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SECR Birdcage Coaches


Bill
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5 minutes ago, Wickham Green said:

Just got a note from Hattons saying they "are no longer able to fulfil" my pre-order for a malachite green set .......... no further explanation - though we know there have been 'difficulties between the parties !

 

I have had the same email with all my Bachmann pre-orders listed on it

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  • 3 months later...
5 minutes ago, Pre Grouping fan said:

Not sure if this has been covered before, but by the time the coaches were painted in malachite, were they loose or still fixed sets?

 

They were never loose. Apart from one set - 600 which was converted to make two push/pull sets 660 and 661.

 

The rest were withdrawn en masse between 1956 and 1958.

 

Some went to departmental service though.

 

 

 

Jason

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 The correct shade of  malachite debate, will no doubt, rumble on. But to my eyes Bachmann have nailed it.

I worked in the Bluebell Railway C&W Dept. for many years, and was fortunate to see examples of genuine

SR malachite first hand. The best sample we had was on a guards van door recovered from Stewarts Lane.

This door was LSWR pattern, and importantly had never been used from new, so was not weathered.

When I saw Bachmann's rendition of malachite on their Birdcage sample it compared well to my 

memory of that door.

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12 hours ago, Pre Grouping fan said:

Not sure if this has been covered before, but by the time the coaches were painted in malachite, were they loose or still fixed sets?

No doubt mentioned a few times over these pages but these 60' trio sets only had one dynamo - later two - to supply lighting to the whole set which couldn't, therefore, be split.

 

Yes, that sample at Warley looked good : still shown as November delivery last time I looked - but that's obviously slipped.

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1 hour ago, Wickham Green said:

No doubt mentioned a few times over these pages but these 60' trio sets only had one dynamo - later two - to supply lighting to the whole set which couldn't, therefore, be split.

 

Yes, that sample at Warley looked good : still shown as November delivery last time I looked - but that's obviously slipped.

Thanks. Shame as a single brake would look good. 

 

The delivery date on the stand at warley was december along with quite a lot of other items

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I cannot give precise dates, but unlined Wellington Brown was brought in as a measure during the First World War.  Shortages of pigments and manpower would have been behind the change - adding to the cost pressures on the railways during the conflict.  The coaches were brought into service in the years immediately preceding the start if the war.  Normally repainting would have been regular and probably on a 2-3 year cycle.  It is likely that by 1918 all or at least most would have been in Wellington Brown, even though painting schedules probably became somewhat more flexible.

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I think what Andy's trying to say is "Shortages of pigments and manpower" were "adding to the cost pressures" so a less expensive unlined livery with cheaper materials was more or less inevitable.

 

SECR blue : I know the Southern experimented with S.& D.J.R. blue on a few coaches ( sets ? ) but - without sources in front of me - I'm not sure any 'Chatham' vehicles were involved.

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The SER had a rich dark rich blue for locos, I cannot remember if this was extended to coaches, if they were, then it would have been only SER types which run as such in early SECR days.

These Birdcages are well into SECR days and more into the latter of half of SECR days, I don't think  they ever did any dark rich blue livery.

 

There might be some confusion in that the current South Eastern Railways do have EMUs in a dark rich blue livery which was probably inspire by the older SER loco liveries.

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21 minutes ago, Wickham Green said:

I think what Andy's trying to say is "Shortages of pigments and manpower" were "adding to the cost pressures" so a less expensive unlined livery with cheaper materials was more or less inevitable.

Umm, a misunderstanding, methinks. I was referring to Blue's model.

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4 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

...... There might be some confusion in that the current South Eastern Railways do have EMUs in a dark rich blue livery .......

I'd hesitate to call the current colour 'rich'  - I think 'drab' would be more appropriate : just like the old GNER colour - probably fine when fresh out of the paintshop but not for very long after. ( I say paint, it might be sticky-backed plastic for all I know.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

My Wellington Brown Birdcages dropped by today and very pleased I am too. I suspect sales will be a tad slow with the rather high price point and drab appearance so maybe I'll get lucky and be able to pick up another rake off the bargain tables later in the year. Anyhoo, well done Bachmann.

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  • 1 month later...

Somewhere back on page twenty-something of this thread someone asked how to get into these coaches - and somewhere on page thirty-something someone proved that they'd managed to gain entry and install lighting ............................ bur I still can't figure out how to split the body from the chassis without applying more knife blades and brute force than I'm prepared to experiment with !  -------- HEEEEELP !

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6 minutes ago, Wickham Green said:

Somewhere back on page twenty-something of this thread someone asked how to get into these coaches - and somewhere on page thirty-something someone proved that they'd managed to gain entry and install lighting ............................ bur I still can't figure out how to split the body from the chassis without applying more knife blades and brute force than I'm prepared to experiment with !  -------- HEEEEELP !

It wasn't me but I had to take the body off to fix a broken close coupling mechanism.

 

I used pieces of plasticard to wedge the clips away from the body. I did find that because the clips on each corner of the body are close to the ends so found it very hard to flex the body away from them. But whatever plastic they used flexed just enough and didn't crack on the corners. I modified the clips to make them slightly easier to remove again before reassembly "just in case". 

Edited by Pre Grouping fan
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13 hours ago, Wickham Green said:

My usual tool is old business cards rather than Plastikard ............... but I don't see how it's possible to get anything into the gap with that continuous footboard blocking the angle of attack !

 

 

I'll take some photos when i'm home tonight to try and show how I managed to get inside them, It's not as painfully annoying as you might expect. Although it is still painfully annoying

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