The Evil Bus Driver

On 19/09/2023 at 12:45, bécasse said:

Concrete sleepered stretches could be found on secondary and branch lines by the 1950s but these stretches retained chairs and jointed bullhead rail giving a distinctly different appearance that I don't remember ever having seen modelled. The stretches concerned would have been relayed by hand so they were typically quite short, representing a few Sundays' worth of work by pw gangs. The sleepers I remember were manufactured by Dowmac but other manufacturers may well have produced suitable sleepers too.

The Bluebell was Bullhead on concrete. Its only actually been replaced relatively recently with flat bottom rail on concrete. There's even long welded rail through the tunnel. They kept the bullhead around the stations though. 

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/infrastructure-news/

1 hour ago, carefreeroz said:

Yes, I think that's Batch 1 which is just the Blue ones. Fran can confirm if that's correct....

That's good since I've preordered a blue one. 

47 minutes ago, SRman said:

 

I'll just leave this here.
 

Saunters nonchalantly off ...

Classic series

13 hours ago, PieGuyRob said:

Skynet and time travelling robots will be the death of us all!

And if your name is either John or Sarah Connor then you'd better go to Deed Poll. 🙄

According to Accurascale the 31s are due in the next 6 weeks so not long at all. I'd be allowing 2 extra weeks for the diversionary shipping route and a week to unload and start distribution so I reckon we'll have these in our sticky, grubby palms by early July.

The decorated sample at Model World Live looked phenomenal too.

Can't wait!

It was great to see the guys from Revolution at the NEC and avail myself of a Blue and grey Caroline. What an amazing model it is too! Here's to seeing you all at GETS! 

One way to improve the face of an original Vep might be to use Bachmann TC gangways  they have the door in the correct place. There's not a lot that can be done about the cab windows or the jumper recesses unless you find a retooled body from an Ebay 'breaker' 

On 26/04/2024 at 14:29, Mike Harvey said:

@The Evil Bus Driver A small batch is going on sale on Saturday morning on the Revolution website at standard price.

Awesome! Just got to try and avoid spending too much at Model World Live tomorrow. I'll come and see the Revolution stand  

Thanks muchly!

18 hours ago, adb968008 said:

 

 

A mk2d lets face it, is a tooling 40 years old for the Airfix one at this stage.

 

 

That tooling certainly did the rounds. I dread to think what kind of state its in now.  I'm guessing Hornby managed to get one more run out of it before it was just too far gone. I'm happy to be corrected though.

On 20/04/2024 at 11:07, Accurascale Fran said:

Hi everyone,

 

Our next outing sees us at Model World live at the NEC next weekend. We are proud to be headline sponsors for this new show, and as well as bringing our big stand with us, we were asked to bring something else that is big too (steady on!!) 

 

Can you guess what it is? Rich reveals all below! 
 

 

We look forward to seeing you there! 
 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

 

 

See you all there on the Sunday!

On 10/04/2024 at 19:50, ATME said:

Will there be another run of 00 Carolines in green? They are going for stupid money on ebay. (Have done lots of track inspections in the real thing hence the interest)

I'm hoping for a reissue but I'd be going blue and grey. I'm not paying £235 for one second hand. This is just price gouging by the seller.

One of the Revolution guys said at GETS that Trains4U had a few B/G ones left but they're long gone now. It's a case of holding out for a second run as clearly there are people who want one who don't have one. 

But for me it's not essential,  it's a 'nice to have' rather than a 'must get' so for me, if its re-run then great, I'll order one but as I said, I'm not paying 150% of RRP to get one.

I'm hoping for a 2A at some point as I'm going to need a few. Maybe 3 or 4. 

12 minutes ago, billywhizz said:

It is the announcement of the MK2D that my credit card is afraid of!! 

I think mine will be smoking after that. I've got a full rake of Airfix 2Ds though so they won't be a high priority for me. 

21 hours ago, McC said:

 

Absolutely. We plan to maintain stock availability as much as possible and the next run is already mapped out (and a few more after that, and more versions and variants etc). We will share more once decorated samples are in hand 

I have sympathy for my credit card. 

Sort of. 

There are some on there for £75 - 80! 😳

21 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Yes, that stale cheese sandwich was always being reported in the newspapers. 

You should check with the NRM to see whether they've still got it, so Accurascale can send these chaps to York to measure it up.

 

They might need hazmat suits by now though. Mind you they probably needed them back then  

21 hours ago, Flood said:

Thanks for the kind comment, and everyone else's appreciation.

 

I'm an idiot, I completely forgot about one of the selling points for these coaches...

 

That looks great! Just needs a big glass dome full of BR sandwiches* and paper bags full of cups of tea on the counter,  maybe a few packets of crisps and you're there. 

*Truly a thing of terror

3 hours ago, JSpencer said:

I have added figures to my pair.

 

Now I have to say, I had expected the bodies to be a cow to remove with lots of fine detail flying off.... But NAH it was really easy to unclip them and lift them off (unlike Bachmann  in my experience) even for my soft fingernails. 

I have used HO figures, especially for the TSO where legs need to get under the tables. They do look better with them and I may add more figures when I get them to fill them out a bit more (again thanks to the easy body removal).

 

 

Thats a great looking bit of third rail there. 

Got one of these beauties on preorder

13 hours ago, alastairb said:

Yes I noticed that too. I am gradually picking up Bachmann Mk2/2a's for my 70s / early 80s Highland layout. A lot more on that auction site recently and now going for circa £40 - as you say a lot less than they have been going for lately. 

That's good to know. I'm looking for a few to complete my two West of England rakes. 

13 hours ago, SouthernMafia said:

Did a boat train ECS on Redbridge Wharf today, mmmm...

 

Looks fantastic! What third rail did you use? It looks great!

On 08/02/2024 at 07:52, Mr.S.corn78 said:

Hi All,

 

So with a slight change to the previously advestised program we won't be exhibiting at Ally Pally, but in its place we are pleased to announce that we will be attending the 2024 Darlington exhibition on the 14th and 15th September at the Oakleaf sports complex at Newton Aycliffe

 

We will (hopefully) have a few new additions to the stock roster and may be a few other surprises for the weekend.

 

This is closely followed by the Great Electric Train show in October.

 

With only just over 6 months till the first outing for 2024 for the layout (we are at several other shows with other layouts and demos between now and then), we best get cracking on the list of jobs.

 

Now where is the chisel and hammer!!

Oh nice. I'll look forward to seeing it at GETS. 

Just as a bit of whimsy, were mk2s ever portion worked? I'm kind of used to fixed rakes and mine will be running as such however I was pondering this the other day. Since I grew up on and around the Southern Region, portion working of EMUs is commonplace there. I know LHCS is a lot more complicated to shunt around and I'm told there are certain rules around reversing over pointwork with passengers on, however it's not unheard of.

I've just been comparing my solitary Bachmann 2A with the Accurascale mk2B. There was already a Hubt Magnetic coupling on the Bachmann coach and the Accurascale one has the one out of the bag and there's a decent close couple there. I haven't tried it around a curve yet though. 

1 hour ago, Southernman46 said:

Indeed, the one I have in my possession was on the trackbed in the remains of Gloucester Eastgate station when I was able to wander round them in July 1975. Had "Western Invader" for haulage back to Paddington that day too .............. 👍

Now that sounds like a double whammy of goodness