9C85

That's where I was coming from - I had read that some GUVs had been fitted with gangways. Thanks for all the useful information.

Shunter's eye view

Shunter's eye view

It's actually pronounced horn-bye

Answering my own questions now... it looks like the Kadee No 26 (or 36) is what I need. 'Long' shank - which by my calculation is 3mm longer than the 'Medium ' supplied with the No 5.

Thinking about it, I could probably just swap the coupler arm for one with a longer shank. Does anyone know the length of the shank supplied with a Kadee No 5 kit? I am guessing it's a 'medium' , so I will need a 'long' or 'extra long'?

The ex-works coach in its new home. This has been an object (more like abject) lesson in how NOT to go about adapting a model. Even in putting it back together, I managed to get glue on the glazing and the coach side, black paint on the roof, and one of the Kadees fell off. The Kadees probably need moving outboard slightly if I am going to loose shunt this coach but it's more or less a fixed rake Newspapers train that it's in now. I am just going to have a few running sessions this week and think about weathering when the shed gets a bit warmer.

Sunday afternoon. Nowt 'appenin

As an aside, I saw this view in passing yesterday and I quite liked it...

Thanks Geep7 and 37Oban. I freely admit that I have probably rushed this job and should have left things longer between tasks, but I get so little time to work on the layout these days that I couldn't turn down the opportunity of a relatively 'free' weekend. I will see how the weathering affects this job - at worst I will end up with a plain blue BG which is something I have been after since starting the layout.

Railtec. I get them in place with a cocktail stick, then dab around them (not touching them) with a cotton bud to soak up as much Klear as possible. I might give a final dab on the transfer when it looks like all the Klear has gone and the transfer is fixed in place.

So this is what I have got this morning. It looks OK from a distance, but once again I have had problems with the Newspapers transfer. I don't know if it's because I let it soak for slightly too long but I noticed it didn't want to settle in place when I was fixing it... and yes, I used a pool of Klear to apply it. Close-up it looks like it has 'silvered' - something I got when rebranding some of my GUVs. I noticed the problem when I applied the second coat of Dulcote last night and the only way I could think of fixing it was to apply more Klear via a cocktail stick. The photo above is brutal, but from normal viewing distance, it's hardly noticeable and there's always the excuse that it's going to be heavily weathered, so I am not going to lose sleep over it. The really annoying thing is that the other transfers i.e. the 'wrong' numbers, went on a treat. So I now need to repaint the buffers black, reassemble the coach, and put it back into service and wait for the weathering fairy to pay a visit to make everything better.

To be honest, I thought that would be the case but I wondered if some 'outside' management guru had been drafted in and decreed something like "it doesn't matter what it looks like or who built it, it's a van with a gangway and it carries parcels". (If it looks like a duck and quacks....)

Being there, doing that

Definitely 33 and 47 by then. I am using 'about 1982' for my layout's reference date - not sure which month, but it's a weekday morning

Sorry I am very late to the party (but as of just now, I am now a keen follower) and I suspect you may have already got the answer to this one, but from my memory the Cardiff-Crewe haulage when I started 'spotting ' in about 1978 was usually a 25, very occasionally a 24, and a 40 on a couple of notable occasions. The 25s were replaced by 31s (not sure of the date). I believe the 31s also did the Cardiff-Portsmouth and Weymouth routes. The 31s were replaced by 33s in the mid-80s I believe? ...also on the routes to the south coast. I studied in Pompey 1987-88 and I loved the journey home on a Friday evening behind a 33 with a compartment to myself... happy days. In all of the above cases, a 47 could turn up on the working. The formation was usually the same (for the Pompey trains at least). Four Mk1 Corridor seconds with a Mark 2a/b/c Brake (usually 1st class) in the middle, making up a 5-coach train. I am not sure if the brake was in the middle because of the reversal at Bristol TM or if it was a standard arrangement which applied to the Crewe services also.

I have just found that Railtec do the transfers I need, but they are nearly £10 per sheet and I only need enough for one coach (possibly a couple more if I am feeling confident enough to repeat this exercise). I have put out a request in the 'Wanted' section of RMWeb. Somebody may have some unwanted transfers lying around - I have quite a few Motorail ones that came along with the Newspapers ones for my GUVs

Hello. I am looking for a pair of 'NCV' coach codes to apply to a 4mm scale Replica Railways 57ft BG that I have resprayed into allover BR Blue. If you have the correct running numbers as well, that would be a bonus. I have the 'Newspapers ' branding already, I just need the NCV bit. I have found that Railtec do the transfers I need, but it's nearly £10 for a sheet and I only need enough for one coach. I was contemplating using the codes and numbers I have from nearly two sheets of GUV transfers , but they are nearly all NKV. I am happy to swap some NKV transfers if that works for you? Thanks for looking.

I liked the TTS Class 31 sound. I preferred the flange squeal on it to that of my Legomanbiffo 47. I think my locos are quite 'old' so I am not sure how much room they have for speakers. I would probably have to have them professionally fitted, but I did contemplate having a go at the 25 myself.

And the answer is.... I decided that I could live with the wrong number, but not the code. I have branded only one side with Newspapers, so I have a choice of how it looks on the layout. If I was really brave, I would scratch off the second digit (6) and try replacing it with a zero, which I believe may be more prototypical? ...but am I really that bothered? ...evidently not. Next phase: Dulcote, then weathering - which will just about obliterate the transfers in any case Thanks for all the information.

I think your reply says more about the cost of sound-fitted locos than the cost of track I want to get sound on all my locos. The first loco I had was a Hornby Class 31 with TTS, which sounded lovely but was in Dutch livery, so sold it. Now I wish I had kept it and painted it, but it looked lovely as it was so I didn't want to ruin it. I had a Hornby Railroad TTS Class 40 for about an hour before I found that it didn't like Bullhead points. I am looking at sound locos all the time on Ebay. I nearly got my 25 sound fitted last month, but silly things like buying food somehow get priority in my house

So now I am faced with a sheet of Railtec transfers for Newspapers branding, but I now realise that the numbers and codes apply to GUVs only, and I am rebranding a BG. Do I... a) Postpone the job and hunt for correct numbers, codes? Or... b) Pick a number and code and stick them on. I will be the only person who sees this coach and at least it looks better than plain sides?

Thanks Flood, that's exactly what I was looking for. I notice the word usually . So, in theory, could a GUV and a BR BG have ended up with the same code?

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brnpccs/h1186318e The very thing.

Before I started building my layout, I visited the Marcway shop in Sheffield - I am just over the border in Derbyshire. I got talking to a very nice gentleman, who I think was called Mark/Marc and afterwards I realised that he may have even been the Marc in Marcway? For some reason, I was under the impression that they only dealt in EM, P4 scale track etc. and I was surprised that they supplied 'off the shelf ' track in OO scale. It is really nice looking track and I was tempted to use it as I wanted curved pointwork to emulate that of Red Bank. But as ever, price came into it - I think I have nine turnouts on my scenic section- so I settled for straight Peco Bullhead points leading to sidings on a curve. The main 'throat' of my yard is partially hidden by the girder bridges, so I think I get away with it. I was thinking of waiting for Peco to produce curved Bullhead points before starting the layout build. Are they available yet?