Whilst I'm working on my wagon fleet, I had the wheels on my 2 DMUs sent away for turning and gauging to 2FS standards. Now they're back, here's a visual comparison of the Dapol 153 and the Farish 150, both in Regional Railways livery. They both look great and run superbly (although the Dapol model does have far better slow speed control than the Farish), both before and after conversion to DCC. The blues used for the main body side colour and the lighter blue stripe are slightly different, not enough to be an issue for each model in itself but enough to be noticeable if viewed closely side by side. The real difference is the yellow on the end of the units with the 153 being a far brighter yellow than the more orangey 150. As I don't intend to run them together it's a moot point for me but may be of interest for other modellers.

The 150 is coupled using the shortest rapido couplers supplied with the model, which makes the carriage connectors butt up against each other on straight track - as this does not have a close coupling mechanism which opens out on curves (unlike the 153), a more generous coupling shank length would have to be chosen if a layout is anything except a straight end-to-end affair with the resultant compromise in appearance on straight track.

The trouble now is, they look so good I'm just going to have to incorporate a passenger line into the china clay works branch plan!

Graham