Combe Martin

I wasn't suggesting that the Golden Arrow used a GBL just after the war, just that it's said that they were likely kept clean generally because of use on that type service. I have seen a colour picture of it about to leave Victoria behind an un-rebuilt Merchant Navy (in the very early fifties) with a crimson GBL at the front, but that book's locked away in storage at the moment, so I don't have the exact details to hand.

There was quite a bit of discussion here earlier about the ambulance converted ones returning to the Southern after the war and re-painting. As far as I remember there was no definite consensus as to whether they were repainted or not, but if they were it would have been back to Southern Olive like the Hornby model, provided the works could find some paint (things were tight then, post war austerity !). No mention of Malachite. Many thought a lot would have stayed covered in grime like most parcels vans (NPCCS), but I'm not so sure. Mike King in his book makes the comment that these were often kept cleaner because they often ran in passenger trains, eg Boat trains to Southampton or Weymouth, and the Golden Arrow. Re-painting into Crimson under BR started in 1949.

Many thanks for this, I did say I was working from memory, I knew there was a 3 in there somewhere. It does suggest there was at least one more though as the Golden Arrow one definitely had droplights so would have been a D 3096 or D 3097. I am hoping that someone will find the Stewarts Lane picture. Peter.

If you mean 'were any painted BR (southern) green', the Gould book (mine is locked away and inaccessible at the moment), says he only knew the numbers of about 3 that were painted BR green, he lists the numbers but from memory they were 'short' ones. The only colour pictures I've seen with a green one are of the Golden Arrow which had a droplight one (D3096 or D3097, you can't tell without seeing the number) in the very late 50s. There is also a colour picture taken at Stewarts Lane yard that shows this one in the background and its number is clearly visible but I didn't note it at the time. I believe it was in one of the steam railway magazines that I was browsing but didn't buy. I've hunted through all of mine and I don't have it.

A few years back when we could still go to exhibitions, I was chatting to the nice gentleman on the Replica Railways stand (I think this was when Replica had beaten everyone else in producing a correct length BG, I think thats right) and he told me that his contact at Eastleigh works said that Eastleigh only ever painted 6 BGs in green. So they were rare.

Well that depends upon what your going to do with it. Surely it only became a D 3097 in the wartime period, so until the droplights were fitted it was a D 3099 (which is the condition its sold as) . So if you wanted a D3099 in Br Crimson you could buy it and re-spray and renumber it.

As with a lot of modelling, if you want to be accurate you have to do some research and find a photo of your intended subject. And good luck with that one, hardly any are in colour ! And as I recall, the only colour ones I've seen are at the front of the Golden Arrow.

There are very good pictures (that can be blown up) on the Hornby website. Just put GBL in the search box.

You'r right about the GBL at the Bluebell railway. When they got it, it had been fitted with much wider central doors, I cant remember why now. From memory the number may have been 2462 but I could be wrong about that as I haven't got access to most of my books. The online photo may be an old one though as I seem to recall that the Bluebell may have restored theirs to original condition now. In SR days it would seem that some only had the chalk board on the left hand side. The Mike King book has a photo of 2319 on page 191 dated 1933 that only has the one. For anyone Roxleyfying an old Triang type version, beware of the size and mounting position of the battery boxes. The ones provided in my kit were too small and on the drawing too, and on the drawing they are shown as being centrally mounted whereas they are actually mounted offset to the left. The Mike King drawing is also wrong in this aspect too. To spot this in a photo though is difficult. You need one that is exactly 'side on', I think the Gould book has one but you have to look carefully because its dark there. I have confirmed this, as I've crawled under the Bluebells van to check, and also crawled under the other preserved one at Robertsbridge too. This one seems to have been forgotten, it never seems to get a mention.

See the Mike King book on page 193. They go below 'the second window in from the ends' (both ends on both sides), so therefore there is one each side of the central doors but one window away from them. They are mounted just below the window centrally across the join in the wood planking.

Continuing my previous posts (as above) about livery details of the GBL van as produced by Hornby and possible repainting/renumbering ......... It very much depends upon your modelling period and how accurate you like to be. The GBL as modelled by Hornby is the longer one (length 53ft 3 inches) ie Diagrams 3097 (with droplights) and 3099 (without). I believe the Gould book suggests that in total he only new of 3 that were repainted in BR(S) green (a previous post by another contributor thought it might be 6 . Now again from memory back to when I was Roxleyfying my old Triang GBL and wanting a green one, I think I came to the conclusion that I only had a choice of 0 to renumber it as (ie none of the green ones were the long version, I stand to be corrected though). As one of the BR green ones was used on the Golden Arrow (though I dont know whether it was a long one or a short one) my conclusion was that with working on the western section and occasionally venturing up the Somerset & Dorset line, mine needed to be crimson, have no droplights, and be one of the last to be withdrawn.

In addition to all the above, anyone contemplating re-painting/re-numbering one of these should remember that there were 5 different diagrams, covering 2 body lengths and for the short ones there were 2 different bogie positions, then within that both lengths had some fitted with droplight windows in the centre doors. Both the Gould and King books have details of the number ranges for each diagram.

See above ... surely after the war the vast majority were repainted BR crimson, then late on a few were repainted BR green, that's what the Gould book suggests, and he lists the numbers of about 3. I havn't got it with me at the moment but I don't recall him saying any stayed in re-varnished SR green (though as I havn't got it with me I'll stand to be corrected). Didn't the re-varnishing of SR green vans apply to the long wheel base 4 wheel vans ? Mike King in his book says the GBLs (or Corridor PMVs) were often kept cleaner than other vans because they often ran in in passenger trains.

So what other wide cab/wide tender un-rebuilt Bullieds in BR green that had no crests have Hornby produced ? so that I could swap in a narrow tender and avoid a full re-spray .

If the polarity of the tender is the opposite to the loco surely it's a straight forward job to unsolder a couple of wires from somewhere in the tender and then re-solder them the opposite way round, or am I over simplyfying things ?. Though as this would have to be done to both tenders (with the tops off) I agree simply swapping the bodies is even easier as long as the body mounts are the same.

I want to produce 34103 Calstock in early 60s condition (used on the S&D then). This loco was unrebuilt and had a wide cab but narrow cut down tender because its wide tender went to a rebuild. I dont think Hornby produce this combination, so I need to do a bit of swapping. I've got a 34091 Weymouth (wide cab and wide cut down tender) so need to find a rebuild (all wide cabs) fitted with a narrow cut down tender so I can do a tender swop. I know Hornby have made this combination but which one do I have to find ?

There were very few painted BR green. The Gould book lists 3 out of maybe half a dozen approx. I havnt got it with me but as I recall they were all short length versions. The only photo of a green one I've seen is the one used on the Golden Arrow, and thats not one of the 3. I have seen a close up photo of this one in Stewarts Lane yard that shows its number, but I can't find it now.

It definitely wont do any harm.

The filters I'm describing are a capacitor and resister soldered together in series and then connected across the 2 wires of the DCC bus at each of its ends. There is a web site by a gentleman called Brian Lambert. He has a big section on it about DCC wiring etc. and he discusses filters there and what values of capacitor and resister to use. There are pictures as well. Google will find it. The bit about filters is a little way down the DCC section.

The reason I ask is that I once all of a sudden had a problem where a number of locos (that there had previously been no problem with and fitted with a variety of decoders) started to stop and then start randomly at certain places on my layout. After a while I twigged that it was after I'd introduced a new loco that was now sitting in a siding along with about 20 other locos. All of these were fitted with decoders (a variety of makes, Lenz, Digitrax, ZTC , Bachmann, TCS). I removed the new loco from the track and then every other loco ran normally. Id just fitted the new loco (a Hornby Std Class 4 which incidentally runs beautifully just like a well oiled sowing machine, the smoothest running loco I've got) with a Hornby R8249 decoder (one I had'nt tried before). It seemed to me that the new Hornby decoder must have been creating some sort of 'noise' on the DCC circuit that was affecting some but not all other decoders. I rang Hornby and they replaced the R8249 but it only fixed the problem partially. Slightly less of my other decoders were affected. I talked to the nice Hornby man and he suggested that I fit filters to the ends of my DCC power bus. This fixed the problem. My layout is a double track main line roundy roundy but with a break in the power circuit (both track and Wiring Bus) at one end. So the power circuit is affectively a U shape. These filters can be bought ready made but can be home made from 2 components bought from Maplins for a couple of pounds. I have seen similar problems being raised on here by a few people, one of whom said that all of a sudden loads of his affected decoders of one particular make had all gone faulty at the same time, a very unlikely situation I think.

When this loco is running are there any other locos on the layout (a powered part) at the same time ?

I presume from this that your layout is DCC, do all your other locos work reliably all the time ?

Has anyone tried or succeeded in converting a Bachmann N class loco into a U. Both locos look very similar and the (old ?) Wills kit was capable of being used for an N, U, N1 or U1 and originally was meant to be used with a chassis from a Triang 2-6-2 tank loco. The driving wheels of a U are of a bigger diameter than an N. Are there any other significant differences ? Could the Wills body be fitted to the Bachmann N chassis ? or would it be better to modify the Bachmann body into a U ?. What would be the problems of fitting larger diameter wheels to the Bachmann N chassis or is that impossible because of wheelbase spacing ? Obviously the loco body would sit too high, could it be 'carved up' a bit underneath to sit lower. In the 'old days' it was common to use a Triang chassis under a kit body, or to fit better wheels (usually Romfords) to a Triang chassis, but in these days of more accurate chassis no one seems to use a modern Bachmann or Hornby one as the base for something else, or have I missed something ?

The King class has a unique (for the UK at least ?) front bogie. I've never seen an explanation (apologies if I've missed it) of why it's of this design. Can anyone enlighten me ?

Hello Paul, the only article I've found so far is the August 1965 one, and there's only one Wickham photo in that and it's not very good and the number is blurred unfortunately. Also, so far I've only seen picture evidence of B29W and B31W on the S&D. In the past I have seen just a couple of S&D pictures with 'sort of distant' Wickhams in them. If I find any more articles or pictures I'll certainly mention them on here. Peter,