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Park Royal Railbus


ScRSG

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The Scottish Region version has a set of steps and wire handrails that should be removed before attempting to unclip the body from the chassis. On my model the steps weren't glued in which made disassembly all the easier (and equally reassembly afterwards). I feel that Heljan have made some improvement in this area over the previous railbuses where reoving the handrails without breaking the steps was a delicate and frustrating task. In addition two spare sets of steps and handrails are provided in the box in case the modeller breaks the fitted ones trying to get them off. Thank you Heljan!

 

A word of warning when removing the handrails and steps, don't do it as shown in the instructions. Ease the handrails and steps gently out from where the lugs at the rear top of the steps locate into the chassis doing it equally on each side of the steps until you can slide the steps off the handrails. Each handrail can then be eased out from the locating hole at the top. Removing the handrails without first sliding off the steps will be very tricky and likely result in the guides for the handrails on each side of the steps breaking off. 

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Greetings Bonnie Dundee see your still a night owl.

Yes the glass is finished along with a few more so the Bus has been put away..resisted the temptation to remove the roof  tonight.

Been on the rolling road for a good bit and lubricated..running very sweetly but not tried on a layout. 

We will need to take turns of who runs theirs as the Devon Valley used one and the Larbert service also ..wonder if they appeared at Alloa at the same time?

I'll let you know how the blinds go if I do it before you..otherwise keep me posted on yours.

The Bachmann DMUs have the destination transferred onto a solid piece of transparent plastic with the led behind.

You need to have the name behind the glass to give it depth so in the case of the Bachmann 105 I printed the names off on the computer on plain paper black background and simply stuck them onto a thin piece of perspex with another cut to size and fixed in the aperture.

Its fiddly but costs nothing and worth it.

Attached images of 105…ignore the plastic wipers..

post-2371-0-42510100-1436662154_thumb.jpeg

 

post-2371-0-23158300-1436662277.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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My M79971 arrived yesterday.  An excellent model.  The lights are a bit overpowering though.

 

I have had a particular fascination for the Park Royal railbuses ever since I saw an Airfix one on a layout at Central Halls Westminster in 1976.  The layout was from the Hyndburn MRC if I recall correctly. Some years later I bought a secondhand Airfix one then built one myself when Dapol reissued the kit in the 1980s.  It has had the occasional outing on the layout but can now safely be retired.

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Chipped mine last night and was grateful for the advice on here.4 pieces of plasticard did the job but the body was still a very tight fit and much care was needed.Would endorse the comment of possible damage to the steps and the cause.I did it but was happy that Heljan has provided ready made replacements in the box. Didn't look too carefully at the other spares but seemed to be the exhaust. Care is needed with loose bits below.The exhaust is fairly fragile and some of the other bits seemed loose and likely to detach if too much force was used.

Tried an ANE chip which seemed not to be able to cope with the current draw on the  Heljan motor. I half expected this as I have had issues with lesser decoders on Heljans before. The Gaugemaster I used was fine though.

Fine model and a good replacement for my not up to standard Dapol kit. Will Heljan do any more as I think they originally promised us a Wickham.

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 Still trying to work out what the two "thingummies" are in the detail pack. Who's going to be first to find out how to change the destination blinds? (Finished that glass of red yet?)

The two small plastic strips in the detail pack fit under the doors. The pins fit two square slots in the chassis block below the doors and the side with the silver-printed detail faces outwards. You'll need to glue them in - but leave it until after you've had the body off to fit passengers/decoder. On the real thing they were presumably part of the body reinforcement under the door openings.

CHRIS LEIGH

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Does anyone know if the LMR Park Royal railbus's  had their steps changed to the Scottish type when they moved to Scotland.

Paul J.

It appears not. I've a suspicion that they only went north for the 'railbus graveyard' service between Ayr and Kilmarnock. It was a Beeching closure that was deferred pending road improvements and it seems that the ScR simply used the railbuses until something broke and then threw them away. I have a photo of a Park Royal on this service, number not really legible but you can see its clearly an M prefix. However, I have photographic evidence of 79972 with an SC prefix, so that one at least got renumbered, unlike the AC Cars vehicles which never did. All the shots I have of Park Royals on the Ayr-Kilmarnock show them at stations with low platforms, provided with wooden step boxes placed on the platform. In short, I would think the ScR spent as little as possible on mods to the rail buses - it seems in most cases nothing at all, or maybe just a yellow warning panel and a prefix change. 

CHRIS LEIGH

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Thanks for the body removal advice! The instructions seem to have a picture missing. Rather than use plasticard (too lazy to go out to the garage) I cut up an old AA membership card (other credit card sized material could have served). The body then separated easily. Mine isnt the Scottish version so no handrail complications.

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Does anyone know if the LMR Park Royal railbus's  had their steps changed to the Scottish type when they moved to Scotland.

Paul J.

 

I am still searching for relevant photographs but I remember the railbuses well and would see them in Eastfield on Sundays..often with Craigendoran on the screen.

I am pretty sure the folding steps originally fitted to the Scottish examples were removed early on and they all ran with the same simplified set up.

They operated many services up here and Ayrshire was the least of them..remember them at Gleneagles for the Crieff Comrie branch and of course Alloa to Larbert and Stirling to Dollar via Alloa..all very relevant to our train set of course.

They also operated into Perth usually the last service of the day from Stirling and I think similarly from Comrie as they were I believe stabled there overnight probably for fuelling etc.

Anyway I would be surprised if any of the original units allocated to sheds south of the border ever had the Scottish steps fitted..more likely that the Scottish ones lost theirs to come in line with the others.

 

The Bristol cars were used on the Beith branch and of course as mentioned the Park Royals also worked the Craigendoran - Arrochar service..one time stamping ground of the C16 tanks.

 

Dave

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Greetings Bonnie Dundee see your still a night owl.

Yes the glass is finished along with a few more so the Bus has been put away..resisted the temptation to remove the roof  tonight.

Been on the rolling road for a good bit and lubricated..running very sweetly but not tried on a layout. 

We will need to take turns of who runs theirs as the Devon Valley used one and the Larbert service also ..wonder if they appeared at Alloa at the same time?

I'll let you know how the blinds go if I do it before you..otherwise keep me posted on yours.

The Bachmann DMUs have the destination transferred onto a solid piece of transparent plastic with the led behind.

You need to have the name behind the glass to give it depth so in the case of the Bachmann 105 I printed the names off on the computer on plain paper black background and simply stuck them onto a thin piece of perspex with another cut to size and fixed in the aperture.

Its fiddly but costs nothing and worth it.

Attached images of 105…ignore the plastic wipers..

attachicon.gifIMG_2783 - Version 2_2.jpeg

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2746_2.jpg

The Devon Valley line used a number of railbuses including at least one AC Cars and I believe at least two park Royals, one of the being SC79971.

An AC Cars was used in the early year 1959, 1960 and maybe later and was used on the advertising advertisement for the line in 1959.

 

I am up in Dollar at present and will check the Dollar museum this weekend to see if they have any dated photographs showing numbers etc.

I did see a photo, a few years ago, of two railbuses at Dollar but cannot remember where I saw it.

It may have been in a book or even in the museum’s collection.

I believe one was “parked” on the loop just east of the signal box whilst the Perth railbus was leaving the station, but am a little hazy about the exact details.

 

Cheers

Guy

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I have just visited the Dollar museum and although I could not find the photo of two Park Royals passing at Dollar I did find a different photo of  two Wickman’s passing there (SC79965 and SC79966) in 1959.

This means I can confirm that at least three different makes of railbus were used on the Devon valley Line, AC Cars, Wickman & Park Royal.

There are photos of a single Park Royal M79973 in 1964 at Dollar in the museum and various photos online of others such as SC79971 & M79973 in 1963 & 1964.

There is also photo evidence of AC Cars SC79979 on the Devon Valley Line in 1959 & 1960 so it seems a wide range of railbuses were used on this line.

Cheers

Guy

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Perhaps slightly OT, but I offer the info anyway.

Way back when Cambridge had a new diesel depot built, at Coldham's Lane. (It is still there, with LNWR signs attached, and lights blaze away inside - what goes on nowadays?).

This depot was only used for the local allocation of shunters (03 & 08), and drb's - the W&M type were allocated here. Only 1 diesel loco ever got allocated here - D5508 - for about a month I believe.

Cambridge must have gained some sort of service reputation, because I saw at least 1 example of most types of drb here, I still have my lists but need to search through them to identify which ones.

 

Stewart

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Perhaps slightly OT, but I offer the info anyway.

Way back when Cambridge had a new diesel depot built, at Coldham's Lane. (It is still there, with LNWR signs attached, and lights blaze away inside - what goes on nowadays?).

This depot was only used for the local allocation of shunters (03 & 08), and drb's - the W&M type were allocated here. Only 1 diesel loco ever got allocated here - D5508 - for about a month I believe.

Cambridge must have gained some sort of service reputation, because I saw at least 1 example of most types of drb here, I still have my lists but need to search through them to identify which ones.

 

Stewart

 

But it was primarily a DMU depot, not a locomotive depot, and is still used for that purpose as it stables and (I believe) services overnight some of the Cross Country DMUs used on the Stansted Airport-Birmingham service.  Before electrification, DMUs for the Cambridge-King's Cross as well as East Anglian routes were maintained there.

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Has anybody got sound in one?

 

Cheers,

 

Alan.

 

Alan,

 

Try Digitrains. They have one on a ZIMO decoder with a custom sound project, with ZIMO's new active brake key and a nice 'rasping' exhaust. It's very new, so you may have to ask for it specifically.

 

Usual low ZIMO prices apply.

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul

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I have just visited the Dollar museum and although I could not find the photo of two Park Royals passing at Dollar I did find a different photo of  two Wickman’s passing there (SC79965 and SC79966) in 1959.

This means I can confirm that at least three different makes of railbus were used on the Devon valley Line, AC Cars, Wickman & Park Royal.

There are photos of a single Park Royal M79973 in 1964 at Dollar in the museum and various photos online of others such as SC79971 & M79973 in 1963 & 1964.

There is also photo evidence of AC Cars SC79979 on the Devon Valley Line in 1959 & 1960 so it seems a wide range of railbuses were used on this line.

Cheers

Guy

 

Great information Guy and very useful to our group as we have the 'Alloa' train set which of course includes a rail bus.

Up to now we made do with a detailed Dapol/Branch lines interior /Hollywood Foundry chassis and it has served us well at various exhibitions but now own multiple Heljans as moire than one member has bought one.

Question was did more than one ever operate on the line at same time..I would have guessed yes at Alloa as there was a rail bus service ~Alloa to Larbert and also Stirling to Dollar with the last train of the day going through to Perth i believe so at least at Alloa there may have been one in the bay and another passing up the Devon Valley.

All good news as it allows more than one member to run their new toy.

On numbers..I remember many if not all of the Park Royals around Eastfield at one time or another so think any of them may have been involved on the Devon Valley services especially as the Gleneagles to Comrie service also operated I believe Comrie to Perth which means Perth to Stirling via Alloa using ther Comrie bus quite likely..musical chairs.

Interesting to hear of the two Wickhams and good news as we can introduce a bit of variation.

Current Heljan in bits having extra detailing and weathering before being permitted to run on layout….(Fat Controller doesn't allow non weathered stock!)

 

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

How about a little something for the dashboard sir?

 

post-4034-0-07335700-1439831848_thumb.jpg

 

The Hitchin  - Shefford is ok to use but the Shefford - Bedford No1 relates to a time after the line was severed at Shefford and the double track section to Southill was singled. Tablet working was still in use so a second train could go to Cardington whilst the first shunted at Shefford. 

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I'm attempting to remove the body of a non-Scottish PR rail bus. I've found the indents and have inserted a piece of 0.020" plastic card at each. The body though is extremely tight. I don't want to pry it off. Any ideas and suggestions?

 

The objective is fitting a Hornby Sapphire decoder. Given the difficulty taking off the body, I'll probably take the opportunity to add a driver and passengers too. We're these run by two man crews, a driver and a guard? Or were they one man operation?

 

Cheers,

 

Malcolm Turner

Calgary, Alberta

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The answer is to find somewhere that feel total secure to the main chassis and gently ( a little bit at a time ) ease it out. It does take time as it is a tight fit ( see my post no 15 )

 

I know mine at first didnt feel as though it would come out but eventully did, just take care.

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I'm attempting to remove the body of a non-Scottish PR rail bus. I've found the indents and have inserted a piece of 0.020" plastic card at each. The body though is extremely tight. I don't want to pry it off. Any ideas and suggestions?

 

 

 

It's a case of firm but gentle Malcolm.

 

Getting_in_s.jpg

 

I found that parting the bodyside from the chassis with a thumbnail where there's a locating 'peg' in the bodyside about a quarter of the way in from each end on each side and inserting a bit of card worked. Once all four corners are separated the chassis will then ease out.

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A thin table (butter) knife is a pretty safe way to ease the side out and insert some styrene sheet or strips of an old credit card. Small, narrow blades such as screwdrivers will chew up the lower edge of the body (I made this mistake) but a tea knife won't do any harm - other than, perhaps, to a piece of toast!

CHRIS LEIGH

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