Flood

Peter: I can't find any really good pictures of a late 19xx RBR roof at the moment but the link below shows M1965 next to M1710 and the roof vent has moved to the same position as on my model. I know it seems nearer to the kitchen window than that but that is just the effect of perspective. This batch also appears to have gained a monsoon vent on the roof centre line (in line with the moved circular vent) as seen in this photo of M1972: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseman2007/3720075791/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Peter: Thanks for the compliment. I put this coach next to a Mainline RB yesterday and the only difference on the kitchen side is the position of the middle door so most people won't even notice. If you're making a late build 19xx RBR (number series 1959 to 1984) then you can use the roof Bachmann supply on the InterCity one (that one vent needs moving along the roof) and the 3ft window doesn't need to be replaced by a 4ft one. The corridor side I just touched up around the window, the kitchen side I completely repainted the light grey and blended in the blue. From looking at a Bachmann BG in InterCity livery the dark grey and light grey they use are very close to the Railmatch colours so you may get away with blending in. David: Now that's a good question! We've got three Mk2e TSOs to paint in executive and one in blue and grey, these are in primer. There are three more ScotRail air-cons to paint and Glenn is looking to paint his Mk2a BFK into swallow livery. I've already done five different versions of the Airfix Mk2 air-con FO: two types of Mk2d, the mk2e and two types of Mk2f, I'll post photos of the differences for these in due course. Strictly speaking that should be it for Kirkhill (I assume you've already found the Mk1 BFK on page 10 and Mk2d BFK on page 13). What would be nice is a 16xx series RBK for use on Duffield - basically take half a Bachmann RU for the kitchen area (modded a bit) and add it to half a Bachmann FK. Not easy but that's half the fun. One day I might just write up a simple article on RMweb showcase to explain all the variations in air-con Mk2 stock, that should be able to send people to sleep!

Thanks for the info. I'm looking to make a few Class A ones myself so I'll have a check on the differences.

Depends how you want to look at what you're modelling. The Class B tanks may well have only ever been in black but Esso did have Class A tanks to the same design which would have been light grey with red solebars. Perhaps you could make two of those instead. Paul Bartlett has photos here.

Thanks for the understanding Dave, I managed to follow the Mk3 episode by nearly wrecking my Mk1 RBR yesterday! However, I realised quite early in the day that if I stripped off the coats of varnish I'd applied and started again on the one poor side I should be able to solve my problem. The filled windows had sunk slightly so had been filled again and repainted but I hadn't repainted the whole bodyside. Therefore two tones of paint, therefore not acceptable, therefore start again. As I said above I had to remove two coats of varnish, repaint the blue and the grey and leave to dry overnight. Before Glenn starts to pull his hair out about the brush strokes from hand painting I have found a solution. I applied three thin coats of paint and then rubbed down with used wet and dry to create a smooth surface. After adding the transfers I then applied spray varnish. So this morning the sides were rubbed down, the transfers added and the Railmatch varnish applied. After leaving for three hours so the side was dry to touch the coach was re-assembled. So we have: The altered interior. The yellow line shows where the kichen used to end, to the left of this was originally all seating. The seating units and tables are separate items stuck to the floor so are easily removed. The altered roof. As far as I can tell the vent position was moved when the buffet was added. The last two sections of the kitchen end of the roof were replaced by two from an FK so that this end of the coach had rain strips. These were certainly on 1948 and 1953 so I'm guessing these were also added when converted as the water filler pipes at this end were removed. The water tank filler was moved from the FK location to the correct location for an RU/RBR. The view of the corridor side, the window to the right of the middle door is the enlarged one. The view of the kitchen side. One emergency door and the windows either side have been filled and smoothed over. All the transfers are HMRS pressfix. The Western Region conversions appear to have had the "Buffet Restaurant" towards the middle of the coach, LM Region stock had this branding nearer to the seating end. The Bachmann small "Kitchen" transfers could have stayed but I replaced these with HMRS transfers as the Bachmann ones are too large. All in all I'm very happy with the result. Another variation for Kirkhill and another one of my "coaches I've always wanted to make" ticked off. Edit: I've just realised I've not removed the footstep from where the emergency door was, doh! (Now sorted)

Thanks Oldfield. I've just had a quick scan through four years of Modern Railways finding the articles on "On Train Catering" and I haven't found a colour photo. Therefore I've made my choice - it's staying grey. Yesterday evening was one of those that I wish I'd never started... I took the flush glazed Mk3 to the railway club, noted that the sides seem to bulge out, tried to take off the roof and three windows worth of bodyside broke off in the process. I didn't swear - I was too angry to. I put the coach back into its box and then showed Glenn the damage when he arrived. He'd brought the Motorail GUV he bought at Ally Pally so we could fit it with Commonwealth bogies. But no, we fitted the replacement bogies only for me to realise that I'd brought the B4 bogies from the 19xx buffet and not the Commonwealth bogies I'd put to one side. After this low point things improved. I helped Glenn on Mickleover's O gauge layout to find out why another member's recent re-wiring didn't work. By the end of the night we had the yard working and 3/4s of one of the station roads. We even found a solution for the remainder of that road but ran out of time. Glenn had brought me some Motorail transfers so I could back date a swallow Motorail GUV into an executive one. These were added when I got home, photo as below: Going back to the Mk3 I swapped the interior and chassis round so at least the good side faces the public. I then added strengtheners to the inside of the cracked window supports. Hopefully this will stop the problem re-occurring and we can touch up the cracks to make this side acceptable. One of the club members said a few weeks ago that he wished he made stock as good as we do, after he had snapped a roof on a Lima CCT. I told him that I still make mistakes but, as a girlfriend once said to me about her cooking, the point is it's not that a mistake has been made - it's knowing how to cover it up. I'm still not in the mood to do anymore laserglaze yet. One thing I do know is that if you're not in the right frame of mind then you will make mistakes. I've got until June to do the whole set, I'd rather take my time. On that note I'll chill out for the afternoon and do some more to the RBR.

I haven't done any more flush glaze today. I might do some tonight but otherwise I'll do a couple of coaches tomorrow. In the meantime I've been doing some more to the RBR. Here are a couple of photos of the revised coach next door to the doner for the roof. All I need to do is renumber the maroon coach and it can be used as it is. The last photo is an interior shot to show you the buffet counter that I've spent the afternoon making. A quick coat of grey paint will suffice but I do know that they did have "warm orange" interiors. If anyone has a colour photo from the 1970s/80s then that would be even better. Just need to find my wet and dry now. I have actually started a spring clean today (mainly because I couldn't find the wet and dry or any plasticard), by the end of the week the house might be liveable in again!

One down, seven to go... After an hour and 45 mins I have flush glazed one of the HST trailers. The main problem I had was the body of the Lima Mk3. It is very old, probably dating from 1981-82, and cracked when one of the main windows went in. I've done a quick repair job (it's on the other side from the photo) but it does need touching up. Apart from that the main windows went in fine, the small toilet ones are very loose and I've held them in with varnish as Shawplan suggested to me at Nottingham. I may well use a dab of non solvent bostick just to make sure. The door windows were all too big, not by much but just enough to be annoying. The plastic on the windows is about 1mm thick and takes a bit of filing (probably a blunt file). I filed all four sides on each door window with a number of trials until they fitted. This may be the coach again, I'll see how the other ones go. All in all I'm very pleased with the result. If I'd been a bit more careful I wouldn't have cracked the body and I'd be even happier but It just serves me right. As has been mentioned on Ian J's thread on flush glazing the Lima air-con Mk2s, the horrible Lima recesses to the windows have totally vanished. Time now for a coffee and a rest - I think if I try to do any more I'll only make a mess of it. Coaching stock can now wait until tomorrow.

Thank you all as always. If anyone is interested in how I came to devise the operating sequence then I have written an explanation but it is a little long winded. Anyway. Yes, I know, this week should have been solely spent flush glazing an HST set. But no, I had to find myself another little project didn't I! Back in the 1980s one of the rakes that interested me was the Glasgow/Aberdeen - Plymouth. Not only was it a very comfortable train to travel in, and normally with Class 50 haulage, but also it contained some coaches not available r.t.r. As we model half of this rake I have already had to make a Mk2D BFK. By the way, I was asked which my favourite train was at Nottingham a week ago. I don't actually have favourite trains, I just like modelling coaching stock that is different from what you can buy. One of the other coaches found in the Plymouth rake was a Mk1 restaurant buffet and we already use a Mainline coach in the rake at present. Now Glenn suggested last week that we could swap the odd coach for a bit of variation so I got thinking. Rather than a Mainline restaurant buffet why not make a refurbished version of the Bachmann Restaurant coach. Therefore, while the Grand Prix was on this morning, the following alterations have occurred: The kitchen side is straight forward enough. Fill in two windows and a door so the buffet counter can be added. The corridor side is subtle. I needed to model one of the Western Region batch with roof water tanks so I managed to buy a maroon one at Ally Pally for only £16.50 (they don't make it in blue and grey) and then I swapped the roofs over. The blue and grey side is resting on the maroon coach to show the subtle difference. The window to the right of the middle door was 4ft wide on the Western Region batches, the Eastern Region coaches (and how Bachmann have modelled both types) had a 3ft wide window. So there you go. Give it a day or so for the filler to dry, smooth it down and a quick re-blow of blue and grey and that's another style of coach for Kirkhill that is rarely modelled.

Thanks Russell. I'm not sure when we'll manage to get to Switzerland! Perhaps you can arrange a holiday over here in the next few years and pop into an exhibition we're attending at the same time. I tried to keep a list of the next exhibitions our the fotopic site but sadly that's not working at the moment.

Express Models, price about £30 each. The lead time was 5 months but we needed them for Derby exhibition last May and they pulled the stops out for us. We had a bit of a problem as the feed wire runs through the metal return tube and as this tube hadn't been de-burred at the bottom (nor a plastic sleeve fitted) then the feed wire had some insulating coating scraped off and shorting occurred. In the end Glenn solved this by running a new feed wire up the inside of each of the towers. A bit annoying having to correct the fault but the lighting towers all work fine now.

Seeing as the Railway Modeller article has been out for a couple of weeks I thought that you folks might like to see some of the shots that didn't make it. There was a photo of an HST power car heading through the wash but this looks very "toy like". The photo used on the index page (cropped in the magazine). I feel the extra height really adds to this picture: "Strathisla" by the depot building. This was the photo originally planned for the index page: 47578 by the shed. This photo was used in the Nottingham Exhibition guide: An overall view of the shed end of the layout. The one used in the magazine was a far better angle: We're off to visit Ally Pally this weekend (not to exhibit) then I have next week off. That should mostly be spent doing the flush glaze windows for the HST so I'll post photos when that's done. In the meantime, many thanks for all your interest. Feel free to comment on any aspect of the layout (or sequence) as you wish, the more feedback we have the more we can improve on what we already have.

Another exhibition over and I'd like to give a huge thank you to the following: Glenn, Richard, Richard and Alex for keeping the layout running so well. All the people who helped run the exhibition, it was a credit to all of you. Lastly thank you to everyone who stopped by to look at the layout. We had some very interesting conversations with charming people and I cannot remember a single negative comment (well spotted the gentleman who politely pointed out a couple of errors in our sequence descriptions). If every exhibition to come is as enjoyable as all the ones that we have been invited to so far then I reckon that Glenn and I will want to be exhibiting layouts for a long time into the future.

Looks like Barrow Hill to me

Sorry folks I keep forgetting to mention this one... I'll be picking up a complete set of Shawplan flushglaze windows for the blue and grey HST set this weekend. Due to the light grey around the windows Glenn and I feel that this set will benefit from the flushglaze most. Obviously the new windows won't be on display at Nottingham (unless I can do them on Saturday night) but the set will certainly be ready for DEMU. A complete set of windows for eight Mk3 coaches is not cheap but the other two sets will probably be done in due course as well. Just to answer Mark 37: the layout at home is quite a way from being started at the moment although I was making sets of sprung buffers last weekend. Once I've got the spare room tidied up and the boards sorted I'l start a new thread.

From what we've heard we're going to be in a less well lit section of the Town Hall for DEMU so some people probably won't be able to see anything! In the meantime we'll be keeping all the lights on at Nottingham even though it'll seem like daylight. Thank you as always to Crisis Rail, Grimleygrid, Hoovernut and captinfranko for the kind comments. Compared to your depot, Grimley, ours is just a few wooden platforms and one six foot building. Yours will be an absolute joy to behold when it's finished and I do expect it to be on the exhibition circuit!

Thanks for the post Richard. At least you and Glenn have first hand experience - I was merely a purchasing clerk! Hope you're ready for next weekend. Should be good fun, especially with a Charter rake to contend with as well!

It may be true that not a great deal happens on a TMD but Aberdeen Kirkhill is primarily a rolling stock depot (with a least two sleeper rakes) not a loco depot so we have movement on the front of the layout virtually constantly. Obviously we don't leave a rake in the maintenance shed for a hour but so many other shunting moves are needed with the other stock that a rake will be in the shed for approximately 5 to 10 minutes of real time. There are 16 passenger train moves onto the depot. 16 passenger train moves exiting the depot (thank God for that, the sequence balances!). One freight trip on and off the depot and five light engine moves both on and off the depot. Coupled with the fact that nearly every rake has to go through the wash, into the maintenance shed and then be moved to a cleaning road we end up with a spreadsheet of 165 different moves for the complete sequence. Apart from the occasional time difference between one rake departing and another one arriving there is always a loco or complete train moving on the front of the layout over the course of the complete schedule. That takes about 4.1/2 hours, after which we start again.

Many thanks for all the kind posts. We certainly have a considerable amount of movement on the layout although most of it is at about 15 mph. I've always been a little worried that the slow speeds will bore everyone to death but we've only had the one complaint so far (see the final paragraph of the Modeller article).

One week to go until Nottingham Exhibition and we had a reasonably successful running day last Sunday. I say "reasonably successful" as one loco did try to bend itself apart but Glenn has managed to repair it. Four Mk2 air-con first class coaches have finally been numbered by me this week and kadees for them will go on tonight. The Mk2E TSO stock will not be ready for Nottingham so will have to be done for DEMU. In addition, three of the air-con firsts are in blue and grey and need a white line adding between those colours. That will also have to wait until after Nottingham, along with the last few ScotRail Mk2 air-cons that need painting. After the above we will have all the rolling stock finished and only one loco to finish and cover in snow. This will be 37046 which will be working with 37033 on the snowploughs. My time can then go towards the layout I want in my house. As it won't be based on Scotland and there will be no coaching stock it'll be quite a change from building Kirkhill. In the meantime, if you manage to visit Nottingham Exhibition please say hello to Glenn, me, Lochnagar and 47401 over the course of the weekend.

Not quite how I remember the conversion going but there ya go... I probably should have darkened the window border with a black pen before I put the screen over the top. As it is the screen is just held in place by the gangway stuck with Bostick so both should be pretty easy to remove if I so wish. By the way: Check out this months (April 2011) Railway Modeller for 8 (yes, eight) pages on Aberdeen Kirkhill. Should be in the shops this Thursday if I've heard correctly. We've seen copies of the article and we are seriously impressed with the job Steve Flint and the Modeller have done.

Well the number of Class 22s available has just dropped by one. Needing some Smith's screw couplings I found that Kernow were charging a good price and then found myself adding a Class 22 to the order as well. Strictly speaking I haven't much spare cash at the moment but at least I'll have a few months to save up. Quite looking forward to getting a new model now.

Another idea I spoke to Glenn about today is to print a "window" onto a sticky label, black edging with a dark grey "window" area. Once the plastic cover is fitted over the top the correct effect might be achieved. The photo below shows a unit about the same age as ours would be so this is the effect we need to be looking for. http://colinpbrooks.fotopic.net/p58194652.html

We've had the thumbnails of the photos sent so we can do some captions. Glenn and I are very pleased with the results even though the ones we've seen are only low res. Railway Modeller should be out about ten days before we are at Nottingham so that should give the exhibition some free advertising. We'll try to get some pdfs of the article by email so we can display the pages at the front of the layout. We're hoping to have some information boards for the public to read as well. We're certainly looking forward to all of this years exhibitions after the success of last year.

Over to Stafford tomorrow to spend some money on another little project that I'm planning at the moment. In the meantime there are only six weeks to go until the exhibition at Nottingham and I have finally numbered all the HST coaches. A huge thank you must go to John at Precision Transfers who has supplied me with some 75mm numbers for the swallow HST set. As they were already in the full coach numbers I required it only took me an hour to renumber the last HST this morning compared with about 3.1/4 hours for each HST set when I used HMRS transfers on the other two sets. I won't bore you with all eight cars in each set so here are three photos, one for each livery. Finally a close up of the buffets . The executive set does show the problem of using Fox regional letters with HMRS numbers, the Fox letters are slightly bigger. Oh well.