Scottish Modeller

Hi Phil, Great to have more photos - always useful. The Shapeways print has arrived - so that's another bit of the puzzle in place. Not sure about it though as the front does not appear to be correct/ Photo to follow later - once the daylight has appeared and the camera battery has charged. Thanks Phil H

Hi Keefer, Thanks for the info - much appreciated. Looking at my notes I must never have seen this coach in service! Off to find another donor FO coach to go into Caledonian Sleeper livery. Phil H

Hi all, Ref to - mk.2E Open First (FO) 3221–3275 Farish do this coach (nearly) as 3265 in Scotrail Provisional livery. But I can find nothing to confirm that the coach was in Scotrail livery - unless I have missed it somehow! So, before I go and strip it to proved the basis for tuning it into a Caledonian Sleeper RFO, is the model correct? Thanks Phil H

Hi Steve, I'm interested in Locomotives Of The North British Railway 1846 - 1882 by Stephenson Locomotive Society If you can let me know? Phil H

Hi Eddie, I will take a look and see what they are like. Thanks for the heads up! Phil H edit to add... Checked Shapeways and have ordered one. Looking at the model I'm unsure if the detail will be better than I can achieve.

Hi all, Camera totting public are not welcome at Waverley in the wee small hours.... I will, however, be out and about and hoping to catch some shots in the daylight. Thanks Phil H

Hi all, Great to get so many useful photos - much appreciated. The models to be modified arrived this morning. Paint will appear after I visit to collect it. Decals to appear once the postie gets through the mass of xmas mail. Poor guy was strugling today with a tow trolley and 2 bags sat on top of it! Hopefully I will be starting to cut plastic shortly. Still looking for some overhead/roof shots though. Thanks Phil H

Hi all, Thanks for the responses - much appreciated. Apparently next issue of Modern Locomotives Illustrated will feature these locos - Can't wait! Anyway, having been busy searching and looking at photos, the sides appear to be the easiest bit to model! The roof, on the other hand, appears to be a potential minefield to the unobservent! So, this one is on hold until I see what teh magazine has to show me (not a long hold though). Thanks Phil H

Hi all, Thanks for the input - much appreciated. I am aware that some NBR wagons were not grey - just all the ones I am restoring were. There are a mixture of plastic, white metal and etched models to be worked on, some just need paint, some need a bit of tlc and replacing of damaged/missing bits. I have Halfords grey etch primer, grey plastic primer in the workshop already. Interesting what you say about modern paints Bill - I'll bear that in mind if I end up mixing paints. Thanks Phil H.

Hi all, I have a restoration project for some NBR wagons. Now, I know that the wagons in question were grey in NBR times - but what sort of grey? Is there an actual paint spec or was it just whatever grey the builder/repaired had in stock? Thanks Phil H

HI all, I'm looking for information about the modifications done to the Cl73 to meet the Caledonian Sleeper requirements. In particular? All the visible changes to the exterior. Anyone able to assist? Thanks Phil H

Hi all, I have a vague recollection that Markits did these in 4mm scale? Not sure how many or which ones were available. Thanks Phil H

Hi Adhip, Any photo sources are useful! The initial idea on this thread has progressed a bit - I now have drawn up the full engine shed ready to print as card model with plastic details. however, I've been concentrating on other things recently but that will change over the Xmas week - I hope. Photos of the current coaching stock with new air conditioning fitted are a gap in my photo source file. Also interested in photo of Rangtong station buildings. Thanks Phil H

Yes - heading for Thornton Yard.... CO2 tanks for Cameron Bridge, Tullis Russell PAA for Glanrothes plus general freight, mostly too far away to be sure. Thanks Phil H

Hi Gordon, You are correct - there were a lot of conversions that cast cabs made possible. I mainly used the left over bits of Lima 117's to make 'proper 117's' At least 3 makers of cast ends were around, then you had the etch guys to add to the confusion. Thanks Phil H

Hi Jim, I plead guilty as described. I did 3 conversions for one particular layout through Harburn Hobbies and several more as a result of them! Thanks Phil H

Hi John, There are LU decals in the ex Modelmaster/NGS range of decals. At present the whole stock is back in the hands of the NGS and is being sorted and catalogued prior to making the range available again. This would have happened already but my heart attack in June and subsequent recovery has delayed things somewhat. A soon as possible the listing will be put back onto the NGS Shop site, but I am unable to be specific about when this will be. A case of watch the website and news for an announcement. Thanks Phil H

Hi there, From memory all the small vans had gone from Fish traffic by the date you refer to. I was wandering around Scotland each year for either Easter or Summer over the period 1973 to 1979 and can only remember the larger, more modern vans in use. Thanks Phil H

Hi Mick, Your model numbers produced are close for the FO and BSO. When the great Airfix/GMR sell off happened we had a stock list showing quantities available. From memory, even though thousands had been sold and held in stock, there were over 15000 FO, 20,000 BSO available. We took 1000 of the BSO and 500 of the FO and stuck them away in the stock room along with a lot of other stuff. After discount they cost £0.75 each. We were also selling wagons at £10.00 inc p&p for 5!. Class 31 cost us £4.50 each! SO was produced first under the GMR brand andf was the last new item released before they went under and went to Kader in lieu of debts. Kader then passed them on to Mainline but only produced the SO as there was still so much of the old Airfix/GMR in stock. Things became more complicated when Palitoy decided to sell everything to Dave Boyle - Dapol. Dapol never produced 90% of the Airfix/GMR range again, simply used up the existing stock The only coaches that came off the Dapol production line were the 12 wheeled diner and the Mk2 SO/TSO. Thanks Phil H

Hi all, Now totally fed up with Windows 10 and it's update process. Having managed to get a stable, non crashing version set up and working properly - along comes the latest update. I now have a Windows 10 pc that crashes with monotonous regularity - at least 3 times a day. Windows reports itself as 1909 when I check, but even as I checked, it crashed again. After the last big update I ended up having to do a clean install with all the mess of having to reinstall everything else. With version 1909 I can no longer get my Sprog II with decoderpro to work, even after following all the advise which suggests how this can be resolved. Thanks Phil H

Hi all, If you are into wagons... This is a 'Must have' book to add to your collection. Thanks Phil H

Hi Flood, Thanks for the photo - a big help. As the one I have is based on a Farish Mk1 with changed window inserts I don't think most people would know if it is a Met Cam built one or not. So - your photo is what I shall use to do my model. Thanks Phil H

Hi all, Does anyone have a photo showing the roof of one of these? I have a model that I still have not done the roof for as I have yet to find out how it was laid out. Anyone able to assist? Thanks Phil H

Hi Chris, Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Will see about getting the bits now that the queries have been cleared up. Phil H Update - Shapeways order in Update - Shapeways order delivered. Queries still though! See attached photo of what I think I need to get if I have anything wrong - please advise of the correct item(s)

HI Nigel, OK - Have found the instruction set. Will have a good look tomorrow and see what decision I come to. First thoughts are to go for the 57.1 drive ratio as that should achieve the running speed I want. Thanks Phil H