Revised Mk3s?

[ThaneofFife]

the mire people that see the lighting the better.

the better buy us probably the unlit mk3s which at least have the new glazing and you save around a tenner per coach which is plenty enough to fit your own authentic lighting. coin cell batteries with holders and micro switches sit nicely in the underframe well area.no need for pick ups and no flickering. one 2016 coin cell lasts almost a year with average use supplying up to 12 leds per coach.

[Removed a/c]

I think what I will do is pick up a TGS and Buffet in the executive livery and run them with the B/G TOs & SOs and either Swallow or Executive PCs. 

[beejack]

So the power cars arrived today R3138 for Hattons, a steal at £160 I think.  

Got all of the MK3's out and as I suspected no light bleed through the roof from the standard class coaches. 

 

Email from Hornby yesterday says the TGS coaches with lighting have arrived.  

May get one of these and sell the non lit coach or may make up a second rake without lights to run with my old power cars!

[andyman7]

The recently-delivered power cars are class 253 WR ones whilst the lighted coaches are ER numbered ones, for which the relevant (class 254) power cars have yet to arrive. Unlike the first run of blue/yellow power cars the latest WR ones are modelled with the roof exhaust baffle modification and so are more appropriate for the early-mid 80s period as opposed to 1977

[beejack]

The recently-delivered power cars are class 253 WR ones whilst the lighted coaches are ER numbered ones, for which the relevant (class 254) power cars have yet to arrive. Unlike the first run of blue/yellow power cars the latest WR ones are modelled with the roof exhaust baffle modification and so are more appropriate for the early-mid 80s period as opposed to 1977

Not too worried about the the mix of numbering at the moment with my set, will look at re-numbering once I have a full rake.  The disappointing thing with the WR Power cars is the cool white lights when running forward,  would have thought warm white would be more appropriate for the era, can't remember them being that white in the eighties.

 

I couldn't resist it.  I popped in to get a track rubber and a copy of Railway Modeller from my local model shop and saw that the Eastern region version of the TGS with lights had arrived.  Only one in stock so though what the hell and bought it.  Pleased to report no light bleed through the roof.

 

Now really must stop buying stock (except when the restaurant and 1st class coaches arrive with lights).  

Have to save my money so I can start buying new track, new layout needed to run all the new stock I now have!

[andyman7]

To be honest, renumbering is the sane way to acquire a complete matching rake, because waiting for the right vehicles to be made is a very patient game - even now, my WR rakes are only legitimate if one assumes some in service vehicle swaps have bee necessary!

 

Re the headlights, you are right that warm white would be appropriate - blue/yellow was a distant memory before these saw any LEDs....

[Sam Moss]

A quick wipe of some rust coloured weathering ink over the LED front will taint the light enough to look like bulbs.

[beejack]

A quick wipe of some rust coloured weathering ink over the LED front will taint the light enough to look like bulbs.

Thanks for the tip, might try that later in the week.

[ThaneofFife]

or dark brown varnish applied until the right hue is reached.

[MrB]

All,

 

Had a bit of a shock today when I went in and was told I'd pre-ordered R4634/A/B/C in Blue/Grey when I thought I'd ordered them in Executive livery not happy, had a look over the 2014 catalogue to find the Blue/Grey coaches in the Executive section, gutted.

Anyone else make the same mistake and didn't read the small print?

 

Roy

[deltic79]

I believe that Hornby swapped the 'R' numbers around on these but didn't tell anyone. So I think retailers were surprised to receive the blue/grey coaches instead of Executive ones too.

 

Has your retailer not simply swapped your pre-order onto the Exec ones instead?

[spacecake]

Yes Hornby did a magic trick and swapped their Executive SO's for the Eastern region Blue Grey SO's with lights. Luckily I am after both Executive and Eastern Blue Grey so didn't effect me. Plus this makes sense as the rest of their 2014 Eastern region Blue Grey are coming with lights. That is unless they swap the other R numbers over again by magic prior to release.

[MrB]

I believe that Hornby swapped the 'R' numbers around on these but didn't tell anyone. So I think retailers were surprised to receive the blue/grey coaches instead of Executive ones too.

 

Has your retailer not simply swapped your pre-order onto the Exec ones instead?

 

He wasn't bothered and was of the opinion Hornby has done this before. I'm the one that is bothered about it as he isn't the biggest retailer and is now stuck with 8 coaches he has no pre-order for.

I've changed the order to the correct ones too. I'm glad he did keep them as they are the lit ones as they look awful with the lights on.

 

Regards

 

Roy

[Hilux5972]

Thy look awful with the lights on? Do you have any pictures?

[spacecake]

Thy look awful with the lights on? Do you have any pictures?

I agree they look awful. The centres are illuminated but the end seating is left in the dark. Please see attached photo. Also these is a thread about this: http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=46444

Another photo

[Hilux5972]

Oh wow that is bad

[surfsup]

Just wondering, has anyone got any Dapol Mk3s to compare the size of the light bar with? Because that light bar looks too short for the oo gauge Mk3 but possibly the same length as a N gauged Mk3. Dapol light bars maybe?

[beejack]

The Ist class and Buffet coaches with lighting in blue/grey, now in stock at Hornby, No's  R4633, R4633a, R4594.  

 

Just ordered one of each to give me a 9 car HST set.

 

I have also taken a look at adding a couple of extra leds into the standard open with lights.

Bought  a 12v 5m strip of warm white leds.  

They can be split into strips of three, so I cut three off and then carefully cut one led with resistor off this and extended it with wires so I could put a extend the lighting bar at both ends.  

Unfortunately the only place I could connect the wires to power these extra led's was across the capacitor.  

 

There appears to be a voltage regulator in the circuit after the capacitor and the voltage supplied to the led's appears to be only 3 volts.

 

The extra led's look OK but fade quicker than the rest when power removed. I may look at adding a resistor into the circuit so they done fade quite as quick.

 

Will post some photos later.

[ThaneofFife]

I think folk are better off getting the standard coaches, saving at least £10 per coach and making their own more prototypical lighting for pennies.

[deltic79]

I see that the R4594 Eastern Region blue/grey buffet is now coming into stock and photos on the Rails website (https://railsofsheffield.com/br-intercity-mk3-buffet-car-with-lights-e40021-r4594-JJJA25862.aspx) show this to be a 4 windowed TRSB (the Hornby website had previously indicated that this would be a 4 windowed coach but since it was a computer mockup I didn't take this to necessarily be representative of what would actually be produced). Obviously there are some well known compromises with this tooling since it is the modified ex Lima model with buffers and based around an RFM but I'll put those to one side for now.

 

Now the issuing of an Eastern Region TRSB (rather than, say, a TRUB) has confused me somewhat. Firstly, shouldn't the branding simply be 'Buffet 125' rather than 'Restaurant Buffet 125' (I thought the latter was used for the 3 windowed TRUBs)?

 

The original Eastern Region formation was TF-TF-TRUK-TS-TS-TRSB-TS-TS but from memory I don't think that all ECML rakes contained both catering cars (or they certainly didn't after a few years). However, did these single catering car rakes contain just a TRSB/TRUK or the new (as they were then) TRUB? What I'm getting at here is that if TRSBs weren't used on their own, without the corresponding TRUK being modelled by Hornby surely a full Eastern Region rake can't be modelled off the shelf?

 

Obviously a representation of a TRUK could be made from another TRSB suitably renumbered and rebranded as 'Restaurant 125' but I don't know how accurate the plated windows would be compared to the prototype.

 

Alternatively, what were Cross Country sets comprised of during the blue/grey era (and in the era prior to the TRSBs being renumbered from the 400xx series per the Hornby model into the 404xx series circa 1983 from memory)? I know they used TRSBs (I think) in the late 80's onwards but in earlier years were there dedicated XC sets or were they simply taken from the Western/Eastern/Scottish allocation on an as required basis, and therefore we're not dedicated?

 

A suitable Platform 5 coaching stock list from the correct era would probably go a long way to answering some of my questions but I don't have one to hand I'm afraid. So any help, and indeed corrections to my (lack of) understanding, would be much appreciated.

[royaloak]

I think the original Eastern region sets were 8 coaches not 9, they only went to 9 coaches in about 2002.

[MrB]

I think the original Eastern region sets were 8 coaches not 9, they only went to 9 coaches in about 2002.

 I spoke to a driver friend who is on the east coast sets and he said they went to 9 before the end of BR.

 

Regards

 

Roy

[Guest 43300]

 I spoke to a driver friend who is on the east coast sets and he said they went to 9 before the end of BR.

 

Regards

 

Roy

 

I don't think that's right - I'm at least 95% sure that they were extended by GNER, using TSs which became surplus when the Virgin HSTs went off-lease. For them to have been extended in the latter days of BR there would have needed to be a new build of coaches, and there were none built after 1985.

[MrB]

I don't think that's right - I'm at least 95% sure that they were extended by GNER, using TSs which became surplus when the Virgin HSTs went off-lease. For them to have been extended in the latter days of BR there would have needed to be a new build of coaches, and there were none built after 1985.

I can only go on what I'm told, not something I've really looked in to as I took him at his word. I brought it up with him when I noticed they were using 9 coaches in the sets. He also commented that the MTU units made a noticeable difference to the acceleration of the sets.

[31A]

I have a recollection that some of the ER sets did run with nine cars for a short time when they were new, as a temporary measure to do with the delivery schedule of the coaches, then went back to 8s for the majority of their BR service until GNER got hold of some more Mk3s and extended them all to 9s.  Might be what MrB's driver friend had in mind?