fiftyfour fiftyfour

There are indeed changes to diagramming as Leicester becomes a fuelling location for XC 170's, that change encompasses some 2+2's becoming three cars- wait and see when May comes if you are a 4 car into 3 car reduction denier!! I gather there are also platform length issues with more than 4 cars across bits of XC's route (and Stansted cannot take more than a three car without upsetting the natives/other trains/smoke alarms) hence the inability to run double sets there. The extra seat capacity made possible by the two extra HST power cars remains to be seen, they can only reform the current HSTs into six cars if they get approval from the DfT to take on and convert additional trailers, they also need DfT approval to reduce the seat capacity of certain trains (which are contractually set with fines for short-formed trains) AND if they can get the DfT to sign off on them having the two extra power cars to start with. The HSTs are effectively tied to their existing diagrams because of their superior capacity vs a single Voyager hence the continued use of Edinburgh and Leeds as start/finish points.

Precision do some transfers to convert Lima/Limby/Old Hornby to the later light cluster style... http://www.precisionlabels.com/class43.html Item D43 No experience of them personally as the new light clusters fall outside my era

What XC don't tell you is that some trains will actually be shorter- at the moment there is a mix of 2 car and 3 car 170's and some diagrams are 2x2 car- when everything is three car then that's all you'll get.

And that's the problem, matching a colour on screen to come out of a printer which will still match the colour of the paint on the model! I did wonder if anyone did a white inkjet cartridge which I could swap (temporarily!) for the black one then tell the PC to print black on clear knowing that the black cartridge is actually white...

Ok, new/divert topic question... Now that I've seen the Mabex list and established that the NBC fleetnames on the top of page 7 don't include either of the names I seek does anyone have any bright ideas as to how to print your own white transfers onto a clear sheet?!

Have you got a link as Google just comes up with pictures of busty young women when you type in "Kingfisher Models".

There is something wrong with your user profile, I don't get a message button envelope icon when I open it...

They appear to have finished- they were certainly the "go to" back in the 1980's for such things.

Does anyone know of a supplier of NBC (National Bus Company) fleetnames and logos for the 1970's/early 1980's period? I can print most stuff at home bus white fleetnames on a clear background are not possible!

Wasn't 1M16 booked to do 100mph from Crewe to Euston owing to pathing issues vs Class 390's?

The change was made to reduce brake disc wear on the power cars, I gather the higher proportion of stopping/starting on GW sets made it worthwhile and it was always on the proviso that the braking performance would be unaffected in normal operation as the coaches maintained the required stopping distances. From experience when we had a mix of (then) Virgin XC sets and GW sets the Virgin ones were sharper at stopping even with one less coach, but I have absolutely no scientific or other evidence to back that up and it could have been perception drawn from observing gauges!

Where is 125mph allowed Bristol to Exeter? They may have upped the speed but it was 110mph from Uphill to Huntspill back in the day and no more than 100mph anywhere else.

Your doubts regarding a further change were wrong- they did get changed again! The Great Western power cars were further modified so that the brake force was reduced- basically the bogie brakes on the power car went to approx. 3.5 bar maximum no matter how high a brake step was applied. Prior to that (and very contrary to instructions!!) the power car brakes were good enough to stop from 125 without any coaches in the opinion of many drivers. More recently a trial was carried out on EMR so it's been proved that 2+4 is OK for 125mph operation, but if I were the driver on that I'd not "dick about" if encountering a cautionary aspect as even a six car can prove harder to kill the speed on than an eight car...

All sorts of problems with leaving a HST power car on idle for long periods, especially so whilst dragging it around. Commutator glazing on the traction motors caused some failures when power was later applied was the initial "find" and then oil being carried over into the exhaust system resulted in a couple of fires was the final straw that resulted in the power cars powering in the Class 91/HST combo. The latter worked quite well as the power car was doing more than its fair share upon restarting the train whilst the Class 91 sat there and pondered the meaning of life for a while before putting down power, then when the Class 91 woke up it would accelerate the train up to full speed far quicker than any HST ever could have done! I hadn't realised the ETS needed to be on to run the TDM system but I guess it must get its power from somewhere (so from that I'd assume a Mk3 DVT dies quickly if starved of ETH?) and running up the ETS would have been the only option even if trailing and the headlights were not required. You'd like to think they stuck to 110mph with a SLE/SLEP in consist but you never know...!!

8,730HP was the quoted figure. Also don't forget, they couldn't release Mk3 rakes for test trains as they were pretty much fully deployed on passenger service, so the surplus/spare sleepers did what they wanted them to do in that they provided a load for the Class 91 to play with and through wiring for the TDM control. HST power car on fast idle is 1000rpm but it doesn't provide ETH to the train, can only send 415v three phase down HST trailers. Having the ETS running in that formation is still essential to keeps the power cars own batteries and auxiliaries alive- and ETS also powered the headlights in that era.

Also note that 43014 (and 43123) had ETH cable boxes both ends and through wiring (the jumper socket is clearly visible on that shot on bottom right hand corner) which would have allowed the Class 91 to go on front of the power car and still send ETH down to the train if so desired- they gained this for the WCML DVT trials.

Thanks to all, I went to a pneumatic specialist locally with the compressor and the ends and came out with a two-part adaptor, there is a bit of air leaking through one of them but it holds 30psi. Now to work out how to get the paint mix right; I think I overdid the thinners on attempt #1 and am now out of paint, so need to try again when I have more paint.

I've posed the alleged 1/4" adaptor (brass coloured) next to the alleged 1/8" compressor outlet (I'm claiming the adaptor is 1/2" and the compressor outlet is 5/16"!!) with the airbrush parked on top of the air gauge...

The compressor outlet is smaller than the hose fitting. The hose fitting is 1/2". The compressor outlet is 5/16" and is shown on the attached photo with a postage stamp for comparison. It's closer in size to the one on the left in the photo on the previous message but its larger than the small one. It looks like I've been sold a duff compressor, I will contact them and send it back and buy a different one from somewhere else.

Another £6.50 spent and another week waiting and this... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323638739900 shows up and is actually a 1/2" adaptor, the packaging clearly says 50-023 and 1/4" compressor adaptor So I'm no nearer having a functional system, I'm still working on the basis that the outlet on the AS186 is actually 5/16" or possibly someone has finally realised that feet and inches went out half a century ago and its 8mm. Either way I still don't know for certain what the outlet of the compressor is, it certainly is NOT 1/8" as quoted by the manual and as it sits uselessly between 1/4" and 1/2" all efforts so far have come to nought. Short of sending everything else back to its supplier (the compressor on the basis that the accompanying booklet is wrong) and the adaptor on the basis that it's double the stated size I don't know what to do.

That wasn't the only error on the Hurst, but you didn't replicate the other Hurst error by trying to fit a toilet type window between the passenger saloon and the passenger door on the kitchen side of the vehicle! I blanked my Hurst one over on the old Hurst conversions I did but those Hurst kits were a bit beyond my capability, specifically the need to shape a 10" long piece of thin metal evenly along the solebar line. I came up with a "work around" which involved slicing the Hurst etching across the middle at exactly the point where the red and white lines would meet on the InterCity livery but even then I'm not happy with the outcome. Once I've done the Virgin one based on the Limby RFM I will have a go at a cut-and-shut using a Lima caterer and a Lima passenger coach- what could possibly go right?!

Thanks, have e-mailed my Phoneix supplier to see if they have stock, its cheaper for me to physically travel to Chelmsford than pay £5.75 for P&P on mail order. I feel better now having seen your TRSB that is isn't only me that cheated with the bunk room window! But I'm planning an even bigger cheat on the two lozenge shaped non-windows on the kitchen side by applying those as transfers,when it's done will post a pic to show how it comes out unless its too embarrassing!

Ye olde thread revival. firstly, does anyone recommend a source of the Virgin red paint, I have two old Railmatch pots but they have gone off, the red is coming out too light and fully matt and in case the original poster is watching- take off the CDL lights at the buffet counter end, along with the associated release handle on the kitchen side. Also slice off the external door handles on both doors at the buffet counter end. I've gone a fair bit further and swapped the roof out for a modified Lima roof, starting with a passenger saloon roof allows addition of the four roof vents in the right place. I've done a hack-about with the windows on the kitchen side, the corridor side is "good enough" although a perfectionist would make a tweak. On the kitchen side I've copped out and left the bunk room window (the white window nearest the passenger) where Hornby, and perversely Hurst on their etch overlay, wrongly placed it as the effort in moving it outweighs the benefit. This is quite a good source photo I'm using which may help (not mine, usual disclaimers apply)...

It isn't 1/8" anything as I'm made an impression of the outlet on a bit of paper and measured that (to make it easier to accurately measure) and I reckon it's metric 8mm or imperial 5/16th". Needless to say there is absolutely no contact details in the manual to ask them. I feel like if I contact someone for an adapter part they will ask me the obvious questions, like the diameter of both threads and I have neither. There is a 1/4" pipe adapter listed in the "optional accessories" on the badger info leaflet which would appear to take me a lot closer but not all the way there!

Help!! I now have a brand new AS186 compressor and a Badger 250 airbrush (purchased separately) stood here. I need some sort of adapter between the two, the booklet with the AS186 says "usually our air compressor outlet is 1/8" BSP. If you want 1/4" BSP or other NPT screw thread, you may need other adapters..." I've measured the compressor outlet and it's more than 1/4", if anything it's 5/16" or 8mm- the inside bore of the outlet may be 1/4" but I'm not sure- it certainly isn't 1/8" in any case. So where do I get the adapter and what size do I need please?