bazza.

Hi Phil-b259, Thank you for that bit of information, I thought that the Hornby couplings were the same as the Roco couplings, I will order some of the Roco couplings to compare with the Kadee #17 or #18 couplings that I have been using. Barry

Hi Mallard60022. That's what I said earlier to Robin. Mike King in his book "An Illustrated History of Southern Coaches" states that the Maunsell dinning First coaches were normally paired with one of the purpose built 64 seat dinning open Third coaches or an ordinary 56- seat open-saloon Third. I think that the two restaurant cars would be coupled to the 3 car Bulleid sets, but not in the sets... Like wise I could also be wrong. Barry

Hi Trevor, Or how about one of the seven 2-Hal units (Nos. 2693-2699) that were built to Bulleid's coach profile, the forerunner of Bulleid's 4-Sub's unit numbers 4111-4120. Barry

Hi Robin, You might need two coaches, as the Maunsell dinning firsts were normally paired with a Maunsell dinning open third saloon. Regards Barry

In An Illustrated History of Southern Coaches, Page 55, Mike King wrote " but a few three-coach sets lost their intermediate side buffers experimentally from 1928 onwards". And in Maunsell's SR Steam Carriage Stock, Page 87, David Gould wrote " With permanently-coupled set trains it was found that buffers of the intermediate coaches could safely be removed, and several of the 3-coach sets had been modified by 1934. Those identified included Nos. 392, 395 to 399 and 446". That's 7 sets, I wonder if any other sets were also modified! Barry

Or Halford Jaguar British Racing Green !!!

Hi JohnR, BR/SR Green-----------------Jaguar British Racing Green SR Malachite Green-------Ford Laural Green : Daihatsu Tropical Green SR Dark Olive Green------Land Rover Coniston Green SR Suburban Green-------Jaguar British Racing Green What car are you painting ? Regards Barry

Thank you John, I'll have a look at the Roco couplers that come with the coaches. The main reason that I have used the Kadee couplers is that the Southern used buckeye couplers on the Maunsell and Bulleid coaches and its easy to remove a coach by hand when they a coupled with Kadee couplers. Try removing one vehicle when coupled with tension lock couplings and the whole train is removed in one go. I think that I read some where that the Southern removed the buffers of the inner coaches in some of the Maunsell sets, so permanently coupling them together with buckeye couplers only. I don't think that they did that with the Bulleid sets. A word of warning for those thinking of removing the outer doors on the corridor connections. On some of my Hornby Maunsell coaches the outer doors seemed to be lightly glued to the corridor connections, and removing the doors can damaged the outer corridor connection rubbing plate. Barry

Now we have discussed the colour of Malachite green and all its variations, lets get back to the topic of Hornby's new Bulleid coaches. Nothing in this world of ours is perfect, but I believe that Hornby have done a very good job of making these RTR Bulleid coaches and the Maunsell coaches before them. I have built quite a few OO gauge coaches in my time, but I would be hard pushed to make a coach to the high standard that Hornby are making today. I like to keep all of my coaching stock permanently coupled together and luckily for me so did the Southern Railway and the later Southern Region of BR. So when my Hornby Bulleid 3 car set arrived, the first thing I did was to remove all of the tension lock couplings from every coach. For the couplings within the set I replaced the tension lock couplings with Kadee NEM # 18 buck-eye couplings and on the outer ends of the set at the brake end I installed a pair of Hornby screw couplings (R7200) In all of my Southern sets I have found that a combination of either Kadee #18 which are 8.63 mm long, or Kadee #17 @ 7.11 mm long, will permanently couple the coaches at a realistic distance apart. After all that is how the Southern Railway (and the LNER) used to couple Maunsell, Bulleid and early BR coaches together. Now all I need to do is change the wheels on the bogies to 18.833 mm, but that's another story. Barry

Hello John, My paint sample is a 100% un-weathered paint sample taken from a tin of original BR Coach green No 11 paint, ie BR Malachite green, at Eastleigh Loco Works Paint Shop. My paint sample has been stored in a brown envelope in draw and never exposed to day light, and never been touched by hand. It is my BR malachite green colour paint reference point. I don't know who Williamson's are, but if they are paint manufactures, perhaps they would have supplied the BR Coach Green paint No 11 BR Malachite Green to Eastleigh Paint Shop in 1962. According to John Harvey of the Southern Railways Group Notebook, BR Coach green No 11 was slightly darker and more yellow the the SR malachite green. and has a Munsell paint reference (including varnish coats) about 2G 2.1/4, this has a DULUX reference about 70GY 6.5/15C . The nearest paint shade to my paint sample is 90GY 8/187 DULUX Woodland Fern 1 which is very close to the unvarnished BR Coach green No 11 malachite, which in turn is very close to the colour of Hornby's Maunsell BR green coaches. Incidentally my Hornby short Bulleid coaches in BR green livery have finally made it all the way to NZ, and they are a lighter shade of green to the Hornby Maunsell BR green, so perhaps I can pretend that they were always facing south on the journey to and from Waterloo to Exeter and so faded on both sides instead of one side that was normal on West of England coaching stock. Thankfully they are not as light in colour as the old Bachmann Bulleid 64' coaches, which I always thought were too light a shade of green. Barry

On 07/08/2019 @ 23:35 W124bob said: There's an elephant in this particular forum room, no one can accuratetly state what is the correct shade of malachite green because no one has a time machine. Hello W124bob, I can ! I was given a small paint sample by a member of the Southern Railway Group, taken from a tin of genuine BR Malachite (Coach Green No.11) from the Eastleigh Loco Works Paint Shop in 1962. This sample is in its natural finish without varnishing. I was also given 2 Dulux shade cards. One was a shade card of "Woodland Fern 1" 90GY 08/187, which is the closest colour to the unvarnished BR Malachite (Coach Green No.11) and coaches when varnished would appear slightly darker and slightly yellower. The second Dulux shade card was one of "Dublin Bay 1" 07GG 08/244 which was said to be typical to the varnished finish of SR Malachite Green, which is very similar in colour to the BR green colour of Hornby's BSK Maunsell coach R4305A (S 2796 S) which I have used as a comparison, which in turn is part of my Maunsell 4 car set number 236 in BR green livery. Barry

Wanted- Heljan OO 4-wheel B Esso tank wagons Heljan model numbers: 1101 4-wheel B tank wagon #3305 Esso Black livery 1102 4-wheel B tank wagon #3328 Esso Black livery 1103 4-wheel B tank wagon #3373 Esso Black livery 1104 4-wheel B tank wagon #3650 Esso Black livery If any one has any of these Heljan OO tank wagons that are surplus to their requirements please let me know. Regards Barry

I had the same problem with two DJ Models class 71 Locomotives using an ESU 54615 LokPilot V4.0 DCC decoder in each locomotive. I solved the problem by replacing the ESU decoders with TCS 1344 EU621 decoders. now my DJ locomotives run perfectly. Incidentally without changing any CV settings, I just swooped the 2 ESU decoders for 2 TCS decoders that I had installed in a pair of Bachmann SR EMU models, and the Bachmann SR EMU's continue to perform perfectly now using the ESU decoders. Horses for courses! Barry

There is a bit more to add to this. In 1924 the big four railway companies agreed to standardise on Pullman-type gangways and buck-eye couplings for all new coaching stock, but the GWR agreed but then changed its mind and the LMS continued to use the old British gangways and screw couplings. So only the LNER, the Southern Railway and later British Railways, standardised on a 3/4 size version of the American buck-eye coupling, on which the head drops down to leave a standard hook visible. The regulations stated that when two buck-eye fitted coached were to be coupled they were to be buck-eyed coupled together in preference to screw coupled. Barry

Greetings from sunny Napier in New Zealand. Even at this late date I have manage to purchase a pair of Class 71 model locomotives, E 5004 and E 5019. While looking on line for the external working condition of these locomotives, I came across a photo of a Class 71 in the green livery, but with only a thin yellow stripe on the front of locomotive. Was the livery of this locomotive E 5012 as shown on colour rail slide DE 1570 unique to this locomotive, or was this type of yellow warning panel commonly used on other Class 71 locomotives. From an aesthetic point of view, I have never been a great fan of yellow warning panels, but the reduced size of this one looked particularly attractive. Barry

Hi Colin, Just found out. Sorry to hear your news. My thoughts are with you and your family. I wish you speedy recovery. Regards Bazza

I agree Rick, Unfortunately no matter how much time or money NR spend on the sea wall, they will never beat nature. I'm sorry but It will happen again and again. Coastal erosion is on going, and is It's been happening here for years, destroying coastal homes, and forcing coastal residents in Hawkes Bay who face the force of the Pacific Ocean's easterly gales in winter, to build their own sea wall as protection, because our local council will no longer repair or replace sea walls to stop coastal erosion, instead it operates what it calls "a managed retreat" for residents along the coast. Then if they are the same as here, soon the insurance companies will refuse to re-insure the coastal homes. I feel so sorry for the residents of Dawlish. Bazza

Thank you Peter, That sounds good enough for me, I'll get a couple of DPX2-UK decoders from TCS and replace the horrible factory fitted efforts by 2Bil. I hope you get well and mobile soon, more time for modelling at the moment eh !. I must spend more time on my modelling, but now that its summer time here, I tend to spend more time cycling and pottering outside in our garden, and less time in my train shed, come May or June when the nights start to draw-in, I'll get back into it and start to catch up on my track making. Regards Bazza

Hi Peter, I am very interested in your use of TSC decoders on the Hornby 2Bil. When I purchased one of my 2Bil models, I purchased one with a factory fitted (I think) Hornby R8249 DCC decoder. When I took the model apart to convert it to run on my P4 track I was surprised at the mess of tangled wires from the 8 pin plug to the decoder, which were loosely held together with a small/tiny bit of insulation tape. I like your use of the TCS DP2X-UK decoder that you have used on the 2Bil. They look smaller than the Hornby 8 pin blanking plug and you have finished up with a much tidier finished job than my factory fitted effort. Did you have to cut any of the interior away, or did they just plug straight into the 8 pin plug? Regards Bazza

Hi Colin, If you only glue every second or third junction box rather than every one, this might help with any expansion of the brass wire. You are wise not to put a soldering iron any near the plastic roof. When I extended the pick-up wires to the wheels on the Hornby 2BIL for my conversion to P4, it supprised my just how quickly plastic melts, even if you do not even touch it with the sioldering iron. In my train shed over here, there is a tempature range from about 8 to 32 degrees Celsius. So in winter I allow a 2mm expansion gap when glueing down my half metre lengths of soldered ply sleeper track or plastic sleeper K&S flexitrack, and about .5 mm gap in summer. When I worked in the trade in the UK, we used to call them conduit junction boxes also. Regards Bazza

Hi Colin, It should not be unnecessary for you or anyone else, to correct the roof and other detail mistakes on the Hornby 2BIL. I have always believed that it should cost no more to make an accurate model, instead of an inaccurate model of a particular emu, locomotive, coach or wagon. Especially when the real items are in the NRM to measure and photograph. My biggest disappointment with a new model in the past decade, was the roof detail of the then new Bachmann BR Mk1 coaches. I rushed out and purchased a BR(SR) green version, but I was so dissapointed when I saw the over-done heavy ribs on the roof of the model as, BR Mk1 coach roof panels were butt welded together not joined by ribs like LMS coaches. I quickly dumped it and vowed never to purchase another BR MK1 coach from Bachmann until they improved the the roof detail. Luckily for me, Bachmann did remove the heavy ribs on the BR Mk1 coach roofs, when they made their 4CEP emu model, which as we all know were based on the BR Mk1 coaches, and I was able to purchase two much need (by me) units. Keep up your good modelling on the Hornby 2BIL. Perhaps you should contract out you time to Hornby, to advise how to improve their models before release. Regards Bazza

Me thinks, 'im correcting the mistakes

Hi Colin, That is one scary thought, but it does show how well, with regular maintenance over the past 45 years, the original Tri-ang motor bogies can perform. I wish it was, but sorry this is not a photo of my fiddle yard. this is a photo of my model of Barnham Junction to date. Before any ballast and third rail and before scenery. The 4COR-4BUF are on the up main, the 6PAN is on the down loop, and the Hornby 2BIL is in one of the two emu storage siddings. I have been forced to squash 10 sidings into my fiddle yard which is on the other side of the room. Perhapes it's back to front, but I made and laid all the track in my fiddle yard first. Part because it is on the lowest part of the layout, and part because I could corrected and improve my turnout making skills there first, before making the track and turnouts for the scenic part of my layout. The next part of the project is to make and finish all track work for Barnham Junction and to complete the double track circuit round the train shed, before I start any scenery construction. So to complete the Barnham Junction track work, I still need to hand-make, 12 new B7 and B8 turnouts for the down loop to the down main and Bognor branch down line. Make 2 double junctions, one from the main to Bognor branch, and from the emu storage sidings (now lifted) to the branch. And 2 diamond crossings from the down loop across the branch lines to the down main. And just to finish off, 8 A6 and A7 turnouts for the goods yard (long gone) So with all that track work making planned for the future, I do not have a lot of time for making new models. It's easier to watch and copy you with you with your excellent improvements to the Hornby 2BIL. Which I am sorry, that from over here, I can not help you much with your research. Regards Bazza

Hi Colin, Are you going to save that fuse holder that you correctly cut-off, and re-positioned it on to the compartment side of the DTC in line with the one on the corridor side of the Hornby 2BIL? Brian Golding's plan of the 2BIL, show both periscopes 5 mm forward of the Hornby ones. Bazza