mjkerr

Full list : http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleettext.aspx?strText=1M12 (Aberdeen - Edinburgh) http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleettext.aspx?strText=1M16 (Inverness - Edinburgh) http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleettext.aspx?strText=1S79 (Edinburgh - Aberdeen) http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleettext.aspx?strText=1S25 (Edinburgh - Inverness) Oddly, I can't remember either of the Large Logo Blue locos making an appearance 37116 only made six appearances 37209 however made many more but only in the first half of 1992 Sadly it seems its use on the sleeper was the demise of this loco, and this same fate met other Class 37/0 over this four year period

I worked for InterCity East Coast, living in Aberdeen, based at Edinburgh The sleeper train was operated by InterCity West Coast (Sleepers) ICWC The on-board crew were employed by InterCity On Board Services (West Coast) ICOBS Each region would then bid to ICWC to supply the drivers and Senior Conductors, although the process was a formality for the sleepers Inverness sleeper : ScotRail driver Inverness - Edinburgh ScotRail conductor Inverness - Edinburgh ICWC (Edinburgh) driver Edinburgh - Preston ICWC (Edinburgh) conductor Edinburgh - Carlisle Aberdeen sleeper : ScotRail driver Aberdeen - Edinburgh ICEC (Edinburgh) Aberdeen - Edinburgh ICWC (Edinburgh) driver Edinburgh - Preston ICWC (Edinburgh) Edinburgh - Carlisle Due to the restriction of traction knowledge the ScotRail driver from Aberdeen - Edinburgh would arrive on the (Plymouth -) Edinburgh - Aberdeen, as would the conductor However, if this service was running late the conductor could travel on an alternative service, but an additional driver would then be required

Yes, the 37/4 and 37/5 were pretty much identical, with the Class 37/7 being much heavier However we referred to the Class 37/5 as "Ballasts" due to the higher power at lower speed and the issues when working with non-refurbished Class 37/0, not the actual ballast weights (as at the time there were only two Class 37/7 locos in Scotland)

Snatching was worst when a Class 37/0 was leading a Class 37/5 Class 37/0 Tractive Effort 156kN at 13.6 mph Class 37/5 Tractive Effort 184KN at 10.1 mph As a result when moving off the Class 37/5 has more power at low speed and pushes the Class 37/0 The Class 37/0 then pushes back on the Class 37/5, in effect the Class 37/5 becomes a large heavy weight in between two springs, and in turn the coaches behind are pushed back The longer the train the worse it is, and for a sleeper of 16 coaches the effects are felt worse from about coach 9 back Once the train is above about 30mph the effect has been overcome I remember having a discussion with a senior InterCity manager early in 1993 whilst travelling passenger from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, in order to work the southbound sleeper He was acting on reports of the issues with this Class 37/5 loco and wanted to experience it for himself On leaving Edinburgh we confirmed there was indeed a Class 37/0 and Class 37/5 combination (which would have been 37510) On arrival we met up with the station shunter and with the Class 37/5 sandwiched between the Class 37/0 and coaches The station shunter wasn't too happy at having to split the two Class 37 locos, run one round, and then reattach them Equally, he wasn't aware there was a difference, other than the Class 37/5 having its flush nose On our southbound journey there was some snatching, and even that he thought was too much However, on our northbound journey there was the normal amount, and he agreed it was excessive Sadly I didn't keep any photos of my Class 48 model

The initial plan, as at 1992, was for five Class 37 locos in INTERCITY livery 37510 was trialled at the end of 1992, as this was a more suitable loco in the long term (refurbishment and ballast) However, for the reasons explained above, snatching had been overlooked As a result it was joined by 37505 and 37683 (although I thought it was 37685), and later by 37685 By 1995 the Class 60 fleet had pretty much taken over the freight duties of Class 37 locos, so the above plan would have been implemented, and was working reasonably well In the event of a pair of these remaining Class 37 locos not being available then a Class 60 could have been used As it was Class 37 locos were still in use, and this even saw some Class 37/7 locos used towards the end of their use Sadly the sleepers never saw intended Class 60 use, the Generator Vans were just too unreliable I myself had a Lima Class 60 repainted into INTERCITY livery, and numbered 48001 It was present at Model Rail Scotland on the Aberdeen Model Railway layout one year, and certainly gathered a lot of interest

There were three Class 37/0 and four Class 37/5 in INTERCITY livery, used by InterCity : 37152 10 May 1992 37221 19 April 1992 37251 19 April 1992 37505 21 March 1993 37510 15 November 1992 37683 14 March 1993 37685 27 June 1993 You are quite right, I missed 37683 I've been trying to work out why! So I put the dates the locos were allocated to the IISA pool As you can see 37221 and 37251 were allocated to the IISA pool even before services commenced in May, so they could be repainted, and hauled the first southbound sleeper on 11 May 1992 (having worked Inverness - Aberdeen earlier) 37510 was initially a sole Class 37/5, but due to snatching was joined by two others four months later With the numbers of 37683 and 37685 so close I had overlooked the later arrival of 37685, but this is the only one I have photos of

ScotRail will be receiving 27 HSTs, plus a few spares (enough for one more set) Initially they will operate as 5 coaches, but this will be increased to 6 coaches once the refurbishment of Glasgow Queen Street is completed Equally, once Glasgow Queen Street closes the sets can be increased, but it has now been realised some of the sets could be dedicated to serve Edinburgh only and commence as 6 coaches Along with EGIP this will release all the Class 170 units to be returned to RoSCo The remaining services will be operated by Class 158, and most services will swap over to 4 car sets with a refurbishment to give them all the same internal layout as those based at Inverness (a hint as where they will all be based from 2018) Some Class 156 units will also be returned to RoSCo, the remainder will be overhauled and placed into semi-permanent 4 car sets The AT200 EMU will take over all the EGIP routes and Ayrline (hence the increase from 56 to 70 units when Abellio were confirmed as the new franchise holder) In turn this will release the Class 380 units and see their full use on the remaining infill Glasgow electrification projects The Class 314 units will then returned to RoSCo

37152 was complete, apart from the INTERCITY logos, it even had the swallows It was only planned for their to be five Class 37 in INTERCITY livery, but they had to be split into two sets of three Hence why 37152 did not have the INTERCITY logos (as only five sets had been supplied) Sadly someone didn't realise they were the same logos as used on Class 86 locos, but approval was not given for their use! There were only three Class 37/0 and three Class 37/5 in INTERCITY livery, used by InterCity : 37152 37221 37251 37505 37510 37685 Others were painted, but that was long after their use on the sleepers had ended (preservation)

I worked on the InterCity sleepers between 1992 and 1994 Pairs of Class 37 locos were used between : Edinburgh - Inverness Edinburgh - Aberdeen Initially there were two Class 37/0 (although the other two were nearing completion) in INTERCITY livery : 37221 and 37251 37221 had miniature snowploughs and round buffers 37251 did not have miniature snowploughs 37251 was named shortly after being painted into this livery Due to these being the only two Class 37/0, a third had to be repainted : 37152 Initially there were two Class 37/5 in INTERCITY livery : 37505 and 37510 Due to these being the only two Class 37/5, a third had to be repainted (to prevent snatching) : 37685 Now some history about how their use came about Prior to this a small fleet of Inverness based modified 47/6 had been in use However, they were to be transferred away and replaced by a general pool of pairs of Motherwell based Class 37 locos, and it was planned to replace these with Class 60 locos This would leave five Class 37 locos (later changed to three Class 37/0 and three Class 37/5) dedicated for InterCity sleepers, but Class 60 locos could also be used The majority of these locos were used on WCML freight On the sleepers Class 37 reliability became an issue Initially a spare Class 37 was held at Edinburgh (Millerhill) to resolve the issue, but even this became a struggle With enough notice a spare Class 37 was supplied from Motherwell, but any issue was usually only noticed as the northbound service was being prepared at Edinburgh and so no spare was supplied In the event one of the four Class 37 locos failed, then the Aberdeen would leave with one Class 37 to ensure the Inverness had two Class 37 Later Class 60 locos were used on WCML freight, but due to poor reliability of both Class 37 locos and Generator Vans (see below), they never saw their planned use on the sleepers There were also issues with the use of Class 37/0 and 37/5 locos together Due to the ballast on the Class 37/5 locos this resulted in snatching and complaints from passengers due to the poor starts from station stops This issue had been overlooked, as it was not an issue on freight trains, and as a result every effort was made to ensure they were not mixed which resulted in a third Class 37/5 loco carrying INTERCITY livery For the sleepers three Generator Vans were modified : 6311, 6312, and 6313 However, they were extremely unreliable and 6311 was dumped at Inverness after catching fire, while a decision was made whether to repair or replace it No sooner had this issue occured than 6313 developed a fault, and as a result it spent a lot of time on the Aberdeen service However, a few weeks later it too failed but was sent for repair Ironically on that service the sole Class 37 also failed (at Dundee) and so a Class 47/4 was summoned, the nearest being in Carlisle (arriving into Edinburgh nearly six hours late) With no ETH, this Class 47/4 was used for two weeks while this Generator Van was repaired At the end of 1994 it was decided to end the use of pairs of Class 37 locos, and Class 47/6 briefly returned from the 1995 timetable

As discussed in another topic, it's not actually that accurate (when compared to reference photos) I was considering it, not strictly correct for my layout, but for these reasons did not purchase one Equally, I have considered the standard version but couldn't find a suitable candidate for renumbering

The must-have modeller, will typically pay the premium price I can't quite remember how long the premium price discount has to be applied, from memory it is 10 weeks, thereafter the retailer can then sell the stock at any price they want This presents an issue for the modeller on what are expected to be high demand items, such as the Mark 2A TSO With respect to the Class 37/4, I don't expect there to be much too demand for 37406 (Triple Grey Distribution), but retailers may run out of 37407 (Large Logo Blue), and so prices may reflect that in 3 months time

All the raspberry ripple livery versions (InterCity, INTERCITY, and ScotRail) have these larger numbers and in what appear to be an incorrect font The same issue exists on their Class 156 in the original Sprinter / SuperSprinter livery The initial batch were delivered with SC prefixes and Inter-City logos They next batch were delivered with M prefixes and Inter-City logos, and later replaced with SC prefixes The final batch were delivered with M prefixes and Inter-City logos, and then transferred away These were the first coaches painted into the new ScotRail livery, so the logos were not changed It was only the Mark 3A sleepers that had their Inter-City logos either removed, painted over or adjusted For some reason they were all amended differently Equally, one of the sleepers 10680 was painted along with the TSO in the trial livery, but was not transferred out of West Coast duties as it was not a SLEP (no Pantry) and was subsequently repainted That just leaves the final phase of Mark 3A use, which was a variety of INTERCITY and those which had their logos painted over (along with some Mark 2F FO and Mark 2E TSO)

Collected my four Dapol Mark 3A ScotRail coach sets today, increased from the original three Amended my outstanding items with one additional Farish DBSO That just leaves me requiring the Farish 47/7 locos, which Mike advised should be available by the end of this year I can then use my current Electra modified DBSO, until the Farish DBSO arrive in early 2015 Roll on the autumn when I can start finishing off the layout... Too much to do between now, the summer and autumn During the summer I can then send 10 of the 47/4 locos for repainting, as I am out of the country for 3 months, so should all be completed when I get back As discussed with Mike, with only two Farish 47/4 locos and no new liveries on the horizon this is my only other option The only other item missing is the new Farish 37/4, which in effect completes the rolling stock

Scotland was full of mixed liveries in the mid to late 1980s, following the fire at Ayr depot Every attempt was made to keep the blue / grey and Strathclyde separate, but eventually they gave in as having units in service became a priority The only main exception was the Class 107, where such a mix was very rare

Equally, shame about the update on the Farish 47/7 and DBSO, and looking like a complete rake won't be possible until late 2015 Looks like my older 47/7s and Electra concerted DBSO will need to soldier on for a further year Equally, my two HSTs are still sitting incomplete, awaiting TGS and TRFM / TRSB Looks like one of these rakes will have to compromise with a TRSB instead of TRFM, and hopefully at some point the TGS I had hoped to have all this in place ready for the winter of 2014 On the plus side this will release the planned funds (sorry C&M Models) for immediate repainting of the other locos until the Farish items arrive That just leaves the revised Farish 37/4, which should arrive around the same time as these Dapol ScotRail coaches...

I too am impressed The Dark Executive Grey looks to be correct, as the earlier (darker) shade was used None of the ScotRail livery coaches ever had the later (lighter) falcon grey that was applied to those in INTERCITY livery An easier comparison would be with the Dapol InterCity 125 HST power car or InterCity125 coach As for the cantrail stripe, I have checked numerous photos and it is only slightly visible when coaches were clean However, most were not clearly visible due to the levels of dirt My only concern is the ScotRail map in the toilet windows It is too plain and as a result is more noticeable as missing the map Equally, these were applied as stickers on the outside of the windows Perhaps this would be a better option as a transfer

I wouldn't consider interest if the cost wa £10 per roof However, I myself currently require 30 such roofs for my loco hauled Mark 3A TSO, FO and CO coaches \ When you consider that is 1% of the minimum order required by Dapol...

The roofs are slightly different too, as in the BCK the toilet is next to the Guards area, whilst in the BSO it as the other end

I completely agree, using a UV marker pen is pointless now I use microdots They are intended for vehicles, but the batch all have the same unique code They can very easily be applied to N gauge stock For some items you need to apply one to the chassis and another to the body, as they can be separated Equally, unlike a UV marker, where you usually put the house number and postcode, the microdots do not need to be changed when moving house A bottle is about £15 and can easily be applied to anything and everything in your home The same with a TV, it is advisable to apply several microdots, as such items can be stripped and/or broken Once applied the microdot can be made easier to identify by covering in UV paint (also included in the larger pack)

Due to the lack of spare seats only half were converted from CO to FO 11908, 11909, 11910, 11922 went straight from CO to TSO As a result the existing First Class seat covers were not changed

Clearly I need to obtain a rolling stock list for 1984, as I had assumed the rolling stock list I have for 1985 was the original EC batch It looks as if the original batch was 12004 to 12031 (6 sets plus 1 spare), and these are the specific ones to carry SC abbreviations before the coach number Due to the Polmont accident 12050, 12051, 12058, 12061, 12094, and 12136 were presumably then hired-in, all except 12051 were then returned which in turn replaced 12010, and the later 12006) I agree, the ScotRail Mark 3 TSO coaches had refurbished seat covers only fitted, as they were overdue overhaul and their interiors were very grubby Equally, many of these seat covers were very poor fitting The seats in First Class did not receive new seat covers (as these seats were to be removed on return to InterCity) I am currently working on a list of the INTERCITY coaches that were hired-in in the final few months of Class 47 use So far I only have : 12010, 12066, 12067, 12069, 12121, 12126 (for some reason I missed 12010 in my original formation, but it is listed) There were eventually enough coaches for four rakes, and towards the end they got quite mixed up, some of the others : 3290, 5929, 6013, and 6103 Intially they were hired-in without any changes The Mark 2 coaches had the red stripes painted blue, and eventually the INTERCITY logos were painted over The Mark 3 coaches had the INTERCITY logos painted over This process was then changed to painting the red stripe blue and applying a ScotRail vinyl (to be removed) Some of the INTERCITY coaches when they were returned clearly showed where the vinyl or previous paint had been removed In some cases the coaches were repainted!

Found the issue, this was my complete list of all Mark 3A which had been allocated to Scotland I have now revised the list to show those from 1985 The above 5 coaches were allocated to PC in 1990 12050, 12058, 12094 and 12136 were transferred away from EC in 1985 after the final sets and formations, with one spare, were compiled following the FO to CO conversions The following year 12061 was transferred away, leaving no spares

My 1985 book and records match, all as listed at EC

Yet another DBSO (number unknown) : http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/photo/scaled/682.jpg This one has the guard and driver text on the grey (rather than the others which have this text on the blue) From above, 9706 : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6742064019_8a8744dfa6_b.jpg The other side of 9706 : http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7772033030_4da6326dbb_b.jpg This also confirms that some of the Mark 3A FO and TSO also had the "Scotrail" text applied, which was then replaced by the blue stripe and later "ScotRail" text version

In effect all those that were allocated to Craigentinny did Are you planning on releasing a set in Blue / Grey with SCottish numbers? As at 1985 : 11005 11006 11007 11008 11009 11010 12004 12005 12006 12007 12008 12009 12011 12012 12013 12014 12015 12016 12017 12019 12020 12021 12022 12023 12024 12025 12026 12027 12028 12029 12030 12031 12050 12051 12058 12061 12094 12136