turbos

The MDV were used in Fife on Westfield - Thornton - Methil Power Station workings in the mid 1980s usually worked by a Class 20, 26 or 27 off Thornton. I’m gonna need a good few of the Tops MDV. If you want to renumber, Railtec recently produced decals for the MDV covering all periods and Cambridge Custom Transfers also do a sheet of decals for them as built. Brian.

I have a happy memory of sitting in the front saloon in an all over blue one going from Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central via Shotts in the mid to late 1980s. It was a semi-fast service after Shotts, the expression on passengers faces on the stations it didn’t stop at as this manky, rattling bog cart came hurtling past was priceless, as they waited for the comparatively silent and smooth class 303 on the local service. An all over blue one for me! Brian.

A lot of info on the introduction of the Class 126 on Stranraer services can be found here https://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-126/operations . Brian.

The correct terms are DMBS(L) and DMS(I), L for leading and I for intermediate. There was also a DMBS(I) in the 79xxx series, some of which were allocated to Ayr at various times. I look forward to your build of a Class 126. I too have one on my to do list and have been collecting the various bits required. Brian.

Railtec now produce transfers for the 21 ton mineral MDV including the later boxed style of numbers - Item no. 6943. I’ve no relationship with Railtec other than a satisfied customer. Brian.

I put my order in for these yesterday, I guess I got lucky happening to check the Railtec website shortly after they were made available, propels those Five79 21t MDV kits up my ‘to do list’!

I think all the painted samples look fantastic, I’m very happy I have an As Built Light Blue on order. I might buy a BR black one to run on my club’s layout as well, but money is always the problem. I must get on with building some coaches to go with it. Brian.

There’s also the trailers to make 5 coach rakes still to be done so as a percentage I think it’s just over 72% complete. Brian.

HA21 (they’ve been renumbered to match the 40xxx trailers since my last post) is now on its way to ScotRail from Doncaster, this means 21 out of 24 four car rakes delivered. Wabtec have again failed to meet the August deadline they set themselves for completing the four car rakes. There’s still a long way to go with this project, I don’t see it being completed until well into 2021, the Stonehaven (Carmont) accident right-off replacement rake adding to the completion time scale as well. Brian.

It is with great sadness that I inform you that Jonathan Redshaw (Jono26 on RMWeb) died suddenly at his home, near Inverurie, on Thursday 27th of August. Jon had two threads on RMWeb that he regularly updated ‘ScotRail 1987/88 Workbench’ and ‘Finnsbay Late 80s ScotRail’. I first met Jon about 10 years ago as both our wives had attended university together and they have remained good friends since. Around that time, we were both getting back into model railways, so an instant friendship developed between us as every year we attended Glasgow and Perth exhibitions together while our wives met up in the city centre. Last year the pair of us finally got round to attending Warley. Although he was originally from Ossett in Yorkshire, Jon’s model railway interest focused on the ScotRail 1987/88 period, loosely based on Aberdeen Station and Clayhills Depot, as he’d known it when he started work in the oil industry. The Aberdeen Kirkhill layout was a big inspiration for his ‘Finnsbay’ layout. Sadly, ‘Finnsbay’ in its current unfinished form, will be its final form. We have been invited up later in the year so I will hopefully be given the opportunity to take some pictures of ‘Finnsbay’, and I will put them up on his thread. Jon is survived by his wife Sue, and son Thomas. Brian Smith.

Like Eddie R, I hadn’t noticed, but I’m a bit face blind when it comes to 47’s. Nice work nonetheless. Brian.

Three MDV’s arrived this week, they’ll look great amongst my other mineral wagons. Brian.

Here’s a picture of my attempt at a reworking a ‘Whisky Blue’, inspired by the one you did on page 1 of this thread. Brian.

I think 27/2’s had enough bits working loose on their bogies in T ‘n’ T days without needing more unnecessary clutter to do the same. Their later life was clearly much less strenuous.

One more thing to remember is that Class 26/0 (the ones with the full length cantrail grills) didn’t have snowplough brackets and push pull Class 27 didn’t carry snowploughs either. A few locos fitted with ploughs looks good, fitting all locos is a bit ott. Brian.

Ofcourse what was originally planned with these 153 units and how they are initially and eventually used is all ‘up in the air’ due to the continuing lockdown in Scotland, the only thing that is certain is they will be used on the WHL. Brian.

More trains on the Glasgow to Crianlarich section, 4 coach trains to Oban and 5 coach trains to Fort Bill in the Summer peak. It had become a serious problem at Oban with overloaded trains and passengers regularly being left behind and no capacity for strengthening, bikes and luggage (backpacks in particular for west highland way walkers) were an issue on the Fort Bill trains. Adding a 7th vehicle to Glasgow - WHL trains would've caused operational problems. Whether the southern section of the WHL has the resilience to deal with an increase in trains is another matter. Brian.

What you’ve overlooked is the recast of the WHL timetable, the 153 was not planned to be used in trains joining and splitting at Crianlarich. The recast aim was to mainly operate the Oban trains and Fort Bill trains separately to overcome severe overcrowding of Oban trains and a lack of sports equipment space on Fort Bills. Brian.

The plan for these 153 units is to have flexible space for 20 bicycles or winter sports equipment and a small seating area with some large luggage racks. The cabs will be retained but are not planned to be used much as the 153 should be marshalled between a pair of 156 units. All part of a recast of the WHL diagrams and timetable. Brian.

The Bo’ness TMD Facebook page has put up an album of their Class 126 today, it was supposed to get a few runs this weekend as part of their Cancelled Diesel Gala. Some good detail pictures of the unit in the album. Brian.

Silver Fox have done a kit for a Class 126 and a 79xxx i/c, although It’s not on their website they very occasionally appear in their EBay shop. Brian.

Further to my earlier a reply, here is a pic that hopefully explains it better. The top coach is a Bachmann Mk1 TSO, the drawing is a 4mm scale drawing of a Class 126 iDMSL and the coach side is from a Trix Mk1 RMB. Brian.

The underscale (3.8mmish) Trix Mk1 has the correct window spacing for a 4mm Class126, other makes of Mk1 coaches have the correct window spacing for Mk1 coaches. The Class 126 (and 79xxx Swindon inter city) had compressed window spacing. A cab, 8 bays of seats, 3 vestibules and toilets were all fitted on a 63’ underframe for an iDMSL for example. Hope that helps. Brian.