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Sc59401

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  1. Thank you Steven. As I plan to use the Co-Bo on suburban passenger trains (they appeared occasionally on my local line to Gourock between turns on the Condor) I'll put up with the tail lamps (they're quite dim anyway) or maybe snip the wires once it's out of warranty, as I have done with other unwanted illumination such as cab interiors. I've modelled in N gauge since 1970 and there's absolutely no way I'm going to convert to DCC now!
  2. That's good news about the quality control monitoring. My Co-Bo arrived in mid-December and while it is a beautifully-detailed and smooth-running model (and a nice companion for the Hornby Dublo 3-rail Co-Bo I got for Christmas 1964!) there were some build quality issues, all of which are now resolved. The following might help others encountering the same issues: One of the buffers was fitted at 90 degrees to the correct orientation, but fortunately they are not glued in and I was able to pull it out with mini pliers and re-fit it to match the others. Initially the tail lamps did not illuminate at all despite frantic waving of the "magic wand", the Co bogie wasn't picking up on one side and it was also missing a traction tyre. While removing the body to investigate, one of the battery boxes fell off as it had hardly any glue on one mounting and none on the other. Once the body was off I discovered that the PCB at the Co end (which I think fits into the same socket as the DCC decoder; I'm a DCC Luddite) wasn't seated correctly and one of the pick-up strips on the chassis was bent upwards so it wasn't making contact with the vertical strip from the bogie. Rapido Trains sent me two spare tyres promptly and I have now fitted one to replace the missing tyre on the Co bogie. The tail lamps now work but if they are switched off and the loco is brought to a halt, they come on again as soon as power is applied. If this is the wand working as designed it's nothing more than a silly gimmick and a switch on the underside would have been so much better. I can't see myself waving the wand over the loco when our club N gauge layout is at an exhibition!
  3. No no keefer, you're quite right. The White Circle cars (79xxx and Class 126) DID have lightweight buffers. As these cars had buckeye couplers and were not intended to work with any other DMU types, the buffers were intended only for shunting, indeed I have read that the design for the 79xxx series originally had no buffers at all, US-style. Later buckeye-fitted classes (124 and 123) had mainline standard buffers and could be coupled to other Blue Square units if their buffer saddles were placed in position. Quoting from publication BR 29879/2 British Railways (Western Region) Multiple Unit Diesel Trains for the Information of Operating Department Staff (a big title for a wee book), published in October 1957: "Inter-City trains must not convey tail traffic and the booked formation must not be varied." I have attached a photograph of preserved Class 126 trailer composite Sc59404 at Bo'ness showing one of its buffers in the extended position, as it was being shunted in the yard coupled to an LMS carriage fitted with screw couplings. Note how spindly the central shaft is and it is further weakened by having a slot in it to take the steel key which holds it in position. The casting on the buffer beam is aluminium alloy and was awaiting painting at the time of the photograph. I am not aware of any other rolling stock having this style of buffer.
  4. What a brilliant job! Well done to all concerned for bringing back to life something so interesting and historically important.
  5. You're very welcome Martyn and please feel free to ask about anything I might be able to help with, although I might take a few days to reply as I have limited internet access. The preserved 126 has been part of my life since 1986 and I am quite pleased that it has turned out OK in the end. It has just had new air receivers and batteries fitted and is scheduled to be used more next year. I have a rather poor mobile 'phone photo of one MTK leading E&G cab end taken some time ago. It has come on a bit since so I must take some more! I modelled the leading cab end buffers in the extended position and all others retracted. Curiously the E&G cars did not have multiple working connections on the cab ends, which is one reason they were never seen at Ayr. Cheers, John.
  6. Hello Martyn, I've just been catching up with this thread after one of my model railway club colleagues alerted me to it and I'm most impressed! What a clever idea to use Trix Mark Is. I 'bashed' a 126 out of two Mainline SKs and a BSK over 30 years ago and I still remember the many hours of cutting and filling. I had to move all but two of the large windows to make the DMS but the slightly under-scale window size was a bonus. I disguised the thickness of the sides by painting the edges around the windows black. As others have mentioned (and thank you for the compliments) I am a long-time regular volunteer on the preserved three-car Class 126 unit and E&G buffet car Sc79443 at Bo'ness so maybe I can help with some of the questions raised, firstly regarding interiors: The power cars did not have tables, however each centre car compartment was provided with cast aluminium brackets (which we got remanufactured) on the wall below the window and a locating ring on the floor for a folding table which could be fitted by the guard on request. The table was normally kept on a grooved wooden stand at one end of the corridor. The preserved 3-car unit seat colours are 1959 specification, namely blue in first class, tan in second class non-smoking and green in all other second class. Half of the DMS was non-smoking, which explains the different colour in the photograph. Our centre car is a composite so it has three blue, one tan and three green sets of seats. The compartment with the door is non-smoking. All the moquette is 'razor blade' pattern, however the first class should be uncut moquette rather than cut but that was going to cost a lot more and nobody has complained yet. By the 1970s most second class seats appear to have been blue/green check with light grey piping but some (including both of our power cars) had 'Trojan' which is black (fading to grey) with small white squares and similar-sized red, blue and yellow rectangles. BR used it for years, you'll know it if you see it. First class seats which were not downgraded to second were usually light brown three per side. Some of ours had been converted to second class four per side by removing the intermediate head and armrests and re-covering in blue/green. Moving outside I can confirm that the missing end steps were restored in preservation, some of them being made from scratch. The pipe which runs along one side of each vehicle is electrical conduit. Incidentally each power car contains about two miles of wiring! There are some photographs of plain blue 126s with set numbers in a 1xx series (e.g. 153) but details are sketchy. Set numbers in the 4xx series (later 126 4xx) started to appear in the late 1970s but formations rarely stayed fixed for long. The numbers usually appeared on DMBS cars only and help to identify individual cars in photographs (401 on 51030, 402 to 421 on 51032 to 51051, 422 on 79088; 51031 missing as it was destroyed in the Paisley crash in 1979). The lightweight buffers appear to have been unique to the E&G and 126 cars. The castings are aluminium and the 18" heads were usually retracted, being used only for shunting as these units had buckeye couplers. I can understand your reluctance to build another centre car but 5-car formations were not all that common and were usually the result of a power car failure. Most Ayr sets ran in 3- or 6-car formations with the occasional nine. Only two buffet cars were built with the Ayr sets and these didn't last long on the Glasgow-Stranraer line, being transferred to Leith to work with the E&G units. One of them was the very first DMU vehicle to be painted blue, subsequently changed to blue/grey as the E&G was a principal route. Ayr's 126s stayed blue until about 1977 although the occasional blue/grey 79xxx vehicle could be seen before then, as in the cine film my father shot at Troon for me in 1969. The buffet car at Bo'ness was allocated to Ayr for a few months in 1960 so it is quite authentic to work with our power cars, which is the plan once it is finished. It was extremely rusty but historically important as the only remaining E&G vehicle (apart from the ones possibly still existing in Liberia) and the ancestor of the Mark 2 carriage. These DMUs (and Classes 120/124/123) had integral construction without underframe trussing which would have got in the way of traction and other equipment. Regarding powering the model, I have built an MTK E&G 6-car unit and it is equipped with two Lima motor bogies which I fitted with Ultrascale wheels. These do not have traction tyres but they can shift this fairly heavy train with little or no slipping. Extra pickups are a good idea. I have done this to one bogie on the centre car of my MTK Class 120 and it made a huge difference. Hope this helps and I look forward to seeing progress on your 126.
  7. Ah yes, I see what you mean. If both engines were shut down it would indeed be a problem on a White Circle unit.
  8. Thank you Russ. It's taking a long time but we hope it'll all be worth it in the end. The buffet seating consisted of twelve small grey leatherette-covered bucket seats with circular cushions, each perched on a single chromium-plated flanged steel leg, grouped in fours around three tables (two on the compartment side and one on the corridor side). You're right about the pole, it goes from floor to ceiling and pierces a small table on which refreshments can be placed by standing passengers. Unfortunately we didn't get the pole or some of the seating but we have copies of the original drawings and a local upholsterer has offered to make replicas of the missing seats. Almost all of the seat and table legs are missing and will have to be remanufactured so it's going to cost us a fortune in chrome plating! Unfortunately the fridge is one thing we didn't get. Regarding final drive isolation, this is done manually using a long handle with a double hook on the end which is stored in the guard's van for this purpose. Each driving bogie has a T-shaped handle in the final drive which is pulled and turned through 90 degrees to isolate it, placing both pinions out of contact with the crownwheel. Standard procedure is to spin the cardan shaft manually to make sure the final drive really is isolated, otherwise disaster could occur. This isn't unique to the White Circle units; I remember watching a BR driver doing it on a Class 101 power car (former ScR car 51803) at Blaenau Ffestiniog after an engine shut down.
  9. Hi Andy, yes we have discussed this with the Llangollen guys fairly recently. It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure if it would work for the buffet car. Its window frames are a now-unique design, different even from the later Class 126 unit although (fortunately for Brian) they look identical from the outside. Hi Russ, that's interesting to know. All three vehicles at Goathland (79443, 59098 and 59099) had blue stuff in them and 79443's interior was completely stripped in order to remove it. The guys who went down to the NYMR were able to rescue a selection of fittings from the three cars to build one complete interior apart from the compartment partitions (now re-made from scratch), some buffet seating (we have a possible source) and some kitchen equipment. We might have to compromise in the kitchen area anyway due to modern food hygiene regulations. There are more photos on www.class126.co.uk
  10. Hello Brian, yes we did look into the feasibility of repatriating one or two power cars from Liberia a while ago, even suggesting converting one into an 'X2' intermediate DMBS (as these are definitely extinct) to make up a six-car set, however the survivors are in an even worse state than our vehicles were and we would need to live to 100 to complete the project. Here's a shot of the interior of the side shown in the photo posted earlier, just after welding new panels on to the rebuilt framework: The spaces next to the solebar have since been covered with steel plate to form a box section which is important for the rigidity of the integral construction. Everything in green primer has been covered with black gloss followed by bituminous paint. We don't want to do this job again! The windows have been particularly challenging. Each aluminium frame is held in place by 36 brass barrel nuts attached to studs welded to the body panels. Of course most were seized and had to be drilled out. New studs were welded to the new panels, then the frames were fitted using mainly new barrel nuts (specially made). The locomotives visible on the adjacent road are BRCW Type 2 number 27 005 and BR Standard 4MT number 80105. Both are now under overhaul elsewhere. I'll echo what others have said about the Golding book. Some of the bodyside layouts are OK but much of the underframe equipment, at least on Swindon vehicles, differs widely from that shown. Glad you noticed the filing cabinet! It is home to our drawings and manuals and needed a repaint so one of my colleagues had the idea for an appropriate colour.
  11. Thank you Brian. Here is a photo of Sc79443 looking rather like a giant MTK kit. The unpainted section (now DMU green) shows evidence of where the new panels have been welded to the bodyside framework. We know that the ridged dome ventilators are wrong but they did come from Swindon-built DMU buffet cars Sc59098 and Sc59099! We have reserved some shell type vents from a Mark I van which is due for scrapping. Almost all of the panelling and much of the framework is new: Some idea of the former condition can be seen in this photo of the kitchen end of the above side: The faded maroon livery is a legacy of the vehicle's 22 years as the static buffet car at Goathland on the NYMR and subsequent storage outside at Bo'ness. Interestingly the green-era lettering is not transfers as we expected but beautifully sign-written, including the 'KITCHEN' lettering on the (cast alloy) doors at the buffet end. Note that the prefix to the original Swindon-applied running number has a lower case 'c' but in the repaint it is a capital letter. The blue/grey era Rail Alphabet running number is in the short-lived 3" size; this vehicle did not survive in BR traffic long enough to receive the more familiar 4" lettering. Since the above photos were taken we have rebuilt most of the other side, fitted new corrugated key sheeting (specially made for us as the pattern is no longer available off the shelf) to form the steel floor and 'scratchbuilt' new compartment partitions from plywood. Unfortunately my more recent photo files are too large to upload here. All of the interior was lost when the vehicle was stripped of asbestos. The 79xxx cars even had the stuff sprayed on the undersides of the floors so this was all cut out before we got Sc79443. The underframe, floor and body form an integral construction, unlike Mark I carriages which have a separate body and chassis with underframe trussing which would get in the way of power cars' engines, gearboxes etc. These DMUs are the ancestor of the Mark II carriage, indeed prototype Mark II FK W13252 was built on the same jigs at Swindon.
  12. Enjoying the updates, these are looking great! The real Sc79443 is coming along nicely, might even post a photo or two if that's OK.
  13. Looking great Brian! I've finally located the Swindon Works drawing with the car types X, Y etc. It shows the locations of light bulbs in a bird's eye view of a roofless 6-car formation with four DMBSs, the intermediate ones cab-to-cab, and a DMS on its own underneath. All four DMBSs are type X, the buffet car is type Y, the trailer first is type Z and the DMS is type K. The 'X2' designation used at Ayr was presumably used to distinguish intermediate DMBS cars from leading ones as the latter had no jumper connections at the cab ends (and were not allocated to Ayr). Regarding windows, as far as I am aware it is only the lavatory windows which are wider on 79xxx cars. I'm still working on 1:1 scale Sc79443 and got the first compartment partition fully installed yesterday.
  14. Hi Brian, just catching up with this thread after a long absence from the forum (domestic issues) but I have been working on the real Sc79443, continuing the job of making the new compartment partitions. Your buffet interior looks great. The 7944x and 5909x buffets had basically the same interiors, differing only in some details such as upholstery material, shades of veneer colour (the earlier ones had darker panels across the compartment walls) and types of reading lamps in the compartments. The 794xx trailers had lamps with almost flowerpot-shaped plastic shades and horizontal bulbs and we are having trouble sourcing these as we didn't get them with the vehicle and all our spares are the other type. The first batch buffet car first class compartments had dark blue seat material with a silver thread leaf pattern. I don't know at present what was in the two later cars as they were built a couple of years later than the 'Ayrshire' 126s but our trailer composite Sc59404 is fitted with blue moquette with a black 'razor blade' pattern as original. Getting into 'rivet counter' territory, the earlier cars had squared-off headrests in the first class compartments but it was discovered that these cast a shadow when using reading lamps so the later cars had rounded-off headrests. This probably mirrored Mark I practice. Our preservation group raided Sc59098 and Sc59099 at the NYMR before they were scrapped so that we could get some of the missing fittings for Sc79443. We have a large (A3) print of an official BR photograph of the interior of the buffet end which unfortunately I can't post here (copyright and size issues) but it does show the very 1950s buffet fittings clearly. The following shouldn't be noticeable when the bodies are on but the twelve buffet bucket seats are actually circular with a single chrome-plated steel leg each. We haven't quite got a full set so we'll need to make some in 1:1 scale. The same goes for the wonderful 'dancing pole' which we'll need to make from scratch, however we do have a copy of the original drawing. Keep up the good work!
  15. Hi Brian, good to see more progress. Yes indeed, I've dug out the MTK 6-car unit and I'm now making Swindon-style details to replace the Derby type below the sideframes of the Lima bogies. Here's a photograph of the motorised leading car I took a while ago with my cheapo mobile 'phone (there has been some progress since):
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