So, over the last few days I took it upon myself to forcibly dismantle my 150 and 153 to see what was what.

After much sound of snapping glue and a stabbed thumb, they were apart - here's the 153

The general conclusion is that Dapol use much more glue than Farish, and the design of Farish models makes them much easier to disassemble to modify/ respray, not that that is what they were designed for of course

Anyway, at the N Gauge Show in September I bought a pack of the Tomix Scharfenbergs for fitting to Rapido pockets as a "just in case they come in useful" type purchase. And lo and behold - they did! I unclipped the NEM pocket from the 150, and drilled a hole through the new coupler, bogie under where the NEM clips on and a small piece of plasticard.A piece of wire was threaded through all three, thus allowing the coupler to swing side to side.

Despite the fact I really dislike the look of these couplings on a Sprinter, when coupled in the middle of a pair it does look ok, and was much easier than trying to fit a Rapido to the 153. They will run as a semi permanent pair, with the outer ends detailed using the plough and BSI coupler from the Farish 150.

Apologies for the low res phone pics, some proper ones will be taken in daylight!

I've also been working on the decal artwork for these, the main blue body and pink doors will be sprayed, with the text printed on clear via an ALPS printer

That's all for now folks,

jo