Signaller69

Yes indeed Jim..... Edit: Although I should point out that 5 Lima 117 cars donated their chassis to 126 cars, 3 bodies were sold off complete, the other 2 bodies donated their cab ends to the 107 and their roofs to the class 100, leaving just the sides which will be kept to donate doors to a 131 hopefully...

A spot of testing happened today, ready for Alsager show. An intermittent frog switch on a Seep point motor was attended to by moving it sideways (the point throw pin was off vertical, thus sometimes lifting the small sprung washer which acts as the contact, out of contact with the PCB - positioning is critical with these motors I find). Subsequent testing has been 100% succesful, so far! A couple more agricultural items were fixed in place, along with a short section of missing fence next to Highlight Engineering's workshop (see photos). A few more small jobs to do yet (scenic as well as functional) along with stock testing etc.

Progressing well, decals applied and need to apply a coat of Matt varnish before refitting the cab windows, and also make new exhaust pipes for the van cab end. And remove the couplings and fabricate buffer beam pipework....

Thanks for the invitation Benjamin. Looking forward to bringing Dunnington to the show. Martyn.

Dunnington will be attending the Alsager show next Saturday (27th November 2021), please do say hello if you are visiting. Further info here:

Interesting regarding Lima changing the 117 moulds, from the perspective of the time, such a shame the model was effectively lost from the point they altered the moulds for the 121. The ScR 122's seem also to have been used in some of their infamous hybrid 3 car formations with various other units such as this: https://railcar.co.uk/images/18762 Or with other bubbles & trailers: https://railcar.co.uk/images/17668 From the Railcar photos 55007 seems to have been one which preferred it's own company much of the time, even working a BLS rail tour to Fraserburgh on its own in 1979: https://railcar.co.uk/images/5499

Crikey yes, as a teenager they were massively inspirational articles to me, possibly responsible for much of the ensuing butchery over the years!

The cab ends have had the various moulded handrails removed (there were none on the fronts of this 122 in any case, other than the long rainstrip to solebar handrail for the secondmans cab door) and spare 2 character indicators added, before being masked and resprayed. The cab glazing has had the printed destinations polished away and is ready for refitting once the cabs have been varnished. The insignia and unit number have also been removed ready for the new identity to be applied. Next up, the roof will be masked and resprayed. I have since discovered the original Lima class 121 was indeed flush glazed. One wonders if Lima had done another run of 117s prior to their demise, whether these would have been similarly treated? The joy of conjecture.....

Perhaps it was in departmental use as a temporary store at the station? Certainly several Gresley vehicles ended up in Breakdown Train use etc, but I've not seen any photos of such a vehicle in parcels use or in passenger trains around this time I must admit.

I guess it was aimed only at through passengers from Perth to points south of Glasgow, or vice versa, where the ticket presumably wouldn't specify Glasgow at all, and station staff in the Glasgow area (other than at Central perhaps) would have been none the wiser? Thanks, will give it a go!

Yes I saw the photos with the doors moved to the later position on one unit. In my case the 131 will have to wait unfortunately.

The exhausts and cab end glazing I did manage to remove, without issue thankfully. This will need the printed destination blinds removing via polishing (along with the current bodyside numbers & insignia which are located incorrectly for SC55007). The headcode boxes were carefully sawn away and destination boxes fabricated from plasticard, which were fitted after a small amount of filing and sanding of the hole in the roof. A small amount of Milliput was used to fill the remaining area and this will all be left to harden off overnight. As I had some Milliput left over, this was used to build the cab roofs further on the next 24, where I hadn't applied quite enough.

Another attempt at removing the glazing failed, the glue holding it in place being more resilient than the plastic as a test in the guards van area (out of view) revealed. Since the glazing cannot be removed, it can't be sprayed white (I don't want to brush paint it in situ), thus rendering a 131 conversion impractical on this particular vehicle. So I will take the simpler route on this occasion and do it as a class 122 instead, specifically as SC55007 which went to Hamilton in the late 60s (and moved subsequently as one of the first DMUs to be allocated to Eastfield) for use on local Glasgow services as per the notes here: https://railcar.co.uk/type/class-122/operations So its "ooorff with his head (code box)"!

Now that's an idea......! Cheers.

The first obstacle on the 131 conversion has been found; the rather nice flush glazing (probably the biggest single improvement over the Lima 117) is glued into place with copious amounts of very strong adhesive.... Forcibly removing it is almost certain to damage the glazing and/or body shell. My plan involves spraying the outside of the glazing white to simulate the treatment on the real thing, which obviously requires it to be removed, so this is a fairly major setback...... I may have to rethink this one....... It could just remain as a class 122 by replacing the headcode boxes with destination blinds of course, but I feel that would be a bit of a cop out!

Thanks Martin, yes the measurements look quite critical as the exhaust pipes are an important factor too. I'm just trying to work out, once the headcode boxes are sawn off, whether to build the roof profile first and fit the new box after, or make the box first and then use Milliput to sort the roof shape once it is fitted in place? As an aside I've only just noticed the Lima 117 body side detail looks better to my eye (door hinges, handrails etc), Hornby have made it more "low profile" picked out with silver paint, removed the door stops altogether and added beading around all the doors which the Lima 117 didn't have (nor the real thing as far as I can tell,) unless of course Lima made that change on their class 122, but I can't recall.

Hi James, I like what you are doing with the Mk.1s, nice work, the Lounge car is nice and different too. As you say it can be fun chopping them up to make something else. Moving the bogies inboard and lowering does indeed make a worthwhile improvement. My biggest bugbear with the old Triang/early Hornby versions is scraping off the horrible moulded paint dividing lines (for want of a better name) without shaving off door handles etc, it's something I still have not perfected! Nice work. Martyn.

As a break from Type 2's, I am wanting to tackle that most obscure of DMU types, the class 131 next. *Edit - Class 131 on hold for now as the following posts will explain, this unit will become a ScR class 122 instead.* Several class 122 Single Car units were transferred to the Edinburgh area in the late 60s, with some being designated for parcels traffic with passenger seating removed, windows whited out, with security mesh fitted internally and an extra door (to form double doors with an existing one) grafted into the Passenger compartment on each side, these units being reclassed as 131's. Not being in passenger use, they didn't get repainted during conversion it seems, with the reworked areas just getting painted whatever colour the unit was in at the time (hence at least one was green with yellow panels and another in blue with small yellow panels and white cab roof into 1971, whilst others were in plain blue with full yellow fronts. This could lead to interesting combinations as seen in the Railcar.co.uk photos here: https://railcar.co.uk/images/181 And here: https://railcar.co.uk/images/9894 This photo shows the modified area directly behind the nearest cab door (slightly different shade as noted), with the existing guards compartment double doors being used for unloading at the opposite end. On the opposite side the modified area was slightly further back from the cab. A Hornby Class 121 provides the starting point, along with some scrap sections of Lima 117 body sides to provide the extra doors. The headcode boxes will need removing and replacing with destination blinds too, which will probably be the most challenging aspect. Martyn. Edit: one for the coaching stock fans: whilst looking on the Railcar site, this photo of a standard 122 in Scottish use caught my eye for the Gresley Brake 3rd(?) it is buffered up against; it appears to have the passenger windows boarded over, so presumably in parcels use? Might make a nice unusual vehicle in a late 60s parcels train..... https://railcar.co.uk/images/108/?id=108

Hello David, I hope you are keeping well. Many thanks for the fascinating information, goes to show how easy it is to misinterpret a photo! I can't think of any other photo showing stacked pallets at Dunnington I have to say, evidently having been UNLOADED from the vans then, as it turns out; I now need to find/repaint a "Horsley Transport" lorry to take them away! A covered lorry as it's pallets perhaps? Your comment about the Pigeon Brake makes sense. I think any van train I run to represent this traffic will be limited to 6 or 7 vans by the sector plate length, so not having the brake would help! Much appreciated. Martyn.

Thanks for the photo, yes I believe you are correct, it does ring a bell that it was at Llan, converted to the "Sunshine Coach" as it was known at the time. Martyn.

Having put it off for too long, I have finally glazed the 24 and 25/0. Not that the poorly lit photos show it particularly well! Each piece was cut out and is held in place with a bead of satin varnish, it didn't take as long as I thought to be honest. The 25/0 had my last set of MJT Windscreen wipers fitted (severely cut down), more will be needed for the 24 and the 3 other locos "in works". So along with the other 25, the first 3 (of 6) class 25 conversions are more or less done thankfully. Couplings and wiring for the functional MW cables still need to be sorted out too.

Here's a photo of the real thing awaiting loading at Dunnington from 1975; https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3989&page=9975 Note the DVLR (ex LNER) Pigeon Brake at the rear of the train too.

I came to the same conclusion regarding the "wrapped" pallets probably being slightly too modern for my timescale, so they have been removed and replaced with more of the smaller stacked sack pallet resin castings, along with the toned down forklift truck. The bizarre "expanded" casting has been painted and placed next to a pallet with a part casting on, which will form the basis for a cameo with some loose grain sacks and the employee responsible for the damage restacking the pallet! I have some fine flock which will be added to the pallet to represent spilled grain. Thanks all for the input on the shrink wrapping too! Martyn.

Nice work with the Signalling equipment!

Many thanks for that.