turbos

Steam heating ‘officially’ ended on BR in 1987. AFAIK the last steam heated route was the Edinburgh to Dundee semi-fast service using vac braked Mk2s. Diesel locomotives with working steam heat boilers are very rare beasts these nowadays. Brian.

Close up photo a curtain fitted to the Swindon IC Class 126 at Bo’ness. Brian.

That nicely explains the raised ridge around the top layer of brinks on the single plank wagon. I’m glad I posted this video here as it’s created a lot more wider discussion than on a purely LNWR discussion thread. Those MR D299 do seem to appear everywhere, I must get round to building my Slaters kit! Brian.

This video appeared on another site I’m a member of, I hope it hasn’t appeared here before, the pre-group wagon(s) of interest are from 8:40. Brian. https://www.ampthill.tv/playvideo.html?id=94&fbclid=IwAR3eZd3oo2SmzR3lPCLlZFnI0z2UhhIrzBpa1gesRaXH8i5pKFLCL8hqur0

Apologies for restarting this dormant topic. The 17th and final ScotRail HST Inter7City '5th' Trailer Second left Doncaster on Monday the 1st of November. This finally completes the delivery of the ScotRail HST vehicles. The first set of vehicles were delivered on the 17th August 2018, the delivery progress rate of this project has been at best glaciel, and then it slowed even more! There's still a long way to go before the '5th' trailers are all in traffic due to incomplete infrastructure projects, but this does mark the completion of the vehicle delivery part of the project ( other than arising warranty work). Brian.

I’m definitely getting my pre ordered one, life is too short to get hacked off about wee details that I’ll no notice when it’s hauling my heavily rebuilt/bodged Triang coaches with tension lock couplings on incorrectly spaced rails on incorrectly spaced sleepers etc. I’m quite sure to my eyes it’ll look superb, but will I regret not upgrading to a sound version? Brian.

According to Casserley and Millard in ‘A Register of WCJS’, LNWR train heating experiments started in 1894 and was adopted for newly constructed suburban carriages in 1897. All WCJS coaches were to be fitted with train heat from March 1900, I’d expect LNWR stock would’ve started to be retrofitted around that time as well. The LNWR finally dispensed with footwarmers in 1916. Brian.

Hi Martyn and Mark, On my Whisky Blue, I used a mixture of brass and plasticard to replicate the above solebar details with cast white metal brake cylinders. I had to remove some of the plastic (that shouldn’t be there anyway) between the side bars and lower hopper above the solebar. The angled links at either end of the linkage are from brass signal components. I used the Triang wagon for my wee project, all of the rtr Whisky Blues have faults. Mark, PM me if you want more details so we don’t end up hijacking Martyn’s thread. Martyn, I really like what you’re doing to the Hornby 25s! Brian.

AFAIK in Scotland the MDV (and MDW as some had been air piped) that went to Mossend in the late 1980s were used on small flows of scrap metal for Ravenscraig, tripped to Mossend on Speedlink workings. Their 45MPH speed limit would cause timing issues if used on longer distance work. One irregular scrap metal flow was from Fort William, mostly filled with the metal bindings from wood pulp. Apparently on one occasion at Fort William an MDW did get mistakenly used for timber, but otherwise they were supposed to only be used for scrap metal at this late stage of their career in Scotland. Nice pics! Brian.

It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either, a few wee additions can improve it quite easily. As the original no longer exists all you can go by are the few photos and drawings that survive. Picture of my model with the CR 1900 Goods Album photo. Brian.

Personally I don’t think any of the Caledonian(esque) rtr rolling stock from the past will be good enough without some serious work done to it to look OK next to the forthcoming ‘812 Class’ release. Hopefully the Hattons ‘Genesis’ Caledonian coaches will look OK with an as built No.828 even if not exactly prototypical. All the later liveried versions have various choices of rtr rolling stock. More damage to my wallet! Brian.

It’s not just the roofs and ends that leave a lot to be desired, the underframe, bogies, vehicle height and no interior make for an underwhelming coach that neither looks like a Grampian or a 57 foot coach, even the bogie centres and are wrong for a Mk1. The sides and chassis are a good starting point for scratch building a Grampian coach, as I have done. The easiest and most realistic rake for the 00 gauge ‘812 Class’ is the Peco Parkside (Ratio) LMS wooden bodied bogie iron ore wagon. Although only one was built in the end, the Caley had originally ordered 100 and built the first 20 ‘812 Class’ with air brakes as they envisaged them hauling rakes of fully fitted bogie mineral wagons (they were well ahead of there time!). The official photo of the first built ‘812 Class’ has it coupled to the only wooden bodied bogie iron ore wagon. Brian.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the coaches sold in ‘The Caledonian’ train pack are the Triang Mk1 with ‘Grampian(esque)’ sides with a better paint job than the original release. It’s doubtful that Caledonian ‘No123’ ever hauled a rake ‘Grampian’ coaches. Racing single wheelers and heavyweight 12 wheelers don’t really go together. The so called ‘Caledonian 4 wheel coach’ is an S&DJR body on a crude brake van underframe. At least Hattons Genesis coaches are honest in not claiming to be actual models of anything, just nice ‘period coaches’ with excellently executed paintwork. They’ll look OK behind an ‘812 Class’. A fitted express freight or a rake of 45’ Caledonian coaches would be the most realistic type of train for a Caledonian liveried ‘812 Class’. Brian.

Mk1s and Mk2s were built vacuum braked only, although many were later fitted with air brakes. Mk2As were built air braked only from new but a few had vacuum brakes fitted later. Mk2b onwards were air braked only. I agree with Flood, as long as the coaches had the same type of brakes then any Mk could (and Mk1-3 did) work with any Mk. In theory a Mk5 could work with a pre-grouping coach! Brian.

The other differences are the roof vents, also there weren’t any Mk2b TSOT. Apparently the red stripe on CRM started to show through beneath the blue when it became very weather worn. I to have never seen CRM in its red stripe. Interesting pic! Brian.

The roof of a Mk2c has a very different arrangement, a Mk2d style large cover at one end and and roe-vac or GM roof vents. The sides of the first half or so built had the same toilet window as the Mk2b, the second half had Mk2d style toilet windows. The Mk2c TSO(T) used coaches with both types of toilet windows. An early style Mk2c TSO and TSO(T) can be made from a Mk2b if you remodel the roof. Brian.

Except for the Mk2c coaches that had the same toilet window as the Mk2b. It’s a complicated subject the Mk2c, the most obvious difference is the roof, more like a Mk2d but with a few vents which were a mixture of types, just to add to the complexity. These are probably some of the reasons there’s never been a ready - to - run Mk2c. Brian.

Thanks Fran! Nice pics, definitely a Mk2b in each of these pictures, though mostly 2a and 2c. Sadly outside my modelling period but good to see nonetheless. Brian.

As a few known typos crept into the P5 (as mentioned further up the thread), are there any photographs of a Mk2b on a normal service in Scotland? Brian.

No 5401 on the left is a Mk2a, the door is a big give away and also Mk2b are in the number range 5434 - 5497. I guess Mk2b weren’t quite as rare in Scotland in the late 1980s, which was also around the time when I had the usual teenage loss of interest in railways, not helped by ‘Sprinterisation’ either. Brian.

The Mk2b was exceedingly rare north of the border, I never saw one in normal service in Scotland. Saves me another small fortune but I’m really happy Accurascale are doing these as it will hopefully lead on to some Mk2c coaches. The Mk2c requuires the attention to detail Accurascale does, they’d be a waste of time for the likes of Hornby. Brian.

I’m fairly sure the the ‘812’ Class were all built with the round smoke box door handle, the official St. Rollox works portrait of lead locomotive No. 812 has the round handle. No. 828 was part of the air braked first batch of 20 built at St. Rollox. The picture you posted is No. 828 in a preserved condition. Brian.

The ScotRail 153 will operate on its own, but only ECS, mostly between Glasgow QS and Eastfield. Most model DMUs are sold without passengers onboard so are out of the box ECS ready! Brian.

And don’t forget the laser pen aimed at Kasper Schmeichel, an utter disgrace and an embarrassment for England.

I’m my opinion the best team in the tournament won it, I was impressed by the Italians in every game I saw them in. Pierlinni was the player of the tournament for me. There could be some major ramifications for the FA as some of England’s so called ‘fans’ let their nation down badly again. Brian.