cairnsroadworks

They’ve done a cracking job with that it looks ace. That middle 90 looks smart too ;-)

I managed to persuade Rainbow Railways to do me the silver bits and numbers from Railtec. Plates aren’t available alas.

Interesting. I’ve never had an issue with the Hornby 87. Bachmann 90 and Heljan 86… another story all together. My method is to use a Stanley knife to get under the edges if my initial press on the windscreen doesn’t get any movement. I’ve recently found that precision paints superstrip 2 applied carefully away from the ‘window’ element of the glazing with a small paintbrush and then left an hour works but I always wash the loco in soapy water before I remove glazing to avoid getting the stripper on the ‘window’ element. Hope that helps.

They generally come apart lovely for repainting in my experience. The springs inside come away with a bit of gentle pressure so no issues for me. As for your question about the double arrow… with a good gloss varnish surface and a little decal softener you should have no issue with that either.

If only you’d finished that layout with some wires on ;-) hope all is well, Mark.

Got my 90s today, thanks to Rainbow! The finish is stunning but one niggle alas, the yellow on 90044 is wrong. 90044 is the oddball of the orange ones with it’s centrally placed logo, but it also carries the standard warning panel yellow. Ironically 90041 has this and is perfect, 90044 should match it. Same issue of course with the recent grey one, which has the lighter lemon shade too in place of standard yellow. So what to do with 044… paint the yellow or start major surgery with buffers and logo repositioning… hmmm!

Hi Kat, you’d be better off renumbering the factory model to be honest. It’s easy for the numbers to come off, and if you try and renumber the painted one you usually end up with an issue with there being a ‘hole’ in the paintwork. Up to you, of course.

Do you know I didn’t try that. Elementary error. Thanks ever so much for the assistance, I’ll give it a go!

Hi all. Can I please ask if anyone has had any issues with the centre headlights not working? I’ve just fitted DCC Sound and I’ve no centre headlight. I fitted a standard decoder and still no headlight. I tried a different 87 and still no headlight… help!!

Fabulous - thanks for this.

And 86608

Yes - 86632 did at least - but it doesn’t have the bottom door handle.

Great stuff. I had “fun” stripping down 86634. The windows just would not shift at all. Patience worked in the end. Managed to salvage the other bits but only after some drilling underneath to persuade them to move! The red lights and headlights are still solidly in place though so will require a dab of maskol before painting. I hadn’t noticed the lack of cab roof gutters - how did you resolve those on yours?

Oooooo exciting!!!!

Be interested in any findings. This info comes from a man who really knows his 86s, and has owned a few!

I came across a box full of airfix mk2s - FO and TSOs. If they’re of any use PM me.

Maybe you can help interpret what my friend told me… ”The main difference is the bogies, the dampers, yaw damper mounting. The 86/4 used more class 90 ideas whereas an 86/2 used 87 stuff”

I was led to believe that changing one to an 86/2 led to compromises beyond this rivet counter, although I confess that my love for them hasn’t extended to examining the bogies in great detail which I believe is where some of the main differences lie?

Awesome.

That looks awesome. Well done. Need to find some time to get mine sorted out. I’m considering modifying mine to 86411 with large numbers and full yellow fronts for a bit of variety.

My view was that it doesn’t need much doing to it, just a little fettling. Same with 609. Can’t wait to see yours finished. I’ve got 622 this morning so my set is complete.

That’s a shame, alas I don’t.

It’ll need a pantograph swap but I suspect you have that in hand anyways :-) if you end up with a spare BW pan I’ll take it off your hands haha. I have my eye on that one too.

That is a frothy line up. Now get to work on 404 ;-)

Thanks for the tips on the stripping, much appreciated. The Bachmann 90s are a nightmare but I run a small amount of models trip along the edges of the glazing which works ok. You just need to be careful not to get it on the exterior part of the windows.