also need to be altered at the top to give them the rectangular profile of the prototype. The leftover parts can be set aside for a future project.

Side A

Side B