dasatcopthorne

Nick. The wheelbase is the same but you do need lots of bits and I'm afraid that some may no longer be available. They used to appear regularly on ebay but I haven't seen any for some time. There is a guy with a stand at shows that sells used bits and he sometimes has chassis. He is normally at Tolworth Showtrain. I have looked for 2014 and don't recognise his name in the list. Sorry. Anyway, here's what you need (I think). 2 x driving motors complete. (that's no toilets) 1st centre car with no toilet = 2 DM bodies to cut and shut. + 2 x chassis also to cut & shut. 2nd centre car with loo = 1 x DT with loo + 1 x DM without. + 2 x chassis also to cut & shut. You can use the DT body from your original 2 car set for this. Basically, you are cutting off the cab at the first set of doors on one body and then cutting off the inner end of the second body to graft onto the remainder of the first coach. You can see the join in the pictures. This makes sense to me but is it clear enough for someone who hasn't done it before? The cutting of the chassis is crucial and they are not cut across the centreline, otherwise the chassis ends up too short. Lastly and I'm sorry about all the negatives here, I am lead to believe that the glazing is now almost impossible to obtain. If someone knows better, I'd be very pleased to here from them. Dave

Hi Guys. Not much on here lately for the EMU enthusiast so I thought that I'd post a few pics of a Class 465 conversion I started many moons ago. It has sat in a box for some years now as I don't have the facility to do a repaint on it at the moment. Had thought of seeing if Electra might do something. I got the cut and shut idea from an RMweb post by someone from the Erith Club (I think) who had converted some coaches into a Class 365. Anyhow. I obtained some spare bodies, chassis, seating & glazing and started cutting. I took the motor etc out of a very cheap US diesel. Runs fine but quite slow. So here a some photos. The cuts in the trailer bodies can be seen down the centre of the end doors. Cheers Dave

Cheers, E. They might save me digging up some track for new magnets to be fitted. It's always difficult to know what size/strength to use for a given situation. Mine are 12 x 3mm and are sold in florists as Corsage magnets by Oasis. around £10 for 30. Cheers again. Dave

Done, Jon. Dave

Phil. Yes I have. The layout these will operate on has curves not tighter than 48" radius. Dave.

Hi Guys. Here's few pics of some of the work I have done on my VIX vans. Roof vent removed, lower door runners removed, upper door runner slimmed down, chassis lowered onto axle units and new wheels fitted, and finally some handrails replaced with wire. Now I just needs those transfers please guys. Cheers Dave

Hi E. I'm using this method as well. However, I have my neodymium magnets above the baseboard and was interested to see your are strong enough to work from underneath. Would you mind tell me what sizes your magnets are and if you know the pulling power? Cheers Dave Smith Falcon Road TMD and Oil Drum Lane. See Layouts.

Hi Guys. Just a quick two pics of a couple of Hornby VIX Ferry Vans I have been doing some work on ready to appear on Falcon Road. Lowered, some new handrails, removed the roof vent, new wheels, roof painted and underframes weathered. Dave

Jon. I'll have two of each please. I'll PM you. Cheers Dave

On page 43 the numbers starting with 35 are missing and the words London Underground Passenger Stock appears Cheer Dave

As the originator of this thread, this is very much appreciated Steve. I look forward to buying enough for six vans. Cheers Dave.

Jon. I mentioned to Dave that I was detailing some vans and he supplied a set of shots featuring their roofs as I wanted to see how they looked 'rib' wise. He then suggested this black van and livery is from his own memory. Certainly, the buffer shanks are a different colour and Dave's memory is good on this subject. Dave. Ps. Still got any etches for these?

Jon. You must mean this. Dave (Larkin) took this from his signal box. March 1977 I believe. It is all Black (well, maybe not the roof) with red bufferbeams. I've just painted mine. Dave

Guys. As the originator of the thread, here's what I would prefer some from photo 2 above. I would like to see 'pre-made' van numbers, say a selection of six and then some additional digits to change numbers if required. I would like the wording on the doors, (Through to the C....') etc. But with the word 'Railways' as well at the later version 'Rail'. If only one version, I would prefer later vans lettered 'British Rail' having the wording on panel 2 without boxes round them. Cheers Dave ps. Jon. Thanks for all the hard work on this.

Hi Steve. I am the Dave that emailed you direct. Thanks for your reply but it's probably best to continue the conversation here as I fell it would be of interest to a wider audience. I trust you agree. I see John Hall has offered to look up some details but meanwhile as a starter can I refer everyone to the following shot numbers on Paul Bartlett's Wagon site at http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com search for VIX then take the VIX FerryVan subdirectory and check out these: 7, 34, 35, 44, 50, 61, 62 & 82. There seems to be a variety or lettering and symbols within a general theme. Personally I need to do 3 'brown' vans and one 'Railfreight'. Perhaps those amongst us we can come up with the best set worth producing. Cheers Dave Smith

Hi Guys. I am in the process of making a few alterations to four of the above after seeing someone else who did the same and posted photos on the old RMweb site. I'll post a few piccies later of my efforts but in the meantime I have the problem of lettering them if I go for a full repaint which they really need. Does anyone know of any transfers suitable for these vans. I've done the usual search of the archive and found nothing. I've also mailed Cambridge Custom Transfers and he doesn't do any. Any suggestions please? Dave

Whilst running the layout for 2 days at its first show outing, a few anomalies came to light. The sort that only raise their heads when someone operates that hasn't done so before. A couple of crossovers that were worked as pairs (as you do) needed separating to allow stock to sit over them whilst the 'matching half' could be thrown. All to do with the run-round in the yard. Secondly and more importantly, we normally operate the layout from the two panels at the front plus a third person on the small fiddle yard at the rear. This was fine until circumstances left us with only two operators. Mmmmmm. Can't keep ducking under the layout to swap trains in the single road fiddleyard so another panel was needed at the rear to allow the loco shed to be operated at the same time as the fiddleyard. Oh, and two signals as well, if we wanted it to look correct. Only thing was, the way the layout works, it meant that the two panels could not be live at the same time. This needed an 8 pole double throw rotary switch. Difficult to find at a reasonable price. Yes, I know you can build one from multi-wafers, but these are not cheap. Anyway. I found one in the Club's 'electrical box'. Looks ancient but after a clean, it works fine. Here's how it went as well as a couple of general views under the depot baseboard containing the panels. Cheers Dave

Hi All. Is there anyone else who would like to invite Falcon Road to their Exhibition. Full details at http://csmrc.co.uk/home.html Cheers Dave

Mike. I know yours is a kit but I still don't understand where the 'kit conversions' comes into it. Or am I missing something? Dave

I really don't understand this post. Where does 'kit conversions' come into it?? Dave Confused in hot West Sussex.

Hi Brian. As you probably appreciate, the Hornby shoebeam is a complete myth. Dave

Thank for you wishes, Guys. We had a very good 2 days with only one minor problem with point blade clearance. (or the lack of enough). So the shake down went very well and Falcon Road is ready for exhibiting. We're already booked for Worthing in September, so we're now looking for to that. Cheers to everyone who has commented throughout this thread. Dave

Hi Guys. Well, we're already for the layouts first public showing, albeit a very small affair. It's always a odd feeling taking a new layout out for the first time. Cross fingers there are no major problems. Cheers Dave

Thanks for that, Neil. I guess you men the north light style factories along the rear if the yard. They are Skytrex. A hell to paint. Dave

Our little debut is fast approaching and I have been adding small touches here and there. Some additional bufferstop lights in Oil Drum Lane yard as well as soldering up some small Veroboards with variable resistors to try and bring the brightness down on our Absolute Aspects colour lights. Won't know if it works until I get to test them at our Club on Monday. Dave