nightstar.train

Just seen on the Accurascale website that all the 31s apart from the 2 exclusives are showing as sold out. Is this accurate or just a website glitch? I was thinking of ordering the mainline liveried one, but now I seem to have missed out.

Problem is those don’t have ETH, so would need modification. The coupling is to allow for hauling units around as GBRf have a lot of contracts for unit deliveries. One of the old Nightstar generator vans (ex Mk3 sleeper) has been refurbished and repainted into CS teal. It’s used at Inverness to power the carriages during the daytime as they couldn’t reach agreement with Scotrail to use the depot supply. There’s a possibility it could be used instead of a 73/9 to power the sleepers, just like in the 90s, whilst a freight loco does the pulling.

One thing to note about this diagram is that the Northolt and Euston tunnels are of a smaller diameter than the Chiltern and Long Itchington tunnels, as the trains will be travelling slower so they don't need as much room in the tunnel for the pressure wave. So the Euston tunnels should dig faster than the Chiltern ones, although they might have to go slower due to everything underneath London. Not sure what the line speed will be at Bromford, thus what size the tunnels.

Not exactly. They didn't turn Dorothy around after the first Long Itchington tunnel. They dismantled the cutting head and front of the machine and drove it back around to the start. Then they pulled the tail back through the tunnel and rebuilt the TBM to do the second bore. So they've both started and finished in the same place.

I will, on my museum branch. I'm gaining quite a collection of weird and wonderful steamers for the museum. I'll have to have a Rapido cavalcade one day with the Stirling Single leading, then Thunderbolt, Met No1 and the Jones goods bringing up the rear.

And here they are after filling, a lot of sanding, and a coat of primer. Pretty happy with them so far. Few pits and dimples here and there which will need a bit more filling and sanding. From top to bottom BSO, SO, RFM and SLEP-Disabled.

KR Models have posted a CAD image on Facebook, hope it’s okay to repost here. It’s a slightly odd CAD image in my (admittedly amateur) opinion. The body is mostly definitely a 3D printing STL file displayed in Fusion 360. That’s why it’s all made of triangles, that’s what a STL file is. So it makes the ends and roof look very odd as the detail looks distorted. But the chassis seems to be a regular CAD file, no triangles there! All together a slightly odd image to post, not what you’d usually see from a Manufacturer.

I noticed on the Accurascale website that the sound fitted versions are being labelled as Accurathrash. I think maybe they shouldn’t, keep that particular moniker for the diesels fitted with the big bass speaker. After all I doubt an 0-6-0 tank could be considered to thrash. Maybe Accurachuff for steam fitted models? Well I’ve gone and ordered 68619. It’s been an expensive weekend with Rapido announcing Met 1 as well. My museum branch is going to be extremely busy.

In another thread I've made a comprehensive post of the alterations to the Night Riviera coaches.

Final coach to do is the SO. This is another one that was refurbished in 2018 and has a different window layout to the usual SO. I can use the two small windows that I've removed from the TGS coach I used above and graft them in to be the two small windows on this side. On the other side I will use part of the TSO body I cut up to provide the extra windows for the BSO. This will move the small window and filling the large window will give the smooth side as per the prototype. That's all the conversions done. Now just need to fill and prime them.

I don’t need a steam engine I’m a modern image modeller. I don’t need a steam engine I’m a modern image modeller. Who am I kidding, that’ll be another one for the museum branch. GER blue or Liverpool St Pilot? Hmm decisions, decisions.

I’d really like a 4-TC set in London Transport maroon. Pity that Kernow haven’t made one, and they’re far too dear to buy one for a repaint.

Having just acquired a Met Bo-Bo and an LT pannier tank this is going to be a must buy for me. Looks like it’ll be a stunning model. The question is wether to get the early preserved or currently preserved version.

If they could get a licence agreement and do a DCC Sound version that quotes lines from the show many people would go bonkers for it.

I've been dying to get an Accurascale 37, and all my orders were in batch 2 and 3. So having seen the pictures today I found a shop that still had stock of Spirit of the Lakes and ordered that as well. Really can't wait for these, stunning looking models of one of my favourite loco classes.

Can we get any hints Fran? Big, small? Steam, diesel, electric? How many axles?

We sort of did get this with the class 67. The 67 has the same engine, traction motors and control electronics as the 66, but designed as a class 47 replacement that could do 125mph. I’ve heard that they wanted to make them Co-Co as well, but the only 125mph Co bogie belonged to Brush (from the class 89) and they were unwilling to licence it, or asking too much money. Which led to a loco with rather a high axle load and a Route Availability of 8. By contrast the 66 is RA7 and the 37 is RA5.

Still available in DCC Ready, but probably not for much longer.

Personally I look at unit as being a loco plus X coaches. So for a 3 car unit I’d pay a loco (£180) plus 2 coaches (£120), so £300. To me Heljan’s units are quite over priced. But then I (again personally) feel that their new locos are also over priced. Their new Ruston and Hornsby 0-6-0 shunter has an RRP of £199. Maybe it’s an effect of Brexit, what with Heljan being a Danish company. I feel Accurascale’s new Irish units are pretty well priced, especially considering they will almost certainly be produced in smaller quantities than a U.K. release, so the design and tooling costs are more per model.

Appears to be a brand new announcement, dated today. Not for me, but a very smart loco which I'm sure will sell well.

RRP is £489.99 for a 3 car unit, but you'll get it at £415.65 with the usual 15% discount at Rails and so on. The 2 car is RRP £389.99, or £330.65 after discount. It certainly seems awfully high, but unfortunately that's the way that our hobby is going. Looking back at a news article on Rails it says prices starting at £296.65, so prices have gone up by 10% since the project started. I'd really like a Scotrail Mexican Bean unit, and a NSE one. But not sure I can justify the expense. For the price of the 3 car set you can get a rake of Accurascale Mk5s and a class 68 to push-pull them.

I’m just glad the big announcement at Glasgow was a loco I have zero interest in. Although having recovered from that my wallet is now cowering in terror once again ahead of the announcement at Ally Pally in 10 days time.

As we’re all doing it I’ll fess up as well. Have: 2 x 92, 2 x Deltic 10 x CS Mk5, 5 x TPE Mk5 Pair of KUAs 12 Nuclear PFAs, 6 coal PFAs, 6 CDAs, 6 PCAs On order: 3 x 37s (Network Rail, Europhoenix and NRM D6700) 1 x 31 (EWS) 2 x FNAs Considering GWR class 50, maybe the H&H class 50 Class 89, can’t decide between Swallow and GNER liveries Mainline livery 31

Now onto the BSO and the reason I have an extra TSO/FO body stripped down. The BFOs in the Night Riviera became BSOs in 2018 by the changing of the seats and the plating over of one window at the brake end. I need a TGS to provide the guard's door with the extra half door at the end. But the TGS window layout is wrong for the Mk3a BFO/BSO. So I need the extra TSO/FO shell to provide the extra large windows to make the correct layout. Lined up. I cut the sections overly long to then be sanded down to make an accurate fit. I glued them together with a large piece of plasticard along the floor, and smaller pieces across the seams and the windows to be filled in. Now I just need the Amazon man to bring me a tube of filler so I can crack on further. Unsurprisingly after 10 years both my tubes of filler in my modelling box had dried solid. And of course there's no model shop anywhere near me.

After the surgical spirits had done their work, and some further work with white spirit and vigorous rubing with a cloth I had the bodies stripped of all their paint. Decided to start with the easy modifications that only need a couple of windows filling, so the RFM and accessible sleeper. The RFM was heavily rebuilt in 2018 and lost the distinctive half height windows. It now only has full height windows and is easily made from a TSO or FO body shell. 3 windows filled on one side, and one on the other. The first sleeper coach next to the RFM was also rebuilt at this time and gained an accessible toilet and accessible cabin for wheelchair users. This involved the filling in of the two windows nearest the end. So that's the two easy ones done. Next is the BSO, which is a little more difficult.