Dapol Announce N gauge Mk.3 Sleepers

[Mike Harvey]

@John M Upton I was painting the slats on a N scale fire engine radiator grille recently and tried a tampo printing technique which might work on the raised window surrounds. I used a thin piece of rubber stuck on the end of a 7mm square wooden handle. I applied a thin layer of paint by brush to a piece of plasticard, picked up the paint by holding the rubber pad flat on the plasticard, then transferred the paint to the radiator slats again holding the rubber square to the slats.

[John M Upton]

I am having trouble sourcing black Sleeper lettering in 2mm/N scale.  Anyone able to point me in the right direction please?  A search for 'Sleeper' in 2mm on both Fox Transfers and Railtec yielded a blank.

 

[railtec-models]

4 hours ago, John M Upton said:

I am having trouble sourcing black Sleeper lettering in 2mm/N scale.  Anyone able to point me in the right direction please?  A search for 'Sleeper' in 2mm on both Fox Transfers and Railtec yielded a blank.

 

 

Hiya John, do you have a photo of what specifically you'd like to achieve?

[John M Upton]

1 minute ago, railtec-models said:

 

Hiya John, do you have a photo of what specifically you'd like to achieve?

Hello!

 

No photo of the actual ScotRail rail blue stripe sleeper unfortunately but what I seek is standard black rail alphabet Sleeper wording as applied to the Mk3a sleeper fleet in Executive livery.  I already have the ScotRail lettering in stock and working on the theory that at least one of the two rail blue stripe examples said ScotRail Sleeper on the sides.

[railtec-models]

18 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Hello!

 

No photo of the actual ScotRail rail blue stripe sleeper unfortunately but what I seek is standard black rail alphabet Sleeper wording as applied to the Mk3a sleeper fleet in Executive livery.  I already have the ScotRail lettering in stock and working on the theory that at least one of the two rail blue stripe examples said ScotRail Sleeper on the sides.

 

Hi John, just to confirm, do you mean like is just about visible in the image below?

 

 

Images of sleeper mk3s in InterCity exec seem surprisingly hard to come by - on tinterweb at least, though I haven't reached for my stash of Platform 5s yet. What I can't figure out from that image is whether it's "InterCity Sleeper" or "Inter-City Sleeper" so if anyone has any more concrete photographic evidence then that would be useful and then I can make a new pack for everyone on the web site.

 

I don't recall any sleepers at all with the ScotRail blue stripe though, and if I were a betting man then I'd be leaning on the side of saying there weren't any, but it'd be nice to be proven otherwise.

[Luke Piewalker]

There were 2. Apparently 10578 and 10610 in 1986-87, briefly.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/14601-inter-city-mark-3-sleepers-with-scotrail-blue-stripe/

[John M Upton]

1 hour ago, railtec-models said:

 

Hi John, just to confirm, do you mean like is just about visible in the image below?

 

 

Images of sleeper mk3s in InterCity exec seem surprisingly hard to come by - on tinterweb at least, though I haven't reached for my stash of Platform 5s yet. What I can't figure out from that image is whether it's "InterCity Sleeper" or "Inter-City Sleeper" so if anyone has any more concrete photographic evidence then that would be useful and then I can make a new pack for everyone on the web site.

 

That's the style yes.  An Intercity Sleeper version would be useful too and I can substitute the InterCity for ScotRail easily enough.

 

Many thanks 

[Kaolin2FS]

On 16/10/2021 at 12:45, railtec-models said:

 

Images of sleeper mk3s in InterCity exec seem surprisingly hard to come by - on tinterweb at least, though I haven't reached for my stash of Platform 5s yet. What I can't figure out from that image is whether it's "InterCity Sleeper" or "Inter-City Sleeper" so if anyone has any more concrete photographic evidence then that would be useful and then I can make a new pack for everyone on the web site.

Steve, the 1988 Platform 5 stock book has a photo of SLEP 10542 in Exec livery which shows InterCity isn’t hyphenated, at least on one side of that coach. The 1989 book also has the very end of an IE coach in formation with an ICC liveried example. It’s just possible to tell that this isn’t hyphenated either. 

Graham

[John M Upton]

Latest update of items due from Dapol issued earlier today by Rails of Sheffield is noticeable by the total absence again of the blue/grey ones again...

[jamespetts]

On 16/10/2021 at 12:45, railtec-models said:

 

Hi John, just to confirm, do you mean like is just about visible in the image below?

 

 

Images of sleeper mk3s in InterCity exec seem surprisingly hard to come by - on tinterweb at least, though I haven't reached for my stash of Platform 5s yet. What I can't figure out from that image is whether it's "InterCity Sleeper" or "Inter-City Sleeper" so if anyone has any more concrete photographic evidence then that would be useful and then I can make a new pack for everyone on the web site.

 

I don't recall any sleepers at all with the ScotRail blue stripe though, and if I were a betting man then I'd be leaning on the side of saying there weren't any, but it'd be nice to be proven otherwise.

 

I think that I shall be after some transfers to convert the sleeper carriages into Executive livery, too. Here is a(n unembeddable) image from Flickr showing one of these sleeper carriages in 1988 at Oxford, definitely without a hyphen in "InterCity".

[railtec-models]

Ok, as this was low-hanging fruit I've created a new off-the-shelf offering for everybody in both 2mm and 4mm. Here's the 2mm pack:

 

2mm-3028

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4706

 

 

As you can see, I've included brandings and numbers for the two alleged ScotRail sleepers, as well as some accompanying daytime vehicles and motorails. Hopefully this hits the mark?

[jamespetts]

22 minutes ago, railtec-models said:

Ok, as this was low-hanging fruit I've created a new off-the-shelf offering for everybody in both 2mm and 4mm. Here's the 2mm pack:

 

2mm-3028

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4706

 

 

As you can see, I've included brandings and numbers for the two alleged ScotRail sleepers, as well as some accompanying daytime vehicles and motorails. Hopefully this hits the mark?

 

Excellent - have just ordered a set.

[John M Upton]

Marvellous!! Order just put in.

 

Many thanks!!!

[Adam1701D]

Received my Swallow liveried Mk3 Sleeper today. Not sure if's a trick of the light but the red stripe appears darker on the compartment side - more like the claret that IC experimented with in the 90s.

 

Things are going to get sticky for this vehicle...

[Kaolin2FS]

On 28/10/2021 at 12:06, Captain Electra said:

Not sure if's a trick of the light but the red stripe appears darker on the compartment side - more like the claret that IC experimented with in the 90s.

I think you’re right, and being picky there’s also a slight bow in the stripe along the length of the body but I don’t find either are particularly noticeable at normal viewing distance. 
 

My first sleeper is now finished - top coach in the photo - with two out-of-the-box examples below for colour comparison. The repaint is of one of the Intercity Charter/Land Cruise sleepers of the late 80s/early 90s. Precision Paints P146 Executive Light Grey below the stripe, P976 White on the roof and side handrails, P148 Yellow on the axle boxes and lifting points, Humbrol 56 Aluminium on the window frames, and the excellent Railtec Transfers for the INTERCITY, Sleeper and carriage numbers.

 

 

[John M Upton]

Usual excellent service from Railtec, transfers arrived this morning and...

 

Wondering now if the blue grey version ever carried Scotrail Sleeper lettering...

[railtec-models]

31 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Usual excellent service from Railtec, transfers arrived this morning and...

Wondering now if the blue grey version ever carried Scotrail Sleeper lettering...

Hiya John, glad they made it there in good time. Re the ScotRail sleeper, the plot thickens. A kind soul sent me an image of one such example, although.... it carries "InterCity Sleeper" branding, the dark blue variant of the ScR stripe (like what you have), and I'm 95% sure the number is "10680"! Still no images of 10578/610 however, which may well have carried "ScotRail Sleeper" for all I know.

[tiger]

3 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Usual excellent service from Railtec, transfers arrived this morning and...

 

Wondering now if the blue grey version ever carried Scotrail Sleeper lettering...

The answer is yes (Flickr link - not my original photo):

 

 

Nice work on the improved livery John and @Kaolin2FS. The aluminium window frames make such a difference. I’m not sure I could do that neatly myself. Is there scope for a transfer to achieve this effect?

[John M Upton]

That is a very useful picture actually as it shows thanks to the fading of the paintwork where a patch of blue was applied over the InterCity lettering and the ScotRail (presumably a standard set of lettering same as on day coaches of various types at the time) simply applied over it but leaving a gap as InterCity is longer than ScotRail.

 

Does anyone have any definitive numbers for blue/grey ones with the ScotRail rebranded variation?  A comment on the Flickr page for this picture identifies it as 10609, I presume there were others.

[jamespetts]

My transfers arrived in the post to-day - excellent service!

[Steven B]

On 30/10/2021 at 11:27, Kaolin2FS said:

 

That looks so much better - did you spray Exec. light grey straight on top of the Dapol "colour"? I'm guessing you removed the original lettering?

 

I had a chance to have a closer look at mine over the weekend - is it me or have Dapol's factory painted the frosted toilet window from the outside rather than the inside. It looks rather odd compared to Dapol's other Mk3s.

 

Is Dapol drip feeding these to the shops? No where appears to have more than a couple in stock. I'm glad I only need a couple for the Euston-Machester/Liverpool or Euston-Stranraer services. Tracking down 8+ for a Inverness/Perth train or the 7 needed for a Land Cruise rake could take some effort.

 

Steven B.

 

[John M Upton]

2 hours ago, Steven B said:

Is Dapol drip feeding these to the shops? No where appears to have more than a couple in stock.

 

I have noticed that with new releases, Dapol seem to initially only send out approximately four of a new item to each retailer which if they have sufficient preorders wipes out the delivery in an instant. 

 

It them seems to take a couple of weeks for further stock to arrive.

 

Where are the blue/grey ones?

[grahame]

I wouldn't have thought it's a matter of Dapol sending out specific limited amounts to all retailers, but more about how many the retailer orders. Whether or not they get everything they ordered is a different matter, especially if the batch is over subscribed.

 

 

[Kaolin2FS]

On 01/11/2021 at 13:31, Steven B said:

 

That looks so much better - did you spray Exec. light grey straight on top of the Dapol "colour"? I'm guessing you removed the original lettering?

….

Tracking down 8+ for a Inverness/Perth train or the 7 needed for a Land Cruise rake could take some effort.

 

Steven B.

 

Near enough, Steven; three thinned coats of Exec Light Grey were brush painted over the top after having removed the lettering and coach numbers, then any slight overpaint onto the red lining was carefully scraped off with a cocktail stick. Transfers then applied directly onto the finish which seemed to work well without a gloss coat first. 
 

Currently repainting a few Mk1 FO/RBR to go into a short Land Cruise rake with the sleepers - and therefore expecting Farish to announce an ICC FO in their next quarterly update…

[Steadfast]

Got a GWR green MK3 to assess whether it's an easy route to modelling the sleeper. Deco is ok, colour matches the HST well (not that I'm sure that's 100% to the prototype) but the silver stripe and lettering have been distorted in the vertical direction. Compare the 'A First Group Company' on the two models. Using HST coaches as a stand in for the seated mk3s doesn't really work because the livery is different anyway, but even if you planned to, they won't match the sleepers because of this variance in the application of the silver.

Also, the orange WSP cabling is a nice touch, but the yellow springs are quite sloppily applied, particularly noticeable as the orange is so neat. Weirdly, the carriage number is in gold and the central door lock lights should be dark grey, as on the green sleepers they're LEDs behind smoked plastic. Little details, but it adds up across the model.

 

 

Luckily my sleeper train is going to be a full set resprayed into FGW dynamic lines so I'll be keeping an eye out for some cheap sleepers, but I was planning to keep the green one as they'll be mixed livery for the era I model. I might just as well paint it blue I guess! Also, the packaging has left some nice rub marks on one side of the carriage.

 

Jo

Edited November 4, 2021 by Steadfast