Class 307

[gazzaday]

A gap in the ready-to-run market for Eastern Region EMUs has led many of us to build our own.  This represents my first attempt at such a model; namely a Class 307 unit.  I originally intended to kit-bash a Bachmann EPB unit.  However, on investigation the cab and chassis would have required extensive surgery, and I couldn’t bring myself to put a knife to £150 plus product.  I therefore decided to utilise the cheaper Replica Railways offering, including their motorised chasis.

 

I decided to start with the more challenging Driver Motor car.  This required some surgery to the Suburban Brake body by moving the front compartment to the rear of the carriage next to the Guard’s compartment and replacing the moulded vents.  The roof of the Guard’s compartment also required to be cut to accommodate the pantograph roof bay, which I purchased separately from eBay at a cost of £8.

In hindsight, the decision to use the Replica Railway model rather than the Bachmann version paid off, as significant work was required to the cab front and the Replica Railway cab is far easier to work on than a full-length Bachmann carriage.  I created a cut-out for the destination blind and removed the rain strips for the driver’s front windows.  I adorned the cab with jumper cables (mix of Hornby Class 50 from Peter’s Spares and Replica Railways), 0.3mm brass handrail, lamp irons (Masokits), rubbing strip (Replica Railways), step irons (brass scratch built) and extended buffers (MJT).  The rebuilt version which I am recreating included several cab replacement panels.  These were recreated simply with paper strips.  Given all the work I did to the cab front, I decided to push the boat and replace all the moulded handles and grab rails with Markits brass handles and 0.3mm brass wire.  Whilst this was laborious, I believe it was worth the effort.

The other driving car was a lot easier, insofar it did not have a pantograph bay.  It did however require modifications to accommodate the toilet compartment by altering one of the compartment doors and windows.  The presence of the toilets also required the fitting of the water feed pipes on the roof.  These were constructed using 0.45mm brass wire and handrail knobs.

My attention now turned to the bogies. Tracking down a manufacturer of the 8’9” Gresley motor bogie proved challenging. Unusually, a query placed on RMWeb offered no solutions. I finally sourced some excellent dummy sides from Southern Pride Models. The bogies on the other models were standard 8’6” Gresley for which I utilised the Comet variant.

[gazzaday]

It looks like two steps forward and one backward!

 

It appears that I have fitted the wrong bogies (thanks Clive).  All the correspondence I have read suggests the bogies on the Class 307 were Gresley ED7/ET7 (but not the type I have fitted).  If this is the case, then I am struggling to find a manufacturer for them in 4mm.  Can anyone help?

[Clive Mortimore]

It looks like two steps forward and one backward!

 

It appears that I have fitted the wrong bogies (thanks Clive).  All the correspondence I have read suggests the bogies on the Class 307 were Gresley ED7/ET7 (but not the type I have fitted).  If this is the case, then I am struggling to find a manufacturer for them in 4mm.  Can anyone help?

The closest RTR bogies are Bachmann's 4CEP or Class 205 or 2EPB, but the axle boxes need changing to roller bearings. I have no idea where and who first made the error of the bogies being a Gresley design . They are completely a SR, Eastleigh design based on the BR Mk2 bogie. The North London class 501 sets had the same design of bogie.

 

The power bogie is also SR design.

 

For my AM7 I am using BR mk1 bogies, I am removing the bolster springs and changing the oil axle boxes to roller bearing ones. 

[Kelly]

EKM Exhibitions sell spares of the CEP/EPB bogies.

 

Looking good so far though.

[Bucoops]

Love it! And interesting to see Romford being modelled as well (in the far distant future I'm hoping to model Shenfield in 1939).

[E3109]

That looks superb so far Gazza, and your OLE gantries look great too.

[Titan]

 

A gap in the ready-to-run market for Eastern Region EMUs has led many of us to build our own.  This represents my first attempt at such a model; namely a Class 307 unit.  I originally intended to kit-bash a Bachmann EPB unit.  However, on investigation the cab and chassis would have required extensive surgery, and I couldn’t bring myself to put a knife to £150 plus product.  I therefore decided to utilise the cheaper Replica Railways offering, including their motorised chasis.

 

I decided to start with the more challenging Driver Motor car.  This required some surgery to the Suburban Brake body by moving the front compartment to the rear of the carriage next to the Guard’s compartment and replacing the moulded vents.  The roof of the Guard’s compartment also required to be cut to accommodate the pantograph roof bay, which I purchased separately from eBay at a cost of £8.

IMG_0119.JPG

In hindsight, the decision to use the Replica Railway model rather than the Bachmann version paid off, as significant work was required to the cab front and the Replica Railway cab is far easier to work on than a full-length Bachmann carriage.  I created a cut-out for the destination blind and removed the rain strips for the driver’s front windows.  I adorned the cab with jumper cables (mix of Hornby Class 50 from Peter’s Spares and Replica Railways), 0.3mm brass handrail, lamp irons (Masokits), rubbing strip (Replica Railways), step irons (brass scratch built) and extended buffers (MJT).  The rebuilt version which I am recreating included several cab replacement panels.  These were recreated simply with paper strips.  Given all the work I did to the cab front, I decided to push the boat and replace all the moulded handles and grab rails with Markits brass handles and 0.3mm brass wire.  Whilst this was laborious, I believe it was worth the effort.

IMG_0125.JPG

The other driving car was a lot easier, insofar it did not have a pantograph bay.  It did however require modifications to accommodate the toilet compartment by altering one of the compartment doors and windows.  The presence of the toilets also required the fitting of the water feed pipes on the roof.  These were constructed using 0.45mm brass wire and handrail knobs.

IMG_0540.JPG

My attention now turned to the bogies. Tracking down a manufacturer of the 8’9” Gresley motor bogie proved challenging. Unusually, a query placed on RMWeb offered no solutions. I finally sourced some excellent dummy sides from Southern Pride Models. The bogies on the other models were standard 8’6” Gresley for which I utilised the Comet variant.

IMG_0541.JPG

 

 

I thought that with the 307 being ex 1500V DC the motor coach was in the middle, with the pantograph/transformer/rectifier only on the Driving coach, supplying 1500VDC via jumpers to the adjacent motor coach. It would appear that you have the motor bogie frames on the pantograph coach instead of the motor coach.

Edited October 1, 2018 by Titan

[E3109]

Some 306s ran in that form after conversion but prior to the wires being energised at 25kV, maybe these were the same?

 

Edit: whoops, I was thinking of the pan relocation to the centre car on the 306 of course.

Edited October 1, 2018 by E3109

[gazzaday]

That looks superb so far Gazza, and your OLE gantries look great too.

Thanks E3109, you might wish to look at my blog which explains how the OLE gantries were built:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1931-the-only-way-is-romford/

[gazzaday]

Progress made.  I have now managed to replace the bogies with the correct type; many thanks for those comments.  The new motor bogies are a combination of Dart Castings and spare Bachmann EPBs.

All coaches have now been fitted with door knobs and grabs (a laborious task!).

I will now turn my attention to the underframe detail.  I would appreciate any advice as to what goes where, as there are not many details available on the web or in periodicals etc.

[John Tomlinson]

A stunning piece of work, real modelling!

 

John.

[keefer]

On 01/10/2018 at 21:35, Titan said:

 

I thought that with the 307 being ex 1500V DC the motor coach was in the middle, with the pantograph/transformer/rectifier only on the Driving coach, supplying 1500VDC via jumpers to the adjacent motor coach. It would appear that you have the motor bogie frames on the pantograph coach instead of the motor coach.

The original formation was DTS-TC-MBS (with pantograph) -DTS.

As Titan says, the rebuilt units became DTS-TC-MS-DTBS (with pantograph)

[sb67]

Just caught up with your thread gazzaday, I was at Railex at the weekend, I was the guy from Romford and we spoke briefly on your club stand. Your models look stunning, the bridge looks just like the real thing. Guess it's a big project but I'll look forward to seeing your layout grow.

Steve.

[gazzaday]

22 minutes ago, sb67 said:

Just caught up with your thread gazzaday, I was at Railex at the weekend, I was the guy from Romford and we spoke briefly on your club stand. Your models look stunning, the bridge looks just like the real thing. Guess it's a big project but I'll look forward to seeing your layout grow.

Steve.

Good to catch up with you Steve.  Many thanks for your comments.

Regards,

Gary.

[Satan's Goldfish]

Good stuff, will be watching this as I also have some Replica bits for making 302 parcels unit in one of my parts boxes.

[gazzaday]

More progress.  After reading the thread above, I realised my error about placing the motor bogies on the trailing motor car.  This has now been rectified (Thanks Titan).

The entire unit has now been sprayed with primer ready for the top coat.  The under-frame detail now complete, has been challenging due to an absence of information on the web.  Nevertheless, this is all complete, albeit it has been an exercise on scratch building.  The detail even includes parts of a toy rocket!

The interiors have also been detailed.

[muddy water]

Hi!

Have you done some more to this wonderful model?

[gazzaday]

Many thanks for the post.  I have been ignoring the 307 recently while I have been concentrating on the Romford station build (separate post to follow).  Nevertheless, the 307 has progressed quite a bit from my last post.  The underframes and coaches have now been painted.  The laborious task of the individual glazing is underway.

[Bucoops]

They are looking great - also looking forward to the Romford update

[gazzaday]

Does anyone know the split of smoking and non smoking compartments for the Class 307 trailer car shown in the picture? The model is based in the 1970s.

[Clive Mortimore]

Any help?

 

 

If the diagram is the same way round as it was when they were MBS then the end that couples to the DTBS (with pantograph)  that would be the right end as viewed.

 

Edit, it wasn't until the early eighties that there was an increase in non smoking areas on trains.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Clive Mortimore

[cravensdmufan]

And IIRC the compartment next to the guard was "Ladies Only". Up to what year though, I don't know but almost certainly when the units were in all blue.

Edited June 25, 2020 by cravensdmufan
Spelling

[Clive Mortimore]

6 hours ago, cravensdmufan said:

And IIRC the compartment next to the guard was "Ladies Only". Up to what year though, I don't know but almost certainly when the units were in all blue.

Ladies only compartments were abolished with Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. 

[gazzaday]

I have now found an old photograph taken at Liverpool Street taken in 1972 which shows 7 smoking and 3 non smoking compartments in a 3-3-4 formation.

[Barclay]

7 smoking and 3 non-smoking? That's a sign of the times. Is my memory correct in thinking that in the 80's, near to the end of their lives, they had the interior compartments ripped out and were turned into open carriages? I think it was because of the risk of people being 'trapped' in the compartments with no way out if someone dodgy got in with you. Or did I dream all that? The model is looking great by the way.