Ian Fisher

Units!

175 fairly wide area of operations, North west, Wales.

323 bit of variety in colour two main areas of operation.

Really suprised no one of the big boys have ever had a go at PEP family, 313, 314, 315, 507, 508. I know it would need a number of sides, there being many subtle differences in window arrangement and roof detail but the overall shape and look remain constant. Loads of liveries a long life with years still left in service wide sphere of localised operation.

An apology from myself on behalf of Royal Mail. Yesterday in the wind and rain I went to the post office in our grown up village, got soaked and posted a number of items .

And erm well this morning I had to do a double take....delivered early doors..

Was erm this package.....

Will have another go later, I did post it honest, oh and the addresses are not obliterated on the actual parcel...hmmmmmm

Not franked, I thought it clear that the original postage had been scrubbed out enough.

I have had a few packs of 5 thou Evergreen over the years. The packaging in front of me clearly says sheet styrene, the same one Colin will be in receipt of in a day or so RM willing.

I think the crispness is more to its desnsity as a plastic, and how much pressure you think you need to cut a material of similar thickness, giving the impression to me at least of being hard to cut.

 

Regarding the repair patches, I am not sure I have ever seen .005" strip and only Evergreen seem to do 005" sheet and I find that stuff pretty difficult to cut cleanly as it seems much tougher than normal styrene and I suspect it is made from a different plastic.

 

 

Thanks for the link Mick, I did wonder when the views went up!

£85 for one coach comparative to a RTR from one of the big boys is a higher cost, but as Mick says £85 for a complete kit built RTR model isn't that higher price. As good as Britannia Pacific model is it is never going to sell in their thousands. 999606 in all its incarnations it is a niche model.

Economy of scale has to be considered in projects like this. Without our support to developers like BP we wouldnt get models like 606, to rely on the big boys to produce everything we want would in my opinion see the hobby stagnate. It would also reduce the fun we get from glueing, cutting etc.

The models are available as kits, I wanted to personalise my version of 606 but even with a few added bits and bobs, add in the cost of wheels, paint, transfers and sundries oh and the time to build the model £85 for a model finnished to a good standard doesn't sound too bad a price!

That's £85 for a made up coach.

The kit is available for less. Ian Fisher has 999606 on the go here

 

I've already done UTU2 (62462, later 999605) and 999602 before it's rebuild. There's a lot of work that amounts to more than £85 in those two

 

BTW, there's four UTU's......

 

Cheers,

Mick

Not far from us, just down the A38. I have driven around a had a look at what is left around the site and wondered its full extent and purpose.

As for curves and small wheelbased locos in EM I would say go for it. Crown Street and Regent Road both have in places almost set track curves and they always perform well.

Goodluck with the project.

Satisfying....now get to that darkened room.

I bet you are happy tonight.

The sides are now well under way, with the first of the TSO sides being complete and others are at various stages of completion on the production line.  A strip of 20 thou. sheet, pre-curved and drilled with 0.6mm holes pitched at 10mm along its centreline is added to the lower art of each side, followed be infill pieces vertically to form recesses fro the glazing.

 

The drop light layers go in next.  These have been trimmed to size and fitted in the doors.

 

IMG_7156.JPG

 

IMG_7158.JPG

 

Howard's scribing jig makes the forming of the top light inner frame consistent and it lines up with the door drop light perfectly.

 

IMG_7159.JPG

 

This finished side is now 40 thou. thick, with the addition of 10 thou. strips top and bottom, plus further 10 thou. vertical infills between compartments.

 

IMG_7160.JPG

 

Colin

Definitely were not A one...even if they were.

Sounds tasteful!

Many Lima mouldings were actually a lot nicer than people gave them credit for, and once detailed up seem to blend in quite nicely with more recent stuff.

Wasn't it the 73 that had fantastic fine moulding in the body side grills that everyone in the 1990s and early 2000s hacked out and replaced with a crude etch that yes, ticked the box of being etched, but looked much less like the fine mesh on a 73 than the lovely Lima moulding?

jo

60010 heading towards Burton-Upon-Trent past Stenson Bubble today at 17:25 on Kingsbury tanks?

Nice to see someone else making things out of them.

I have loads of spare sides if you get stuck with any element of your side conversion

Looking good.

Sadly it doesnt look like lion has been reissued by ABS, I have recently had their catalogue and it aint in it

Darkened room time!

Those sides look almost too good to progress with nasty glue and shaping and such like.

In a day or two Colin the aches will subside and I am sure you will be left with a pressing desire to knock out a few more units worth.

Great work.

Hi Sean,

I have found latex can create peelable moulds for cuboid shapes. A useful mould can be built up after a few dips.

Bath sealant as you say can be used also best for flat objects as it lacks firmness, the main draw back is it takes an age to go off fully.

With RTV silicone there are so many choices, maybe too many on first inspection, but the hig advantage is a mould can be created that supports itself, but with a much improved time cure time allowing the creation of a useable mould qiicker

Hi Sean,

Have a look here:-

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/edgeimpactshop/search.php?Keyword=pot

One of the most comprehensive casting supply people maybe not the cheapest but definitely a good reference.

Thanks Andy.

Another option there for me if my current experiments fall short.

Cheers.

Sean.

http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BE_STIFF_TOUR_78_Kensington_Olympia.jpg

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brexhibitiontrain/h144a9f56

Mr Bartlett of this parish would confirm its origins also!

He also has other useful images of other stock.

I would defo think they are of LMS origin.

It looks like there was a mark one FK part of the train.

Those carriages other than the mark one pullman look more like an LMS profile to me.

I have heard that too, isnt the grill sourced or supposed to have come from BQ? Easier to access them extrenally and pop a grill on it than a patch...lump hammer enginering at its best!

The below the window grill thing is a panel they cut to get into the heater, so we were told

 

Regards Arran

I'd give DC Kits or Realtrack, thats DC Kits or Realtrack ×in best reeves and mortimer type lingo×

Give the manfucaturer and retailer the full whack!

Is there is a list of retailers? I was just wondering who in Yorkshire is stocking these?

Hi Colin,

The compressor and framework build sequence is brilliant. I hope it didn't cause too long a lie down in that darkened room!

Ian

The late Chris Matthewman...his trackwork really hit the spot

Hi Sean,That layout whose trackwork you admired looks like Striven to me. I can't recall the builder's name, but the switched K crossings on the double slips are just like those on that layout.Good luck with the new venture!Colin

If you have a read through the social and political history of the APT-P Litchurch Lane were actually behind in producing the trailers, it was a prototype test train fleet, the vehicles when I went to Derby and Crewe works open days from 1978 they were in my memory allways very well kept up and very much in use.

Think your memories are more based on miss information and prejudice than actual fact.

Memories can play tricks, it doesnt in this day and age of almost instant research, allow such niave and somewhat negative rosetinted glasses style of posts.

Whilst true the APT-P P for prototype didn't make it into a production train. It allowed a thorough design concept to be trialed over twenty years.

Unions didnt force the build, maybe a reluctance from the outset of the project from the Ministry of transport to provide agreed funds and seemingly constant failure and re-organisation within the management also must have been key. It is hard to make comment on what was clearly a political stance with regard to investment, but my own apolitical thoughts on the matter and based on what information that is public would suggest the project was fixable given the right atmosphere.

Reading this thread has reminded me of when I was a teenager and my dads head office overlooked the scrap line at Derby and we would watch them shunt the new APT coaches straight out the works onto the scrap line all unpainted and covered in clear plastic sheeting such was the farce in the late 1970s early 1980s after the program had been canceled that the goverment under threat from the unions still let the works complete there contract just to keep the loco workers in work even though it would never go into service and we wonder why it all went wrong. Thanks for the interesting thread. Regards Steve ps I did have photos but they were all lost during a messy divorce hell hath no fury as the saying go'es

An item of myth and legend, I am now the owner of a Hurst LWB pantograpgh kit! Ok I need another two but at least im a 1/3 of the way there.

Having only ever heard of them and having talked to Andrew Hurst about them, the other nights quick perusal of his site showed one as being in stock.

The other parts being the door opening lights with a 325 they are located in the place of a door open warning, but as I understand they contain a blue shade, they are part of a system to see if anyone is in the coach.

Also hopefully within the consignment will be some of the door opening lights retro fitred to mark two and mark three stock.

The "lights" come moulded in translucent orange, I need them to be blue!

I have some opaque blue acrylic from a aeromodelling project so will try if this gives the effect I require, touch the sides with a shiny metallic colour and it could provide the detail that is just so fine and defining.

Just been doing some shopping for another sort of Royal Mail Train...and very happily came across Hurst's 91/325 LWB panotgrapgh as being in stock..so would be rude not to flex my flexible friend. I could be awash in Post trains!

Just had an update email the parcel is despatched and on its way! Efficient or what! Two hours later

Not that I have attempted it, but have considered maybe using a good quality "invisible" tape.

If laid evenly and given a rub once primed it should give a bond that should last as long as the plasticard?

Ian

Hi Tigermoth,

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but it doubt that material would stick to styrene plastic and it would be too thick as well!  (We're talking sub - 5 thou. here.)

 

All the best,

 

Colin