© Don Marshall 2010

ELEGANT STEAM

London & North Eastern Railway

A sketch plan of the interior layout of the Observation Car. Not to scale. This iconic vehicle had a pure Art Deco interior and, in my opinion, was built purely for publicity reasons and it looked superb. The furniture seemed to follow the style of the rest of the train but internal decor was quite startling in, I believe, pastel shades. The partition between armchairs 1 & 2 was an archway rather than doorway. The arch seemed to be in polished aluminium and chrome. The brown area was the mail area and, I presume, would have linoleum or similar rather than carpet. Handrails to all double windows other than the rearmost pair. No curtains.

I wish all 4mm modellers well when they have a go at this one. I built mine in plasticard placed over a wooden former and poured boiling water over it. I succeeded after many failures and scalded fingers !!

This information is deduced from the dozens of photos in my possession.