Lord of Narnia

Looks great Arun!

Yea I think they are the Watford LMS units but the later GEC types? They don’t have the mouldings of the earlier versions.

Very interesting thanks. I am using 4’x2’ baseboards with 6mm ply on top. The sides are based on the ‘Barry Norman’ double beam approach with 2 x 6mm ply strips, each one sandwiching short sections of 6mm ply which can also be clamped and glued to form a curve. The depth is about 125mm. The intermediate bracing is also used in this way and also pinned and glued to the top and sides with soft wood blocks also providing a fixing point. The ends are formed with 12mm ply to get a solid fixing for the alignment dowels. I’ve added the two internal braces at third and two third intervals. Not started laying the track yet but I think it will work ok.

Thanks Jeff. It should be available give Phil Radley a call.

Another project now complete is the 1926/27 standard stock trailer. Also available from Radley Models. It comes with flush glazing. It can be used as a 58 trailer which ran with the 1938 stock on the Bakerloo till 1974. It has new bogies which reduces the ride height to match the EFE 1938 stock. Looking forward to making mine up into a 58 trailer.

The flush glazing

Some photos of the new flare sided cars now available from Radley Models. Also a work in progress photo of the trailer which is nearing completion. Flush glazing is now also available. There is a single piece underframe section for the Q38 stock with the compressor and contractor banks. A PCM piece for the CO/CP stock is available along with the Metadyne O/P underframe.

One project I wanted to do was to lower the underframe equipment to make it more realistic. It’s simple enough to just pack out the chassis and cut away the edging of the one piece. Thankfully the edging looks like the top of the PCM box and grid resistances when cut back looks ok.

I had the idea several years ago to improve the EFF trains. The grab rails are terrible and there are a few mistakes on the bodies. I was firstly going to respray a 1962 stock pilot set with a green driving motor. Next I wanted to respray a six car 1938 stock set. I had to do this for the reasons above but also to include a 58 trailer and also a 1949 stock UNDM which I was going to use a 1959 stock NDM (with scratch built bogies). Obviously to get the red to match only a respray would work. It seems that others got wind of this and I have ended up doing lots of models for other people. Included here are some of the respray I have done...

That was my understanding too. The smaller dimensions of the original Central London Railway tunnels caused the positive rail to be slightly higher up on the tunnel ring.

Has anyone tried the Bachmann Underground Ernie spare motors?

Slightly off topic but I have just been given the ok to refresh the 1931 standard stock trailer with new chassis and seats in the same why as the 1926/27 trailer. The body will also be amended to be closer to the prototype. The current version is here and will look very different when I’ve finished with it!

Thanks Clive I’ve got one myself to make up. The kit will come with glazing as I made a full sheet for it! I understand that there are delays to the glazing due to COVID. Perhaps ask in a week or two and see if it’s arrived. attached is the glazing template.

For Met rolling stock try the Snowdon book we’ll worth it. In the 1930s the Met had a good variety of rolling stock. MW stock 1927-1932 in 7-8 car trains with a motor car at each end. Some had flush steel panels (1932) and some mouldings (1929-30) MV stock three trains from 1927 which vacuum brakes and Dreadnought coaches converted to MW stock in 1935 (available from Radley Models) Circle Stock 1913-1921 (mostly) renovated in 5 car trains for the Circle service (also available through Radley) W stock MW motor cars with Ashbury/Bogie stock trailers. V stock 7-8 car trains with 1904-1913 saloon stock cars. VT stock 7-8 car trains with MW motor cars with 1904-1913 trailers. M/N stock 6-8 car all electric bogie stock trains. Dreadnought steam stock in 5/6/7 coach formations although some short trains were operated in the slack hours of 3 or 4 coaches with a Met-Vik loco. 1906 Saloon stock on the Hammersmith and City service in 6 car trains supplemented with 4 District designed trains from 1936 known as M stock.

Radley Models do 1960 Cravens Stock although it is not on the site he must have some left. The new 1927 trailer from Radley Models I redesigned and amended the bogies specifically to fit the same ride height as the EFE 1938 stock so it could be used as a 58 trailer. The 58 trailers all began life on the a northern but were moved to the Bakerloo as intended by the early 1940s. Attached are the pre-production photos which show the jumper boxes inside the saloon. These were removed for the 58 trailers but on the normal 1926/27 standard stock trailer these are added at the car end depending on whether the car is A or D end.

Sounds good. The 7mm car you did was excellent. I assume the 1956 bogies had rubber suspension like the 1959/62 tube stock.

From Underground movement by Paul Moss here is a Q27 (ex K) interior which is mirrored from the centre of the car to the driver and guards ends. There should be plenty of photos on the web of the museums Q23 (ex G) interior.

Thanks for this very interesting. I understand that probably a little earlier than 1919 the Met was using reconditioned Jubilee stock in 9 coach formations to fill in for stock shortages. I guess the stock on order was the 1920 batch of Dreadnoughts which allowed more bogie stock to be converted to electric working.

How is the project going? I heard that it has run into difficulties and some locos are to remain diesel?

Is this where the vents above the window can be found. There is a slight overhang on the prototype but it appears to be exaggerated here. It can be filed without too many problems I would imagine. The vents themselves are not modelled so a strip of black lining should do the job here.

I will be painting mine in the refurbished livery. The 1972mk1 stock was subject to several livery trials including the blue doors livery, upper blue panel (a 1967 stock car also also received this in combination with an interior trial) and the red doors livery (which was chosen as the corporate livery). Several mk1 UNDM made spare by the conversion of some units to 1967 stock were also used as an experiment.

I’ve just been sent the first samples of 1967/72 tube stock which will soon be available from Radley Models. They’ve come out really well and the flush glazing seems to fit nicely. I will assemble and paint the first cars over the next few weeks. I shall be making them up as 1972mk2 stock.

These train stops look great. I scratch built one as a test and it’s well worth doing. Not too difficult either. Modern trains have SCAT (speed control after tripping) to automatically limit the train speed after a deliberate tripping in such an instance.

I note that the Hainault - Woodford shuttle has returned for the reasons stated however four car operation cannot start until perhaps March as the 1992 stock 4 car units do not have de-icing equipment! There has also been concerns that the shorter trains may get gapped on entry to Hainault depot on certain roads. This shows the complexity of running shorter trains which sometimes outweigh the rather obvious reasons for them. I remember many years ago now after the last Chesham shuttle ran but when there were still plenty of A stock left it was reinstated for a weekend during engineering works! The bay had to be restored and the conductor rails cleaned. Unit 5092-6092-6093-5093 performed the honours. Strangely unit 5090-6090-6091-5091 had performed the last official shuttle in 2010 before the timetable change! From a modelling point of view there are often opportunities to run shorter trains (apart from the fact it’s your layout and you can do what you want!) in engineering duties. For many years there was a four or five car Rail adhesion train (RAT) of A stock which is now formed of D stock on the Met. The Central line has a 5 and 8 car 1959/62 RAT and even the Piccadilly has two 3 car 1973 stock RATs now!

An extra set was ordered for the now deferred Croxley link project and this was an 8 car train with S7 seating. The reason for this is the manufacturing lines for the S8 trains had been dismantled so it was only cost effective the make a longer S7 train. Several years ago there were three S7+1 trains on the Met (ie S7 trains destined for the other lines given a spare S7 car to make up the numbers). I always felt dismay watching them plod up to Amersham/Chesham! Back to the Central line uncoupling which ended in the late 50s or early 60s partly due to a couple of fires originating from the shed receptical boxes. Previously standard stock on the central was formed M-T-T-M+M-T-T-M and these were split into two four car units. There were some 7 car units too (M-T-T-M+CT-T-M) as there were not enough cars to make up all trains to 8 cars. When uncoupling was abandoned the issue of having a large space in the middle of the train where the equipment compartments faced each other was solved by changing to this formation: M-T-M-T-T-M-T-M and the middle motors (with M stock stencilled to them) had their shed recepticals removed. As shorter trains had generally been on the decrease since the late 1930s many standard stock control trailers had been converted to trailers. The 70 on the Central had their equipment removed and four additional seats placed in the former cab area.