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Oxford Rail announces - OO gauge Mk3 coaches


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I had access to the MK2/3 coach drawings and original BR paint specs. Exec dark grey was first on executive. Any fresh repaints in swallow used Falcon grey from 1988 (or at least should have done, maybe some places used up existing stocks of exec dark grey, we don't know). So it's possible some Executive coaches were simply rebranded with swallow lettering at depot level until their next overhaul, when they came out in full falcon grey swallow.  

 

Not that it applies here but for HST Mk3s no inter-city Executive vehicle was rebranded into swallow, only full repaints according to the official specs. So a Swallow branded HST will definitely be falcon grey.  

 

Hope that helps.

 

Alex

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I had access to the MK2/3 coach drawings and original BR paint specs. Exec dark grey was first on executive. Any fresh repaints in swallow used Falcon grey from 1988 (or at least should have done, maybe some places used up existing stocks of exec dark grey, we don't know). So it's possible some Executive coaches were simply rebranded with swallow lettering at depot level until their next overhaul, when they came out in full falcon grey swallow.  

 

Not that it applies here but for HST Mk3s no inter-city Executive vehicle was rebranded into swallow, only full repaints according to the official specs. So a Swallow branded HST will definitely be falcon grey.  

 

Hope that helps.

 

Alex

 

 Both logical and informative and should finally put this issue "to bed".......................  

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 Both logical and informative and should finally put this issue "to bed".......................  

 

LOL, Not a chance !.

 

Admittedly, this is locos not coaches, but at Haymarket in the 80's our local Production Manager developed a penchant for putting bespoke liveries on the depot shunters. Here's Davie Mable painting up 08 570 with original Inter City logo.

 

post-22167-0-54510900-1516737061_thumb.jpg

 

A couple of weeks later following a complaint from Craigentinny, we had to hastily remove the logo and replace it with a Swallow motif, only just visible here (poor scan of an even poorer picture)

 

post-22167-0-26279900-1516737141_thumb.jpg

 

To be fair, I've no idea on the shade of Grey used, but happy to go with the "whatever was to hand at the time".

Edited by Scottish-Exile
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He probably scrounged the paint from us - from Craigentinny!.  And before anyone gets too tied up in knots over the colour, the tins we held in stock were in multiple description labels e.g. APT Dark Grey, Executive Dark Grey and Falcon Grey all on the same tin with one Catalogue number.  Depots were supplied with whatever the current spec. said and the manufacturer just sent the latest as stocks were used up.
 

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I

 

LOL, Not a chance !.

 

Admittedly, this is locos not coaches, but at Haymarket in the 80's our local Production Manager developed a penchant for putting bespoke liveries on the depot shunters. Here's Davie Mable painting up 08 570 with original Inter City logo.

 

attachicon.gif4.jpg

 

A couple of weeks later following a complaint from Craigentinny, we had to hastily remove the logo and replace it with a Swallow motif, only just visible here (poor scan of an even poorer picture)

 

attachicon.gif18.jpg

 

To be fair, I've no idea on the shade of Grey used, but happy to go with the "whatever was to hand at the time".

 

I always liked seeing those shunters, they looked so distinctive and really stood out. If I remember rightly, both ended up in the scrapline at Motherwell depot in later years

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I always liked seeing those shunters, they looked so distinctive and really stood out. If I remember rightly, both ended up in the scrapline at Motherwell depot in later years

 

08793 - the green one, ended it's working days circa with us at Aberdeen Clayhills in the 90s. Having become a bit of Christmas tree for the other 350' it was finally taken away sadly by road to Motherwell...

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Just to add fuel to the fire on shades of grey, how about this.. IC Swallow with ScR liveried Mk3's in the late days of push-pull. They grey is definatly a different shade. candidate for modelling with the ScR Mk3's to come and the DBSO? 

post-33163-0-88615300-1516793134_thumb.jpg

Edited by Tiddles47
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The coach is all set up for lights, the bogies have pre-drilled wiring holes, and has contact plates along the inside of the bogie, with bearing cup shape groove to hold the wheel coned axles ends on..

attachicon.gif0FEF5AD7-E7AF-46CF-BC9B-10DCB14FCF24.jpeg

 

 

 

It could just be my eyes but it looks like it would be a struggle to squeeze EM gauge wheelsets in there, has anyone seen mention of whether this is do-able?  Thanks

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Just to add fuel to the fire on shades of grey, how about this.. IC Swallow with ScR liveried Mk3's in the late days of push-pull. They grey is definatly a different shade. candidate for modelling with the ScR Mk3's to come and the DBSO? 

 

Interesting.  Grey's - the upper dark Grey appears to look the same on the loco and coaches.  However the lower skirt light Grey - appears to look different - that's just an optical illusion caused by the red or blue stripes, Red being a warmer colour than Blue, so when applied next to Exec Light Grey they change how the light grey colour/shade is perceived. Note how the light Grey part on the first coach end door looks the same as the loco.  If the red stripes were over-painted with Blue on first three coaches, the light Grey would then look consistent on all the coaches in the rake.  Exec Light Grey was the colour spec used on Inter-City / INTERCITY and ScotRail Exec coaches for the lower skirt areas,

Edited by tractor_37260
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Just to add fuel to the fire on shades of grey, how about this.. IC Swallow with ScR liveried Mk3's in the late days of push-pull. They grey is definatly a different shade. candidate for modelling with the ScR Mk3's to come and the DBSO? 

 

I still think its difficult to judge the greys there. The Swallow Mk3s will have been freshly overhauled and painted, the Scotrail liveried 47 and Mk3s will have had a larger degree of fading or weathering

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At last - a model of a modern British coach nearly up to the standards of Roco's Eurofima coaches introduced... approximately 30 years ago. :)

 

Just a quick further public warning if it hasn't been made already - one of the buffers on my delivery was wandering around the box and appears to need to be glued in rather than just clicked in. I also had the entry steps issue. Oxford should really get these things sorted if only for the simple fact that it spoils the 'box opening experience'. I'm going to have to use superglue and it's going to be difficult not to get any in a visible area on at least one of the 5 things I've got to glue in. This is pretty annoying.

 

I won't go into the livery issues, other than to say the light grey is definitely not 'warm' enough, because I'm not toooo bothered by it and my IC Swallow coach has been bought as a stand-alone display coach so there are no issues with contrasting colours on other models.

 

What I will say is that I'm happier with the glazing than I thought I would be. Much flusher than it looked to be in some of the pix we saw before release. Also nicely smoked and reflective. The window frames are perhaps a little prominent but I can live with them.

 

I'm no expert on bogies but they look good to me and I particularly like the brake discs, which help to 'ground' the coach nicely. This is in contrast to Hornby's plain wheels that, if the coach hasn't been weathered and is in front of a dark background, seem to make the coach body look as if it's floating under low lighting conditions.

 

Shame about the roof fluting. Definitely too smooth. Then, of course, there's the extension of the smoked glazing to both the toilet windows and the entrance doors...

 

If the price doesn't shoot up to the new Bachmann Mk2 levels, I would say the model is very good value for money. However, if the price does go to Bachmann levels, which is pretty much on a par with the prices of continental stock (LS Models, ACME - usually between €55 and €70), I may find myself inclined to buy less.

 

As regards window shape, is it just me or has anyone else thought they're very slightly reminiscent of the BREL International coaches - perhaps a little too rounded or too deep. I can't quite make my mind up about that one.

 

Also, should the interior seating not be red rather than the orangey colour it appears to be?

 

I'm looking forward to getting my next display vehicle just to try some Roco close-coupling heads to see if the NEM boxes have been correctly positioned and allow corridor-to-corridor coupling.

 

As a long-time fan of the Mk3, I will definitely be switching my purchases from Hornby to Oxford despite some of the niggles.

 

I hope my opinions will have been of interest to someone!

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited by Michanglais
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Spotted at the London Toy Fair yesterday: 

 

attachicon.gifCoach_1.jpg

 

attachicon.gifCoach_2.jpg

 

Thanks for posting these Phil.  By any chance were any of the other liveries on display?

 

​note; the buffet car's losing one of it's Girling discs.  Protypical in the early days but thankfully very rare - fortunately the spec. didn't advise putting them back on with a dab of glue.

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These are only the livery samples so it could have been intentional but that First Open has the (HST) livery for a Trailer First not a First Open - the classification band is way too thick and far too high, likewise the lining is as used on the HST trailers.  Strangely enough the RUB is correct!  Plenty of good examples here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/40855-loco-hauled-mk3s/page-2&do=findComment&comment=441587

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Spot on response. It's an optical illusion. The greys are all the same.

 

 

 

So I just called my 8 daughter in here, to try an optical illusion (new word in her vocabulary) and ran her through the test..

I asked which coaches look darker or lighter grey  ? Paper in hand ready for stage 2..

 

Her reply...

 

they are all the same it's just the sun putting a shadow on some making them darker.

 

So much for a science experiment.. there's no flies on her.

Edited by adb968008
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Interesting.  Grey's - the upper dark Grey appears to look the same on the loco and coaches.  However the lower skirt light Grey - appears to look different - that's just an optical illusion caused by the red or blue stripes, Red being a warmer colour than Blue, so when applied next to Exec Light Grey they change how the light grey colour/shade is perceived. Note how the light Grey part on the first coach end door looks the same as the loco.  If the red stripes were over-painted with Blue on first three coaches, the light Grey would then look consistent on all the coaches in the rake.  Exec Light Grey was the colour spec used on Inter-City / INTERCITY and ScotRail Exec coaches for the lower skirt areas,

I have put a bit of paper on the screen to cover the red and blue lines and the lower greys on the loco and all the coaches appear to be the same.

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It could just be my eyes but it looks like it would be a struggle to squeeze EM gauge wheelsets in there, has anyone seen mention of whether this is do-able? Thanks

Funny enough I was having a go at this last night, pulled the wheels out but they are going to need the sides shaving down.

 

Regards

 

Craig

Edited by 43078shildoncountydurham
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I have put a bit of paper on the screen to cover the red and blue lines and the lower greys on the loco and all the coaches appear to be the same.

Now that I've tried that, it is an optical illusion!!  Funny tricks your eyes can play on you. 

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So I just called my 8 daughter in here, to try an optical illusion (new word in her vocabulary) and ran her through the test..

I asked which coaches look darker or lighter grey  ? Paper in hand ready for stage 2..

 

Her reply...

 

they are all the same it's just the sun putting a shadow on some making them darker.

 

So much for a science experiment.. there's no flies on her.

 

What was her response to stage 2 ?   

 

Colour perception can vary from person to person, according to their vision. When some colours are used together, one can have an effect on the other, in the case of the coaches in the photo, the Red stripe makes the light Grey area "appear" warmer/deeper in shade, whereas on the Blue striped coaches the same light Grey appears colder/brighter in shade. 

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I picked up my first Mk3As this morning.

The detail looks very fine. One of the steps fell off in the packaging but I put this back easily enough. I will keep my eyes on that one in case I need a drop of cement just to hold it in place.

I placed it next to one of my Lima ones. The roof looks very different, but as long as I don't mix them in a rake (which I won't because these are Mk3As & I'll keep my existing ones in HSTs) then I think the difference is acceptable.

The end detail on the Oxford model is a lot better.

The light grey is a lot colder, having gone in the opposite direction from Lima to which Hornby have gone. Indoor lighting makes a big difference here. I wonder if this looked better under yellow-ish tungsten lighting? I have daylight coloured tubes in the layout room so this may not help. Real paint fades though so I can live with it.

 

AN annoyance which I find with Bachmann, Hornby & Heljan is back-to-backs. You would think that these would be consistent & correct on a new model, but they can vary a lot even on a single item of rolling stock. I was pleased to see that on the Oxford Mk3A I unboxed, these were all spot on. Once placed on the track, it ran very smoothly with little rolling resistance too.

 

I am looking forward to getting the rest set up in a rake with a DVT & AC Electric.

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