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Finding things to do in lock-down is something of an ‘art-form’. A friend recently introduced me to some software called 'Pixbim ColorSurprise AI'. He showed me some remarkable results, where it had automatically coloured some of his old monochrome photos. So I thought I’d try it out on some of my collection of 19th-century railway photos. There’s a ‘free trial’ version but, as is so often the case, it is hobbled by printing multiple watermarks all over any saved results. To show the effects it produces, I made screen copies of some of the preview images. I’ve no idea how it works but it does turn monochrome images into quite pleasing effects, like tinted postcards. The colours seem fairly weak but I couldn’t help noticing that it seemed to favour the view that GWR wagons should sometimes be red (ish) I thought it added ‘atmosphere’ to the scene in Huntley & Palmers yard in Reading: It also made a reasonable shot of a Broad Gauge scene at Dawlish, seeming to recognise the sand colours and again brown/red wagons but I had to turn up the blue to get a pleasant-looking sky: I played with it on several other scenes but the results are rather ‘hit and miss’. I think if I wanted to do more of this, it would be better to spend some time editing with Photoshop. I read somewhere that it is supposed to work better with portraits, so I tried it on Brunel: Again, my feeling was ‘could do better’. Still, it’s something to play with in lock-down and it can create some evocative scenes. Thank goodness, though, that I have Amy Wilcote to paint some scenes for me In a more serious vein, I set up to do some more 3D printing after a break since before Christmas. In the meantime, I had changed my laptop and had to re-load the Cura software. When I started to print, things went horribly wrong, with poor adhesion and very poor surface finish. I thought that perhaps the filament had degraded over the break, so tried another spool but it was no better. Eventually, I tried converting the file on my old laptop and it worked perfectly well! Somewhere, I had gone wrong in setting up the parameters on the new machine, so I simply copied all my old settings files across into the ‘Application Data’. I examined both sets of data and found several differences but I’m still not sure what was the main culprit! It felt like being back on the initial learning curve again! Mike

This weekend I turned my attention to adding some planted areas to my station, as per the prototype. Looking at images of Cranbrook station gave the most inspiration and it seemed to be among one of the most adorned locations on the line in terms of floral displays. Clearly someone took a lot of pride in keeping the station looking its best! The border is oversized ballast applied grain by grain with tweezers. It took about 30 seconds for me to hate myself for taking this approach... but I think the result is ultimately pleasing. This seems to have been the approach utilised by Cranbrook station itself, albeit in 1:1 scale! Photos show small rocks acting as a rudimentary border. The earth is a sprinkle of Treemendus earth powder - I'm an absolute convert to this stuff. The rose trellis is made from very thin strips of styrene. The climbing rose is a combination of individual strands of rubberised horsehair, sprayed brown, and a scattering of Woodland Scenics' leaves. The roses themselves are large clumps of a pink scatter material I have had for absolute years. I think it was originally red as much of the pack has faded to white! All other plants are a mixture of Woodland Scenics products, flocks and poly fibre and rubberised horse hair. The tall yellow flowers are florists wire with more leaves stuck to them, topped with some yellow scatter. There are a few self-adhesive tufts of grass in there too. I'm pleased with the amount of variety in foliage I have here but am interested in learning more techniques and ways of using different materials to simulate specific plants and flowers. This should be particularly useful when it comes to wild embankments. Anyway, enjoy some photos! All for now, Jonathan

Like a lot of my stash, this is like the fisherman's knife that's had 3 new blades and 2 new handles but still the same knife. I bought the Metro kit donkey's years ago and scratchbuilt a chassis in EM. Then swiftly moved to P4 and scratchbuilt a compensated P4 chassis. Then bought a new chassis and then bought an etched kit. The original EM chassis had Ultrascale wheels which the EM Gauge Society sold at the time. I recently put the EM wheels on the scratchbuilt P4 chassis to see if they would be usable and coxed around my P4 layout. Ultrascale wheels are nice and I was loathed not to use them. Scratchbuilt P4 chassis with EM wheels: Having satisfied myself that it might work, I thus embarked on another distraction of building not one but two Metros including rebuilding the whitemetal one. I have two chassis from the Rod Neep/Perseverance stable (the etch is dated 1986!). Herewith the second on my trusty Hobby Holidays jig. This one has twin beam compensation and dummy valve gear.

In 1884 the GWR centralized the provision of provender, so that every stable block on the system received a regular supply by rail from the provender store at Didcot, typically every 1-2 weeks. The supplies consisted of hay, chaff, straw bedding and sacks of feed. The feed included oats, beans and maize, either pre-mixed or separate. The sizeable stable block at Farthing obviously needs a regular supply of feed and bedding, so two provender wagons have been made. I began with a diagram Q1, using the Coopercraft kit. The GWR only made a total of 12 dedicated provender wagons, in two slightly different lots of six. The Q1 kit represents the later batch, built in 1903 with diagonal bracing. They were very camera shy, the (cropped) image below is the only one I have seen so far. As usual, the build involved modifications. The Vee hanger on these wagons was significantly off-center, towards the right. The instructions don’t mention this. So both vees were cut off. The solebars need shortening, and the end brackets must therefore also come off. Here is the original solebar (top), and a modified one (below). Then, sides and ends. The locating pips for the floor were removed. They make the floor sit too low, and the solebars in turn end up beneath the headstocks. As provided, the brake gear does not take the off-center Vee into account, as this trial fit shows. So the brake gear was modified to suit. Looks a bit odd, but that's what the drawing and text in Atkins et al shows. The DC1 brake gear was made using parts from the Bill Bedford etch (recently withdrawn). The buffers are from Lanarkshire Models. The built-up wagon in GWR wagon red, as it would have been painted when built in 1903. Apart from 12 purpose-built provender wagons, most of the GWR's provender was carried in numerous standard open wagons of all sorts. Several photos show them loaded improbably high. I decided to have a go at replicating this. This close crop, from a much larger shot from Vastern Rd yard at Reading, illustrates what I was aiming for. I set to work on some plumber’s hemp, cut fine and built up in layers on a foamboard box, using diluted PVA. Not the 9 o’clock news! Then sheets (a.k.a. tarps) were made, using my usual method. Ian’s superb sheets were re-numbered and printed on regular paper, then laminated with thin foil and varnished multiple times, before weathering. The result is a shell that can be easily shaped and supports it’s own weight (see this post). I designed the load to fit my 4-plankers. My initial plan was to have the entire load and sheeting detachable, in line with my normal approach. In this shot, the tarp and load are separate, but magnets hold them together and allow easy removal. However, with a high load like this I felt that the lack of roping looked odd. So I decided to see how it would feel to have permanent loads and sheets. I recruited one of my 4-plankers and added roping and side-cords, using painted sewing thread. Indents were made in the sheeting by pressing the edge of a ruler into the paper/foil shell, in order to emulate the ropes pulling down the sheet. This is what I ended up with. Don’t look to closely at how the cords are tied at the ends. Photos of provender trains don’t show clearly whether and how they were used in a situation like this. Sometimes, the GWR used two sheets laid sideways instead, as illustrated in this cropped detail of a train of hay bales. I decided to do the same on my high-sided Q1 wagon. Here is the usual foil shell, this time composed of two sheets. For the roping and cords, I loosely followed the cropped image above. I also tried to fold the sheets at the ends as per that photo, but gave up: Try as I might, it just looked weird in 4mm scale. Another time maybe. The wagons together. The charm of everyday solutions versus boxy functional design. Here are a few photos of the wagons in action on the (unfinished) new layout. A Buffalo class arrives with the weekly delivery of provender. Conveniently, the stable block at Farthing happens to have a siding alongside. Meanwhile, Betty is having a drink in preparation for the morning round. Proper care of railway horses was a serious matter, though hardly for ethical reasons. Horses were a company asset and an important part of operations, so obviously needed good maintenance. The loco has left, and the wagons are sat in the sidings. The camera has exaggerated the sheen. A close-up, warts and all. The mind struggles to accept that the hay wasn't completely covered over. There is room for improvement with the roping and cords, several lessons learnt there. I'd like to experiment more with the shaping of the sheets. Here I have made slight rounded indents along the bottom to avoid a straight line. Period photos show that, although sheets were pulled as taut as possible, there were still lots of wrinkles etc. Despite these experiments, I’m still undecided about permanent loads and sheeting. To illustrate my doubt: It's the next day and the Buffalo class is back to pick up the provender wagons. But wait, what’s this? They are still full and sheeted! More thinking needed. It never ends.

A gap in the ready-to-run market for Eastern Region EMUs has led many of us to build our own. This represents my first attempt at such a model; namely a Class 307 unit. I originally intended to kit-bash a Bachmann EPB unit. However, on investigation the cab and chassis would have required extensive surgery, and I couldn’t bring myself to put a knife to £150 plus product. I therefore decided to utilise the cheaper Replica Railways offering, including their motorised chasis. I decided to start with the more challenging Driver Motor car. This required some surgery to the Suburban Brake body by moving the front compartment to the rear of the carriage next to the Guard’s compartment and replacing the moulded vents. The roof of the Guard’s compartment also required to be cut to accommodate the pantograph roof bay, which I purchased separately from eBay at a cost of £8. In hindsight, the decision to use the Replica Railway model rather than the Bachmann version paid off, as significant work was required to the cab front and the Replica Railway cab is far easier to work on than a full-length Bachmann carriage. I created a cut-out for the destination blind and removed the rain strips for the driver’s front windows. I adorned the cab with jumper cables (mix of Hornby Class 50 from Peter’s Spares and Replica Railways), 0.3mm brass handrail, lamp irons (Masokits), rubbing strip (Replica Railways), step irons (brass scratch built) and extended buffers (MJT). The rebuilt version which I am recreating included several cab replacement panels. These were recreated simply with paper strips. Given all the work I did to the cab front, I decided to push the boat and replace all the moulded handles and grab rails with Markits brass handles and 0.3mm brass wire. Whilst this was laborious, I believe it was worth the effort. The other driving car was a lot easier, insofar it did not have a pantograph bay. It did however require modifications to accommodate the toilet compartment by altering one of the compartment doors and windows. The presence of the toilets also required the fitting of the water feed pipes on the roof. These were constructed using 0.45mm brass wire and handrail knobs. My attention now turned to the bogies. Magazine correspondence suggested the bogies were of Gresley origin, which I incorrectly fitted. However, feedback on RMWeb and looking at historical photographs showed they were based on a BR Mark 2 design. I managed to source these from EKM Exhibitions and attached the sides to Comet bogies. The underframe detail which was challenging due to an absence of information on the web. The underframe detail was an exercise on scratch building; the detail even includes parts of a toy rocket! The interiors were detailed, and the unit transferred to the paint shop. The laborious job of fitting the individual Lazerglaze windows was undertaken over several nights. Some of the door glazing was cut to show the window in the lowered position and reveal the interior detailing. The unit was then fully detailed and weathered and the Sommerfelt pantograph fitted to the Driver Trailer. This project has been two years in the making (stop and start) but I am happy with the result, which is a unique model. I would like to thank Replica Railways and the many contributors to this topic for their help along the way. I am now considering adding lighting, sound and maybe who knows a class 306?

A little package of wagon bodies was posted off last week and my friend Phil has put one together with its chassis and sent me a photograph. I think it rather looks the part. He just has another eight to do now, should keep him busy for a while.

My clever wife bought me a new 3D printer for Christmas (how did she guess what I wanted?) I was a bit concerned because the box was shipped direct from China by FedEx via what appears to be a puddle at Cologne Airport. Creality customer service were very helpful and we decided it was worth trying to build it and just replace any bits if we found they had been damaged. In the end everything went together very easily ( about 30-45 minutes assembly to first print) and I managed to print off the sample 'little dog'. The only issue I had was that the print bed was just slightly bent and trying to get it level just using the four leveling screws proved difficult. This wouldn't be a problem for small pieces but trying to print large models would have been impossible. Fortunately I had already fitted a BLTouch probe to my old Wanhao duplicator i3 plus printer and I decided to move this onto the new Ender 5. This device allows the printer to detect the actual position of the bed and the firmware then adjusts for any differences in height. The mounting bracket was printed off prior to fitting. You can see that a diagnostic test of a single layer print adhered well to the bed and gave a decent evenly printed part. I was a little scared of doing the additional wiring and firmware update to make this work but in the end it went pretty smoothly following some decent guides on Youtube. As I had white filament supplied with the printer and it is Christmas I found a polar bear on the thingiverse to print. It came out really nicely and the layer surface finish is excellent for a filament printer though it is hard to see in the pictures as my camera seems to refuse to focus on the part properly. You'll probably be wondering why I wanted another filament printer. Well while I think the Anycubic Photon is great for the small detail work in resin but the old Wanhao was still used for 'structural' bits like servo mounts and uncoupling magnet mechanisms. It is very noisy compared with the new Ender 5 and I wanted something that I could do various upgrades to. Festive greetings to you all. David

Having a clear out of old model rail acquisitions, I found a Peco brand goods shed that I'd picked up as part of a job lot eBay purchase. It was painted blotchy yellow, with a grey roof, dark red drainpipes, gutters and doors, and - somewhat bizarrely for a goods shed - it also had scale size holiday destination posters glued to it. I very nearly consigned it to the recycling bin. But I reconsidered and decided to take it on as a salvage project. It had been so well glued together that dismantling wasn't an option. Luckily though, it had only been painted once - and not heavily (the original plastic was visible in several spots.) I decided that the best option was to give it a quick scrub, and then prime it as was. The problem with this approach was how to paint the different parts of the model (brickwork base, wood-panelled shed, awning, roof, window frames, guttering and drainpipes) with accuracy - it was N gauge after all! Once primed, with grey aerosol spray, I decided that starting with the darkest colour in my chosen pallette (black) would be a good idea. I began by painting the main body of the building first, followed by detailing the roof - painting randomly selected tiles black and white. I painted around the (now grey) window frames, awning and guttering with a very fine brush. After this, I painted the awning white and then the brickwork yellow, with random bricks picked out in black, white, grey and red. Unfortunately, I had no option but to paint over the glazing when I primed the model - this particular building kit has a sealed base, so access to the interior is impossible without dismantling. I could've removed the primer with a thinner, but as it was a goods shed I opted that the windows and skylight would be dirty. The roof was weathered by building up several layers of watered down black paint, the awning had less coats of this to slightly tone down the white. The brickwork base was to be weathered similarly to the roof, but with a brown wash. I gave the main body of the building a final coat of black (over the course of the project, the odd spot of unwanted paint had inevitably appeared in places!) I added a coat of grey-beige to the visible part of the shed floor. This was followed by the final weathering - white paint dry-brushed over the whole of the shed except the brickwork base, then some detail parts added to the interior platform and some foliage scatter around the footing. In situ on the layout : "H. Faversham, Purveyor of Finest Quality Salvaged Metals." (Formerly of Oil Drum Lane, Shepherds Bush...) Thanks for looking in!

Following on from an earlier post, today (and a good part of yesterday) was spent building up layers of weathering on my recently "bashed" station kit. Once painted with primer, I added two coats of yellow and picked out random bricks in varying quantities in black, white, brick red and blue-grey. I painted the interior "arches" plain white too. Having discovered that my usual "Brown Earth" paint had dried up in the pot, I ordered some more online - although not the same brand, rather an independent supplier of "identical" shades. I use the Brown Earth as a wash to tone down the yellow shade of the first coat to a point that it resembles authentic yellow brickwork. For whatever reason, this process took a lot longer and a lot more washes than in the past - possibly down to it not being the brand I have been used to. Also the shade is a good deal more "sandy" in shade, but that's not a bad thing. Coverage was irregular too, and in places I resorted to dry-brushing the spots where the wash simply wouldn't apply. The roof sections were a lot more straightforward, primed grey with odd slates picked out in black and white - followed by several washes of black. I'm pleased with the end result though, outstanding jobs are: permanently afix roof (and then add peaked section to front) detailing - including gutters, drainpipes etc and glazing. Thanks for looking in.

Some recent low-stress modelling on Stourpayne Marshall: This Bachmann Jinty was renumbered to a Bath example and then weathered. It came with "British Railways" lettering which I was reluctant to remove, even though I don't have any evidence that this particular loco carried that scheme. A number of S&D locos did, though, right through until 1953 or so, so it's not obviously out of place. It runs smoothly, and incredibly quietly, but I can''t get it to start and stop at as low a speed setting as I'd like with the decoder - some tweaking is called for as I suspect it's down to motor feedback variables and so on. In this picture the Jinty has just arrived with the branch goods, coming in off the junction to the south of the station. This branch has really added to the play-value of the layout, I've found. It gives a reason for shunting the goods yard and enables stock to be swapped between sessions, adding to the variety. With the run-round facilities at the station, the typical train is just six wagons and a brake. Longer trains can be run-round, but it becomes a bit of a faff as the engine has to use the junction itself, rather than remaining within the station area. What happens after the yard has been shunted is that an up goods will then arrive on the main and do some picking up and dropping off of its own. Down goods can also collect or drop off wagons from the yard, Last week I added a couple more uncoupling magnets which now means that - in theory - it can be all be done hands-off. And 90% of the time, the Spratt & Winkles play ball. Now and then there's a sticky coupling or an unwanted uncoupling incident, but the reliability is good enough to be satisfying to me. Onto the goods shed: As mentioned in an earlier post, I wasn't all that enamoured of the Bachmann model out of the box. I felt that the doors were clumsy, and there was something wonky about the windows on the front, especially the one on the left. It's not also clear to me what the building is based on, as I've yet to see drawings or photos of the Shillingstone shed, and it's certainly not extant now. Someone suggested that it looked very like the Midsomer Norton building. Whatever, it doesn't really matter as the layout isn't meant to be Shillingstone, so as long as it can be made to look semi-plausible in its setting, it'll be fine. In any case the doors and their associated sliding fixtures were removed and disposed of, and new ones made up from plastic card, as seen above. They're much less chunky than the originals and the slidey-bits are also a little finer. I also made sure that the slides were level, as that wasn't the case with the original. However, I do need to add a strip along the base of the doors that cover the railed entrances, as there's a bit too much of a gap at the bottom. I made the mistake of taking the measurements off the originals. I also addressed the windows, which didn't turn out to be too hard. The more wonky of the two was the one on the left, which had a distinct lean to the right. After removing the window, I could see that the plastic glass hadn't been trimmed back neatly to the etched frame, so that it couldn't sit straight even if it wanted to. That took care of some of the lean, and the rest of it was addressed by gently grinding away some of the resin around the window recess, creating just enough room to let it sit vertically. This results in a slight gap between the stonework and the window, but it's barely worth the trouble of filling in, so I'll likely not bother. The right window was addressed similarly, but needed less correction. The stonework on the recessed portions still has a bit of a slope to it, for some reason, but it draws the eye much less than the wonky windows. All in all, I was very happy with how easy it was to fix this most glaring fault with the model. In earlier shots of the goods yard, there's sometimes been a Provender store tucked next to the shed. As much as I liked the store, and it did seem to sit quite well in that position, I've now decided to leave it out. Not only did it block the road access to the shed, but I think the yard needs to be given as much room to breathe as possible. It's a shame as I'd really like to include the store somewhere, but perhaps something will eventuate in the future. With the shorter main siding of the layout in this configuration, the more space the better. I quite like this sleepy, not-much-happening view of the yard. Although the wagon capacity is down compared to King's Hintock, there's still plenty of space for some interesting shunting sessions. The last two views, above, show developments on the down platform. I'd cheated a bit with the valencing on the shelter, using "horizontal" valencing on the sloping sides, but that's now been corrected and although it's a small touch, I think it helps with the model. The other structures seen here are all very much open to being removed or reworked. The gents toilet is the Wills kit cut down, and with a tin roof added, but I don't think it really works in this context. Presumably the passengers would have been expected to make use of the facilities attached to the main building on the up platform, rather than the gents having a urinal all to themselves. What do you think? I've also added some lamp huts, since I had a pack of Wills ones going spare. These are GWR pattern ones I believe, but the Southern used reasonably similar looking structures (as in corrugated sides and a curved roof) so I feel they'll do the job for the time being, especially once they've been properly painted and weathered. I found a photo of an example at Ropley which was painted overall green rather than cream and green, so that's what I've gone for. I think what will happen eventually is that the toilet will go, and the greenhouse and cold frames (see above, next to the Jinty) will end up more or less in the same position as the urinal, on this side of the fencing rather than beyond it. Lots to think about anyway, but all good fun in the end. Thanks for reading!

https://youtu.be/8-k0oem70GU My new update on Crewe Station N gauge layout

On Saturday 21st Hastings Diesels tours arranged a tour from Hastings, via London and Cambridge to Ely and King's Lynn. Billed as 'The West Norfolk Wanderer' it was intended that folk would travel to Ely and King's Lynn for a fine day out and included a quick run out and back on the Middleton Towers freight line. My enterprising brother (he has his uses and a blog http://www.northernvicar.co.uk/) spotted this via the Cambridge university railway club's news and contacted the organizers regarding the possibility of just doing Ely and Lynn and the Middleton Towers branch. Arrangements were made and at 11:30 platform 1 at Ely was filled with 6 car Hastings unit in all its Thumping glory. Arrival at Lynn at 12:10 gave us just under three and half hours to 'see the sights'. We got to walk to the quay-side and realise just how little is left of the original industrial past. The old Customs House is very attractive and there are a couple of 'trendy bars' but not a lot else left. King's Lynn station still has quite a few of these. At 15:30 we left King's Lynn and headed out over the crossing on the main-line. There were lots of happy smiling King's Lynn residents waving at this strange old DEMU as it went past. They were less happy and smiling when the gates stayed down and we reversed back into the sidings and then again to gain access the the branch. The line is still protected by a 'proper' upper quadrant signal too! We only got as far the the level crossing just before the loading area. I don't think they wanted their nice clean unit covered in sand and, from memory, the old station is home to some very large and aggressive dogs! The trip home to Ely was quite exhilarating with some 'lively performance' (i.e. classic Thumping') from the unit. We got back to Ely North Junction very swiftly and then were held while three or different services passed over the stupid single lead junction. Still we were back at Ely pretty much on time. Many thanks to Hastings Diesel Tours for accommodating us on the final leg of the tour. David

In recent posts I have detailed corridor connectors for Bachmann Collett coaches and I have touched on the Hornby Hawksworth Full Brake. Hornby Hawksworth Coaches as bought (left) and as modified (right) When Hornby introduced their Hawksworth coaches back in 2010 I was most impressed with the coach detail but not so happy with Hornby’s corridor connectors. I wanted the coaches to be more closely coupled and it took me a lot of courage to remove Hornby’s moulded black plastic connectors. Closer coupling is quickly achieved by paring away some of the plastic from the Hornby R8220 coupling to enable it to push back further into the coupling pocket. For the Hawksworth coaches I adopted a ‘belt and braces’ approach and drilled through both the pocket and coupling enabling the coupling to be pinned in place. Subsequently I have discovered that there is often sufficient friction between the coupling and the pocket such that pinning may not be necessary. Back to the corridor connectors, I had in my mind a 1964 article in the Railway Modeller detailing the use of black cartridge paper. (Forty years on and David A Smith of this web site has provided an update.) 155gm/m black card cut as per RM instructions. The dimensions chosen for the Hornby Hawksworth coaches were 27mm x 14mm The bellows are formed by pushing together the two parts of the connector. I chose to use four folds (five panels). I used the end plate from a Bachmann Collett coach as a pattern for the curved top At each end of the rake of coaches the connector is fastened back using strong black buttonhole thread. I used a rigid wooden spoon handle to tie the thread round before slipping it over the compressed bellows connector. The two end plates / rubbing plates are formed from 250mg/m card 28mm x 14.5mm. I used good quality PVA adhesive to fix the rubbing plates on each end of the bellows and then to fasten the completed unit to the coach Close up of connector with buttonhole thread retainers Do they work – . Hornby Hawksworth with modified Conectors (bottom) compared to unmodified Hornby Centenary Stock (top) Whilst on the subject of Hornby ex GWR coaches I have been asked recently about the riding qualities of Centenary Coaches. I have a rake of four ‘Hornby’ coaches which . The rake is fitted with Hornby metal wheels (R8234) and each coach weighs 145 gm, which is midway between Hornby super detail stock at 120 gm and Bachmann Mark 1s at 165 gm. Two coaches are completely unmodified. Two coaches were bought very cheaply off eBay knowingly fitted with Kaydee couplings. I hadn’t bargained on the previous owner cutting the fixings off the bogies and glueing the Kaydees directly to the coach underframe. (How they were supposed to go round corners?) To sort the problem I bought a couple of old Airfix coaches and swapped the bogies and underframes. All four coaches were then fitted with the original Airfix mini couplings. Hornby seem to have made some slight changes to the bogie centres and fixing point for use with their own range of couplings. When fitted with the Airfix couplings the plastic corridor connectors on the unmodified Hornby coaches would interlock. The solution was simple, couple the coaches alternately Airfix / Hornby / Airfix / Hornby. I think cheap coaches nicely close coupled?