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Loco Hauled Substitute - 1 : Overview

Ravenser

Entry posted by Ravenser in Constructional

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In the latter years of BR a little bit of interest was added to the DMU deserts of secondary lines by emergency loco-hauled workings. By the 1980s the Modernisation Plan DMU fleet was dwindling and ageing, while both passenger traffic and passenger services had begun to increase again. Any depot that didn't keep on top of maintenance or saw its DMU fleet racked by some infirmity of old age could easily find itself short of sufficient serviceable DMUs to cover all diagrams . This was particularly the case in areas with Pacer fleets when they suffered their gearbox problems but it wasn't necessarily confined to them. By this stage nearly all first generation DMUs were hitting 30 years old, and being worked more intensively than ever before

 

The alternative to simply cancelling random chunks of the service due to "shortage of serviceable rolling stock" was the "loco hauled substitute". Provided you had some means to run round or change engines at destination, the hapless depot scraped together some elderly loco-hauled coaches generally surplus to requirements, found a spare Type 2 or Type 3 , and sent them out on a suitable DMU diagram as a "loco-hauled substitute".  ("Top and tail" was not a recognised practice at this time. If it was ever done, it would have been seen by contemporaries as a very desperate lash-up)

 

For additional operational interest Blacklade has one "loco-hauled substitute" running:  two blue/grey coaches and a pair of 31s which change over Minories fashion. One of the 31s is used to haul any other loco-hauled going - the morning and evening parcels , and the engineers' train

 

For about the last 7 or 8 years the Loco Hauled Substitute set has consisted of a Bachmann Mk1 BCK acquired cheap as a return off the Bachmann stand, and a Mk2Z TSO bought discounted along with a few other Bachmann coaches when my local model shop closed down. (They can be seen lurking in the back platform in the heading photograph to this blog). They were weathered and given Kadees and they've given sterling service over the years; but it's about time I rang the changes , or at least gave myself another option for this slot.  After all I have a modest sized pile of RTR coaches  and donor vehicles for coach projects, not to mention a stock of bits to rework them. It's just that only two of my diesel era coaches have been breathed on and released to traffic.

 

So - what's in the pile?

 

Well :

- a Bachmann Mk2Z BSO, Mk1 BSK , and SK. All blue/grey , only needing commissioning - Kadees and weathering. 

- The remnants of my teenage layout Flaxborough, to whit , a Lima Mk1 SK, a Hornby Mk2 brake (presented as a BSK, actually a BFK) , an Airfix Mk2D TSO, a Triang Hornby  RMB roughly repainted into blue/grey and two Lima Mk1 BGs 

- A vintage but essentially unbuilt Kitmaster kit for a Mk1 SK.

- Comet sides for a Mk1 CK and BSO, acquired second-hand

- A Mainline Mk1 BSK acquired cheap secondhand at DEMU Showcase 

- An InterCity liveried Hornby RMB , representing the last Mk1 in regular traffic (a regular on the 18:00 Liverpool St- Norwich)

- A Comet Mk1 underframe kit

 

There's also a Mk3 DVT in ONE blue with neon bars, and a spare Midland Mainline Mk3 TSO, but we can ignore them in this context

The stock off my teenage layout can be seen here. (For the record one of the two CCTs has been rebuilt and detailed for Blacklade, the other still awaits)

 

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Certain reservations must be noted.

 

- The Lima BGs are 64' instead of the correct 57' - they are therefore only of use as donor carcases to take etched brass sides. The presence of two sets of etched sides in the list isn't an accident

 

- The Mainline Mk1s have windows that are far too shallow. I was thinking about converting this coach into a bullion van , but that has an extra end window and it all looked a bit difficult. As did justifying the presence of a bullion van on the layout, and doing the blue/grey paint job. An NNX courier van would be easier to justify, but the cut and shut work would be much easier on the old Triang -Hornby Mk1s . This develops into a separate story....

 

- Some years ago in an expansive mood I decided I would flush-glaze one of the Mk2 brakes. I rapidly came to the conclusion that a lot needed doing to it, this wasn't going to be a quick job and it went back in the pile. I subsequently disposed of the other Mark 2 brake at the club show. One Hornby Mk2 rework was going to be quite enough

 

Since we have been in lockdown, and since my attention has been wandering from the straight and narrow path of only finishing what's been started, I thought I would do some coach modelling. I've produced enough sets of steam-era coaches for the "Kettle period" in the last few years, so it's time to give the Blue period an alternative to the long-standing loco-hauled substitute set

 

Where do we begin? A 2 car set is all Blacklade can handle. Ideally I need a brake and a little first class accommodation too. It is winter. I started this lark in early December, at a time when spray painting is going to be questionable for a few months. Especially in a shared landing in a high infection area during a lockdown. I am more than a little nervous about attempting to spray a two-tone livery anyway.

 

We can agree that an airconditioned FO has no obvious place in a 1980s loco-hauled substitute set. Nor do buffet cars. 

 

The two Lima BGs are likely to be donor carcases for the Comet BSO and CK sides. They could make a well matched pair. But those will be the two most demanding projects on the list - metal parts, comprehensive underframe replacement, respray in blue /gray, make up interiors. Not perhaps the best place to start...

 

Simply commissioning a couple more Bachmann RTR coaches is something of a cop-out. This is the time to do some modelling. And I have a pile of MJT coach bogie etches and cast bogie sides in stock. I've had them for years, since I discovered the Engine Shed at Leytonstone and went a little bit mad on the coach bits on offer. That must have been over 15 years ago.

 

Let's start with the brake coach . There are three options : the Bachmann Mk1 BSK and Mk 2Z BSO, and the Hornby Mk2a brake , which should actually be a BFK and on which I had already made a tentative start.

 

 

 

(Bachmann BSK - I admit it's had the interior painted, Kadees fitted, and end steps removed. More of that in the next post..)

 

For the second coach , the options are : Bachmann SK, Kitmaster SK/TSO (interior wasn't supplied and the bodyshells are identical) and the Lima SK

 

 

477784855_2021caches-Bachmann-Kitmaster.jpg.95dff31c48475e0db453706c5dffe6e8.jpg

 

Now the SK was the most numerous type of Mk1 built . But by 1992 they had all gone from revenue service, while there were still modest numbers of Mk1 TSOs and small numbers of CKs, FOs, and brakes in service. (BSKs, BFKs, and BCKs survived in penny numbers. The BSOs had all gone) . 1992 is my earliest convenient reference point, in the form of a Platform 5 volume.

 

There is a reason for this . TSOs have 2 + 2 seating  across the centre aisle, for a total of 64 seats. The ER, LMR and ScR specified their SKs for 3 a side seating, with armrests. That gives just 48 seats per coach - a relic of a more spacious age when express trains did not expect to fill all their seats. The WR and SR, whose main lines carried heavy holiday traffic on summer Saturdays, specified Mk1 SKs with plain bench seats and no arm rests, officially rated for four a side seating

 

In my coach modelling box were two Replica Mk1 TSO interior mouldings. I really shouldn't be running 3 x SK and no TSO in the late 1980s... I already have a  maroon Hachette SK running in Set 4 for the kettles.

 

 

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The options now resolve themselves. The Lima SK is nominally an upgrade project to a RTR coach with a ready-painted body. The Kitmaster kit is well, a kit, and it would need painting. Swap the Lima interior for a Replica moulding and flushglaze , and we have a result - a straightforward Mk1 TSO (There's rather more to it, as we shall see, but still at first glance this is the quickest, easiest project...)

 

We need a brake vehicle and some first class accommodation. Only one project gives me that - the Hornby Mk2a BFK. These two projects are also relatively well matched in terms of the standard of the base model. If the flushglazing turns out so-so then at least you aren't faced with direct comparison against one of Bachmann's better efforts. Unfortunately this project does mean some repainting, as we shall see. And that in turn means it's not going to be finished and ready to enter traffic before at least Easter.

 

The simplest stop-gap until then is to commission the Bachmann Mk1 BSK. If I can't bring the Lima TSO up to an adequate standard to run alongside (which means acceptable flushglaze)  , then  I simply push ahead with the Hornby Mk2 BFK. If the two end up well matched - it doesn't matter if the BFK hangs fire.

 

That opens a further can of worms - finding a suitable long term partner for the Bachmann BSK . The Kitmaster SK/TSO, which does have flushglaze and is at least a plastic kit, would probably be the easiest answer

 

Oh, and along the way I sourced a replacement Triang-Hornby BSK for the NNX courier van - so that got added to the projects, too

 

(The heading photo is not a loco-hauled substitute or even on BR . It was in fact taken on the GCR at Rothley in 1977, but it does show what blue/grey Mk1 BSK + CK would look like, even if there are other coaches behind the photographer. And at least there are definitely no copyright issues with it)

 

 

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Edited by Ravenser

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Lacathedrale

I have enjoyed reading about Blacklade since it’s inception and am very glad it’s still kicking! Thank you for this wonderful  log entry, fascinating stuff.

 

I’m finding a bit of a quandary in my layout setting - steam era ops seem so much more fascinating but you clearly have survived with DMUs! What’s the secret??

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Ravenser
3 hours ago, Lacathedrale said:

I have enjoyed reading about Blacklade since it’s inception and am very glad it’s still kicking! Thank you for this wonderful  log entry, fascinating stuff.

 

I’m finding a bit of a quandary in my layout setting - steam era ops seem so much more fascinating but you clearly have survived with DMUs! What’s the secret??

The layout was designed with joining and splitting of DMUs in mind. I'm only just getting to the point where I have the resources to do that more extensively : the 128 isn't finished but it is a runner , and that can now be consisted with the 101 or 108 while still fitting in the platform . 153s are very useful in this respect - I've got three of them - but other second generation units suitable for use with them have been slow to come. Big Bachmann centre motor drives aren't really compatible with the Limby motor bogie - when I tried 153 + 150 they pulled apart and glided down the layout at rather different speeds. The Pacer will be a valuable addition when I actually get it sorted out.

 

And in the Blue Period I run rather more loco-hauled than you might expect. The Loco-Hauled Substitute is a key component , meaning two moderate-sized locos and a set of 2 coaches operating Minories-style, and the locos also cover two daily parcels trains in and out , plus an engineer's train . Those run round in the station , and there's a 4 wheel parcels van which comes in on the back of a DMU and goes out on the parcels train (or vice versa in the evening) which is shunted by whatever traction works the parcels (the 128 can be treated as a kind of loco). Finally there's a requirement to bring fuel into the fuelling point - so if there's no TTA on the fuelling point one needs to be brought in, and if there is, it needs to be worked out empty.

 

Operationally Blacklade runs on the same principle as those solitaire puzzles with 8 numbered tiles in a 3 x 3 frame leaving one vacant slot... In my case there are 7 roads (3 platforms , 3 FY roads, and the fuelling point) so with 6 trains on the layout there is just one vacant road, and the question becomes what will you move there? recognising also that certain things can only go in certain places, and some moves conflict.

 

So only the back platform and the front fiddle yard road are long enough to take the loco-hauled set (or a 3 car DMU formation) . Only the centre platform has access to the run- round loop - but one end of that loop is the front fiddle yard road, and if the loco-hauled set is in there, there's no room to run round... So you have to keep thinking several moves ahead to avoid getting locked up, while still running a balanced train service

 

One reason for this particular project is that I've spent a lot of time in recent years building five 2-car sets of coaches for the kettles, but the most intensively used set of all, the Blue Period loco-hauled substitute, has been existing on two weathered Bachmann RTR coaches for about 7 years, despite a large pile of unstarted coach projects.

 

I'm currently finding that my efforts to glaze the Lima TSO are going to be some distance short of the crisp neatness of a Bachmann Mk1 . It will be flush glaze, and perfectly reasonable at "normal viewing distance" but I think the difference will be noticeable if it's coupled to a Bachmann BSK.  So the Hornby Mk2 BFK will have to be sorted out to run with it in the medium term, and I'm rapidly coming to the view that I will have to build the Kitmaster kit as a better partner for the Bachmann BSK. The kit comes with proper flush-glazing, so provided I can paint the thing well it should be much more compatible with the BSK. An order has gone in to MJT for more rigid bogie etches....

 

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