roythebus1

Helpfully Rails of Sheffield show the engineering samples of the new Rapido B set, the buffer beams are flat, not curved at both ends. Large round head on the outer ends is the answer, I forgot to see if they are the square shank type!! But at Rapido's prices, Ill stick with the Airfix/Hornby at £20 the pair, my pension won't stretch to any new stock.

That's what I would assume, but then the outer buffer beams would have to be modified as they are rounded.

Ha, from what I read elsewhere, can't remember where, they had short buffers and short coupling between coaches and longer buffers at the outer ends. So far I've not touched the buffer beams or buffers. The close coupling units with Kent magnet couplers mean I can get 1mm gap when pulling and they will go through a rather nasty reverse curve on my layout without buffer locking when being pushed.

Thanks, I'll have a look at those. Not sure about cutting the headstocks off though. there doesn't seem to be a lot of information about those coaches on here.

I've just dug out my Hornby B set and done a close-coupling conversion using a Kean KK unit at each end with Kent magnet couplings in the NEM boxes. I've read that the prototype were close-coupled with short buffers, with long buffers at the brake ends. Does anyone have any idea what the right buffers would be for the brake van ends?

The colour pictures I've seen of them look brown, but maroon fades to brown after a few years. My GS bus i painted BS maroon, which appears to be a totally different colour when a fresh panel was painted from the same tin of BS maroon paint!

There's something wrong with that motor bogie, the wheels should sit central to the axle boxes regardless of wheel diameter. It's possible an MTK sideframe grafted onto a Triang motor bogie, the whole thing sits wrong.

Class 73s all have buckeye couplings and air brakes so should be able to pull the Mersey stock.

On my Mainline coaches the gangways are a clip fit. On the GW super saloons I had to file the Kean NEM adaptor down to a T shape as I've had to do on most conversions otherwise the wheels foul on curves. No need to cut the floor away though.

The ETH voltage is also standard across the UIC railways.

You can't preserve everything. The Southern 4DD group found that out, luckily they now have 2 motor coaches under their control, but they are never likely to run anywhre except behind an air-braked loco. I'm also in the bus preservation world where there's always a cry of "oh look, there's a RT <insert other bus type> in a forest in the Azores, let's bring it back and restore it. Why? there's already over 200 of them in preservation. Oh look a Routemaster in eastern Europe. Let's bring it back and restore it. why? There's still over 1000 of them in existence. I own 2 quite rare BEA half-deck coaches, I've been financing their restoration for the last 50 years. One has been completed and got a Certificate of Initial fitness, the other is still in bits in the workshop. I also have a GS bus that I bought back in 1969. That too has the certificate of Initial Fitness to run in fare-paying service. The first in preservation, but it started a trend as there's now over 30 preserved out of a class of 84. Should I let mine go for scrap if nobody wants to take it on? I feel for those who want to restore "modern" buses and rail traction. Once the electronics go pop you're stuck. when the GRP panels get broken, it's a bit of a task to make new bits. Not so difficult with olde stock made from timber and metal, make a new bit. But there is a limit to the funds and people with skills to make those bits.

That's a lot of voltage drop fro 25kv to 11kv! My point is that if you have 2 locos that provide single-phase ac ETH, the 2 alternators will not be in phase. I wasn't trained on locos and REPS on the suvvern, just EMU stock but had the basics of what could and couldn't be done when coupling up. Worked on ac electrics at Rugby and diesels out of Kings Cross as secondman. and the Underground.

I cant remember if I had to cut the floors, I'll have a look later. I've just done about a dozen various KK conversions recently. My Mainline LMS coaches have separate corridor connections. I'm not happy with the small buffers on them, presumably Comet/Wizard do a replacement for them? I find a Dremel with a cutting disc saves a lot of hard work when fitting the Kean coupler units. with the Kent magnetic couplings I can get very close coupling by careful adjustment of the coupling lengths. But then I don't use curves under 2' radius and try to avoid reverse curves. I really must build a short test track to test these properly. The Kean couple units could do with some modifications in the manufacture, narrowing the baseplate would save a lot of work cutting floors out or filing the units to fit between solebars, and a T shape on the NEM adaptor would save a lot of time finding out that it fouls the wheels on most stock.

We had the original generator 47s at Kings Cross in 1977, they were "quite quick". :) 47 401 etc. Opened up a bit at FP to keep out of the way of Deltics.

I suppose if you get one of each you could have the giraffe ducking out of the way when the sniper pops up? :). I had a Battle Space turbo car as well. on the MRC's test tracks it went so fast it launched itself across the club room! the vintage controllers they had at the time gave out about 24v.

thanks for that info, so they would have run in BR maroon as well? I replaced the wheels with Hornby 14mm metal wheels and fitted the Kean close coupling system. I presume the buffers are too small, they just don't look right and the corridor connections are too short. they look ok though. I'm getting too od to worry about a few bits of underframe missing or not being quite right. I do like close coupling though, seeing main line trains with a scale 6' gap between coaches doesn't look right. It doesn't take much effort to get them close coupled.

Rummaging through my drawers (as one does) and boxes of round tuits, I found a couple of Mainline/Palitoy LMS coaches in blood and custard livery. they have corridor connections and individual compartment doors and windows one side, and 3 doors and long windows the other side, both composites. Just wondering how accurate they are as models. They seemed to be good models when I got then in the early 1980s, along with Airfix and Lima Siphon G and Siphon H parcels vans, they also looked good for their era. I've just updated them a bit with metal wheels, Kean systems close-coupling and Kadee or Roco close-couplings. With the Mainline coaches, I'm wondering how long they lasted in service with BR. Jut remembered, there's also a couple of Mainline GW bow-ended coaches that have had similar clos-coupling treatment. I know thy lasted will into the 1960s as I took pictures of the real thing at Old Oak Common.

I had one of those back in the day. What happened to mine was the force of the spring broke through the sides of the plastic "box" it was housed in. The Giraffe car was fun as well. :)

The problem on locos supplying ac ETH current is if you connect another loco supplying ac ETH would be the phases not matched.

Yes, the loco has additional pipework on the bufferbeam for push-pull working.

I ended up getting a 2nd hand Lima model and grafting the Hornby motor and bogies onto the Lima chassis. Sadly the class 30 body was cracked beyond repair by the mazak breaking up. i'll put some pics on here when I get time!

It would never fit on a lorry of that era!

There was a set of lined maroon suburbans on the southern for a while, I used to see it on the Kenny Belle for a couple of months. It made a change from the usual green sets that appeared.

link here to my earlier article, there's also another on how to KK an Airfix B set. Have a scroll down this forum.

Thos couplings need to be mounted further back so the back edge of the C of the knuckle is level with the buffer face. It gives a good close coupling and should still go round sharp corners. If I get time I'll do some pics of my stock. I've just spent a couple of evenings fitting some old Mainline coaches with Kean close couplings and a mix of Kadees and Roco KKs. I've posted pics recently of Bachy suburban coaches fitted with the Kean system and a variety of couplings.My Applemac keeps losing my entire photo library when I try to post pics on the internet. Then they reappear!!