Best Way to Scratchbuild 3 Car Class 101?

[FPH 603]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the process of planning a build for a 3 car Eastern Region class 101 DMU. I will be making carriage diagrams 523 (DBMS), 624 (TC), and 621 (DMC). All may be in refurbished White/Blue colours. I was wondering if anyone has scaled drawings of at least one class 101 vehicle to refer to. Also if anyone has any advice that would be great too.

(Image from Railcar.co.uk)

Thanks to all that contribute.

Edited December 27, 2017 by DoubleDeckInterurban

[loickebros]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the process of planning a build for a 3 car Eastern Region class 101 DMU. I will be making carriage diagrams 523 (DBMS), 624 (TC), and 621 (DMC). All may be in refurbished White/Blue colours. I was wondering if anyone has scaled drawings of at least one class 101 vehicle to refer to. Also if anyone has any advice that would be great too.

image.jpeg

(Image from Railcar.co.uk)

Thanks to all that contribute.

Might be a good starting point.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R2697-BR-Class-101-3-Car-DMU/142632083406?hash=item213588dfce:g:zmAAAOSwOA1aO6IK

[FPH 603]

Might be a good starting point.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-R2697-BR-Class-101-3-Car-DMU/142632083406?hash=item213588dfce:g:zmAAAOSwOA1aO6IK

This does look pretty good, although I'm not in a position to buy it right now (it will be gone in 13 hours!), and to be honest my painting skills aren't the best either...

[JDW]

You seem to have a lot of plans going off at the minute, maybe best to concentrate on one or two at a time to avoid confusion and loss of motivation?  As Loickebros suggests, there are plenty of cheapish Hornby* and Lima ones appearing regularly on eBay, and by the time you've bought the parts (plasticard is cheapish, but add up the cost of at least half a dozen sheets of various thickness, glue, wheels, bogies, buffers, couplings, nuts/bolts for bogie mountings, a motor, wire and brass for pickups, clear glazing, you'll not be far off the £70 or less you can find them on there for.  And if as you as you say your painting skills aren't great, then starting with a good** RTR model gives you a better chance of a good result.  

 

(*the Hornby one is the ex-Lima model with a better motor)

(**this is subjective, no doubt people will try and tell you the Bachmann one is better, better motor etc, and it is, but the Hornby/Lima one perfectly adequate)

[FPH 603]

You seem to have a lot of plans going off at the minute, maybe best to concentrate on one or two at a time to avoid confusion and loss of motivation? As Loickebros suggests, there are plenty of cheapish Hornby* and Lima ones appearing regularly on eBay, and by the time you've bought the parts (plasticard is cheapish, but add up the cost of at least half a dozen sheets of various thickness, glue, wheels, bogies, buffers, couplings, nuts/bolts for bogie mountings, a motor, wire and brass for pickups, clear glazing, you'll not be far off the £70 or less you can find them on there for. And if as you as you say your painting skills aren't great, then starting with a good** RTR model gives you a better chance of a good result.

 

(*the Hornby one is the ex-Lima model with a better motor)

(**this is subjective, no doubt people will try and tell you the Bachmann one is better, better motor etc, and it is, but the Hornby/Lima one perfectly adequate)

The plans I make are very on and off lately. This one is more for the layout, which hasn't made much progress lately and a lot of plans of mine get set aside for later while I work on others. They do change and evolve when I get more ideas as I go too, usually the general idea is the same but some of the smaller ideas around it change over time. I think the Hornby model will be a good base for a detailing project, and with that I could potentially get it look really good. The thing about the Bachmann model is that they mostly come in Power/Trailer 2 car sets, and they are way overpriced in my opinion. In Australia, you could get a 4-CEP Southern Electric cheaper than a Class 101! It's also that I try to avoid too much changes to RTR as well, although it may sound stupid, there is always a chance of completely wreaking the model. Although I think this should turn out just fine.

 

 

EDIT: Although I find with purchasing from eBay that a lot of the listings end within less than a day. I don't mind the cost of scratchbuilding with plasticard, as I still have lots of leftover sheets from previous projects, and the price of a pack of three or so sheets is pretty decently priced. Doesn't necessarily mean I'll buy a second hand model, nor does it mean I'll use plasticard. I think it will come down to what I have already going on and what I end up deciding then. And anyway, one sheet of plastic typically can cover one car, sometimes a little more...

Edited December 28, 2017 by DoubleDeckInterurban

[cheesysmith]

If you are wanting to build a 101, i suggest using a replica Mk1 BG. The 101 were built to Mk1 body profile, and the BG comes in the correct 57ft length.  #A thin plasticard over lay for the sides, having removed all the raise detail, remove the under frame trussing, and you would just need to do the cab ends. Engines from the sprue of spares from Heljan for the DPU.

 

Or was it the 105 that had Mk1 body profile? Either way, using a over lay over the BG would be the easier way, evem if the body wasnt the correct shape afterwards.

Edited December 28, 2017 by cheesysmith

[Bill Radford]

Give this a go for scaled drawings:-

 

http://barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/BRDMUIssue.pdf

 

http://barrowmoremrg.co.uk/Prototype.html

[giz]

There are 4mm scale drawings of 101s (and most other 1st gen dmus) in Brian Golding's 'A Pictorial Record of British Railways Diesel Multiple Units' published by Cheona.

 

e.g https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781900298001/Pictorial-Record-British-Railways-Diesel-1900298007/plp

 

Some of the drawings have inaccuracies so it's best to compare to photos but the 101s seem pretty accurate and compare well to rtr models.

 

Another alternative for you to consider is the old DC kits plastic kit, I suspect you could pick one up cheap if you look around as it came out a couple of years before Lima launched theirs so there could be a few unbuilt ones around.

Edited December 28, 2017 by giz

[JDW]

If you are wanting to build a 101, i suggest using a replica Mk1 BG. The 101 were built to Mk1 body profile, and the BG comes in the correct 57ft length.  #A thin plasticard over lay for the sides, having removed all the raise detail, remove the under frame trussing, and you would just need to do the cab ends. Engines from the sprue of spares from Heljan for the DPU.

 

Or was it the 105 that had Mk1 body profile? Either way, using a over lay over the BG would be the easier way, evem if the body wasnt the correct shape afterwards.

 

I think you're right in your edit, I don't think the 101s were Mk1 profile, wasn't one of the research units a 101 rebuilt with Mk1 style sides?  It looked very different.

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/work/dmu/SD3180.JPG

[JDW]

Just saw this, thought it might be of interest as a starting point:

http://www.hattons.co.uk/329200/Hornby_R2697_SAS01_Class_101_3_car_DMU_in_BR_green_Midland_Region_Stratford_Excursion_Pre_owned_s/StockDetail.aspx

[FPH 603]

There are 4mm scale drawings of 101s (and most other 1st gen dmus) in Brian Golding's 'A Pictorial Record of British Railways Diesel Multiple Units' published by Cheona.

 

e.g https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781900298001/Pictorial-Record-British-Railways-Diesel-1900298007/plp

 

Some of the drawings have inaccuracies so it's best to compare to photos but the 101s seem pretty accurate and compare well to rtr models.

 

Another alternative for you to consider is the old DC kits plastic kit, I suspect you could pick one up cheap if you look around as it came out a couple of years before Lima launched theirs so there could be a few unbuilt ones around.

I haven't seen any DC kits models on eBay, nor any in stock from the website. DC kits (I think) has been defunct for a while, I tried buying a couple of kits a couple of months ago, and they replied by simply saying 'no' when I asked if they had any other kits available.

Just saw this, thought it might be of interest as a starting point:

http://www.hattons.co.uk/329200/Hornby_R2697_SAS01_Class_101_3_car_DMU_in_BR_green_Midland_Region_Stratford_Excursion_Pre_owned_s/StockDetail.aspx

Looks like Hattons have plenty of them Hornby class 101's. I'll have a look around for any that catch my eye.

[mike hughes]

The 101's did have a MK1 profile along with the 105 (and the rest of the Craven DMU's), the 108's and the Derby lightweights. I'm pretty certain that's the only ones that did.

Michael

[EddieK]

The unit that appears in the very first post is an LMR unit that has visited the ER on a tour.

 

From the diagram numbers given, I presume you want to model vehicles built with the 2 digit headcode? By the time these were painted in the "blue stripe" livery, the headcode boxes would have been panelled flush, leaving just the two marker lamps and the destination display. 

 

Note that different batches within this diagram for the MBS had different Guard's door arrangements on the driver's side. On the "early build" vehicles, up to M50320, the in-swinging half of the double door (with the droplight) was on the left when looking from the outside - in other words, when standing outside the vehicle, the double doors on both sides of the vehicle have the droplight on the left hand door.

On later builds, from M51174 upwards, the Guard's doors were handed. On these, the door with the droplight was always at the rear-most part of the doorway aperture, so, furthest from the cab.

 

If you do use the Lima / Hornby body, be aware that the cab windscreens are too tall when compared to scale.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Eddie

[FPH 603]

Oh!

 

I posted this long ago and soon forgot all about it! Thanks, but I think this project is long gone by now. Maybe someone else may have a go at it...

[BigAndy]

I'm in the planning stages for building some 101's for Glasgow Queen St. My own thoughts on this are to use the Lima/Hornby bodies ( plenty of which I've picked on Ebay ) and for motorising them, I've settled for using the new Replica chassis :

 

http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/die-cast-chassis/chassis-variants

 

( usual disclaimers apply )

 

They supply both the 57' and 64' chassis varaints, from which you can build pretty much any DMU you fancy. There are a few things not absolutely spot on with the Lima bodies, mainly the cab front windows, but these issues can be sorted out reasonably easily and is far easier to fix than the issues surrounding the Bachmann 101.

 

cheers

 

Andy

[FPH 603]

I'm in the planning stages for building some 101's for Glasgow Queen St. My own thoughts on this are to use the Lima/Hornby bodies ( plenty of which I've picked on Ebay ) and for motorising them, I've settled for using the new Replica chassis :

 

http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/die-cast-chassis/chassis-variants

 

( usual disclaimers apply )

 

They supply both the 57' and 64' chassis varaints, from which you can build pretty much any DMU you fancy. There are a few things not absolutely spot on with the Lima bodies, mainly the cab front windows, but these issues can be sorted out reasonably easily and is far easier to fix than the issues surrounding the Bachmann 101.

 

cheers

 

Andy

Funny you mention the Replica chassis... I plan on using one for another scratchbuilding project I'm soon going to start - still a 1st gen DMU but this time a Cravens class 112.

[Waveydavey]

There are a few things not absolutely spot on with the Lima bodies, mainly the cab front windows, but these issues can be sorted out reasonably easily and is far easier to fix than the issues surrounding the Bachmann 101.

 

 

The cab front window issue should be fixable with a handy etch in the near future.

 

Cheers

 

David

[EddieK]

The cab front window issue should be fixable with a handy etch in the near future.

 

Cheers

 

David

 

David - I look forward to these becoming available. Should revitalise the fortunes of he Lima / Hornby 101 8)

[Bill Radford]

I'm in the planning stages for building some 101's for Glasgow Queen St. My own thoughts on this are to use the Lima/Hornby bodies ( plenty of which I've picked on Ebay ) and for motorising them, I've settled for using the new Replica chassis :

 

http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/die-cast-chassis/chassis-variants

 

( usual disclaimers apply )

 

They supply both the 57' and 64' chassis varaints, from which you can build pretty much any DMU you fancy. There are a few things not absolutely spot on with the Lima bodies, mainly the cab front windows, but these issues can be sorted out reasonably easily and is far easier to fix than the issues surrounding the Bachmann 101.

 

cheers

 

Andy

I've used one of these excellent chassis to upgrade the Hornby 110

 

BUT

 

it comes above the window line so is not disguisable.