31B

Thanks for the reply John. Much appreciated. 👍

Thanks for the reply Paul. It's looking good! I especially like the point rodding.

I've already laid some track with closer centres, but am yet to tackle any points. I think I just need to get on and give it a go.

Hi Andy, how did you get on with reducing the track centres in the end?

23 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

Sadly there aren't any of the Gresley "shorty" 52" 6' vestibuled coaches available in RTR, which would have been around in your time period.

 

So it's kits for these, brass from MJT(?), plastic from Kirk, or 3-D print from Isinglass. Someone has now bought the Kirk range, but these tend to come up on ebay as well.

 

John.

Thanks for that John.

How prevalent were the shorter Gresleys compared to the longer 61'6" carriages?

Are there any rough guidelines of when the shorter stock would be used?

20 hours ago, giz said:

The most obvious missing RTR coach for the GE section in this period is the dia 265 lavatory third, of which 79 were built just before the war. They were 54ft long steel clad with 8 compartments, a lavatory and a side corridor but no gangways. I don't even think a full kit has ever been available although Mousa Models did brass sides only.

Ah yes, good shout. The carriage workings I've been looking at have a lot of TLs, but I'll just need to use straight thirds for now until someone does produce one.

7 hours ago, stewartingram said:

I've ridden in a mK1 non-corridor BR coach from March-Ely, around 1966. I can't remember what the other coaches were, nor how many. At the time I was quite chuffed to see it and jumped at the chance to ride in it. Most local services were dmu anyway. I'm pretty sure it was a full 3rd coach.

Great stuff Stewart. 🙂

8 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

The Gresley and Thompson types available from Hornby were secondary service stock; rather than inner suburban stock for which at the southern end of the LNER there were articulated high capacity sets, see below*. Otherwise it is kits at present, other than the dated BR mk1s from Bachmann.

Coming soon:

*The very very exciting announcement of (GNR/LNER) Quad Arts from Ellis Clark.

BR mk1s, from Accurascale, with the very necessary lav compo in addition to BS and S.

Thanks for clarifying, that's put my mind at ease. 

I was aware of the new quad arts coming, but not the mk1s. I'm sure they'll be lovely models but I haven't found any evidence of the quad arts through March in the carriage working diagrams. I'm sure the mk1s will be useful though so I'll get an order in.

Thanks for your help 👍

Hi all,

I'm modelling March Cambridgeshire in mid 50s, and was wondering what RTR non vestibule stock is suitable. I have Thompson and Gresley suburban coaches, but I'm not sure if they only worked on suburban services. If so what other RTR non vestibule Eastern stock is there?

The Hornby store is now showing the dongles as in stock.

Has anyone enquired about the price at all?

Good update Jesse, looks like it's coming on in leaps and bounds. You'll be all done by the end of the Aussie winter!

Glad to hear it all went well Jessie. I've been enjoying seeing your updates and photos. Keep up the good work!

I saw in the latest model rail that they noted the j70 as due soon. Any more news or updates Rapido Bill?

Good luck! ☺️

I'm definitely happy. Peco will be getting some more of my money when the new additions to the range are released. My layout design was anticipating them also releasing crossings, slips, the medium and curved turnouts. If they follow through on the latest announcements then I should have everything I need in lovely bullhead rail, so I'm a happy boy. ☺️

Great stuff! Keep up the good work Alan!

So after placing a pre-order for 3 of each of the new points last month, today I finally received these -

I'll be honest, they're not as good as I was hoping! Now I just hope they have enough still in stock to fulfill what I actually ordered!

I'm relatively new to the hobby, and have spent a long time planning a steam era layout whilst I slowly convert the loft.

I knew absolutely nothing about the different types of track before reading about it on rmweb. I would have probably been happy using set track. However now I know the difference I decided to opt for the new peco bullhead for my layout. I bought a box of flexi track the other month and have ordered 6 points.

I will be taking my time with my layout and see it as a long-term project to last many years, so I'm hoping Peco do expand the range and I'm happy to wait for them to do so. I'd quite like some crossovers next.

I won't have the skill or free time for building points and would prefer to focus my attention on other aspects of the hobby.

I've read comments describing Peco's bullhead range as niche, but if they can offer a full range I'd hope there are others in a similar situation to myself that it would appeal to.

Hattons now have the bullhead points for preorder at £26.

Gaugemaster, Peters Spares and Osbournby Models all have prices listed now too.

In the interests of moving the conversation on, I'd like to know what people think Peco will focus on next (assuming they don't decide to add a pair of xl points to the range...

Model Railways Direct have them listed at the £32.50 rrp discounted to £27.63.

https://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/track/peco-sl-u1188-large-radius-right-hand-turnout-bullhead-track-unifrog/

It looks good to me, it would be nice to get some feedback from anyone going to Swindon and seeing it in the flesh though.

For me, two points is better than no points, and I'm happy to wait for the range to expand.

We just need to wait for the price now...