simon b

That's coming together very well, are you having platform access from street level?

Sadly work commitments meant I couldn't attend this year, but it looks to have been a great show. Could anyone help me with the name of london underground cameo layout, near to the Double o gauge association stand please? Just caught a glimpse of it in a show video.

Thank you for posting those pics, several internet searches for pics of the blue units were not bearing any fruit. At least the masking job will be simple to do, the side of the cab has no raised detail where the join is. I'm nearly ready to make a start on the motor cars, the kirk maunsell coach kits and sliver fox Pul cabs are here. I'm Just waiting for the Hornby 5BEL chassis and bogies to arrive, which I think will need some surgery to shorten a little.

Thanks for the info, you wouldn't happen to know how far around the sides of the cab the yellow was? I'm guessing the cab door was blue, but the cabside itself was yellow?

Would be great if the old track could be taken to Risborough to help with the independent line project, that worked well during the Aylesbury branch work last year.

The top level being on a shuttle is a good idea, just sit back and watch between shunting the lower level. Would the C&NW have any commuter operations into the 90's, or would it all be Metra by then? I've been collecting stock to build something similar, though set in the late 60's with New haven and Penn central trains.

Ordered some Hornby 5BEL motorized chassis, they will need to be shortened and widened slightly but are a close match for the PUL motor cars.

In that case swap it for a single slip, otherwise it will bug you later.

Was the line that reaches the right side of the board a through line? If it was through running line a single slip would be preferred, but not essential.

Platforms looking good, are you going for 3 coaches long? I'm not too familiar with the routes that pass by the chocolate factory site, but would this line have seen a Metra e8 or f40c?

The rest of the bogies are white metal sides glued to a plastic center, not a great idea and prone to bits falling of it seems. I've got a Triang dummy DMU bogie that has pickups for the headcode lights that model had, that can go at the inner end of the power car, then normal coach bogies for the rest of the cars. It's a bit of a crude setup compared to bogies we have on offer now , but then so is the model they are attached to!

So the other bogies arrived yesterday, one complete dock shunter chassis and a spare dmu casting. Last night I just swapped the wheels over to see how it looks and the result is definitely an improvement, it now sits level rather than nose down. Here's a before and after comparison, still not perfect but it's level. I'll try the other bogie casting incase this one does have wear in it, and turn down the wheel flanges while it's in bits.

Love it, will be following this with interest as North American comutter operations are rarely modeled. Are you going to use the walthers high level station on the upper level, or yet to be decided?

That's great news, long live the Hattons name.

That is pretty much what I plan to do to create the PUL. I managed to get hold of a few open third and brake third kits on the cheap, so hopefully they can be cut and shut into something passable. Use the window sections from the open coach with the doors from the brake coach, silver fox cab on the front. Then sit the lot on a Hornby 2bil chassis with the trussing removed. I thought in might be possible to bash a PAN using a Maunsell dining saloon, or sections from a 5BEL.

Thank you for the info gents, very helpful. I was joking earlier about br blue being a step too far, I had not expected that 2 of them had actually been repainted into it! Now that I know such a thing existed it has to be one of those. Looking through the details on the blood and custard site, I think it's going to be unit 3042. That was made up from ex PUL motor cars with the lower height windows, which will be a slightly easier job to kitbash out of the parts available. A PAN motor car like in 3045 would be more expensive to do in order to get enough high windows. I won't be going for 100% accuracy as that is a bit beyond my skills, but a cut and shut of Ian kirk parts should get something that looks close enough.

Hi all. I quite fancy kitbashing a pair of 6PAN/PUL motor cars, the plan being to eventually create a late 60's 6COR. Now I've seen pictures of these units in green with a small yellow warning panel, but did any of them go "Full Custard" and gain a full yellow front? BR blue would be a step too far, but I'd like to model them in final reformed condition prior to withdrawal in 1968.

It doesn't look right does it? It is pure triang, the sideframes are part of the casting. The weird thing is that it runs perfectly, it has pickups on all 8 wheels and can crawl quite nicely. I've got a complete dock shunter motor bogie coming fitted with smooth 14/15mm wheels, there should also be a new dmu bogie casting to go with it. That should allow me to build up a good one and get the thing to sit level. I'll probably replace the other bogies for Hornby items, the MTK sideframes are starting to warp so the axles are getting a lose fit.

T stock were always brown as far as I have seen. The closest thing I can think of was seeing a red end on a Dreadnought brake coach once.

That's great news, a permanent home opens up more opportunity's for the club. And they couldn't of picked a better site, it's only 5 mins from my house!

That's good info, thanks. This one doesn't sound that noisy but then it does have the old serrated wheels fitted, there is no obvious excess axle movement but difficult to tell without striping it down. I've got another motor bogie with the correct size of wheel coming, so will use the best parts out of the pair when I reassemble it. I could in theory shim the axles in the housing if there is wear in it. I'm not going to go to mad on upgrades as it is lacking alot of detail compared to the Bachmann version, but for the price it was worth buying.

Afraid not. The power bogie wheels are that small when it sits on the track, it looks like it's running along on the bottom of the axle boxes! This pic should show what I mean.

I had a look into that. The wheels are a little finer, but the axle and gear are a plastic version with a different number of teeth. It might be possible to swap the wheels itself but you would need to use a bush on the axle. Hopefully I've got a solution now. I've just bought a spare motor bogie which has the smooth larger wheels fitted, so a bit of mix and match of the parts and a quick file down of the flanges should sort it out.

They might be 14mm, the bogies are white metal parts glued together so I didnt want to try removing one at the moment to measure properly. In time I'll probably swap all the bogies out for something better, but for now I just want the motor car to sit level on code 75.

Thanks, but I need to go with bigger wheels. The motor bogie wheels look to be 11 or 12mm, so look very undersize compared to the rest at 15mm. I did read that the triang class 81 was fitted with larger wheels so perhaps that's a solution?