brian daniels Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I went into Howes and found they had got hold of a pre-production 7mm AC Cars railbus so I bought it home to see what it was like and give it a test run, when the snow has cleared! We think it has the same type of motor that is fitted to their 4mm 47's. The round plate underneath is so you can remove it and insert a 23mm speaker in the space underneath it. One nice touch is that it is heavy so should run nicely. Now to find a screw driver and get inside it. The last picture shows an ESU speaker and enclosure screwed in where the blank was. You will need a long piece of wire on it to thread under the floor and up a pillar into the roof. It has a 21 pin socket in the roof for your decoders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
asa Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 What kind of price are we looking at Brian,I quite fancy one of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Tempting. Not sure it fits in with what I am doing but it would make a nice little distraction running it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 I am afraid they don't know the price or the release dates yet. I have found out that the top of the body is moulded in clear plastic and has been painted in this dark green. So I am using their base colour and adding the silver waist band and red bufferbeam and a grey roof. Should brighten it up a bit even if the green isn't quite correct. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Heljan do seem to be pushing ahead with their O Gauge program. With the 31 out, the 52 hopefully around Telford time, the 40 next year and then what and in what order. Not forgetting their trucks of course. Are we looking at two models a year. O is really taking off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Class 60 after the 40. I think this railbus will just drop in when it's done as I think it's a different market than the big diesel brigade buy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 It is a tad different to their normal big diesel range and will appeal to a lot of small layout owners who want some thing out of the norm. Nice one, I think it will sell well and add to the ever increasing range of O gauge. All we need now is some one to come up with an electric loco. AC / DC or even electro diesel. But there is still the big gap in the market in the shape of RTR coaches. Wagons are two a penny really in kit form and a lot of people can cope with a simple 16 tonner or even a brake van but a lot will pause when it comes to a coach as I think the painting and lining will be too much for them. Time will tell. There are only so many locos you can sell before you have to sell something to go behind them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltic17 Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Hopefully the Railbus will sell well for Heljan but it's not for me I'm afraid. I also hope a Class 25 and Class 45/46 Peak will be on the horizon at some point from Heljan although there are a few outstanding projects obviously. I agree O guage is moving up through the gears at present. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Finished painting and decaling the railbus. Looks quite nice. I painted the interior as well but bare in mind that Heljan will probably just do one colour inside unless we can persuade them otherwise. The whisker on the front is a Fox set for a Glouster DMU, pretty close! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Superb Brian as always. Its growing on me more and more. Difficult to say no to such a good looking little number like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Lovely paint job on that mate - and I like the way HJ have gone about molding the shell in clear plastic to get the glazing looking right, there could well be a lot of mileage in that idea. Always thought it would be the ideal way to do a D8xx Warship, in any scale.... ;O) Tetbury or bust...! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 The Chinese had painted the green on this model all I have done is all the other colours. I assume as this is a pre-production model they did not want to do a good job of masking the windows before painting the green on the clear upper. I found it a mare to mask just for the silver frames! It also has a slight blemish in places on the clear windows. Heljan have done the 4mm AC Railbus the same way and that does look very nice in the finished model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Looks like they've got the very subtle top profile right on the O gauge one. Very nice! Ironically, as my 'O' gauge layout is Oakworth (KWVR) and a railbus was used for transport during the making of the Railway Children, I could have actually used a 7mm model of the WMD railbus! Still, I've also got C&L's 7mm Tetbury station kit, so maybe a diorama is in order. CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Don't need one, Not really fitting in to my projects. Finding my self wanting one though. Hmmmmm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share Posted February 16, 2013 The body on this 7mm version did get a revision to the profile Chris. I gave this a good run yesterday and it sounded very nice over joints as it's pretty heavy. There is no compensation on the two axles but the weight should compensate for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Brian, Have you tried Klear/Future on any of the window blemishes? Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share Posted February 16, 2013 Brian, Have you tried Klear/Future on any of the window blemishes? Best, Pete. No Pete, it's only a pre-production model so not that worried. Now if a finnished sample was like these then we would worry! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 The body on this 7mm version did get a revision to the profile Chris. I gave this a good run yesterday and it sounded very nice over joints as it's pretty heavy. There is no compensation on the two axles but the weight should compensate for that. The sides and ends taper inwards above the waistband, ever so slightly. The result is that the corner curved glass has a narrower top and a wider bottom. You can't put the glas in upside down. For the sake of ease, all previous models of the AC have had flat sides and ends. To be fair in OO it hardly notices but I have a half-built O gauge body (my own etches) with the correct profile and it looks so much better when its correct. Wasted my time building that body, though! CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbles2 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I see Brian has painted the seating red, is this the correct colour Chris? I was under the impression they were brown leatheret with green panels. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 This is the interior of W79978 at the Colne Valley Railway. I painted them BR Crimson actually as it was the closest I had to a red'ish seat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Jeez, I'd hate to reproduce the colour(s) of those seats in 7mm.... Did they have Bus type "stubbers" on the backs of them, I wonder? Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 This is the interior of W79978 at the Colne Valley Railway. I painted them BR Crimson actually as it was the closest I had to a red'ish seat. Yes the deep red with the swirly moquette is the original. It has faded to almost brown on the CVR railbusThe seat squabs matched but the Colne Valley re-upholstered theirs with the plain red vinyl. This was the only complete and relatively undamaged seat in W79976. Two other shots: Firstly something I should have tipped Heljan off about but ignored on the OO version and forgot to mention on the O version. The opposite axlebox to the one with the speedo drive should have a milometer or distance counter as it says on the box. Unfortunately, W79978 which was used for the research no longer has its counter and the counter from W79976 was stolen while it was at the CVR. Thus there's nothing for Heljan to copy - or nothing to make them guess it was ever there. In case it does not scan well, the mileage for W79976 was 138,260. It was a small rectangular box on the axlebox cover. Worth noting for etched plates on the O version there was an oval maker's plate complete with AC logo. If anyone converts the model to Sc79979 that had a flat rectangular builders plate (which is sitting on my windowsill) not the oval version. It had lots of detail differences, too, being the first delivered and not being adapted at Swindon with cab partitions, folding steps etc. CHRIS LEIGH PS I will happily award a 10 in the Model Rail ratings panel for the first manufacturer to print a pattern on the seats of a railcar or coach! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Jeez, I'd hate to reproduce the colour(s) of those seats in 7mm.... Did they have Bus type "stubbers" on the backs of them, I wonder? Best, Pete. Not stubbers, those small round ashtrays that rotated upside down to empty them. CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Milometer is there Chris, sorry I haven't a better picture. I am surprised no one has done seat covers as a waterslide transfer in O Gauge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Milometer is there Chris, sorry I haven't a better picture. I am surprised no one has done seat covers as a waterslide transfer in O Gauge. Excellent! A small but fascinating feature. Did other units have them? I was really p**@@d off when the one from W79976 was taken. Maybe someone should be thinking about a decal sheet. Shouldn't be too difficult to design on computer and it would be the icing on the cake in that scale. Could also do the labels for the emergency box above the door on the same sheet. Tell me, has it got the emergency ladder in the vestibule? CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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