Bulleid Coaches

[John Tomlinson]

1 hour ago, RFS said:

 

My preorder for the first tranche of these coaches was in August 2019. Nearly 5 years later we still have no idea whether versions in the BR livery they spent most of their lives in will be produced. Just had another birthday and am now in my 80th year so how much longer can I wait!? 

 

I've got quite a few of the original Bulleid coaches which had mostly been fitted with Symoba close-couplings. All have metal wheelsets too. Tried selling a few on Ebay but got nowhere so I have decided to instead do what I've meaning to do for a long time - flush-glaze them. A few extra Symoba CCMs have been fitted to those brake coaches without them, and the Hornby Roco couplings have been replaced by Hunt magnetic ones. In all I've flush-glazed 22 coaches over the last 3 weeks and wish I'd done it sooner!

 

Here's a 3-set coupled up to a Hornby Bulleid 3-set. I think they look quite presentable now. Even begun to appreciate the darker green ones too!

 

 

 

 

I'm in the same boat as you.  I don't think I'd go out and buy the old type models now, but if you already own some it's a different story.

 

I've found as well that the flush glazing makes for a huge improvement. I have tried fitting wire water feedpipes to the roof, and cast metal roof vents, but TBH I'm not sure these are worth the effort.

 

John.

[Dunsignalling]

3 hours ago, RFS said:

 

My preorder for the first tranche of these coaches was in August 2019. Nearly 5 years later we still have no idea whether versions in the BR livery they spent most of their lives in will be produced. Just had another birthday and am now in my 80th year so how much longer can I wait!? 

 

I've got quite a few of the original Bulleid coaches which had mostly been fitted with Symoba close-couplings. All have metal wheelsets too. Tried selling a few on Ebay but got nowhere so I have decided to instead do what I've meaning to do for a long time - flush-glaze them. A few extra Symoba CCMs have been fitted to those brake coaches without them, and the Hornby Roco couplings have been replaced by Hunt magnetic ones. In all I've flush-glazed 22 coaches over the last 3 weeks and wish I'd done it sooner!

 

Here's a 3-set coupled up to a Hornby Bulleid 3-set. I think they look quite presentable now. Even begun to appreciate the darker green ones too!

 

 

 

You have my sincere admiration for getting so many flush-glazed in such a short period!

 

I did a 5-set back when the SEF glazing packs first came out, and I reckoned doing one side a day was enough for me! Mine used Keen Systems CCUs, as I hadn't then discovered the Symoba/Gutzold variety, and I replaced the "inside" gangways with home-made black paper "concertinas". 

 

The set featured in the 2002 Railway Modeller article on Taunton MRG's Bath Green Park layout, and covered many miles on their Tamerig Central layout, eventually being set aside when the bogies became worn.

 

I refurbished them with new bogies during lockdown, adding Symoba CCUs to the van ends, which involved a bit more work as removing the Keen ones left big gaps. The CCU is actually glued to the interior with the screw added to draw everything together. I retained the Keen ones within the set, but replaced the fixed links with Roco heads mounted upside down, which makes them less obtrusive. Bachmann hadn't supplied enough footboards with them so I also made up the missing ones, which I'd neglected to do back in the day. 

 

John

 

 

Edited May 17 by Dunsignalling

[RFS]

3 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

I did a 5-set back when the SEF glazing packs first came out, and I reckoned doing one side a day was enough for me! 

 

That's what I thought and why I put it off for so long. But I bought one kit and did an open second as an experiment,  which must have taken me several hours over a couple of days to do. From that experience gained I decided some form of jig was necessary along with the right glue, so from my offcuts box I put together this - 

 

 

The coach is firmly held in place - the rubber corridor connectors being very useful as a card wedge is all that's needed. I used Revell Contacta glue but not its applicator. The jar is from a "Gu" dessert, which when placed upside down provides a smooth concave glass surface onto which I squeezed out a portion of glue for the work in hand. The glue remained usable for 10 minutes or so, and once fully dried just flakes off as it doesn't adhere to the glass. Glue was carefully applied to the windows with a cocktail stick. A good pair of tweezers was invaluable. 

 

Towards the end I was able to do a coach in about an hour including cutting out time. Also found 2 packs did 3 coaches on average - I bought 15 packs for the 22 coaches. 

 

One issue I had with the Hunt couplings is that once inserted into the Symoba NEM pocket, the pocket could not then be slid back onto the post. The prongs are too fat and partially block it. Filing the prongs back a bit worked, but made them too brittle and they easily snapped off. As I was using the latest version of the coupling with a shoulder to prevent the coupling going too far in, I just snipped the prongs off (not too difficult!), smeared some Loctite around the coupling shoulder and fixed them into the pocket. Obviously this is not reversible if you want to change couplings, but spare pockets are £1.08 a pair so not a problem. I did buy a couple more and found the pockets had been changed, and the Hunt couplings now fitted these without a problem. However the new design is slightly longer so I had to use a shorter coupling to compensate. 

Edited May 17 by RFS