adrianmc

Latest version to drop through the letter box yesterday morning.

Arrived in the post today. Good to see that the brake shoes are in the prototypical position - i.e. they will line up with P4 wheel sets. The picture is fairly cruel as it's larger than life - in reality the lines caused by the manufacturing process are not really visible at normal viewing distance.

Not long now....

Maybe there is a giveaway - the link to the Dapol page is: https://www.Dapol.co.uk/B4_News_Article

Sorry to hear this sad news. Many a time I've spent helping behind Peter's layouts at exhibitions - usually over lunch time. Being fairly local, Peter was kind enough to bring many of his excellent creations in both 12mm and 14.2mm gauge along to the Uckfield Exhibition. These included in recent years: Bulverhythe Hoath Hill Sidings Thunders Hill - aka "the play pen" Hoath Hill Halt Whatlington Sub Wealden Gypsum Co. He was due to return this year with his latest layout Alfriston which made its exhibition debut back in March 2020.

It appears that The Great Electric Train Show scheduled for March 13/14 2021 at EventCity, Manchester may have been cancelled. The Key Model World website now only has an entry for the Marshall Arena event in Milton Keynes on October 9/10 2021. Looks as if there was an edit overnight to the website removing references to the Manchester show - although if you click on the Milton Keynes Show 2021 button the text on the loaded page still references Manchester.

Hi Gary, I think one of the more visible differences between these generic coaches from Hattons and Hornby is the shape of the duckets. From the Hatton website it appears that all their duckets are flat topped. Those from Hornby have a curved top. If modelling the early SR scene the Hornby look to be closest with the curved top duckets being fairy close representations of ex LB&SCR and SE&CR stock.

I would agree - I was using Stroudley as a description as to general style - the coaches to these diagrams were built 1892-1897 so definitely under R.J.Billinton's tenure with as you say a higher arc-roof profile.

I actually make it 128mm over body (151-23) = 32" Which would make sense with the prototype SR No 7514 being a 32ft 4-compartment 1st - SR Diag 507/508/509 As I have said previously the model is a very close representation of the prototype Stroudley LB&SCR - the only main difference being the more "generic" choice of grab rail adjacent to each door. What would be interesting is to have the other dimensions - especially the wheel base. According to Mike King's drawing this should be 10ft 6in + 10ft 6in

I see that the next London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace is now publicised to be held in March 2022 - the19th & 20th to be exact. https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/information/the-london-festival-of-railway-modelling

According to Mike King's book An Illustrated History of Southern Coaches only Kitchen Dining Firsts numbered 7858 to 7863 had the small kitchen window - these are the six coaches constructed in 1927 in the first batch of Diag 2651 examples (these are also the batch without the transverse vestibule). According to Mike's drawings in the book all the other similar coaches built to Diagrams 2650, 2651 (batches 2 & 3), 2655 and 2656 had the larger windows. However there aren't any pictures in the book of a Diag 2651 2nd/3rd batch coach showing the relevant side to check

Yes that is another way to go for the post 1932 scene - instead of a renumbered/liveried Dining Third there is the prototypical option of coupling a 1930 Diag 2005 Open Saloon 3rd Class to the kitchen end of a Kitchen Dining First. Hornby have produced at least two examples in fully lined SR Olive Green - 1400 (R4537) and 1375 (R4833).

Yes agreed - and a suggestion I made earlier in the thread. However we are in mid 1930s territory here with unlined SR Olive Green. For those of us interested in pre 1930, already with existing prototypical sets of fully lined Hornby Maunsells, a matching kitchen/dining set would be great.

Yes correct - Hornby as far as I'm aware have produced Kitchen Dining Firsts to two diagrams - Diag 2656 and Diag 2651. One of these - Diag 2651 - is on the face of it the one required for the pairing with this new Third Class Dining Saloon - but unfortunately it is not! The Southern Railway produced several batches of Kitchen Dining Firsts to this diagram but they were not all the same when originally built - the diagram being amended to reflect the changes as each batch and subsequent modifications occurred! The batches were: 4x Diag 2651 - Nos 7858-63 -

The early Kitchen Dining Firsts completed in 1927 (Diag 2651) differed really in only one major aspect from those produced by Hornby (Diag 2656). The original coaches to diagram 2651 didn't have a transverse vestibule with external doors at the Dining Saloon end - something that later Kitchen Diners were so equipped. So for Hornby to produce a model of one of these early ones - there were only six - then tooling for the different sides would have to be produced. Any easier option - but only if modelling post 1932 - Hornby could release an unlined SR Olive Green version