The Evil Bus Driver

I wish Simon all the best in his retirement. Somehow I don't think that's the last we'll see of him. Even if it's just through a blog or something like that. Nevertheless, his successor has some massive shoes to fill although they'll likely be someone who works with him so they'll have a good idea how to go about the job.

I bought a pack of NEM ones at Warley and some for Airfix style coiplings on Ebay so I've been experimenting with various coaches. The Hunts give great close coupling on my Hachette rake, oddly enough. I'll be trying them out on the club test track soon.

Ohh nice! That's a great Terrier! North Devon wow! My dad lives in Paignton.

In our case we have a Mainline Restaurant buffet. What I can glean from Keith Parkin's book is it's a Diagram 24 coach, just from interest. The process would have been the same whatever. I might well do a Griddle car from a Replica body and Comet sides or something. Or a Boat Second. The coach is a Mainline as I said but it uses the same tooling as Replica used so I bought the gangways to fit. The coach disassembled with the rubber gangways removed. There are lugs each end as well as the middle and the body just pops off the chassis and lifts off. The next job is to remove the interior and put it aside for painting later. I don't know what colour the corridor wall was but I'm sure it wasn't silver. The assembled and partially painted Keen systems gangways. These have a small spring which must be handled carefully or they'll be lost to the carpet gods. They've been filed to fit as per the instructions as these coaches have a moulded gangway cowl which is pretty thick. Next the gangway assemblies were fitted and glued in place at the edges. You need around 1 - 1.5mm of travel. Be careful not to get paint into the aperture as it's a tight fit. Also the interior end between the seats at the passenger end fouls the spring spigot so this needs to be either drilled through or removed so I removed it. This also makes the interior easier to fit and remove as its pretty tight. I painted the partition wall cream colour and the floor matt black just as a bit of realism. I might go back in and fit some people soon. Not to mention a replacement for the missing buffer head. Fitted at the passenger end with some touching up to do. I did file the part at the top of the gangway as these would have disappeared by the time of the blue era. I can touch it in with some rail blue soon. The reassembled coach. I do need a few details like the disc vents on the roof. These were missing when I bought the coach . Also next job will be new bogies and Hunt couplings as this will run in my mk2D rake which is already fitted with them.

Hi Gary This is certainly an interesting project. Have you considered joining your nearest model railway club? I'm guessing yours would be either Pevensey Bay MRC, Newhaven or Uckfield. I was a member of Brighton MRC for a few years and they're a good bunch of guys too. Well worth considering as you'd probably gain access to advice or resources (ours at Daventry has a room full of books for reference) as well as assistance.

Oh yes all that filing... I did pick up some Hornby 2Es for £11 each though. They'll need new bogies and metal wheels but they're pretty nice.

Looking good Martin! I've just put Hunt couplings on all mine. Brings them closer together but not as close as I'd like. I'm still on the lookout for two or three more Second Opens. What if we ask Mr. Kohler very nicely.....?

Black, white and grey if I remember correctly.

Any chance of some 2A TSO's? If only to get some to the same standard as I need a few of those for my planned West of England rake. I reckon we'd see a load of new ones from Bachmann if that happened too.

I've got 3 of these which serve as my 'experimental' rake so if I want to try something out I use them. They'll definitely be getting metal wheels soon and they're fitted with Hunt magnetic couplings and run pretty well. I'm likely to fit Keen systems floating gangway plates within the rake as well as try out a seating moquette transfer as an experiment. Not bad for a set of £2 coaches tbh. And they're close enough to Bachmann ones to know if something will work too. I've seen them on ebay for silly money as well as on exhibition stands going decidedly cheaper. If the experiment works I'll get an additional one and bash it into a Boat Second or Restaurant 1st* (Diagram 72 or 90) using brass sides and cut off the end steps and that erroneous plank above the gangways that still hasn't been got rid of... *I believe the GCR has a knackered one hidden away at Swithland. A real rarity now

That's quite an interesting story Paul. I managed to get my copies for £50. I had it set to £51.01 as someone tried to Ebay snipe me.

Heh yes I availed myself of a few from Phoenix at Warley. They really do look good it has to be said. I was actually discussing them with Pete Waterman as well... Oddly enough I found the remains of my Coopercraft FK and started dismantling it. It was mostly in the plastic pouch they came in plus a few extra parts in a box. Looks like I can put it back together although some of the glue might need redoing. I picked up a long box to put IPA in to strip it down. So that'll be next, get all the paint off and start reassembly. I'll put the interior on a piece of styrene strip to hold it all together and I'll do the seats with waterslide transfers printed with a moquette reduced to the approximate size on decal paper. I got the pics attached so a few of these might work. Being an FK I reckon the charcoal grey one is right. Got a CK to do as well

That's great news! It does mean I have a hope of getting two mk1 BCKs to complete my kitbuilt rake. And it's great to see the range has (possibly) been saved so let's hang in there and see what improvements can be made. I still need to get a Kirk Maunsell Brake third plus some wheels (I'm going to be buying loads of wheels in the near future, it seems) and I cam get building. It's nice to read some good news about the Coopercraft range finally though as they clearly were decent kits in their day. I actually found my mk1 FK which I built 20 years ago and started dismantling it to strip down and rebuild. I think that can populate a carriage siding or something.

That I do like. It'll look right at home surrounded by slate heaps with the narrow gauge track winding it's way past. Great stuff!

To be fair my credit card will be getting a little heated once my A/S preorders start rolling in. I just need to keep up with the repayments 😳 I do wish KR every success though and I'm hoping they do a second run of the 4DD as I'll sign up for one then. If I like what I see. I liked the ES at Warley but I do appreciate there might be more work needed as yet. I'm definitely open to buying models from them though

I have one of these punches somewhere but I'm stumped if I can remember where. Trouble is I still have too many boxes and they tend to get muddled up. Once I'm in the loft next year I can empty them all out and see what's what and start getting turnouts built and track plans done for my main 'big' layout

How about some mk2a coaches in blue and grey? Especially TSOs. Bachmann seem not to have done any recently and I can imagine how great the quality would be. As to buses I'd definitely go for a Leyland Atlantean AN68 East Lamcs bodywork, especially Brighton spec, or a Bristol VR series 3 as they were my childhood.

They were stuck at junction 16 when I saw them. I was passing over on a bus so couldn't circle the roundabout and try to see.

There were two Bulleid coaches on low loaders parked up on the Northbound M1 near Northampton yesterday waiting for the road to reopen. One was a shallow vent and one was a large vent one. Were they Bluebell vehicles? What's going on with them?

I haven't trimmed them as the couplers keep them a fixed distance apart. I do want to get them closer though. And get floating gangways.

I've fitted all my mk2Ds with magnetic couplings. They really do reduce the gap. Ideally I'd like it to go down to <1mm though. Half for preference.

Gradient looks a bit steep 😷😁

This is great news. Means I'll (probably) be able to retire the 10 or so older tankers I have as they are decidedly toy like.

Hi Richard. I was watching the video where you showed the wheelchair ramp going up to the station ticket office. It got me thinking about lighting (That was the subject being discussed before I got called away) would this area not have had those rectangular wall lights with the tubular cable pipe above or below them? They were definitely a very early 90s thing. You'd usually see them work, then over time you'd see one out, then the covers missing etc.