Geep7

Must mean mine can't be far off.... happy days.

Slightly OT, I wonder if the sound fitted options will have the ability to rev the guts out of the engines without going anywhere, like they frequently used to at Paddington.

Having lived by the Reading - Guildford stretch of this line in the late 80's and into the Turbo era, 117's made quite a regular appearance..... Even had the 121's appear, in place of an OOS 117/101 DMBS. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing 101/117 scratch sets too towards the end.

Looking forward to getting my sound fitted thumper and giving it a good thrash (or should that be thump?) round my test track. Quick question Bif (sorry probably belongs on another thread) i'm using an NCE Powercab, and have seen in the instructions for your sound chips that there could be issues using the momentum button. Would it be worth me re-mapping this button, incase someone 'accidentally' tries altering the momentum? (Not me I should add). I've never had an issue using it with my us outline stuff with qsi and soundtraxx chips, so wondered what the difference is with the European chips? Cheers, Chris

Oh, I hadn't heard that they had a fire. I only mentioned September, as they are due to be attended the REC's exhibition in Woking, which i'll be at.

It'll no doubt be announced the day after I buy the 2-Hap kit from the guys @ DC Kits in September..... Maybe i'll be safer getting an Oxted or Tadpole kit....

That's fantastic news, was only watching that video on youtube this morning. Should be an awesome sound chip going by your other examples.

Still a few more weeks to wait for the sound fitted version.... i'm sure it'll be worth the wait though....

I have a feeling that the cab roofs were fibreglass, but the rest of the roof was steel, except the bit over the engine. But i'll be happy to be proved wrong on that. I may even have it the wrong way round, lol.

The more I look at these pre-production models, the more i'm convinced I was wrong that they looked a bit odd.... Must have been the images Kernow posted up.... However does the body look any better than the Lima one? Guess it depends how closely you look at. The mu cables for one are the biggest improvement in that respect. The chassis however will be lightyears away from even the Hornby one, and might just persuade me to get one. Mind you, already having 3 Limby ones and a Kernow 2h on order, SWMBO would take a lot of persuading.....

My patience ran out too, sorry Dapol, so much so that I bought an early blue Lima 73 off eBay on Monday. Managed to get 2 Lima/Hornby 73's for half what these new ones are going to cost, and have ordered a Kernow Thumper instead. Tbh, looking at the pre-production shots, I think the Lima body moulding is going to stand up pretty well against the Dapol model. Ok, no etched grills etc, but the Lima body was always one of their best. Is it me, or does the front across the cab windows look a bit odd, just a little too flat? Might just be the photos, but that's the first impression I got.

None taken. I just found it curious that Kernow say they have no evidence, yet there is the one solitary photo of a Blue & Grey 2 car unit in a mainstream publication. I'm guessing that it's because it is captioned as a Class 204 (and they are numbered as such), and there is such a very narrow time frame that these units would have been in this condition, that Kernow thought there wouldn't be much demand for them. However, if they want some more business, I would certainly be interested in a separate centre car to run with my all blue unit (when it arrives).

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, but in Kevin Robertson's Southern Region DEMU book, there is a photo of a 2-car unit in Blue/Grey at Waterloo. I think (it was late at night when I looked) it's one of the Class 204 3T sets temporarily reduced to a 2-car. Seeing as the 2-car blue Class 205 Kernow is producing (1122) became one of the 3T sets, surely this is the proof/excuse they need to produce a 2-car blue/grey set?

Agree with needing a flat surface, especially to keep the chassis square. I use a sheet of glass from an old cheap picture frame for this purpose.

What a great layout. Amazing job. If you want to start making kit built wagons you can't go wrong with a Parkside Dundas Grampus. Fantastic little kit and includes the wheels and brass bearings. The Cambrian kits are great, but require a little bit more patience, plus the need to buy wheels and bearings. Looking forward to seeing the extension to this layout.

Thanks for all the suggestions and information. The link to 80's Rail seems to have shed some light on the situation, though no exact placings of equipments, so I guess it'll have to be a lot of educated guesswork..

Related to my topic in the Modifying & Detailing R-T-R thread (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/77865-4tc-from-ymrv-mk1-coaches/), i'm looking for some information around details of the inner ends and underframes of a 4-TC unit. I know that all the coaches were modified / rebuilt loco-hauled MK1's and that all but the BSK had very little underframe equipment, but what underframe equipment they had, and positions, is hard to tell from the photographs I have access to. The same can be said for the inner ends of the coaches. I know that they were modified with the SR style jumper cables, but apart from a couple of close up pics of non-identified coaches, there's very little to go on. Were the steps removed on every end of each coach, or were they retained on some? The same with the shape of the jumper cable cabinets, where they all the same on every coach, or different? If anyone could help with some diagrams / pictures, i'd be greatful, but just some info.pointing me in the right direction would be enough. Many thanks

As promised here are a few pictures of my 4-TC as it is currently: One of the Driving Trailer's under construction. The other Driving Trailer in undercoat. I've used the MJT whitemetal ends. I tried to make my own, like Colin Park's did for his absolutely superb 4-Cig, but I just couldn't get the corridor connection to look right, so i've gone down this route. Lots of filling and filing later, and I think it's starting to look the part. This is the coach that's given me the most worry. Converting a standard MK1 TSO to an FK. Basically required cutting each individual window apart, and inserting a plasticard fillet to create the required window spacing. Yet again a lot more filling and filing to get to this stage. The plan is to paint the unit in plain BR Blue with small yellow warning panels, as they wore when first built, so that I can run it along side my father's Southern Region stock. Just need to find myself a push-pull fitted Class 33 now.

When I first saw the YMRV MK1 coach, I thought it would make a great basis for a 4TC unit. I've got quite a way through the construction, with one of the Driving Trailers (with MJT ends), the BSK (using modified Triang/Hornby sides) and the TFK (hacking the sides of one of the YMRV coaches to suit the window spacing) well on the way to being reasonably complete. (pictures to follow) However, I seem to have hit a bit of problem, in that I can't seem to find any good detailed photo's / diagrams of the inner ends of any of the 4TC coaches, or decent diagrams of the underframe details for any of the coaches. Is there anyone out there that might be able to help?