Waveydavey

Remove the circuit board and cut off the two bosses that the attaching screws go into. Then hard wire in your new decoder.

The blue ICI Ammonia tank that features above John appears to be a smooth sided tank. Did you smooth off the riveted panels from the Airfix tank body or have you replaced it? Cheers David

Did you ever get as far as printing off the AL1 underframe parts? Just asking as I'm currently working on a Triang body that will run on a shortened Hornby 86 chassis and could do with the modified parts (smoothing chokes?) from the window side.

A very timely question as I have a single Triang container wagon in my stash of possible future projects. I keep thinking a conversion to one of the single wagons is the only way I'll ever use it. How I'll justify it passing through Alloa in 1975 is going to be the difficult bit.

1’8” long Oleos with 13inch heads were fitted to all HAAs. Lanarkshire Models BP01 is what you want.

I've been exchanging a few messages with Pete lately and on Saturday received a package of his etches for my grain wagon project. Although he has no more in stock he says he would be willing to get more etched if there is sufficient demand. There are two types of roof walkway and chassis detail etch, one type for the Lima wagon and one for the Trix/Bachmann type. Pete has asked me to point out the walkway etch for the early bodystyle has been done to fit Trix/Bachmann bodies stretched to scale length as he did a few years ago and featured on EMgauge70s and will be too long for unmodified bodies. If anyone is interested Pete has asked for initial contacts to be via the contact address given on the EMgauge70s site

A spare GSYE 29 body arrived from DCC Supplies yesterday. With me having questioned the lime green used by Dapol on the upper body section it seemed a good idea to respray it with some Lifecolour acrylic Sherwood Green. Much happier with how it looks now.

I’ve replaced the buffers on mine with 2’ long Oleos with 18” heads from LMS.

You’ve got me intrigued by painting the ends brown Darius. David Ratcliffe in ‘Modern Private Owner Wagons on British Rail’ says the BRT vans were delivered in brown but I believe this may not be correct. The Paul Bartlett photos suggest the sides were grey but the ends do look suspiciously brown under all the road dirt. Sadly I’ve not been able to find a good photo of a BRT van early in it’s life to get a clear idea of how they were painted. Cheers David

Those window frames rescaled to fit Bachmann 4mm MK1s would be very handy Alan. I’ve tried the Southern Pride self adhesive ones with disastrous results and the Shawplan ones are a bit too finescale for me as they require a full reglase.

Normally I’d agree Steve even in P4 but, to my eye, the Triang VIX looks much thinner than the 0.8mm quoted suggests. ISTR the width overall checks out OK but the door runners are hugely over scale to allow them to be openable.

What time period/livery are you planning on? One thing I’ve learned on my LMS BG journey is that by the time they were painted blue the ‘hoods’ above the doors had been removed giving a much cleaner appearance.

That’s nice Jon. Very similar to one I photographed at Tyne Yard about 15 years ago. On the subject of this van being under width (I’ve seen 0.8 and 1mm quoted) does anybody have the dimension for the width of the body and where the lack of width is on the ends in relation to the two uprights. Straight down the middle would be the easiest to remedy so Sods Law says it won’t be there. Most of the drawings I’ve found give an overall width dimension which covers the width over the door runners rather than the body itself although I’ve not tracked down the drawing from the MRC Annual 1985 yet. Cheers David

Looking at Paul’s photos of the BRT vans I’m 90% convinced I can see the same grey as on the L&S version under all that filth. Funny that these vans seemed to get so mucky. Dark muck on and around the door bars which could possibly be oil or grease and rust and ‘white’ staining around the hinges. Is it possible the white is alloy corrosion?

The David Ratcliffe book on private owner wagons says the L&S 1971 build were delivered in grey and the 18 BRT vans in brown. I have seen a suggestion, attributed second hand to a Paul Bartlett article in the HMRS, that the BRT vans were actually grey too. As all the colour photos I’ve seen show filthy wagons it’s anybody’s guess as to what shade of what colour they should be. Very perplexing when I’m trying to model them in relatively clean 1975 condition.

Were BR sheets a standard size or did they come in a variety of sizes? And when, roughly, was the swap over from grey canvas to blue plastic sheets? Cheers David

Excellent book, as is the 21/29 one. IMHO these are the best and most informative diesel loco history books I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

Any idea when no.19 went from green to blue and yellow? I’m sure I’ve seen a photo of it in green in 1974 and blue/yellow in 1978ish but I model 1975 and would like to get the colour right.

A couple of Parkside kits mashed together might be the easiest answer Mike.

1’6” long buffers with 13 inch heads would have been fitted to most, if not all, unfitted 16 ton coal wagons. Two and four rib buffers would have been fitted according to what was available or the preferred choice at the works that built them. As always, a good perusal of Paul Bartlett’s site will help you to find the types you want.

On freight I’d say mid 1980s. Definitely before 1988. Some trains retained guards after this if they conveyed dangerous goods of certain types and local trippers will still have had a secondman and guard into the 1990s reducing to just a guard into the early 2000s. Other people in the cab with the driver could be route learners, travelling shunters, trainee drivers, instructors or assessors etc.

Is it me or is the light green on the TTG 29 a little bit bright? Comparing to photos of the real thing it looks much too light. Did it weather down more on 29s than it did on Brush 4s? Having decided to have a bit of a 1971 ‘green’ cameo on Clackmannan Goods with a 29 and a 17 keeping modifications down to P4 wheels, couplings and weathering I now find myself thinking the blue 29 will be a better bet that doesn’t need a partial repaint to get it looking right.

Cheers Andy. 23mm will do just fine for P4 wheels. Lets hope the grim days of the HAA and Shark are long gone.

Anybody managed to fit a set of P4 wheels in yet? If not could someone measure the space between the W irons please.

No class 107 DMU. OK they did have a fairly small area of operation but no worse than the 117 that Lima did and Bachmann are working on.