BernardTPM

Lucky really that Airfix boobed on the seating and made their FO with 2+2 seating. It does mean that it should suit the early Mk.2/2a BSO, though no doubt some extra holes would have to be made for the Tri-ang Hornby body fixing screws.

14 foot in 4mm scale is 56mm. 56mm in 3½mm scale is 16 foot. The odd thing about the Merit container though is having doors at both ends.

Difficult to say at that resolution. That is the only possible post 1964 car in the picture though, even if it's origins go back to 1959.

Those ex-trolleybus poles remained as lamp posts in many places into the mid-1970s, though most of those by then had been repainted off-white in the late '60s. The link says the photo is 1967 but the selection of cars suggests earlier as the newest designs are 1962 models. Broadway is on the main route into London so you'd expect at least one newer vehicle if it was 1967. My guess would be 1962-'65.

That sort of 'out of date' printing block was obvious in Yellow Pages too. Bedford TK removal vans still featured heavily in the early 2000s.

Though 2/- is the equivalent of about £1.70 now allowing for inflation.

When I fitted new couplings to the body of a scratchbuilt coach with footboards I made a point of keeping a re-railer (Lima N, though I have a Jouef H0e one too) in its storage box. The couplings had originally been attached to the bogies so I used to straighten the bogies up for railing using the couplings.

The H0 tram (4 wheeler) was rather later than the Santa Fe and Duke of Connaught, though they did an E1 tram around that time which was about 1:130 scale, very similar in scale to their Trolleybus in the 1 to 75 range.

It's Lion (it even has the unusual nameplate and is numbered D0260); AEI were part of the consortium that built it.

It has eight windows, so it's not a First Open but a dia.56 Second* Open (14 built) or dia.92 Restaurant Second* Open (21 built). * They would have been Thirds when built in 1951-2, reclassified Second in 1956. The SR 'Boat' Second opens to dia. 90 were similar, but with a door in one of the centre bays.

The panel to the right is surplus when looking at the side with the two fans. See top picture here.

That certainly sounds like it would be the Peco Perfecta kit. Other conversion kits were done for the kit in the '60s, with brass or cast chassis blocks.

Sorry, the Mk.2F roofs are different to the Mk.2D. That is why the ex-Airfix Mk.2D TSO has a different arangement to the Bachmann Mk.2F TSO. Both are correct for what they are. With Mk.2E the situation is less clear cut. Some do seem to have the Mk.2D style pattern, but some TSOs; certainly the 1972-73 built ones (5859-5907) have the Mk.2F arrangement; probably the FOs, also built 1972-73 (3221-3275) though there the difference is less obvious since they lack the staggered pattern that's on the TSO. Since various batches of the Mk.2E were built with both original deeper and later shallower door windows I thought the roof pattern may match, but I would need to do a more extensive survey to prove or disprove that. Most online photos are Mk.2F so research will involve digging out old books and magazines.

Ah! Betta Bilda 🤣

I see... Icy.

Apart from the different moquette 5777's interior is largely original though the veneer on the sides has darkened after many coats of varnish. The headrests were the blue colour, not the purple that's on some. The partition is correct. End doors would have changed between Mk.2d and Mk.2e when the toilets were altered so that TSOs could have 64 seats again instead of 62. The earlier arrangement (Mk.2b, c & d) is shown here. I will have to see if I can find anything in my old Modern Railways.

It wouldn't be the first time a Tri-ang chassis was used under a Farish body. In the late '50s S. French & Sons of Tolworth, Surrey used to advertise a Farish Merchant Navy on a Tri-ang Princess chassis, complete with spoked wheels, of course. They also sold re-chassied Farish Kings.

The interiors of the Mk.2e were 'standard' Mk.2 style: the blue moquette, black 'coffin' table tops, edged with wood. The roof patterns on Mk.2d and 2e were the same. The Mk.2f featured a revised air-conditioning system so have a different pattern. Their interiors were also different featurting a textured, off-white laminate in place of light wood for the internal sidewalls and Mk.3 style seats in the main (some TSOs still had Mk.2 pattern seats).

I remember Beatties in Holborn had some of these for sale in the mid. to late '70s. The power unit in them is very like the old 1950s design Tri-ang motor bogie.

Sounds likely then. I wonder if they kept the arm rests or not. I suspect not, though they may have left the partition between the saloons. Did they make one smoking and the other non-smoking?

What colour did they use on the First Class seating around that time (assuming circa early '60s to match the Trojan in Second)? Floor diagram of Trailer Composite on p.270 here.

1:120 would be about right for 3' 6" gauge on 9mm track.

C869 and C0978 (first two) show two early pre-TOPS Blue FYE variations well.

Oooh, a Death Wedge 2000 on the far left.

The Hall has a smaller boiler than a Castle but would suit a Star with the cab suitably altered.