BernardTPM

There's a really good view of the back of a Mk.2 Escort van here. The Mk.1 looked much the same except that the bumpers were chrome and there was no fog light. This view also shows the extra section above the doors and how much higher up the panel area should go.

The Mark 2 van from the Corgi Mark 1. Not high enough in my opinion.

Yes, the Mk.1 Escort van is disappointing given that the saloon is pretty good. On the real van the rear doors were carried over from the Mk.3 Anglia van so should be just like those on the Oxford Anglia van - oh dear! The ABS (nee Fleetline) Marina van suffers from a similar lack of height too. I reckon the easiest solution is to build up a new higher roof on the existing one, then blend in the sides and revised doors (file the windows higher) with filler and elbow grease. Or turn it into the estate, then you just need to file it down a bit to get rid of the ribs and reshape the back. If you make it a DER commercial* then the vac-formed plastic panel covered over the side window, saving having to drill it out

* TV rental firm that used estates with the windows covered over. Red IIRC.

I remember seeing lots of these little lorries in Redbridge Council blue and cream back in the early '80s some, I think, up to 'S' reg (or 'T'?). Not bad for something so obviously 1940s in appearance. The windscreen always looked odd as it clearly had a crease down the middle where two flat angled screens on the original design had been replaced by a single pane, but to the same shape, on the later builds.

Came across this site which has some useful info' on BR parcels van operations and liveries

 

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/br-trucks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/y-road.htm&usg=__mzhykdCVgwdg79_sBLBpXoTPLO8=&h=558&w=506&sz=156&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=HmXRrJ91hk3X8M:&tbnh=133&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drail%2Bexpress%2Bparcels%2Bkarrier%26hl%3Den%26cr%3DcountryUK%257CcountryGB%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

Slight error on that last parcel van livery that should have white brather than yellow and red 'Rail Express Parcels' on the side instead of black. Overall useful, nonetheless.

This looks like a genuine ex LNER post war Bedford O still in LNER colours in 1969.

Probably not original. The prologue of that film was set during the war (hence the shelter 'kits' on the back) so most likely it's a studio repaint.

Part of the problem for the 60 is that its a small class of locomotives built on a comparitivley tiny island in someones back yard compared with the loco building industry in the rest of the world.

An island that used to export railway locomotives to just about every country in the world at one time and was still capable of designing a heavy haul loco that is more fuel efficient than the new 70. Still, in my model world it's 1991 and such travesity is still avoidable.

They OWN the Class 60, as they did with previous classes, why is it an issue what they do with vehicles that EWS/DBS actually OWN and then decide they don't need ?

 

I don't wanna see them sitting around rotting but then if they wanted to melt them all down and sell the metal, why not...........THEY OWN THEM.

As the last BR diesel class (and for the time being, the last British-built large main-line diesel locos) they are part of this country's heritage. At the very least 60001 should be donated to the NRM.

Very nice!

Orville - with cheeks like that and green it's Orville the Duck.

Either a late Marina or an Ital, very difficult to be sure from this angle. Late Marina vans had both black bumpers and (very, very late on) the Ital style door handle before they got the sloping Ital grille (later than the car models).

I absolutely agree that creating the surface imperfections would be very, very hard, added to which such a model may well not conform to the usual expectations. Given that when you look along a glossy Mk.1 coach you can see lots of mainly vertically biased ripples, I sometimes wonder whether you could get the effect by brush painting, keeping all the strokes vertical. Perhaps even if you achieved that sort of finish you would have then to force people to look at them through a periscope or something so they're seeing the model from a perspective closer to that which you would observe such things on the prototype. The fact that it's probably easier to view a larger scale model this way is of significance.

- The finish of most RTR models is quite satin, whereas ex works the finish was quite glossy.

One of the things rarely modelled in R-T-R (or in models as a whole) are the surface imperfections, often there from new. A surface will be rippled where a metal skin has been attached by welding, screwing or rivetting. On a preserved item there is also likely to be further surface distortion caused by the odd bump or scrape down the years, particularly where such a skin is non load-bearing over a frame; witness the 'Peaks'. One reason given by British Rail for (briefly) adopting the airless spray was that the reduced surface reflections given by the semi-gloss finish against the traditional full gloss made the surface look smoother. Of course, vehicles built using extruded aluminium can have a really smooth finish so, in theory, should look more 'right' in gloss than a model of a welded steel coach would, where the prototype is naturally rippled.