PETER290774

Looking forward to a 117 from Farish too. In the meantime I've been doing a spot of cut and shuts with various Dapol 121/122's and BH Enterprises parts. Some alternative uses for a Farish 117? Class 127 Parcels Twin and the South Yorkshire PTE 114. Fancy a 117 in the white with blue stripe livery. ....

Hi Looking at doing this very project with the aim of creating the GWR 150 chocolate and cream 117, with similar components. Initial thoughts are: 1. The weak point of the whole project as I see it is that the Dapol 121/122 really doesn't like being taken apart and is extremely fragile and frail. The impression I've got is one false move and £100 goes down the drain.. If you're happy taking it apart and getting to go back together with all the lights and the motor working then fair enough. When I do this, I'm tempted to leave the bogies on both vehicles and glue each vehicle into a cradle like device so that the bogies dangle below but the body is clamped tight and can be worked on. I've found that the brass contacts which the bogies match up with, if you've removed the bogies bend very easily out of true, at the least I would recommend protecting them in some way (sellotape?) or if you are confident in taking them off and putting then back on, then at least it keeps them out of harm's way. 2. I would be tempted to sand down the sides on the Dapol bodyshells and glue the side etches over them, and also paint them before gluing them on (and re-use what Dapol glazing you can). The handrail at the front would hide the join and mask the slight overlap. 3. The 121 cab cuts off easily enough (I've dissected a non-power 122). The cab end fits nicely onto the Farish mark one, but the side height of the mark 1 is half to a full millimeter too high for the 1950's 116-119 style DMU's sides. Sand it down carefully and with the Worsley sides glued over it would work fine. 4. You could even get away with using three Farish mark ones with the painted removed with brake/clutch fluid/Brasso, with the Worsley sides and the Dapol ends glued on if things got tricky with the Dapol bodyshells. This would also solve the issue of glazing. 5. The Dapol roof fits the Farish mark one like a glove.The profile of the Dapol roofs seem different to the Farish ones.I think they can be adapted but would need very careful sanding to do so. I am only using Dapol roofs on the 116/117/119 DMU's I'm building even if I'm using Farish Mark ones as the centre trailers. The 120 is going to be entirely Farish mark one based with BHE Ends and Electra Graphics vinyl sides. 6. I would recommend looking at purchasing a spare unpowered 122/121 as this would provide additional spare bodysides and also bespoke Dapol roofing to the correct profile. 7. I am using my spare 122 bodyshell in the 117 project. I would cut around half an inch off, and cut a little off what would become the corridor end and do a small cut and shut, just to get the body profile - gluing the sides over would remove the obvious join.I would use the Worsley Work Brass Inner Ends. Might have to retain the the three sided buffer beam.Have you considered BH Enterprises as they sell the inner exhaust pipes and corridor connections? 7. The centre trailer - would work fine as a Farish Mark 1 with Worsley Sides, however, the Mark 1 roof needs work to match the Dapol profile. I'm also looking at doing the 119 and 116 using the various dummy and powered 121/122's I've hidden behind the book cupboard but have yet to pluck up the courage!. Wishing you the very best of luck with this one, and will watch your progress with interest. Kind regards Peter

Hi Jeremy and RBE Many thanks for your kind comments. It was the Hornby 83 to 86 thread I was using as the basis for the 83, and I've seen an impressive 00 gauge fleet of classes 81 to 85 modelled as well. The trick with the forward slope on the early AC electrics is to slice out plastic between the front of the body and the sides and basically get a small piece of plasticard and push it in between the two separate bits, giving you the sloping front effect and retaining the slope - this was off the OO 83 to 86 thread. Each class appears to have a different angle to the slope from what I've seen of the Marsden and Fenn book with the technical drawings. I've gone for creating the impression and trying to have two or three distinctive features to the model of each class rather than trying emulate the very high standards of say, Richard Dockerill, who is my inspiration after he did a lovely class 82.The curvature of the cab domes are different to each class as are the windows - I've found only half a milllimeter of squadron putty on the class 86 windows to make them less tall or narrower can make a massive difference to the "face" of the loco, and more putty on the roof, carefully filled off makes for the different curve effect. All classes have different underframe detail, although these are more easily modelled. The lengths of each class are: 81 & 85, 56ft 6in 86/87 are 58ft 6in so the Farish chassis is 2mm over at each end, so a compromise required. (there are American Bo-Bo chassis available at scale length, but my experiences with them have not been happy ones) 82 is 56ft (ditto above) 83 is 52ft (Farish class 33 chassis) so a scale model is do-able 84 is 53ft (Farish class 33 chassis) ditto above My 82 and 85 seen on my layout on the photo: Apologies for bumping the thread, look forward to the next update on Euston. regards Peter

Hi Alan Something along the lines of this perhaps with an etched class 83 side? The body still needs a lot of work doing though and a fair bit of wet n'dry sanding.... regards Peter

Hi Hi, love the 317 as well, having converted 150s into the later 317/6. The ramp and backing walls look great and are really creating the impression - I also use sandpaper to represent the road surface on my layout. A DCC class 83 is probably a non-starter as the Farish 33 chassis barely fits inside the Dapol bodyshell I was using on mine, leaving no room for anything else.The Dapol 33/27/26 chassis is near full height between the cabs, the German DB class 110 (used on some 00 conversions) has little room between the bogies. I'll persist with the Farish 33 chassis and keep you posted, but unfortunately this project is on the back burner whilst BR Lines fix split gears which have appeared on both this and the original chassis I intended to use (I do not have a great deal of luck with both Farish 33's and their chassis compared to everything else I run) . Staying positive, I look forward to your next update and the day it appears at a exhibition. regards Peter

h Hi Have enjoyed following this thread from the first page, a major achievement so far and look forward to seeing it on the exhibition circuit (if I've understood things correctly) I've modelled some of the early AC Electrics in N - despite the shorter body length in real life, the 82 and 85 had to be "freelance" versions based on the Farish 87 chassis with modified Dapol 86 bodyshells. Just about to start tonight on one of the ECS 83's, which has a Dapol 86 bodyshell, Farish class 33 chassis and Etched Pixels class 83 brass sides. (Etched Pixels do brass sides for classes 82-84 for the resin class 85 body kit referred to earlier in your layout thread). Look forward to the next update on the layout. Best regards Peter Peter