fiftyfour fiftyfour

Solving the issue with the terrible interiors on the R40003 series Intercity Swallow Mk3 coaches released a couple of months ago, I found the best method of installing those replacement interiors on eBay was to leave the single round seat unit locating peg in place and drill a 3mm hole in the replacement interior using the old one as a guide- means it cannot shuffle about and stays in right place when body slotted back on. Step boards and handrails into black, the central door locking release handle into the right place, the awful brilliant white rubbing plates and vestibule doors painted over and a little weathering of the underframe and you end up with a coach that I'm happy with at least!

Same here. It annoys me when they release a "celebrity" loco without having released a bog standard, middle of the batch un-named one is what I crave- it's not a special occasion every day on my railway!

The bad news- if you have any 4mm scale Mark 3 carriage depicting any livery since the original blue/grey then the interior seat layout in your standard class coaches is either totally wrong, badly wrong or quite wrong dependant on manufacturer! This will be instantly noticeable when you look through the windows and will stand out enormously if you add interior lighting. The good news- here is the solution! A one-piece 3D printed replacement interior which simply replaces the old seating unit. After their first refurbishment in the mid-1980s all standard class Mark 3 carriages received this 76 layout with just 10 tables of four per coach and the remaining 36 seats as airline layout pairs of seats. This replacement interior is superbly detailed, the shape and height of the real IC70 type seats that were fitted to the Mark 3 coaches has been correctly replicated, the tables are mounted to the outer edges leaving an empty space underneath each table and all the fixed arm rests are individually depicted. End bulkhead walls, vestibule areas and central draught screens have been included. When inserted in your model you will instantly see that the prototypical seat to window misalignment distinctive to the standard class Mark 3 during the bulk of its working life has been faithfully reproduced. The whole unit comes in white allowing the modeller to easily add the seat colour appropriate to the exterior livery on the model prior to installing. I am selling these on eBay using my personal account; linky... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184545028334 I am charging £11.00 each and £4.10 P&P for 1, 2 or 3 interiors. If you buy four or more they will ALL be P&P free. This replacement interior is correct for HST TS vehicles and locomotive hauled TSO vehicles in the following exterior liveries; -Inter-City “APT” style often known as “executive” as used on all routes including ECML HST, Midland Mainline HST, WCML loco-hauled, Great Western HST and Cross-Country HST. -INTERCITY “Swallow” style similar to above but with the classic italic logo. -GNER as applied to ECML HSTs from 1997 onwards until interiors changed after 2006 when ‘Mallard’ interiors replaced the original seats. -Virgin Trains West Coast as applied to both WCML loco-hauled TSO and 12 HST TS vehicles with different seat moquette on both fleets, interior layout continued unmodified when ex Virgin vehicles were used by numerous subsequent operators including ScotRail (North Berwick 90’s), Anglia, Chiltern, Cargo D (charters) and the “Pretendolino” Class 390 substitute train later operated by Virgin Trains. -Great Western and First Great Western as applied to GWML HSTs from 1996 onwards until interiors were changed from 2006 onwards to a higher density layout, at the same time the exterior livery changed to “dynamic lights”. -Anglia, One Railway, National Express East Anglia and Greater Anglia who used an unchanged interior layout from when vehicles were cascaded into fleet (apart from a very high backed thin pair of seats which replaced the pair of seats at the extreme end of each saloon) until they were changed to the higher density layout from around 2015 onwards. This replacement interior is very nearly correct for vehicles in the following exterior liveries; -Midland Mainline (both styles), East Midland Trains and East Midland Railway HST TS vehicles as used from 1997 onwards. Interior requires the removal of one pair of airline seats adjacent to the central bulkhead and a small luggage rack installed instead. Note- this interior is not correct for ex Grand Central HSTs operated by EMT/EMR from 2018. -Virgin Trains Cross Country HST vehicles as used from 1997 onwards. Interior requires the removal of two pairs of airline seats adjacent to the central bulkhead and a large luggage rack installed instead. -Selected HST TS and loco-hauled TSO vehicles, some earlier but more commonly after privatisation which were modified to TSD, TSOD or TSOW by the addition of a wheelchair accessible toilet or wheelchair space which resulted in a change to the adjacent seating area. The replacement interior is not suitable for Greater Anglia (post 2015 high density refit), GNER and subsequent (post 2006 ‘Mallard’ refit), First Great Western and subsequent (post 2006-2008 high backed seat ‘refresh’), Cross Country (post 2008 HST revival), Arriva Trains Wales and subsequent ‘W.A.G.’ sets, Grand Central, Wrexham & Shopshire and subsequent use on Chiltern or any sliding door vehicles of any operator. To fit the replacement interior to a Lima coach simply remove the roof and glazing piece and swap the seating units over, no alteration of any kind is required. To fit the replacement interior to a Hornby scale length coach remove the chassis unit, cut the five small seat unit locating lugs down on the chassis (otherwise the seat unit sits too high) and secure in place with a small blob of blu-tac. I do not own any Oxford Rail coaches so I don’t know easy it will be to swap the interiors over on these. If you have a Lima coach which already had Extreme Etchings Lazerglaze flush glazing installed you will need to cut the old seat unit out by slicing it down the aisle using a utility knife and remove it in two halves. The replacement seat unit is just over 2mm narrower than the original Lima unit so will fit inside the coach without disturbing the flush glazing. Check out the eBay link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184545028334

Just to clarify, each MTU engined power car does have pre-heat but it requires an external power source to run it (which can be a shore supply or the ETS through the train from a running power car at the other end). There is a switch which over-rides the pre heat when a cold start is needed and no supply is available for the pre-heat function but operation of that is what adds 100 hours to the clock on the HST install (and maybe writes the engine off after three uses in other applications that exist outside my knowledge according to an earlier poster). The TOCs just tended to leave them running anyway, they always had done as they were more concerned about reliability than saving the planet, fans of the Valentas will remember travelling through thick fog from Bristol to Bath, Leeds to Wakefield or other similar scenarios where a set has just come off depot having been on idle all night and was pumping out exhaust that had to be seen to be believed. There was one Paxman engine HST power car fitted with a pre-heat facility, that was prototype 41001 whilst it was being operated by 125 Group. Their install used a burner which was ignited from the power cars own battery supply and used diesel drawn from the main tank to heat the coolant in the engine jacket for 20 minutes at a time (it would be used twice or three times before a start was attempted on a sub zero morning after a long period since previous start) and it was highly effective, if a little less flashy/automated. This install was purely to reduce engine wear, a Paxman will start in any reasonable temperature.

Perfect answer, I felt like it may have had a re-dedication and gained the crests then. Thanks!

Title says it all really, which year did 50004 St Vincent gain the ships crest above its nameplates please?

Oh, the best one was 43169 (when some GWT power cars had trial DEMON fitments)- it had a pretty impressive fire and tried to ring base to alert them, but it was the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend and nobody was there, so it carried on burning on the back of the train until it got to Bristol Parkway and someone spotted it.

Dunno, ask MTU! The frequency of overhaul and in particular the compulsion to use a different grade of coolant and to do the oil change every 1000 brought a bit of a culture shock when they began squadron service, and the economics of carrying out the extra maintenance offset the fuel saving vs the Paxman Valenta they replaced. Not that they would have got away with running the latter for too much longer as pollution became an issue alongside the fact they had reached full life and some of them were too fragile themselves. In hindsight the best option would have been a fleet of EFI (electronic fuel injection) Paxman VP185's, but that's a different story.

Also suggests they have got really rubbish paths- Farrow under various trading names ran around 20 HST operated trips over the S&C and back via Hexham, the most recent one I went on left St Pancras at 0740, had 63 minutes in Carlisle and got back into St Pancras at 2044...

Not quite. If an MTU R4000 series engine that is under warranty is cold started it adds 100 hours to the engine clock, this on an engine that gets oil changes every 1000 hours and a half overhaul every 12,500-15,000 hours dependent on duty cycle and a full overhaul at double those numbers. So there is a cost to doing a cold start but in the HST install there is no requirement to do a half-life overhaul after three cold starts, I cannot speak for other applications current or historic. If you are running without warranty then you are very brave indeed, but can cold start as often as you like and overhaul it when you like!

Slough makes complete sense, the amount of money swilling around within a ten mile radius must be immense. As does a trip which picks up in Derby, nearly Nottingham and nearly Sheffield- tapping into three population centres that must exceed 2M. Does Ayr, Troon, Kilmarnock, Kirkconnell, Dumfries, Annan and Gretna amount to the same enabling the same sized train to be filled- that was my point! Farrow understood his market better than most- nothing of his on the MML ever missed Luton Airport Parkway (for example) and this was well supported by people (like me!!) who could get there far easier than geographically closer stations and has a large car park which is cheap at weekends.

Indeed there is, and none at all that pick up in Birmingham or Leeds. How much of a market there is from Barrow and stations to Hebden Bridge, or from Perth and stations to Carstairs via Cumbernauld remains to be seen. To be clear, I'm not advocating a purely London centric pick-up policy, I'm just challenging the notion that there is a market for such a thing in tiny /less affluent small towns.

So does this replace the Statesman or supplement it? From a lay persons point of view (when it comes to the market for fine dining trains) I would have thought too many trains dilutes the market, and also occurs to me that picking up in London, Manchester or other major cities may be viable whereas starting somewhere like Ayr and picking up at rural shacks around the borders and small towns like Kilmarnock and Dumfries is going to struggle to fill 400 seats.

Well, its his money to sink into whatever flight of fancy he likes I suppose! Pullman dining is (or was pre Covid) still available on GWR but the notion of running an all First Class, all dining service train was abandoned by the mid 1980's almost certainly never to return. The product is designed to appeal to the general public and in that respect its starting from scratch as very people alive today were regular travellers on high end Pullman trains back in the day, its beyond the pockets of most enthusiasts even non-dining where a pair of us would have to pay £880 for one of the three day trips without even a morsel of food or any overnight accommodation.

Launch trip postponed to 12th December now.

Did everybody get this excited 15 years ago when a rake of ex Virgin Mk2's was done in the same colour?! Livery opinion is of course subjective, for what its worth in my view the finest livery to ever grace a HST was Intercity Swallow, but all of this goes to show that give a failed product long enough (the original Class 250/251 DEMUs had one of the shortest and most inglorious careers in railway history) and some peoples rose tinted specs will have been re-calibrated to forgive and forget just about anything!

To give a different point of view- I'd have been actually quite cross if they had done a Plymouth based Class 117 in blue/grey or even worse the chocolate and cream one in its early 1990's guise but then ONLY released it with sound as that would have been imposing a massive and pointless price penalty for someone like me who is happy to continue without such frills (and still uses DC control). Hornby did this a couple of years ago with a pair of IC Swallow HST power cars that I'd otherwise have purchased immediately upon release.

Something of a tangent, does anyone have any thoughts on how to turn off the red tail lights on the Hornby Class 50 (DC control version). Obviously no switch, and I cannot envisage ever wanting to run light engine so a permanent fix that leaves the headlight and white markers working is preferrable!

Makes it easier to model at home I guess, just blank the whole lot off bar that one!

The launch one has already been re-routed, so instead of London to Manchester and back its now London-London circular via Chesterfield, Stockport and Nuneaton with no stop anywhere longer than a pathing stop or crew change.

Purely for practicality reasons, and the Paxman VP185 has no such pedigree- it was a totally new design created in the early 1990's for their two main markets, those being rail and marine. If they had used MTU fitted power cars they might struggle to find a HST shore supply at Fort William, Ayr or indeed anywhere else that a cold start may be required!

Not convinced. A lesson in how to make the most successful diesel train ever look like the least successful one. If Hornby do model it they will need to add the cab roof mounted headlight, they certainly don't have a buffet coach to deal with the four window 408xx type and they certainly won't be able to cope with the modified TGF vehicle.

If there is a 27 way through the train anyway they may have modified the 36 way on the power cars to use that in the same way as the LNER power cars and sets were all modified to use new, lightweight 27 way jumpers for reliability reasons, which itself has caused a few issues with the EMR introduction. As far as I know the pair of 43050+060 are on short term loan for evaluation, and Colas possibly are not as obsessed by the livery worn by their trains as some enthusiasts would prefer them to be....

You might want to tell LSL that HSTs are not allowed to Kyle or Mallaig, they are taking bookings for both destinations for their Midland Pullman HST as part of the 2021 program, for those that can afford £880 for two passengers without food or hotel accommodation...

They must be SSL to get onto the Southern, but the Southern is a vast region and the NMT will probably only be passed for a very limited number of lines as no HST has ever gone East of the line Waterloo-Woking-Havant and there will be slices of the lines West and North of that which are not fit for them, such as Fareham-Southampton direct as well as twiddly bits usually served by SWR Class 455's!