JDW

There's no cutting and shutting involved, it's a 3d printed kit in two halves. The only joint is where the centre window is, in the centre of the body. Before it developed the curve, it had already been heated and had the splayed-out sides straightened closer to vertical, and has strengthening strips along the insides of the body. With any luck, yet more heating and straightening will sort it, but it's getting to a point where there's only so many times you can do that and cure other imperfections it causes, there are already ripples in the sides.

Bit of a dark pic but I carried on and added some red and white stripes to the 323. It actually doesn't look that bad from a distance, though it still needs work so is far from the finished livery. Gives an idea at least. While I had the white out, I did the doors on the 156.

Has anyone checked that it is the correct shade of Coca Cola red...? Shouldn't the roof be a darker grey? And blue seats? Shouldn't they be maroon LT-style moquette? Hmmm...

Just saw this on YouTube. As much as I have sympathy for a lorry driver trying to get into a tight space, I'd bet that he didn't phone the signalman before stopping and reversing on the crossing... Whichever way he tried, it was going to be bad - if he'd arrived across the crossing and stopped to reverse in, he'd have ended up with cars stopped across the crossing and up behind him.

I started doing the same modification to the bogies, but found - as you've noted - that it can cause problems. For some reason, most units are fine, but one in particular (my Regional Railways 'Express' one) seems to be particularly bad. The bogies on the non-powered car both seem very keen to let the axles drop out, and the ones on the power bogie seem equally keen to flex, which occasionally causes running issues. I can't remember off the top of my head whether I did the full mod to all of them or whether I left some with the inner end web still in place (it's slightly less visible at least). Incidentally, once you've removed the end frame, you might as well remove the bit that goes over the axle as well, as it does nothing - obviously don't remove it from bogies which still need a coupling attaching though!

I just happened to stumble on this on YouTube - it's in German, but has an auto-translate option for the subtitles for those who don't speak German which should give a reasonable idea. Essentially, former DB driver, bought and refurbished a diesel loco and now operates his own spot hire business. Interesting to see the workshop he's built into the empty space inside to help him maintain it.

Haha funnily enough I'm in the middle of a 156 (not the expensive Realtrack one!) in a similarly "easy" livery. Yellow ends, white doors, blue body, grey roof (the unbranded version of First North Western, without the stripes). Not even any logos to add, just numbers. I'm sure I'll find something that can go wrong! I think toothpaste has similar mild abrasive properties, similar to the various cream cleaners for kitchens and bathrooms. Whether they'd be too harsh or not, I don't know.

That sounds like a fun job, trying to remove it without damaging the glazing. It depends what kind of printing/painting it is I suppose, I wonder if something mildly abrasive like toothpaste might work, or T-Cut, without damaging the glazing. If I remember right though, aren't the 'frames' also printed on the glazing strip in black? I'm working just now, but I suspect I might have four end glazing sections somewhere - I used a pair of MML body shells to make a centre car in MML livery (some careful cut-and-shut to do it without having to try and match Bachmann's MML colours) so have the cab ends from those somewhere, and I'm sure the glazing for the end saloon windows is still attached. If you can't remove the paint/print, let me know and I'll have a look. I look forward to seeing your progress on it. The spotty livery should be fun to apply!

Rather than yet more rounds of filling and sanding, I decided to see whether it's worth carrying on by applying some colour and seeing how it looked. It's not awful, but it's never going to be superb either. The masking wasn't completely accurate, the dark grey could do with being lower above the windows, and the yellow end needs masking and painting properly. But it gives an idea. I'd say the width of the dark grey lower bodyside at least vindicates my decision to deepen the sides. While I had the dark grey out, I did the roofs for the blue 156 - the two vehicles were separate cheap second hand purchases and had different colour roofs. I put a coat of white undercoat and a few layers of yellow on the ends as well while I had it out.

Since the weather's been ok I thought I'd do a bit more on the 323, maybe get some paint on it too. I got it out, with a view to priming the two coaches that are ready; this is where I was up to last time... ...but wait, a closer look reveals... ...and... No idea how, it's been sat on a shelf since last time I worked on it. It was never perfectly square/straight but it definitely seems worse now. How?! It's definitely starting to feel like more hassle than it's worth. I did also have a shuffle around of some of my display models, and found two I'd forgotten I had! One is 'Dutch' 47976 is one I picked up cheap and experimented with weathering a good few years ago, though never finished. (Alongside is one of my Dyna-Drive powered Lima 47s). Also Trainload Construction 37694, which is also Dyna-Drive fitted. The other two are a cheap but nicely-repainted Ebay buy with Trainload Coal branding and a de-motored centre-headcode one in Trainload Metals livery. ...and finally, not always a popular choice but both of these two are great runners (DCC and through-wired), and although it's impossible to get away from them being slightly on the chunky side, with a bit of work they look much better than the originals. Both I've had for many years, the Provincial one was one of my first models. Wheels blackened, doors converted to 2-leaf and painted yellow, front end also repainted in a better shade of yellow, BSI couplings added and hole underneath opened out, white toilet window added, and the dark blue and white stripes touched in in the door recesses and inner ends. The Regional one has the light blue stripe repainted and the livery corrected around the cab - as produced by Hornby, the whole front end moulding is yellow like the Provincial one. Also the corners of the black squared off around the cab windows. Both also have basic card gangways. Both have been on here before, I should really try and restore the pictures. Both the perfect kind of project for those who aren't keen to try stuff on expensive and highly detailed new models, especially since they have a big effect on personalising the model and making it look much better without any huge outlay and minimal skill/tools needed... ...unlike the 323.

Apologies if it's already been mentioned elsewhere, I've just spotted this on the Hatton's website: https://www.hattons.co.uk/880996/hornby_r30203_class_121_single_car_dmu_in_coca_cola_livery_railroad_range/stockdetail I have to admit, I've always found the whole Coca Cola range a bit odd, bit I quite like it. I think I'd be tempted to extend the swoosh to end at a more natural finishing point somewhere around each cab door, probably add a set of mini snow ploughs as well, a nice alternative for a Christmas train set layout.

Looking forward to seeing the results. I have to admit I quite like the Colas livery on it, it's simple but smart, and it's nice to see it's been done with sympathy for both the stock it's going to be hauling and the architecture of the power car.

I can't see why you couldn't mount them higher up inside the body from a functional point of view, I've used them on a set of Mk4s and had no problem hiding them behind the lower fairings, though of course they end at the coach end. However, there are two things you'd likely need to consider. One is how to actually couple them - I can't see that being too difficult, it would be easy enough to slot them together (depending on what type of coupling head you use) though a long rake might be fiddly. Same goes for my Mk4s though. Second, depending on the radius of curves you need them to go around, you'd likely need the full internal width, which would either mean a slot or just omitting the gangway part altogether if you wanted them mounted very high up. Looking at the picture, though, the knuckle-type coupling is just below the gangway, it should be possible to attach the mounting plates at a height which would put the coupling there.

I think at the £85-87 price that Hattons currently has them listed for, they're not too bad. Not ones for finescale modellers maybe, and probably at the top end of what's acceptable for those who don't want to spend double that on a Bachmann, Hattons or Accurascale one. But they do have their place, they're acceptable models that look like what they're supposed to be and work reasonably well. I wouldn't want to pay as much as £100 for one, mind, that feels steep, even though I do understand that prices of materials, assembly, shipping, etc, have all gone up. I still have a Lima one that sits among my Bachmann ones, and although it's not quite up to the same standard, it doesn't look awful, and the DynaDrive (remember that?) drivetrain hidden within more than makes up for any deficiencies in the looks department!

I found this post useful, it added extra information for those of us who don't know the case in question... ...as did this, the first few lines anyway. Not sure what was so offensive or why the need for personal comments. Getting back to graffiti, it holds little appeal, and I'd happily go out with the power washer and remove it from my wall even if it were Banksy himself who'd done it. There is no doubt some of those who do it have a degree of talent, but it's a shame that can't be more usefully employed. As for the tags and the like, I'd very much like to see those who do that made to pay the full cost of removal or rectification, which can't be cheap on things like rolling stock.

Yep, a common problem, I had a few like that. I chose the opposite solution of running a file over the front and rear lugs on the bogie instead, but it had the same effect. To remove the bogie, I'd suggest using a screwdriver to remove the side frames which are held on with two small screws underneath, which allows the motor part to lift out easily, rather than flex the chassis and risk breaking it. Just don't lose the screws!

Just to add to the above, if you're removing the drive wheels and replacing the cog, a back-to-back gauge might be a handy investment for reassembling them - just looking at mine and from the pictures you posted, it looks like a case of removing the wheels from the axle to remove the cog. When reassembling, a back-to-back gauge will help you make sure the backs of the wheels are the correct distance apart for smooth running. As others have said, when it comes to running, adding a pair of wires from one car to the other is a good idea, as it means both motors are being fed from all four axles. Mine are wired together and well run-in, and run smoothly down to a crawl so long as wheels and pick-ups are clean.

Isn't it a case of no matter what you'd done, there would have been someone (probably an "expert" - for some reason experts never seem to get the job, though, and it's always [apparently] left to people who haven't a clue) would have said it was wrong. In a real scenario, yes, there could have been other vehicles ahead of it. Or not, they might have gone down the embankment. Yes, it might have turned square to the track. Or it might have been hit at a steeper/shallower angle than the test. Or maybe instead of a couple of extra vehicles ahead, there's be a dozen if the flask train had collided with the wreckage of a derailed oncoming train before being hit from behind. Or... Or... Or... Or... And things like "Should have used a 58." - - - > "But they rarely run on the same route, why didn't you use a 47, they're much more common." For every one of the arguments, you could find one equally circular to counter it with. And no matter how hard you try to replicate a real world scenario, what actually happens in any real accident is unlikely to follow the same path anyway. You could test as many different scenarios as you can think of, and still probably not hit exactly the right combination of factors that occurs in a subsequent real incident.

Not so much stupidity, but a sign of how easily things can go wrong even when you think you're doing it right... ...in this case, excellent driving with regard to the horses, but possibly a bit of tunnel vision, focusing on that too much and not thinking about the crossing.

Yes, I agree, but ... ...having already built a 141, I'm hoping for the 140!

I'm minded to agree on that. I'm sure the 141 would do well too, but a 1400 would have the 'quirk' appeal that the likes of KR Models and others have proven sells, and the geographical appeal too, though a single livery might count against it. I'd definitely be tempted - though I'm still hovering over the Buy button for a TWPTE 143...

I think those are some very fair points, it's hard to judge or make a sound conclusion without knowing the whole facts, and I don't think the team at Realtrack are the type of people who will want to get engaged in long drawn-out conversations online about business matters. The one thing I have wondered, given that Charlie has said there's an updated 143/144 to come, is why? The existing one might not be quite to the same level of the 142, but it's a very good model already, I doubt there are many people out there clamouring for it to be upgraded. Is that because the tooling was no longer usable for whatever reason, or because they knew that this one was coming and didn't see any point re-issuing the original model themselves, or just a business decision unrelated to this, I wonder? I'd certainly have liked to have seen more liveries released on the 143/144 and to see Realtrack get the reward from those, having developed the product (and the DMU genre more generally), the Regional Railways and TWPTE in particular, as well as older West Yorkshire schemes, so from that perspective the EFE one fills a gap, but as others have said, without knowing the full details, its hard to take a 'moral' view of the EFE version, and I suspect many will either not know or still go ahead and buy one anyway.

Was just about to say the same thing, I just can't understand how a designer (or the paintshop!) wouldn't recognise that the valence is a key part of the pointed nose end, and gives it its sleek shape. Same as with the FGW green and gold HSTs, and VTEC/LNER - one of the 91s in the latter ended up with a white valence and looked so much better. Looks like the cheap train set version of Hornby's old models. I can't help but think if I'd been in charge of painting them, they'd have come out with it in white... "Oops, sorry, we must have missed that on the plans..."

I think it's a fair point, but it's a generally accepted sloppy use of language (as can be found in so many places). Really, '00 scale' is probably a less inaccurate way of saying it for non-rail items (i.e. the same scale as the common 00 gauge models), but for most people, '00 gauge' is a synonym for '4mm scale' and easier to say. For buildings, buses or bushes, 4mm scale would be much more correct, of course.

I think it works well sometimes, where each blog is a focused 'article' in itself, such as the ones mentioned in my post above, whereas some people tend to use a new blog entry for every new development, which just (as a reader) leaves a disjointed trail of clicking between each bit, scrolling to see if there are any comments, clicking to next entry, and so on. It doesn't make them easy to read or follow, whereas a thread would often work better in that 'stream of consciousness' conversation. Using the 'Charlie Strong' fleet as an example again, they seem to work well as each is a short, self-contained article/'log', readable in isolation. Even some which are part of an ongoing theme (I forget the poster, but the current 356 days of modelling one would be a good example, and one which I've enjoyed) can work well where each post has sufficient interest (images and depth of content) to maintain the reader's attention over each 'episode', but to borrow from the post made by Andy while I was typing this, I think blogs do need that "carefully curated environment" to be a success. The 'stream of consciousness'/conversational approach that works in threads, where a short comment by the original poster or someone else can be enough to keep things moving along, doesn't seem to hold up for blogs.