37 011

Excellent. Will certainly order some from this selection but also look forward to BR Blue 31/0 (ie 31001-31019) !

Thanks for the info, particularly on the pick-ups and the centre wheel set. I agree on the window recesses but can just about live with them. I plan to do work on the front to reflect more accurately the appearance of the 31/0s. This will involve removing the lip around the steps in the plate which replaced the gangway doors, before filling both the steps. One will be concealed with an indicator disk, the other will largely be covered by moving the electrification flash to the prototypical position for a 31/0. The grab rail higher up the central plate needs to be removed and another indicator disk applied to the top left of the plate. On the subject of indicator discs, I ordered some from Moxeys but these were too large for the 31. I can produce something of the right size using plasticard and a hole punch but this lacks the hinge detail and small holefor the light, but does anyone have any better suggestions? Oddly, the most grating thing about the appearance to me is the windscreen wipers. As far I can see nobody does wipers specifically for the class 31. What alternatives are there?

My 31s are all post 2008. They all ‘clambered’ over the Tillig points to start with, but are fine now the B2B has been adjusted. I am reassured that things should be OK with the C&L points. The photo is of 31 002 which I am in the process of converting from 31 105. Much work to do on the front to get the genuine ‘Toffee-apple’ look!

Thanks for the advice. I guess the answer is to suck it and see. So far I have been working on a practice stretch before commencing work on.my layout for real and have used Tillig points with C&L flexitrack. Bachmann diesels work beautifully on this arrangement but Hornby 31s require B2B adjustment as some seem to be as far out as 13mm. I have read elsewhere that people have had problems with RTR on C&L points hence my question but I am reassured by the comment that recent RTR models should not have a problem as most of my fleet is new.

I am looking to install a couple of c&l Finescale points (OO gauge) which I understand might necessitate some rewheeling. Ultrascale seem to cover most classes but neither they nor Alan Gibson supply wheel sets for the Hornby Class 31. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I agree with what others have said: medium or OO grades on their own are well over-sized. To illustrate this, the photo below shows 2 parts fine to one part medium Woodland scenics under the front bogie, whilst under the fuel tanks is wholly medium.

Have now started on 37 number 2, the eponymous 37 011 (MR). I have renumbered this from 37 034 purchased from Teral Trains last year. The loco runs beautifully but in its bought condition was lightly weathered with light grey which makes it look like it spent its days on clayliners. I have just worked on one side so far gently removing some of the grey but keeping most of it as a base for dry brushing for more East Anglian weathering effects (I have not finished the tanks). The more eagle eyed will notice that the cab side numbers are rather high but this is true to the prototype in the late 70s. Whilst not quite up to Stratford standards, March locos were kept pretty clean. I have now ordered laser glaze windows, grilles and brake levers from Shawplan and will let you know how I get on adding them to 37 no 3!

Thanks for the info, tips and comments. This is my first go, so was aiming for the right feel without necessarily getting all the detail right. Will practise some of the trickier detailing on a second hand model! I will try the fan grilles, raising and narrowing the bogie frames (ever so slightly, the brake levers and the windscreens. I am not convinced by the PHD steps. The detail on them is great but the gap between the top and middle step is too wide and from any distance above six inches I think they look worse than the original! Not worth the effort I suspect. For the renumbering I used the widely suggested method of cocktail stick, T-Cut and cotton bud to remove the original number and data panel. I used the Railtec bespoke service to get transfers for 37 116, which as a novice I thought would be easier than putting the number together from a generic sheet. The Railtec sheet also incuded data panels, shed code, coupling symbols and electrification flashes. My original model only had one set of electrification flashes on the body side whereas the prototype had two as did most. I have just noticed from the photos of the prototype that the Blue Star coupling symbols were the fatter variety used at Crewe rather than the sharper Doncaster version, but I haven’t got round to that yet! The headcode boxes I tackled with some trepidation but they were really straightforward. With a modelling knife I gently prised out the headcode shutter frames and then teased out the original glazing. My first thought was to erase the printed headcode on the back of the glazing with T-Cut but this turned opaque in the process. Instead I used Precision Labes film cutting out the individual headcode numbers..in this case 00 00 at one end and 00 0* at the other. The numbers are set out on vertical strips which allows you to show part numbers or numbers slightly out of horizontal alignment as on many prototypes. Each character was carefully placed onto the self adhesive frames provided. These were cut to size and inserted into the headcode boxes. For the glazing I used squares carefully cut from the clear plastic outer sleeve of the Bachmann packaging, trimming them exactly to size before placing them on top of the rebate in the headcode boxes. I then glued the shutters back into place. In retrospect the film containing the headcodes looks a bit too far recessed in the boxes, but the shutters are delicate and I am reluctant to remove them again. So I will live with that for now. The film is designed to be backlit and works perfectly in that regard. For the weathering I took the line that less is more. Stratford looked after its locos very well and grubby examples were very much the exception. I employed a dry brush using the excellent Lifecolor acrylic Rail Weathering set, which is very forgiving for a beginner. For the bodysides I started with a light coating of a very dilute weathered black to take off the plasticky look of the pristine model. In places I used a cotton bud and some T-cut to create small shiny areas. This sounds a bit odd but it breaks up the uniformity of the finish and gives the impression of bumps and dents in the bodysides. In one or two places I used tiny dabs of Lifecolour rust effect acrylics and pigments, being careful not to overdo it. For the roof and top of the nose I used weathered black and other blacks in the Lifecolor Blacks set to build up exhaust deposits. I did this too on the windscreen surrounds and the centre windscreen. I paid particular attention to the bogies. My impression is that uniformly weathered bogies don’t look quite right. Going back to the prototype, the pattern was for lighter ‘brake dust’ shades to be in evidence at either end of the bogie frames and on the bottom sections of the frames. I mixed various shades of ‘sleeper grime’ and frame dirt for the rest of the frames with some darker areas of weathered black to represent exposire to oil spillages and leaks which had then been covered by road dirt. Around the springs and bearing covers I used the Lifecolor ‘Spillages and Leaks’ set to give the impression of grease, and finally added a few dabs of rust. For the tanks, I mixed frame dirt and brake dust and then added darker areas to represent fuel spills finished with ‘spillages and leaks’ to give a still-wet effect. My layout is at a very early stage. The permanent baseboard was built for me by a professional carpenter friend, I have achieved a design which I am happy with and am in the process of refining my skills before I start in earnest! The track in the photo is C&L Bullhead which I will use for the sidings, whilst using C&L flat bottomed for the running lines. I have been experimenting with ballast as you can probably tell in the photos. The best effect I have achieved so far is with a 1/3 to 2/3 blend of Woodland scenices medium and fine grey. Medium on its own looks way too coarse and fine on its own looks too sand-like. I have experimented with blends of Lifecolor rail weathering shades for the ballast, looking carefully at photos to get the right distribution of colouring to avoid it looking too uniform. For the rails themselves I played around with sleeper grime, frame dirt and soupçons of brake dust and track dirt. It is pretty painstaking doing this with a brush but again it gives you the opportunity to vary things a bit as in the original. Oddly. I found the track dirt colour itself to be too red and rust like on it's own. The section I am modelling is between Colchester and Manningtree using a bit of poetic licence to recreate the sidings at Ardleigh which were lifted in the 1960s, using the 1964 signal frame diagram for the Ardleigh box as a guide. Again anachronistically, I will represent Ardleigh station which was closed in 1968 just showing the disused platforms. I am toying with the idea of modelling the point at which colour lights replaced semaphores on this stretch with the new lights in place but not yet operable and the cable ducting ready for installation by the line-side. Thanks again for your help ans comments

I am new to the hobby but have finally got round to building a layout based on the GE mainline 1978-81 ish. This requires a good stock of class 37s (as well as 31s and 47s) to cover a working timetable based on contemporary mandatory and discretionary timetables, which I have been lucky enough to track down. I have seen a number of excellent threads from a few years ago on improving the already impressive Bachmann offer, including a rather inconclusive debate on whether to lower the body, raise the bogie frames or both. My first loco which was originally 37 003, I have renumbered as 37 116 (SF), one of the last GE machines to retain its four digit headcode and I have represented the headcode based on two photographs dated February 1979. I am not a total rivet counter (just as well as I have just discovered that from 37 114 onwards roof panels were welded and not riveted) and am reasonably pleased with the results thus far (although I have not yet finished the ‘plumbing’), but the one thing which I think would really improve the model is the fitting of Laserglaze windscreens and surrounds. These seemed to be readily available in the early 2010s but I can’t track them down anywhere on the web. Does anyone know whether the kits are still available? And I will ask the inevitable ...question[...what do you think of it so far? attachment=931672:663AE785-08C9-4A6E-A558-E097F53B6DD9.jpeg]