BernardTPM

The Minitrix coaches are also to (1:148) scale and interestingly represent the slightly earlier design of Gresley with a turnbuckle, rather than angle truss, underframe. All three ranges basically stick to the earlier door-to-each-compartment design (except for catering stock) rather than the 'vestibule' open stock; these have only been available as etches. IIRC the CaveNdish Gresley's first came out around 1976 (the range having started with Stanier coaches in 1974). The printing was done by PC Models and is still outstandingly good thirty-odd years later.

Having done some research on the similar but slightly later H39/H40 sets I know a few of lingered on until the very early '50s with the old windows; I don't know whether that was the case for your 70 footers, so I wasn't going to say for sure that they were wrong - they look good anyway!

As for the early post-war BR/WR livery, there are quite a few pics in Jim Russell's OPC books showing the post-war waist lined GWR livery with LH BR running numbers. You rarely see this livery modelled, but quite a few Hawkesworth's must have been turned out in it when new.

I remember seeing a version of the 'Clifton Downs' set done from Triang clerestories by Brian Fayle for his Harlyn Junction layout featured in the January 1970 issue of RM, but looking at the size of the First Class compartments, I can't help thinking the Ratio GWR four-wheeler sides might be a better starting point. They are available separately, though the roof is the right shape too (3-arc).

Dapol do a scale length one in N; you're just modelling the wrong scale

Is someone opening up a taxi repair shop in one of the arches?

Yes, correcting the Compo did require quite a bit of work to allow for the extra compartment length (i.e. the difference in length between a First and a Third) As far as I remember I took it off the ends but as I used two shells it wasn't necessary to take the sides off of the roof. Incidentally, I made the join lines down the door lines which saves a lot of filling if done right.

All of this generation of coaches shared a lot of components, particularly when they first appeared. On introduction in 1977 there was a Compo and Brake Third for the LMS, GWR and SR and a Compo and Brake Compo for the LNER. All shared the same bogies (a clip-in variant of the BR1 still used on their current Mk.1 range), floor unit, metal weight, glazing and two patterns of interior, a composite and a brake, the latter arranged to 'sort of' fit all the brakes despite the varied number and types of oompartments modelled. There were also some components shared over parts of the range: the GWR & SR shared coach ends and the lower part of the bodyshells (the roof part of the shell was different so they must have had interchangeable roof detail tooling). Later the LNER coaches gained Gresley bogies and after that the GWR coaches were given 7' bogies. Incidentally, both the new types of bogie slightly lowered the ride height compared to the old BR1.

The GWR Restaurant car and Gresley Sleeper obviously had new bodies and interiors to suit, but the other parts were still standard (and both gained the better bogies later).

Sorry Alan, I mistook it for the Ultima roof conversion as there were no top edges to the taller windows. My mistake! What's the shell you're using?

I'm afraid you've missed my point here; the coaches that Farish have (approximately) modelled are the narrower Restriction 1 type (though not the narrowest 'Hastings' Restriction 0) which didn't have duckets on the brakes. For the Restriction 4 stock your need to widen the passenger accomodation, leaving the brake section at the width it is. It is the R4 coaches with the wider passenger sections that have duckets. The R4 Thirds and Composites were simply wider all along their length.

The old Farish 'mainline' stock scales out the right width for Maunsell Restriction 1 stock which didn't have duckets. The wider Restriction 4 stock had the narrower Restriction 1 width at the luggage end, but was wider at the passenger section end. These are the brake coaches that had duckets.

The error is a mystery. It couldn't have been have been to suit the LMS coach as LMS Compos were longer so that was never going to be right anyway. Back in the late '70s/early '80s I had a go at correcting some of these coaches for a friend (around the time they introduced the correct 7' bogies). I made a third by combining the composite and brake third (the fact that the guard's compartment is basically the same as the normal compartment was handy!) and then used the left over parts to correct another composite. I think I modified the incorrect side of the brake third with left-overs too. Three coaches for the price of four... Still, a spare pair of 7' bogies that went under an older restaurant car model that i never did get round to updating.