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14 hours ago, AJCT said:

 

I can identify with that... I'm a firm believer in the technique of "give it a good coat of looking-at", a phrase attributed (I think) to Alan Titchmarsh's Dad or Grandad.

 

I also have ambitions to create an E&G Swindon set, but will probably have to live to age 175...!

 

Cheers !

 

Alasdair

MTK did a kit for the E&G sets, if you can find one, though I'm sure I read the window layout wasn't quite correct? Not sure though. 

 

Worseley Works might be an option for doing etched sides and ends too, but this still requires donor chassis, roofs etc. "Scratchaid" kits don't always provide an easier route though necessarily in my experience.

 

Good luck when you are able to start, whichever route you go down!

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The TPO has had a coat of Matt varnish applied. Will post a photo when light weathering of underframe etc and glazing are done.

 

Meanwhile I have been planning to do a Mk.1 Suburban 2nd for Dunnington, as the Derwent Valley Railway used a BR blue one in 1977 on their steam Specials with a couple of standard Mk.1s, so a bodyshell etc was sourced from Replica when the bits for the TPO were ordered.

20201210_154230.jpg.907e72f897b8f076e2815b819ad22426.jpg

Having been sure it was one of the longer vehicles I now realise that photos show it to have 9 compartments, not 10, so presumably it was one of the 57' coaches, for which a Bachmann coach would have been ideal (as well as saving an inch or so of platform space!).

So should I cut the Replica one down or look for a cheap Bachmann one? I think the roof seam spacing would unfortunately show up any cuts....

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Midland Hotel in Birmingham had a couple of those. They were in 'Atkinson's' real ale bar, which was at street level on Stephenson St., almost across from where the Ian Allan bookshop was.

 

The interior was bedecked in railway artefacts, two bays of mark one seating (one per window) and a darn fine selection of Ale to boot. Not sure when it closed, my last visit was probably in 1993.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Take the bull by the horns, they say.

 

So I decided to attempt the turn-under on the Etched Worseley Works Class 100 sides, having pondered and put it off for several months. Having no bending bars or any substantial vice, I quickly found that various clamps, steel rules and bits of wood were of no use when trying to hold and bend about 2mm of coach edge. Annealing the sides was suggested a while back but having never tried this I decided against it. 

The eventual solution was to score a reasonable groove inside the bend location, whilst pressing the side down on a mouse mat, which gave a very slight crease, and then use flat ended pliers, working gradually along to bend the lower edge firstly to around 20° and then a second pass to make the angle about 45°. Not a solution I recommend, but it seemed to produce the desired outcome. A little tidying is still required.

 

Having scored a groove along the inside lower edge:

20210108_002639.jpg.594f98389db06835352ae03067e4a698.jpg

 

Lower edge bent approx 45° (pencil line from an earlier marking exercise):

20210108_001359.jpg.06a783b860a5cd754a265d38f787f1b9.jpg

 

Voila, 4 sides done.

20210108_002716.jpg.51bf336271b749f629c6f1b286934350.jpg

The light catching the edges makes imperfections appear worse than they are.......Next job is to form the ends (which helpfully do have etched fold lines). I plan to solder the sides and ends together via a couple of Craftsman cast metal DMU cab roofs, and then add roof sections from the Hornby 110 donor, before working out how to fit bodies to chassis'.

 

I'm happy that that job is done!

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Overlaying one of the sides onto the Hornby 110 donor highlights a couple of issues.20210108_205611.jpg.7b3eb1a77bb5bac804b53b4d4801d36e.jpg

The sides are about 3mm longer at each end than the chassis, the class 100 having much flatter ends than the 110 of course, with straight buffer beams rather than the angled 110 type.

20210108_205602.jpg.ec06e006695a22646045c8dbc610aefa.jpg

The second issue is the correct bogie spacing for a 100 (and 110 come to that) is 40' (so 160mm) according to the Barrowmore Diagram book, but the model works out at 38'6" (154mm).....

 

So by happy coincidence, the first issue is cancelled out by correcting the second, ie, if the chassis is lengthened. This will also allow the angled Hornby bufferbeams to be cut away and replaced with flatter ones with correct buffers. As the underframes will be reworked anyway, this shouldn't be a particular issue.

 

The Hornby interiors will probably be reused as they are, other than a lick of paint. 

 

The main issues still to be resolved are how to strengthen the bodysides (probably a plasticard strip subframe) and how to attach the body to the chassis - but that can wait for now.

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  • Signaller69 changed the title to Signaller69's projects; class 100 DMU.

The Trailer sides and ends have been soldered together, first test fit (to check width) on the as yet unmodified Hornby chassis:

20210110_013401.jpg.cdbe917351c6c534936e4b7716f1c8f9.jpg20210110_013420.jpg.6f9fa955a00104e86f50e546b74a72c6.jpg

 

The Craftsman cab roofs will need a bit of work to be a decent fit. I thought they were from a 104 but now believe them to be from a Derby Lightweight conversion.

20210110_013733.jpg.847466dc8f298edbd266399046740c4b.jpg

 

I have a couple of Lima cabless 117 bodies left over from the 107 project, which may be able to donate their roofs to this project, rather than destroying the 110 bodies.

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4 hours ago, Signaller69 said:

Whilst looking in my bits box I found not only the scrap 117 bodies, but the 110 cab ends removed during the 107 conversion. The roof section of these cabs will be used to form the 100 cab end domes (as I find plastic easier to work with than cast metal; the latter will now be used at the inner ends). The Lima 117 roofs have the advantage that they have screw fixing points via the chassis too. 

20210112_114818.jpg.dd4e7666db3ce6f666def92df0874d01.jpg

 

The cab end done, just needs final sanding after butchery to remove the headcode box and new rainstrips fitting:

20210112_115228.jpg.ab8f498e9af76194ab0b9ed24cbdfffd.jpg

 

As can be seen below, I remembered I had a spare Hornby 110 Trailer chassis which is being used here; this has been stretched by 6mm and the bufferbeams cut away and replaced with new flat ones from plasticard. Some further remedial work is needed, the Photo also shows the turnunder to good effect:

20210112_115319.jpg.ae380e60b932c86fa619a08737bcbe86.jpg

 

Next will come the detailing stage, body fittings, buffers etc.

I'm impressed.  I considered buying a set of these sides as the Class 100s were regular performers on the eastern end of the Waverley Route.  However having seen how much work there is to do to get a good result, I will hang fire for now. 

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32 minutes ago, coronach said:

I'm impressed.  I considered buying a set of these sides as the Class 100s were regular performers on the eastern end of the Waverley Route.  However having seen how much work there is to do to get a good result, I will hang fire for now. 

Thanks.

Admittedly I have not taken the easiest route. Using a Bachmann Derby Lightweight as a donor, with the Worseley sides and ends would, I feel, be a much simpler proposition, as the underframe and roof are better suited. If I had been able to find a cheap one I may well have used that instead of an assemblage of left over bits, though doing so has been enjoyable so far.

The worst bit for me has been forming the turn-under; it is a pity Worseley don't offer a pre-forming service for this aspect, but I guess we are lucky they do at least do the sides and ends.

Edited by Signaller69
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The DMBS has been soldered up and work on the roof is progressing; as with the DTCL this is cut and shut from a Lima Class 117 with a Hornby 110 Cab roof dome and Craftsman Derby Lightweight rear dome. The headcode box and roof vents will be filed away and sanded, and the ends profiled to match the DTCL.

 

20210120_064557.jpg.55070ef7df2612144e79614ebb24b8d9.jpg

 

The chassis needs a slight modification at the corners so the body will fit snuggly, hence it is just plonked on top of the chassis in the photo.

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3 hours ago, Signaller69 said:

The DMBS has been soldered up and work on the roof is progressing; as with the DTCL this is cut and shut from a Lima Class 117 with a Hornby 110 Cab roof dome and Craftsman Derby Lightweight rear dome. The headcode box and roof vents will be filed away and sanded, and the ends profiled to match the DTCL.

 

20210120_064557.jpg.55070ef7df2612144e79614ebb24b8d9.jpg

 

The chassis needs a slight modification at the corners so the body will fit snuggly, hence it is just plonked on top of the chassis in the photo.

Hi Martyn,

 

That looks quite an oddity with the head code box, I've worked out where it came from though:

 

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/13388

 

Here is a class 24 version of the similar mix up.

 

 

Enough to get the rivet counters in a stew.

 

Gibbo.

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4 hours ago, cheesysmith said:

Am I allowed to say I think it looks good with the roof display left there lol?

 

A bit of what if they had built some later on.

 

Absolutely! Playing around with roof fitting, it quickly becomes evident that, to fit headcode boxes, Gloucester would have had to put a flat top across the cab front, losing the destination box. Probably would have looked something like a class 104 with a roof indicator box.

 

4 hours ago, Gibbo675 said:

Hi Martyn,

 

That looks quite an oddity with the head code box, I've worked out where it came from though:

 

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/13388

 

Here is a class 24 version of the similar mix up.

 

 

Enough to get the rivet counters in a stew.

 

Gibbo.

 

When I did the 107 a while back I did contemplate putting a 110 cab on a 117 body. It would indeed be interesting to see how many people noticed this sort of thing, particularly if it was in the middle of say, a 6 car unit! 

 

As you say it was fairly common practice later to swap cabs on Class 24's in particular, leading to some variation in looks. I have seen several Modellers' take this idea and create something that didn't exist, just for fun.

 

I wonder if anyone has tried this on DMUs too....

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Not much to report on the bodywork. I wanted to tackle the issue of adding weight to the powered car though and this was achieved by adding an inverted Plastruct 'U' section along the chassis to act as a conduit for the power feed wire. Liquid lead was added either side up to the level of the solebars, secured with PVA. Self adhesive thin lead strip (trimmed from 9mm to 7mm wide) was then added inside each side of the body, below window level. This combination gives at least as much weight as the removed Hornby square block without intruding visibly into the interior.

 

20210123_120517.jpg.a4c523565f38c747e76112feea944646.jpg

 

20210123_120556.jpg.3730f9a8619c0fa7c794abe680443829.jpg

 

I also removed the incorrect first class section part of the DMBS interior and added second class seating cut from spare bits of Lima 117 seating.

 

20210123_120544.jpg.376f78b5722577e2cba0ab087f41c524.jpg

 

20210122_192710.jpg.4b37ea62ebd000a59cada885e0e0c738.jpg

 

Some further work is needed here to remove (or otherwise disguise) the visible web between seats on the Hornby moulding owing to it's under scale width and "scale" interior width compared to the Hornby 110 body shell so this needs further pondering. One answer would be to cut the interior lengthwise and add a stretcher down the centre. The only other option is to scratchbuild an interior to the correct width, which would require finding the correct style of 2+3 seating suitable for fitting to the necessarily raised floor.

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1 hour ago, Signaller69 said:

Not much to report on the bodywork. I wanted to tackle the issue of adding weight to the powered car though and this was achieved by adding an inverted Plastruct 'U' section along the chassis to act as a conduit for the power feed wire. Liquid lead was added either side up to the level of the solebars, secured with PVA. Self adhesive thin lead strip (trimmed from 9mm to 7mm wide) was then added inside each side of the body, below window level. This combination gives at least as much weight as the removed Hornby square block without intruding visibly into the interior.

 

20210123_120517.jpg.a4c523565f38c747e76112feea944646.jpg

 

20210123_120556.jpg.3730f9a8619c0fa7c794abe680443829.jpg

 

I also removed the incorrect first class section part of the DMBS interior and added second class seating cut from spare bits of Lima 117 seating.

 

20210123_120544.jpg.376f78b5722577e2cba0ab087f41c524.jpg

 

20210122_192710.jpg.4b37ea62ebd000a59cada885e0e0c738.jpg

 

Some further work is needed here to remove (or otherwise disguise) the visible web between seats on the Hornby moulding owing to it's under scale width and "scale" interior width compared to the Hornby 110 body shell so this needs further pondering. One answer would be to cut the interior lengthwise and add a stretcher down the centre. The only other option is to scratchbuild an interior to the correct width, which would require finding the correct style of 2+3 seating suitable for fitting to the necessarily raised floor.

You might want to check re the liquid lead and PVA to see if it reacts the same way as traditional lead. My memory is of reading advice in several places that lead shot should not be fixed with PVA, for some reason it swells over time and splits any enclosing framework. Liquid superglue was recommended instead.  IIRC the last warning I remember reading was in an article in BRM by Phil Parker on updating old wagons.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Edited by john new
Typos corrected
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39 minutes ago, john new said:

You might want to check re the liquid lead and PVA to see if it reacts the same way as traditional lead. My memory is of reading advice in several places that lead shot should not be fixed with PVA, for some reason it swells over time and splits any enclosing framework. Liquid superglue was recommended instead.  IIRC the last warning I remember reading was in an article in BRM by Phil Parker on updating old wagons.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks John, yes I have seen that issue mentioned in the past and realise it isn't "best practice", but I have never had any problems using this method, even in fully enclosed spaces. However, conversely, I have found super glue heats the lead as it cured and has resulted in slight bowing of a wagon chassis, which is why I no longer use that method. I will keep an eye on it though!

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