Over the week I've been adding more cars to the Western Region, mostly quick work because I already had a large number of bogies assembled. I've also been developing a simple but (hopefully) reliable coupling solution, which consists of a simple hook running from one car to the next, bearing against the inside face of the headstock. A bit of trial and error has been necessary as I wanted to get the coaches as close as possible on the straights, while allowing just enough clearance for curves.

So far we've got (from the front) - a power car, a parlour second, a kitchen car, two parlour firsts, and a parlour second. I've got the second kitchen car and the rear power car on the desk, but I've run out of bogies now, so I need to get cracking and make some more. On the parlour second, you can see where I've begun to apply filler to blend in the window etch with the coach sides. This wouldn't be necessary if I were retaining the original BP livery, but since I've decided to go for the reverse colour scheme, the blue band needs to extend the full length of the vehicle. Once sanded down, I'm hoping the transition between etch and plastic will be reasonably unobtrusive. Retaining the original blue livery would be a little more straightforward, but I'd have to repaint all the vehicles anyway, as some of the donor coaches I obtained had some scratches and glue marks which have marred the original finish.

The parlour firsts present a slight challenge, as I never ordered replacement window etches for them, thinking I'd stick with the original white window bands. Since I have some spare Triang window inserts, salvaged from the kitchen cars and parlour seconds, I'm going to experiment with painting them blue and see if that's feasible. If not, I'll endeavour to order new etches from Southern Pride.

How's the haulage? Well, so far so good - no problems at all, either forward or reverse. Fingers crossed it stays that way when I add the remaining two unpowered cars, but there's still scope for adding more weight if needed.