Signaller69

Still on the subject of class 25s I'm looking to improve an elderly Bachmann 25/3 in the near future. This was bought cheaply, initially to donate its chassis to my remaining (unpowered) Hornby 29 conversion, but then I thought about just doing a quick renumber.....silly boy. Although some of the later body style were initially allocated to Scotland from new, they quickly migrated south so were not widely seen on internal duties during my preferred period (1969-72), so it will have to be an interloper. Although mechanically much superior to the Hornby model, the biggest let down as with the latter, is the underframe moulding, which is a work of fiction and simply isn't there in anything like the manner depicted on the model. This also seriously compromises the rather flat battery box area (which appears to be half a class 24, with a 25 style boiler tank added - itself only fitted to a handful of the later style 25s, with most having a void in this area). Unlike the Hornby loco, it is not possible (or desirable) to lower the body on the chassis; helpfully, the underframe moulding apears simply secured to the metal chassis with a few small screws, so my thinking is that when the time comes, the bogies will be removed and it will come off to be replaced by a new plasticard base, with appropriate bits of the Bachy moulding cut off and added to this, plus a resin casting for the battery boxes/ fuel tank area. Of course, this idea is a good 10 years too late really, with a definitive 25/3 model coming from SLW and Heljan also doing a superb model, so there is no real need for such work, unless you are working to a budget (like me) and like a modelling challenge. And if it all goes wrong, the 29 still needs a chassis!

At the risk of slight repetition, the current Hornby 25 conversion (no.4 of 6) is slowly progressing, it will become class 24 no.5098 in blue, as it was when it moved from Holbeck to Polmadie in 1971, and then to Eastfield in 1972 when Polmadie shed closed. Chosen mainly because at that time it had lost the lower bodyside skirts, and also I found an excellent 1971 photo of it! It has been lowered and the usual resin underframe tanks, bufferbeam fairings, exhaust panel, water filler hatches and cabside doors have been added. A full length water tank was fitted below the battery boxes on this loco so part of a short tank casting was cut off a spare and used to lengthen another casting, hence the grey filler visible. Next up is to sand off the cab front detail and fit revised parts, along with all the rest of the body detailing as per the other locos. Loco no.5 will be another more straightforward 25 in blue, probably as 5176 which was another Holbeck loco, but which moved straight to Eastfield in 1971.

Awaiting works attention.

Super work Ian, uncluttered and straightforward to follow track diagrams, point indicators etc, without the need for switches everywhere (unlike my DC layouts!). Very impressive. Martyn.

Isn't that what we all do?

Hi Brian, Thanks for your comments, please don't worry about hijacking the thread, it's all relevant stuff and the above solebar linkages are something I hope to get around to having another go at eventually in any case! Thanks, Martyn.

Thanks Steve, I have done nothing about the running gear as yet, but better wheels (and pickups) would certainly be a bonus. My plan is to run them in pairs with micro connectors between locos, which will hopefully cure any slow speed stalling. Given the decent overall body shape, it is certainly worth upgrading these old locos I feel; lowering the body on the chassis makes the biggest visible improvement I find. Martyn.

Thanks for that, do you know when they finished? Martyn.

The 25 has become the first of the three rats to be completed, largely thanks to having a set of SEF flush glaze to hand, with only the new cab doors having to have glazing hand cut to fit. BR blue Hornby 25 aficionados may note the familiar headcode blind at the No.2 end!

Hi Clive, Sad news, I wasn't aware of this. A very talented modeller whose posts will indeed be missed.

Looks an interesting project set during an interesting period so looking forward to further instalments! Martyn.

Hi Mark, Brian went into more detail than I did on my wagons and hopefully he will be along to give further info. I found on my wagons the area it runs along was too tight without a good deal of fettling so I've not bothered up to now. Basically the linkage was only on the one side and connected a brake operating linkage at the vac cylinders end to a similar linkage at the other end as there was no room for it elsewhere presumably. This Paul Bartlett photo shows it quite well: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brtgraincovhop/h30ca39e2 The corresponding area on the other side carried the vacuum brake pipe around the hopper; other photos on Paul's site show this too. Hope this helps. Martyn.

Thanks Ian, funnily enough I was originally thinking of doing one or maybe two in 'in works' condition, possibly minus a cab (and sheeted over with a tarpaulin) or missing roof hatches/ side vents/ undergubbins etc and with patchy paintwork. As it seems to have taken forever to do the first three "runners" it is still a tempting thought! Martyn.

The 25/1 is now up the same stage as the 24 and 25/0 and all 3 have had some weathering applied based on their respective photos, prior to some further work with powders and a further coat of varnish. (Yes, the 24 still needs its cab door handrails adding!)

Thanks for that, I didn't consider florists wire.

Thanks Ben, there were indeed several MOD depots served by the DVLR (including mustard gas and the Northern Command Fuel Depot) but the flour story is a new one on me! Hi Gibbo, The clingfilm wrap was an experiment to see if it worked, as the moulded resin stacks looked like they should be wrapped. It would be fairly easy to remove it, cut a smaller piece to fit and leave the top more correctly open, but at the moment I can't be bothered if I'm honest. It's good that the whole shrink wrap thing has been noticed in relation to the layout's timeframe etc, you lot clearly have an eye for accuracy! Thanks, Martyn.

Hi Paul, apparently stretch wrap has been around since the 60s (in terms of bulk quantity pallet loads which went hand in hand with Supermarket warehouses etc) and was further refined in the early 70s. In terms of UK use I really don't know how widespread it's use was, but I expect loads needing protection from moisture etc (eg bagged sugar and grain) were amongst the first users. It may well be a little out of place in my setting I admit! Thanks, Martyn.

Hi Paul, Yes that would work equally well I'm sure, although the cable ties were handy at the time. I guess any reasonably strong but flexible wire would do the trick. I agree it becomes a lot easier if you can fit the wire to the vehicle and then thread it down through the holes! Thanks, Martyn.

Even fairly simple jobs seem to take a while to get done lately it seems. The AEC flatbed has now been semi-permanently fixed to the layout via the aforementioned small cable ties (the smallest ones in a Poundland pack), via a pair of small holes drilled through the baseboard to each of 2 axles. It was a bit fiddly pushing the cable tie up from underneath the layout, whilst holding the vehicle in place and also persuading it to go around the mud Guard either side of each axle and back down through the second hole, but we got there in the end and it is now firmly in place. From a low angle you can just see a small part of one cable tie behind a wheel, but on the whole it is invisible, moreso than some sort of screw fixing would have been, I think. I shall probably use this system again in future.

In between Class 25 jobs I have been sourcing images of the class 122 (& parcels class 131 conversions) which worked in Scotland in the late 60s/ early 70s, for another project, when I found this image on the Railcar site: https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/3641 Allegedly c.1969 at Kilmarnock according to the caption, with 3 different liveries (Sc55011 blue with full yellow ends, Sc55013 in green with small yellow panel and Sc55000 in blue with small yellow panel) but what surprised me at this date was the Mk.1 Suburban stock in lined Maroon also in the Bay platform, which I had been led to believe was all long gone from Scotland by this point in time? Could they have been withdrawn or in process of being transferred? In any case it is fitting these single units at the time were working the Kilmarnock to Ayr route where they had seen off the earlier 4w Railbuses.

Hi James, I had the same issue with the bar dropping over the notifications, seemingly without any way of removing it unless you left the page and went back in, and if I was quick I could hit the notifications before it crept back down over them! I don't really want to download an add blocking app if its avoidable, as it's only RMweb I have this issue with? The whole ads issue is spoiling it somewhat I agree. Thanks all for your comments too, glad I'm not the only one it is annoying!

Further to the pop up adds mystery, it is confirmed as purely an RMweb thing: "Non-Gold users will see a video pop-up ad on most screens. This is a test. It should not appear on mobiles etc." They appear random (so far) rather than targeted - as I often get the Bentley and pipe welding equipment ones, but saying it is a test does suggest this method of advertising roll out is under consideration. And as I only use RMweb on my mobile, I can only say I do still get them.

Most of the low grass bank was removed, a short piece of wooden retaining wall added to the remaining bit and the hard standing touched up before adding the pallets along the backscene. before: After: If anything it looks a little more open now than before I think.

Hi John, I think you might be right about today's strippers being less potent! I'm guessing some of the more noxious ingredients will have been removed from modern stuff. Nitromors used to work well on metal items, but I've not used any for years (I know someone who used it to strip a repainted plastic Lima O Gauge 4F loco; it didn't end too well, but did get salvaged eventually - once the plastic had hardened again from a horrible sticky mess!) I like what you are doing with the bus though, it's great when you can make a "wreck" into something pleasing. I'm looking for a Glasgow bus in c.1970 condition, EFE have done a couple over the years but they are thin on the ground so I may have to take a similar approach to yours and repaint a Fleetline or another suitable type. Martyn.

Dunnington has been set up again to carry out a few more small jobs. One of which is to add some more palletised grain sacks. These differ from the previous batch in being slightly taller and made to look like they have been shrink wrapped on the pallet to keep the load stable and protected from the elements. The master was made from Milliput, which was then used to make a silicone mould for casting resin copies. Once they were sprayed (blue this time, for variety!) they were attached to Peco pallets and wrapped in a single piece of cling film, carefully pressed into place. I think they look the part quite well. I'm not 100% certain where they will go yet, but possibly to the left of the Grain Driers buildings, where a small grass bank against the backscene may be cut back so they can fit clear of the siding. I also want to to fix a couple more vehicles in place (as I dislike finding somewhere for packing them away each time the layout is put away), but not too permanently - a dab of super glue or UHU will suffice for the smaller plastic ones, but something a bit heavier duty is needed for the heavy EFE 8w lorry so I'm thinking of drilling a couple of small holes through the baseboard (behind wheels) and securing it in place using small cable ties threaded around a couple of axles, more or less in the position seen here: If it needs to come off it is just a matter of snipping the cable ties under the baseboard. I might even run some trains too! Martyn.