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Many thanks Dave for the close ups, really useful.

I’ve started a fresh thread for the Hastings DEMU…..I’ll post some Milestone photos in the Olympia thread but day to day progress will be on the new thread. Today some things got glued on rather than chopped off. Battery boxes and air tanks.

I’ve also cut the fuel tanks, these need work to add the cut outs and gauge.

A little bit of progress today, things being glued on rather than chopped off! Battery boxes added at the rear and air tanks added at the front. The battery boxes are from Farish Mk1s the air tanks from tube, Evergreen strip and filler.

I have B and C on my faves list. I worked with John Atkinson for over 20 years, who has supplied much of the info on the DEMU fleet. He’s looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Yes please. Fortunately the long framed 6L and 6B don’t have any lighting conduits on the roof. The 3D printed shells have the roof vents but not the water tank pipe work or any of the vents of the buffet kitchen. No exhaust or minor details on the motor coaches.

Brighton MRC are having one of their occasional Sales Day on Saturday 19th August 2023. It will be at the Clubrooms in London Rd station Brighton. This is in Shaftesbury Place of Ditching Rise BN1 4QS. The event starts at 1000 and ends at 1400. Entrance is free. There will a big selection of preowned model railway items including locomotives, rolling stock and track. Refreshments available too. If you interested in joining the club, it is a chance to chat to members and see what’s going on. https://brightonmrc.wordpress.com/diary-of-events/

The body is narrow, the trailer cars of the CEP and all the Mk1s will need a fair sized chunk removing along both sides. The 3D print is pretty good but missing things like, roof fans, exhaust etc. There is a strengthening rib around the inside which needs partially removing to get the trailer chassis to fit. The 4CEP motor coach will be a bigger job as I might need to reduce the thickness of the motor block. It looks like a very close fit.

I’m about to start building a 6B unit in n gauge using the 3D printed bodies from Shapeways plus a Farish 4CEP and two Mk1s to supply power and chassis. What I’m missing is some decent side on photo of the power cars showing where the fuel tanks etc are positioned. Plenty of three quarter views but nothing more side on. I think Skinley drawings also did some plans for these which would be useful if anyone has a copy. Anyway a couple of photos showing one of the DMBS mounted on its chassis.

The 6B now with TSOL and side views of the three different types of trailer cars.

Repairs completed this morning and the other three cars of the 6B DEMU were delivered too.

Today I made a start on putting Olympia back together, just two boards so far so that I can do a repair on one of the baseboard joint rails. I am also going to reverse a set of captive nuts to make it easier to bolt together in its room.

Squires tools in Bognor Regis too.

I did Tom Baker and Sarah Jane plus K9…….just found a male figure in a long coat with a hat and added a homemade scarf ( Tamiya masking tape) and a female figure in a trouser suit…K9 is scratchbuilt……..and this is 2mm scale.

….and I was Chief Clerk there for about 18 months too.

They were certainly used on Merrymakers up from the south coast, we went to Derby then coach trip to Riber castle and also Leicester for Rutland……and I’ve always had a soft spot for them. I do have a photo or two of them on the WLL. I can always do a layout in a suitable location to run them on the Brighton - Exeter service!

2B or not 2B…….that is the question……6B eventually.

A nice relaxing day at the Yorkshire NGS meeting. I took along the three Hastings DEMU coach bodies to start fitting them to the donor 4CEP. As expected the frames needed some substantial trimming to fit. The unpowered DMBS has been fitted OK and the TFK is nearly done too. I’ve made a start on dismantling the 4CEP power car……I might not need to trim the motor housing after all. I’ll post some photos tomorrow. Whilst it’s a long shot I’m going to contact Bachmann and see if they have any spare 4CEP bogies both trailers and powered types so that they can replace the B1s that’ll be present on the other two donor coaches.

That was it for this year. York Racecourse Easter 2024 is it’s next outing.

The exhibition gave me the opportunity to run / try various things and combinations for the first time……with mixed results. Hunt magnetic couplers didn’t perform very well. The last carflat always derailed it’s leading bogie on the curve entering the fiddle yard, not on a point, and retailed leaving. The Brighton - Manchester Mk1 set derailed so much that the couplings were pulled out and replaced with Rapidos. Several snapped off when being removed. I had bought a DCC Concepts track rubber…….very poor left loads of rubber debris all over the track….reverted to 800 grade wet and dry paper……Their mains CDU however was well worth the investment. Rolling stock in general all ran well. Locomotives were generally all OK with only one c47 causing some issues coming to a stand on curved plain track at the same place…..but only with a train in tow. LE it was fine! One of the Cromptons needs looking at as on Sunday it kept randomly slowing down and stopping then set off again a few seconds later. The Dapol c73 ran very well amazingly. Lots to ponder but overall very pleased with how the layout performed…and my two operators who had never used it before. Thank you to all the people who came up and introduced themselves…some not for the first time. We were packed up and out the door at the NRM dead on 5pm after closing at 4.

Thank you …….…well……I managed to get quite a lot of figures from the Modelshop in Shanklin and they included a pack of nuns…..so there are quite a few on the layout….mainly going into pubs plus one in the Bond Bug.

The layout behaved itself again today……and we won something too!

The 08 was having its first outing too, not even run it, it performed well.

I can’t remember what the chassis is, I’ll check, probably Roco or Fleischmann the body is totally scratch built from plasticard and brass.

Nice to see everyone yesterday, those who made themselves known from RMweb. Hope to see a few more today. Very busy show as mentioned earlier. Kensington Olympia largely behaved itself. The faults found after setting up Friday were in the main not there on Saturday morning……electrical fairies must have been hard at work!