anroar53

7 hours ago, Strathwood said:

Like both the DMUs in the shot At the north end of Watford. How about some more shots and details, please?

 

Kevin

The class 117 is a B H Enterprise kit, which had brass sides and cast white metal ends. In this case instead of building the body kit I modified some old Minitrix Mark 1s, shortening the bodies and filing the ends off before fitting the cast ends. It is powered by a Greenmax chassis in the centre coach

 

The Derby Lightweight 2-car unit was a Worsley Works kit with brass sides and ends, built around a B H Enterprises body kit. It is powered by a Farish class 87 chassis.

 

A pair of Cravens 2 car 105s, both Worsley Works kits, powered by a Farish Class 87 chassis.

 

A Cravens DPU, a B H Enterprise kit on a Farish class 87 chassis.

 

A Worsley Works class 127 kit adapted onto some old Minitrix Mark 1s. The ends were brass sheet and a little tricky to bend into shape, but worth the effort. Powered by a Tomix chassis in one of the centre cars.

 

Derby Lightweight Single car DMU. Worsley Works kit powered by an old Farish DMU Motor bogie.

 

Class 120 Cross Country set. B H Enterprise kit adapted onto old Minitrix Mark 1 coaches, powered by a Greenmax chassis.

 

Class 116. B H Enterprises kit on old Minitrix Mark 1 coaches, powered by a Greenmax chassis

Thank you for that compliment Dave. Have tried to make possibly my last layout as good as I was able to produce. (Not that there's anything medically wrong with me, but at this stage in life it might be optimistic to think I could stretch to another ten years to make another )

 

Andy. 

1 hour ago, PaternosterRow said:

You know a lot has been said about the late Rev Denny and his Buckingham layout, but every once in a while you come across a modeler who is every bit as good as he was.  You have scratch built an entire fleet of WCML locos, built a masterful layout and wired it up like a real railway.  Totally blown away by all this.  You need to write a book with some beautiful double spread photos.  I’d be the first in the queue for it.  Really inspirational stuff. Mike

Once again, many, many, thanks for that compliment. A lot more photos at https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastSouthernSection/    plus I have been adding a number of tales from the period depicted which eventually inspired me to build the layout many years later.

1 hour ago, PaternosterRow said:

OMG you are a real genius.  That wiring and control board looks like it took a team of NASA engineers to construct!  Brilliant stuff.  Need to see a book about how you put all this together.  Really inspirational stuff and it’s so good for the rest of us to be put in our place by an expert modeler and engineer from time to time.     Mike.

Thank you for those very kind words.

 

Andy.

YouTube videos available at 

The others can be found in the same grouping.

It has appeared in Model Rail October 2017, and Hornby Magazine November 2018. It is also likely to appear in Traction Magazine later this year.

Also at :- https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastSouthernSection/?ref=profile_intro_card

 

Andy.

 

Travelled to/from Harrow quite a bit 1974-8, tried to recreate the scene mostly from photos and a sketchy memory.

A lot of the early photos can be found at https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastSouthernSection/ or 

Thanks Jeremy. I never let non-availability stand in my way. If I couldn't get it I made it. I scratchbuilt a 45 on a modified Arnold chassis 50 years ago which started it all off. Fortunately there are no surviving photos of my first effort! But down the years I like to think I got better at it :0)

 

Andy.

Hi Andy,

 

Reallly like the EMU's and you've almost convinced me to scratch build a 310 for my layout!

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy,

I know it's probably too late to be much use I don't know if you saw the line diagram of Euston I posted on the 'Unusual Diversions' thread?

 

Andy.

Amazing workmanship! The 310 looks particularly impressive - especially the hand cut windows. Was there any particular trick to painting the silver frames?

The only real trick was to use a very, very small brush, and just use a sparing amount of silver paint. Also wiping the brush frequently on a piece of tissue to avoid getting any blobs building up in the bristles.

 

Andy.

Wow! Wish my wiring was that neat and tidy!

 

Andy.

Glad you liked it.

I'm just sorting out some images of the construction of the EMUs. I'll post these up soon. The pictures have had to be scanned again as the original image/photos have been misplaced. Hopefully they will be good enough to show how the stock was made.

 

Andy.

Thank you Jeremy,

 

Just as an aside I saw your question on weed killing trains at Euston. Although it's a bit out of your time slot I used to work at Euston PSB 1973-77 and can remember 6Z07 appearing one night. It came up the DC Line to the station, propelled onto the Backing out Roads, ran round (Top n tail wasn't widespread then), then went direct to Camden and back down the DC Line. The view from the Box windows were a bit impaired by the Parcel Dock canopy, but it was hauled by a 25 and the train, if I remember, was made up of several tank wagons sandwiched between a couple of converted Southern PMVs and a staff accommodation coach, possibly Mark 1. I don't know if it was spraying at the time, I suspect it was only covering the DC Lines from South Hampstead.

Moving on I do have a few, not too good pictures, of the Weedkilling train around 1989. At this time it was top n tailed by a pair of 20s 20901 and 20904, both in grey with Hunslet-Barclay branding. The pictures of the train were not so good as I only had an ancient 'wind on' camera and missed bits! In this case there were four tank wagons at one end with the converted PMVs and a couple of accommodation vehicles at the other. This train roamed all over the different regions, so it might have turned up at Euston?

 

Andy.

The class 84 was built around a Minitrix Class 27 chassis, but with Minitrix Class 42 Warship bogies. This example was built with 1mm plasticard for the sides and ends, although the cab front windows and side windows were made in slightly thinner plasticard  recessed into the body and front. The windows were drilled out with a small drill and needle filed to finish, as was the route indicator box. The body side windows had a piece of single core wire positioned across them as the divider. The bodyside grills in the other side were made by drilling out the openings, then using some P &D Marsh whitemetal corrugated sheeting inserted into the hole, The cab roof was made with some off cuts of carriage roof with a lot of body putty at the front end sanded to shape. The pantograph was a Sommerfeldt one, the air tanks were some bits of plastic tube, and various odds and ends of plasticard and balsa cut down for the other roof clutter, plus some Sommerfeldt insulators..

I found an easier way to build the body later on. I had used a lot of Farish 87s where I used the chassis to power a number of DMU/EMUs. Taking the leftover bodyshell I shortened them to the right length, replaced the nose ends in plasticard so they could be better profiled (filed and sanded), filled in the side details, then drilled out the various windows and grills as before.

I will have to dig out some of the work in progress photos.

Andy.