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Silver Sidelines

Entry posted by Silver Sidelines

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My layout is set in the period 1959/1961, give or take couple or years. With the arrival of the New Year I have taken the opportunity to move the time period forward and run a few models from say 1963/1964. I shall call it the British Railways Maroon era.

 

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British Rail WR Maroon Hydraulics – Bachmann Magpie and Heljan Western Talisman

 

Western Talisman was outshopped in maroon in August 1962. A year or more would have to pass before any of the Warships were painted in maroon.

 

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British Rail WR Maroon Hydraulics – Bachmann Magpie and Heljan Western Talisman

 

Prior to 1956 British Railways mainline coaching stock was supposed to be painted in crimson and cream (blood and custard). Seemingly the Western Region of British Railways did not always comply and the rolling stock for some named trains began to be painted in chocolate and cream. Certainly by the late 1950s when the first diesel hydraulics emerged from Swindon (without yellow warning panels) there were plenty of chocolate and cream carriages around.

 

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The old order - Bachmann BR Green Warship ‘Eclipse’ with chocolate and cream Mk1s c1959

 

Elsewhere on British Railways the crimson and cream livery gave way to lined maroon which became the official livery (including the Western Region) for all locomotive hauled passenger stock right up until 1966.

 

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The new order – Bachmann BR Maroon Warship ‘Magpie’ with lined maroon coaches c1963

 

I have guessed the year 1963 – I have to admit to not knowing when (or even if) ‘Magpie’ was painted BR Maroon but I like the livery.

 

Heljan ‘Talisman’ arrived on the layout in 2009. It came off that well known auction site for around £45.00 – cheap by today’s prices. It would be 2010 before I acquired a rake of BR Maroon Hawksworth coaches from Hornby. At the time I was greatly disappointed by the huge gap between the Hornby coaches and the unrealistic plastic corridor connectors (which on my models were badly deformed). There is an earlier Post on my Blog describing how to close couple the coaches and to add some more realistic corridor connectors.

 

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Some I made earlier – corridor connectors for Hornby Hawksworth coaches

 

What about maroon catering vehicles? In 2007 I had put together a rake of ‘M’ prefix BR Maroon Mk1s to represent a British Railways (LMR) train set. The only Bachmann Mk1 catering vehicle available at the time was a Restaurant Unclassified (RU) 39-054 which came with a ‘W’ prefix (and roof mounted water tanks) – it would have to do! In fact it had to do right up until last year when I was able to replace it with a modified maroon M prefix Mainline Restaurant Buffet.

 

The Bachmann RU was now surplus and available for use in the rake of Hornby Hawksworth coaches. My rakes of Bachmann Mk1 coaches are fitted with Hornby R8220 couplers – the same as used on the Hawksworth coaches. How would the two types run together? Well – not very well. Unfortunately the homemade Hawksworth corridor connectors kept locking with the open plastic connector on the Bachmann RU causing one or more coaches to derail.

I guess the simplest solution would have been to glue a piece of black card across the corridor connector on the RU. I like to keep as many options open as possible and instead I made up a ‘push in’ card connector to match my existing connectors on the Hawksworth coaches.

 

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Bachmann RU with push in corridor connector for use with Hornby Hawksworth

 

A close up of the finished arrangement:

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Bachmann RU + Hornby Hawksworth

 

A view of the Bachmann RU inserted into the rake of Hornby Hawksworths.

 

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Bachmann BR Maroon Mk1 ‘W’ Prefix Restaurant Unclassified

 

If I was going to model the period 1963/64 – what about a rake of maroon Mk1s? Prior to the RU becoming surplus I had purchased a Bachmann ‘W’ prefix maroon RMB. This was outshopped around 1964 – too late for my 1960s steam / diesel layout but it could be used with the maroon diesels. I had also recently parted with Bachmann ‘Foxhound’ – one of the early Bachmann models with too low a chassis. ‘Foxhound’ was replaced with the ‘Torbay Express’ which not only provided ‘Magpie’ but also two BR ‘W’ prefix maroon Mk1s. We were in business.

 

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Bachmann BR Maroon ‘W’ Prefix RMB

 

I saw ‘Talisman’ at Chester in the weeks immediately after it was delivered. I never saw a maroon Warship and it was only after putting these trains together I began to appreciate what a striking livery the all over maroon could make.

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British Rail WR Maroon Hydraulics

 

To provide a combined view of the engines and trains there is a short video available on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/fJ8YbJnttSo

I made the corridor connectors to be a ‘push fit’ for the RU so that they could also be used with the RMB should I wish to swap the two coaches around.

 

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Bachmann RU + Hornby Hawksworth Corridor Connector

 

Construction followed my previous practice. Each connector was cut from a rectangle 66mm by 30mm of black card (Daler – Rowney A4 Canford 150g/m Jet Black card). The centre panel was 16mm wide. The concertina sections on either side were made up of three sections, 3mm, 10mm and 12mm wide. In order to fit inside the dummy Bachmann corridor connector the concertina sections were reduced in height by 6.5mm at the top and 4mm at the bottom.

 

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The finished connectors Bachmann RU to Hornby Hawksworth

 

Finally the top of the centre panel was rounded to match the top of the dummy connector on the Bachmann coach.

 

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British Rail WR Maroon Hydraulics

 

Another view of two maroon diesels – I do like the colour scheme!

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John Tomlinson

Some lovely images and the corridor connectors really do lift the whole thing to another level, rather than huge gaps for our hypothetical passengers to leap! Amazing that so few people seem to bother to do this when the financial cost is tiny.

 

Sometime in the early 70's I was on a train on the WCML in Staffordshire when a coupling broke. The loco and front part of the train eventually stopped and reversed back, and a temporary screw coupling was fitted. I don't think anyone was walking across the connection at the time, but I do remember standing in the open doorway looking back along the track and pondering the possible consequences!

 

John.

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Silver Sidelines

Thanks John

.....Sometime in the early 70's I was on a train on the WCML in Staffordshire when a coupling broke. ......t I do remember standing in the open doorway looking back along the track and pondering the possible consequences!

An interesting tale - my wife has been pondering this very matter this morning.

 

Regards

 

Ray

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