Egger-bashing

I've always rather liked the Eggerbahn "OEG" coaches, with their large saloon windows, end balconies and rounded roof-ends they have a feel of the Welshpool & Llanfair "Pickering" coaches. Being H0e scale they are somewhat smaller than the Welshpool coaches, but actually fit quite well with most 009 stock, and anyway smaller coaches make a small layout seem bigger! So I thought a couple of them would make a rather nice tramway-style train for Awngate.

For some reason these coaches sometimes seem to attract silly money on evilbay, but I had one I got from the 009 society sales stand a few years ago before prices rocketed, and picked up another at a reasonable price recently. Neither are "mint", having just one step each (they are rather vulnerable) so they are ripe for "bashing" into something more British-looking.

As you can see the first thing to do was to cut away the raised "OEG" motif from the side, a tricky job with much careful sanding to get the side smooth. The next step is to dis-assemble the coach ready for further work. The roof is glued on, one came off with careful leverage but on the other coach it seemed to have more glue - and when it did eventually come away it broke one of the windows with it. However, that may not be a problem...

While at NG South I spied some Egger coach conversions on Charlie Insley's layout, Winter Overcoates. As well as modifications to the balconies and underframes, and repainting into GWR livery (similar to the Welshpool coaches), one has been turned into a guards/brake coach.

Awngate only has space for two bogie coaches, and that doesn't leave much room for a brake van, so perhaps a brake composite would be a good idea? However I don't want too much of the coach given over to the guard, so having studied the Welshpool brake composite I have come up with this proposal:

Apologies for the basic MS-Paint doodle, I don't run to Photoshop, but you get the idea! Half the coach is still a Third class saloon (originally Second), then there is a small guards/parcels compartment with a single door, and finally a First class compartment. Perhaps a look-out ducket would add character, but it seems unnecessary and there isn't really space.