SHerr

Slight word of caution, I’ve had success with the sharpie method on Heljan loco’s but the last one I tried (latest blue class 27) it started to take off the paintwork as well as the numbers. Always seems a bit hit and miss with Heljan but sharpies are probably the best bet but can still go wrong!

That’s definitely a good move to lower the board in front of the viaduct, it definitely feels like the railway is more ‘in the scenery’. It’s something many layouts don’t really manage to create is the railway half way up a hill.

Great addition, however as mentioned earlier you have accidentally forgotten the Alumina conversions that ran up the WHL until mid late 60's!

The sound is amazing, the automatic wheel squeal just makes it so realistic. One quick question- the squeal feature is noted as triggered by sensors, would that feature be available if you retro fitted a sound chip or are the sensors only fitted to models factory built with sound?

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Those 3 are the most logical next steps, I’d suggest those using the current range would see those as the gaps. I’ve curved one of the long radii slightly but really they are quite fine for those that can’t build track and the curved and Y are really needed. As a follow on a decent trap point would be good (not the same as the code 75 effort). 3 way with uni frog would be a game changer as well.

I was in the same position 7 or 8 years ago. I had used aerosols with generally poor results but wasn’t sure how to take the leap of faith. I bought the ‘cheapo Humbrol one’ and aerosol can to pretty bad results, left it off and on for a year or so after I lost confidence, then after a chance discussion in a model shop was persuaded to get a compressor - Draper one, no means the best for about £60 that was in a sale. That made the world of difference. I’ve repainted stock and locos and weathered lots of things, I think to reasonably good standards when compared to photos on here. As an ex novice and certainly no pro now I’d maybe suggest if your on a budget get the compressor first and try the old brush, then upgrade the brush if/when your happy or if the old brush doesn’t perform - mine is starting to struggle a little now and really should look to upgrade. One final piece of advice I was given, go and buy a few knackered old Hornby/Traing wagons that are always on sale at shows and swap meets for a couple of quid each and try on then first. Certainly if you’ve built the kits and invested all that time and effort. Good luck

Nice work on the building, I do like the Pop Up kits as you do actually need to do some modelling. I like the idea of the layout, are there any track plans around? I've tried the obvious Google searches but can't find anything.

Brilliant, thanks. class37.co.uk goes a bit quiet on 027 between early 85 and very late 85. That’s definitely an option to re-number. I’d completely forgotten about the Sapnnerman Flickr site and seem to have now lost an hour and half of my time when I was supposed to be doing things!

Thanks all for the replies and info, that helps a lot. 027 is an option although the timeframe is basically mid 85 (for some other reasons than 37/0’s!) and I can’t quite find when 027 went into LL. Looking at what roof photos I can on the internet it looks like carefully removing the rivet lines may be viable to get a later numbered example and suspect the roof paint could be blended in especially with some weathering (or am I missing something)?

I’m seeking a bit of help info please. This question has probably been asked numerous times before but struggling to find clear answers in hundreds of pages of forums, especially as many now have missing photos (not a dig just a fact of life). I have 37043 on pre-order with Rails and they seem to have some availability so may order a second one and I’m struggling around renumbering options and detail variances and how noticeable they are. I can see the cantrail grill extra strips on the likes of 37081 but I’m looking at locos like 37111 or some of the earlier numbered un-named examples that from photos don’t seem to have the extra grill strips. Could anyone help with other detail differences that stand out and any that wouldn’t be noticeable please. I’m not a rivet counter but also want something that’s fairly accurate (ie grill strips are obvious). Many Thanks and apologies to those that have answered these questions before, I’ve spent a while looking before asking this.

043 does seem really odd from Bachmanns commercial perspective as well as a modellers perspective. Lots, myself included will have the A/S one on order but would probably have also bought a Baccy one in a different number but will now just stay with the one that’s ordered. Detail differences I get but as noted above from when A/S announced theirs in 2019/20 it must have been early enough to go for the different roof nose combo. Of all the comments about integral vs separate noses surely this is a benefit? I just hope they don’t end up with loads in the discount buckets and then next time a large logo 37/0 is mentioned the bean counters come out with ‘well the last one didn’t sell very well’. I don’t want to sound too critical as it does look very nice but just puzzling from Bachmann’s side as well. I would have bought one with any other number on it.

One idea for the snowploughs- the Bachmann spares website has (or certainly did until recently) have the old style plug in individual class 37 ploughs. I bought a boat load as have fitted them to all my class 37’s as they allow the tension locks to stay so give a fair representation. However they are also useful with some minor trimming to glue to the bogie frames of other locos. I’ve also chopped up Heljan spare ploughs in the past in a similar way.

A PAB would be nice and plenty of scope for West Highland and Lower end Far North lines, plus I think they may have been used for lime further south. Would look nice behind some Accurascale 37’s! I must admit I misread the title and got very exited thinking they had announced the PAB until I got to the photo!

Correct, so stop messing around and get 188/191/260/261/262 and 264 announced!!

Many thanks, there’s 2 accessories areas and I was looking under the wrong one!

I never seen those before, look nice. out of interest what area of the website are they under? You’ve obviously provided the link that goes straight to the item but I assume there may be other useful bits n bobs in a similar area? I’ve had a quick look under accessories etc and they do t come up.

Code 75 rail joiners fit Bullhead, just needs a bit of a nip together. Rail height is fine. I have that at the moment as waiting for the double slip before I can complete so I have part of the layout in code 75. only word of caution if it’s in a scenic area is the difference will stand out like a sore thumb.

Thanks, that's useful, looks like you could easily cut off the lower part of middle plough and keep the rest of the arrangements integrity in place, as said above the Bachmann ploughs use the NEM socket and the Heljan ones are unusable without glueing if you cut out the middle.

Great update, the one thing I am left wondering is about the snowploughs which are referenced as 3 piece (obviously prototypical). However I’m wondering/hoping if these will have the option for ‘outers only’ for those that use couplings. I asked the same question of Accurascale for the 37’s and was delighted to get the response that both full 3 piece and outers only would be supplied. There’s almost nothing more frustrating or worse looking on a Scottish loco to have to choose between snowplough and couplings when it should be feasible to have both. Fingers crossed. Also note to self re comments about maintaining prices, I must get round to updating my pre order to Sound.

Thanks, I wasn’t sure where it sat in the minefield of variants! I probably need to stop being so pedantic about dates and just run under an 84/5 banner. Now, just need those Centre Headcode 37/0’s with car lights that they are going to announce!!!

There are a few that do overlap just not many, The thing is I have 043 on order and I think that was mid 85 into LL. I have wondered about renumbering it to 081 which I think went LL in mid/late 84 but not sure I’m brave enough. There’s also the option of trying to get the white stripe off and having plain blue with headlight but not sure how easy that will be either.

It’s amazing when you look back how short those time frames actually were but seemed like forever at the time. 83 to 84 white stripe late 84/early 85 to early 86 large logo Early 86 de named as 37/4s took over 86/7 generally gone or converted to 37/5 or 7. All that in basically 4 years, I’ve been trying to work out how to run a white stripe with a large logo and it’s almost impossible yet only 12 months covers the period. However if you run a 12-18 month sequence you can buy loads!

Realism to the end, everyone is in a happy place then signal sighting gets mentioned and puts a downer on everything!! 😯😯

More like these I was thinking

As your putting in such a great effort on the car headlight, some centre headcode Scottish variants to keep the split box ones company would go down well and never done since Lima days.