Geep7

Indeed, I think i've lost count of the number of locos i've had to renumber back to a D or E number, and not just from Bachmann......

Has Bachmann completely forgotten that the years 1965 to 1974 exist, or is the pre-TOPS era really not that popular? I'm definitely in the market for another Blue & Grey Mk1 BSK, but @ £60? Think I might search eBay first.....

I'm somewhat in the same boat. In the era I model, the Class 30/31's were strangers on the Southern and Western region. I have a sole example on order (fully paid I should add, so no point in cancelling) from Accurascale in Green with Full Yellow Ends, which covers the early allocations to the Western Region, and would have just been seen on the Southern on the Cardiff - Portsmouth service. I may be tempted by a Blue pre-TOPS example, if Bachmann does one (they have a habit of ignoring the late 60's / early 70's era), but I won't rush to get one.

It doesn't surprise me that MTK would possibly get the bodyshells wrong.....

I've just had a look in my copy of Michael Welch's 'A Southern Electric Album', and on Page 17 there is a photo of 4-GRI No. 3086 on a Portsmouth Harbour to Waterloo service, dated 16th October 1966, and that is in green with small yellow panels. Hope that is of use.

Ah, it doesn't look that easy, you have my sympathies. Mind you, you could probably give it a heavy weathering job. That exomover they used to use in the 1970's to wash carriages would fade BR Blue.... although I wouldn't have thought a GUV in NPC service would go near a carriage washer very often.

So on Sunday I had the first opportunity of the year to put the whole layout together to make sure that, with the extension, it doesn't take up too much space in the living room. Fortunately it does, and doesn't impose too much on the rest of the family. Domestic happiness is always the most important thing when sharing your modelling space in a small house. Whilst the layout was up, I decided to have a short running session, to try out the new fiddle yard. After a quick clean with some electrical contact cleaner, it ran perfectly. The only disappointment was the new-style Peco loco lifts. For some reason, my Dapol Class 73's just did not want to run onto them. I shall have to investigate, but I am using the lifts with Code 75 track, so this could be the reason, but something was definitely catching and preventing them going into the loco-lift. Here's a few pictures I took whilst running playing trains.... 2H 1122 has just entered the mu stabling siding, whilst JB E6037 waits to take a freight. The JB still needs a bit of weathering doing to it. The bogies are far too clean! A 2-Hap has just arrived on a service from London Waterloo. This is DC-Kits kit, built pretty much as per the instructions, but motorised with a Hornby 2-Bil/Hal motor bogie. I am really happy with how this has turned out, and i'm just waiting for some warmer weather to finally paint it. It'll be in BR Blue with full yellow ends, at which point Bachmann will announce theirs. It still needs some work with the internal electrics. The intention is to have the headcode boxes switch from white to red, so I have rear red blinds. Whilst at the front i'll have 2 blanks, rather than a route number, it's a compromise I can live with, until someone develops a working LED screen headcode panel. Next JB E6007 in early blue arrives with a train of PRESFLO wagons. These are destined for the branch line. The JB will run round it's train and set them back, and move to a siding to allow the branch locomotive to arrive to take them away. Our intrepid photographer has made his way up onto the roadbridge to record a passing of passenger trains. The 2H DEMU will depart shortly, possibly with a service to Reading? JB E6007 has moved into the headshunt ready to run around the PRESFLO's once the DEMU has departed. And our photographer has managed to make his way back to the embankment just in time, as here is the branch locomotive. This 07 seems to have escaped from Southampton Docks or Eastleigh depot....... This factory weathered Heljan example was picked up second-hand whilst on holiday in the west country last summer, and it is a beautiful runner. Unlike some factory weathered rtr locos, I rather like the weathering on this. I will eventually renumber this loco back into the Dxxxx series Here we see 07009 has backed onto the train of presflos, and is ready to leave, whilst E6007 waits in the yard. E6007 is my first Dapol Class 73 and one of the limited edition factory weathered issues, which I managed to pick up, again second-hand, at the Farnham show a couple of years back. I had originally sworn i'd never replace my Lima Class 73's, saying they were good enough, but getting this Dapol 73, and putting them side by side has convinced me otherwise. I now have 4 Dapol Class 73's (including E6037 in the earlier photo), the latest of which, a JA, arrived today, courtesy of Kernow MRC. At £85, who could say no, and it's nice to have a JA, rather than a JB. The main baseboard is now up in the living room so I can work on the scenery as and when I can in the evenings, when there is nothing on the TV to watch (i.e. most of the time), but this weekend there will be no work done, as I will be at the Alton Model Railway show, assisting exhibiting my friends layout, Horsebridge Wharf. Unfortunately, although Southern, it's set in the 1930's and is EM gauge, so no chance of any guest Blue diesel or electrics appearing. But, until next time, happy modelling folks.....

This is looking fantastic, as with all of your MTK builds. I seem to recall in the past, someone suggesting that, rather than being kits, they were more of an aid to scratchbuilding.

Class 150/1 in FGW Pink/Purple and GWR Green? I know i'd want either, or both......

Thanks Rob, just taken a look during my lunch break, and you're right. Conventional axles/gears... just the daft axle bearing pickups, which I must do something about at some point.

This axle splitting issue is rather reminiscent of the gear cracking issue that seems so endemic with models fitted with nylon gears, particularly in N or HO. It generally caused by the axle or gear being force fitted to an axle or stub that is slightly too big for the hole in the axle.... One solution to stop this happening, possibly, is to slightly open out the end of the axles, and then glue the wheels back on. I know generally with the gear issue, it's been preferable to replace with brass gears, but not a solution here for the axle problem..... It's got me thinking now whether this could affect any other Dapol models (eg. the Class 73?). Must take a look.

I live in hope that Bachmann do the 117 in blue, as I really don't like the prospect of respraying my green one. Also, another run of plain blue Mk1 GUV's would be nice, they are like hens teeth, unless you want it with BR Property Board on the side. As an aside, anyone bought one of them, and managed to remove the Property Board logos and stripes without affecting the livery?

One of my favourite small switching layout track plans is Box Street Yard, designed by the late Jack Trollope. It uses a fiddle track stick/sector plate as part of the run-round loop. My own adaptation of this track-plan formed my first US exhibition layout Masons Bridge Yard. The difference is that I added an additional siding at the top to serve a power station.

Yes, and that would go along with my MoD supplies depot somewhere down the branch narrative as well.

I have that on my ebay Watch list, and been meaning to get a copy.... I think I can get away with it this time (can I?), but for next time, i'll try and be much more accurate.

Hmmmm, I ummm, well, I think you've caught me out there with that question. I've probably fallen into that old modelling trap of, I think this looks nice, so i'll model it like this. However, I would imagine that the big upper girders are bearing the load, and the lower part is the deck structure.

So it's almost the end of January, and i'm conscious that i've not done an update since way before Christmas. It's only over the past couple of weeks that any progress has been made, and this is to the fiddle yard. Originally, I had only planned to run 2 car EMU's and short freights, however, since changing the track plan to how it is now, I can get much longer freights in the run-round loop than I had originally intended. Some measuring and playing around found that if I added an additional 110cm lack shelf, plus a piece of 2x2 wood, I could extend the sector plate long enough to take a Class 52 + Brake tender + 5 x HTV coal hoppers + BR 20-ton brake van, the longest train I plan to run. And here it is, extended. The sector plate extension is just 2 pieces of 4mm mdf cut to size and glued face to face to match the thickness of the original. They are joined by 2 pieces of 1"x1" aluminium angle, which helps to keep the whole thing rigid, and has, so far, stopped the MDF from warping. There was part of me that was tempted to replace the entire sector plate to widen it to 4 tracks, but I have resisted so far. I am hoping that 3 tracks should be plenty for a home layout, but should it ever be exhibited, it may not be enough. If this were the case, I would also think about replacing it with cassettes, although this would mean altering the entry tracks at the rear. However, one benefit of doing that would be, I could add a scenic area in front of the fiddle yard, continuing the branch line a bit further, or adding some sidings. There is still some work to do to finish the extension, with an additional facia, to about an inch about rail height, across the end of the board to stop anything running off the end of the layout. Better to be safe than sorry. Moving forwards, i'd like to start getting the point motors fitted to the main scenic board, and then continue with the scenery. However, I still need to complete the wiring on the N gauge joint project layout that I am building with my father and young nephew, so this will probably be the priority first. Until next time..... happy modelling.

The railway modelling equivalent of Private Eye? The only trouble is, the spoof news almost feels like reading the real news these days.

If in 2mm, I wonder if you can get spare bogie frames for the Dapol N gauge Class 73?

Interestingly, the corridor connections for the Lima 117 are the same as those fitted to the Lima syphon G, so it might be easier to find one of those, and borrow the corridor connections from that. I believe that this is where some of the corridor connections for the 117's actually came from, and withdrawn Collett coaches I believe. Although exact dates are scant from the period, according to railcar.co.uk, half the 117 fleet had received corridor connections whilst still in Blue livery by the late 1960's/early 1970's to support the British Rail Pay on train service introduced in the Thames Valley. As an aside, the Lima 117 (not withstanding the duplicate DMBS) more closely resembles the slightly later BRCW Class 118. The headcode boxes on the 117 are not rounded on the top, but square. Tbh, there is a lot more that can be done to make the Lima 117 more accurate, but I don't think this is appropriate for the Op's thread.

The only thing you could add to the underframe are a couple of pipes coming out from the bottom of each toilet..... Mind you, they soon "weathered" to a rather dark dirty colour, so they are hardly noticeable.....

Not sure what scale you're modelling in, but if in 4mm, before you design them, Dart Castings do white metal side frames for the Mk6 power bogie in their MJT range. They also do the B5 side frames as well, but I found using Replica B4's and adding the additional damper detail just as good.

Will that be the short, or long version? I will also be there for the day, ably (debatable!) assisting with setting up / operating Horsebridge Wharf. It'll be my first time back at The Angel Centre since exhibiting my own layout Bad Aston in 2014.

Hi, I believe, and i'd need to check my copy of Southern Nouveau to confirm, they would have been painted in standard SR Green. In BR days this would be standard BR Southern Green.

Craig Tiley has been with RM for quite some time. I believe coming and photographing my American HO layout for Continental Modeller back in 2011 was one of his earliest assignments with them.