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Do you remember when you started building a model railway? It’s amazing how distracted you can get!

There’s nothing more frustrating than intermittent running. Have you sorted this yet? I’ve found a continuity tester to be invaluable (most cheap electrical meters have one). I also soldered a feed wire to every rail - time consuming but worth it.

All advice regarding undercoat and any yellow alternatives should be listened to! After several coats the yellow is about there. I’ve painted inside the cab windows matt almost black to try to hide their thickness. I’ve started the minor touch ups of the blue grey edges and I’m happy that it’s about as good as it’s going to get. Next job is some gloss varnish ready for the transfers. There are spiders that would be happy with how thin the white line transfers are!

I’m hand painting the yellow, as I have yellow enamel in a jar and not in a rattle can. It took many many coats to do the nose on the 40, which was on white primer… I’m in for the long haul!

A quick three quarter view before moving on. Really happy with how it’s looking. My original intention was to hand paint the roof, but I decided to get the masking tape out again and use a spray. I masked the bodies and then gave the roofs a sand to reduce, but not entirely remove, the ridge lines. We all know ridge lines are a thing made up by model manufacturers, but you definitely can see the joins in the roof canvas on a 304. I used Halfords’ plastic bumper spray for the roofs, it has a slight texture to it that looks just right. Then it’s masking off and hand-painting the yellow ends. Probably just 6 coats of Railmatch required!

Until now the 304 project has been like a non league team having a surprisingly good run in the early rounds of the FA Cup, but now the real test is here as we meet the premier league opposition that is blue and grey. Designed in the mid sixties to put the fear of God into modellers, this blandest of liveries has been weighing heavily on me! Still, in for a penny and all that. Here’s the coaches after a good hour of work with the masking tape. I use a fine white mask to get the border done and then fill the middle with the yellow. A technique I learnt from a house decorator to stop the second coat bleeding at the edge of the masking tape is to seal the tape down with the first colour. It’s then time for Railmatch blue. Despite the decidedly average reputation of the rattle cans, I’ve found them excellent. I do give them a 5 minute rattle before using and an excessive spray upside down after use. I also only spray outside. This gets us to Schrodinger’s 304. It is neither disaster or success at this point. Temptation is high at the stage, but I let it dry overnight before removing the masking tape. The next photo is a 50:50 mix of relief and sheer elation! There are a couple of blemishes (on the opposite side obviously!), which I’ll share later, including how I’ll sort them out. The list of things still to do is gargantuan, but none of it too daunting. The most important part now is not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

All the boxes from Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton were GW. I took them out in the early 2000’s, including making sure that all the heritage equipment went to good homes. All the block instruments went to “strategic spares”, which was code for the maintainer wanted them for his own heritage railway. A lot of the signals went to Glos Worcs. If you think the typical British workman is lazy you should watch a decommissioned heritage box left alone for 30 seconds.

Quick turn arounds are an art lost to the past. With modern couplings even loco swaps should be possible in less time than previously. Assuming the couplers are of the same type, because compatibility is also a lost art! Chester has a lot of long lay overs, which is unusual for a through station, but probably to ensure any delays have minimum impact on the WCML.

Regardless of the work going on in the EMU workshops, trains continue to undertake their usual business. It’s coming up to 9 am, as we see a Peak backing down on to the first trans pennine service of the day, 1D34 Man Vic to Bangor. As the Peak hooks on to the mk2’s, a pair of 20’s bring in the hoppers going from Point of Ayr colliery to Oakleigh Power Station (me neither). The 20’s run round 7F11, and are seen alongside the Peak ready to head off. 1D34 had six minutes of lay over at Chester, which is convenient for the parallel universe at Christleton! Finally, the guard blows a sharp whistle to break the momentary peace and the 45 opens up.

Those signal box drawings look really good. I like the off white background of the original, but otherwise the new version wins hands down. I’m very tempted but still sticking with NX mosaic panel for the moment! Equipment identification always seems to be something of a lottery, even when you know the rules there’s always some individual interpretation. The other thing to consider is that on anything other than a new installation there would have been some alterations undertaken that would be slightly different to the original style. Your propensity for subsequent modification is hardly unprototypical - and a modified panel or drawing would just reflect reality.

And then they were grey… This is the easier part of blue and grey! Once they’ve had at least 24 hours to dry I’ll start the significant masking up. Once masked I’ll lightly spray the masking tape grey to hopefully seal the joins, before going for the blue. I’ll have a very small margin for error here as the white line transfers are really thin. The roof and ends will be hand painted, so much less masking and probably not as tricky as the window surrounds.

Thank you, I always appreciate some feedback. The cabs are 3D printed by a company called Shapeways, I think they’ve American judging by the price in dollars. I found the cabs at a company called N-train: https://n-train.net/epages/deba4b2c-2faa-4fd7-967f-c57d7bf70bd2.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/deba4b2c-2faa-4fd7-967f-c57d7bf70bd2/Products/OO008&Locale=en_GB The website advised a 21 day lead time, but it was much closer to 2 days. This isn’t helpful if you’re planning to put off actually starting and just want to talk about the project!

A lot more filling and sanding, and I think I’m finally happy with them. Next job is rail grey, which is definitely a bit more daunting. They certainly look a lot more 304 than they do suburban brake thirds!

My L frame knowledge is pretty miserable! I’m thinking simple NX panel, with either basic relay interlocking or maybe something computer based. Christleton Junction is quite complicated - as evidenced by the high level of mis-routings and subsequent short circuits when operating what is essentially currently a ground frame.

In other news, these 3 HDA’s arrived today. I’m not sure what the difference is between a HAA and a HDA, other than the latter can run faster empty (60mph versus 45mph I think). Looking at them they have disc brakes, I’m not sure if they all did, but I suspect the HAA were tread brakes. It’s a small detail though and one easily overcome, more important is the propensity of Accurascale models to sell out, so a few more will be joining them soon.

The cabs have had the cant rail added which makes a big improvement to their appearance. Then some further filling and sanding before giving the body shells a light coat of primer. This really helps highlight the imperfections. More filling and sanding to follow! I also got to attend the DEMU showcase today, a great little show. I was hoping for some blue and grey spray paint, but came away with a whole host of other goodies instead. It was great to see some other contemporary layouts in the flesh.

If you’re looking for proper distractions I have an NX panel that needs designing!

I’m really pleased to hear that - I definitely drew inspiration from Piccadilly to Deansgate. I remember seeing 304’s and riding them along that section having been loco hauled across the pennines in my mid teens. The sound file is a Legomanbiffo, so I have high hopes! I’m awaiting an 8 pin to 21 pin converter before I can fit it. I’ll also need to choose a good speaker and location. A ticking air compressor and a roar on departure are hopefully not far away.

It’s been a very long time since I shared a video (2 years), but the inaugural run of the class 304 seems worth fighting with password resetting for. It’s on DC power for initial testing and running in. The bogies have NEM sockets, so have temporary hook and loop couplings for now. This is also a chance for a really quick look at the layout end to end.

The body profile mismatch is both profile and overall width. The printed cabs are nearly 2mm narrower than the coach bodies. In 1:1 scale I suspect you’d notice 3” of filler, but I think it should be possible to hide the transition. The model looks a lot better in real life than in photos, as the camera always accentuates any imperfections. I’m going to get it running before I do anything else, and then focus on the bodywork.

A million things still to do, but very satisfying to get to this stage. Getting the bodies on to the chassis took a lot of fettling, with a bit more required to get to a smooth on and off arrangement. Next job is to fit some couplings so that I can do some trial running. There’s then a lot of sanding and filling to do to get a decent finish. It’s actually credible that I might make something of this. Pretty happy with my first foray into kit bashing.

Some internet searching has found a number of interesting pictures. Firstly the interior: Then an interior of a 307. The refurbished motor cars were apparently done like this when converted from compartments to opens (but probably different moquette). This means different interior wall colours and seat colours. Not sure I’ll do different lighting! Then a picture of the power bogie. Certainly not a conventional Gresley! It may be possible to convert the existing 419’s bogies to this profile. Good view of the underfloor equipment too - there are very few pictures of the middle cars.

By late 86 they were mainly all 3 car (possibly all completed by the end of 86). I would probably have had to go 3 anyway due to fiddle yard space and to keep things proportional. TP and IC services are only 6 coaches, so 4 car EMUs would just emphasise their shortness. There is a plan to extend to 7 coach IC, but that needs me to reverse the door into the room, which in turn needs major modification in the room that it leads from. My house is over 400 years old and mid restoration, the adjoining room is scheduled for attention in 2025 (although I’m currently running about 9 months ahead of my original schedule).

Time consuming, fiddly, but very enjoyable. And so far, I haven’t flamingoed it up*. With the new compartment sections spliced in, the next job was to file out the 5 extra droplights in various doors. These are done and all have a snug fit when the glazing is offered up to them. They may still need some shaping and filing. I’ve also filled in the windows for the lavatory section, and filed out the window. The glazing has been made by cutting down a mk1 toilet window. The filled in windows have some plasticard behind them to hold in the miliput. Unfortunately this prevents the new window from fitting in the opening, so needs a little adjustment. I have stripped down the 419. It looks relatively straightforward to get the motor car body on to the chassis, although the buffer beams will need removing first. I plan to get the chassis sound fitted and dcc tested with the chassis for the two driving cars before attempting to fit the bodies. The motor block will protrude slightly into compartment 7, as well as into the out of use compartment 8. For the two driving trailers, I’ve commenced assembly of the Gresley bogies from Precision Paints kits. Quite fiddly to build, but nice models. They are almost ready for fitting. I have another set which I plan to use the frames to fit onto the existing Bachmann bogies. I could do with finding a photo of a Gresley power bogie to see how much they differ. I suspect they’re a good deal chunkier. The driving car body doesn’t fit directly on the coach chassis, the front buffer beam will need removing, but I couldn’t resist a quick mock up. *like a cock up, only bigger.

The 308’s in West Yorkshire were my first real introduction to EMUs - after the 309’s (?) that briefly preceded them. If the rest of WY wasn’t all units at the time I could have easily modelled somewhere on the aire valley lines out of Leeds. I understand that first gen SR EMU’s were regulars for compression testing of the buffers at Waterloo and Victoria, although I think that was very long brake applications with single valves running out of reservoir.