Colin parks

Hi Bazza, What a wonderful set of photos of your EMUs and most spacious fiddle yard. By now they have been in service with you on your layout (s) for far longer than the real ones did on the SR/BR! All the best, Colin

Hi Bazza, So you've got the Brian Golding book have you?! The pictures are useful but the drawings are well known to be suspect and incorrect in respect of the 2 BIL if they show a fuse holder on the DTC's compartments side. I have come to grief with Mr Golding's book on two occasions, namely with the 2 HAL motor coach having wrongly spaced compartments on the motor coach and the 4 CIG's window positions. Never again! I have three sets of complete 2 BIL drawings by Nick Campling, Bob Phelps (in the Railway Modeller last year) and Mike King (whose drawings only arrived two days ago). All these agree with each other, though as bassettloko said, the roof vents are more evenly spaced over the compartments than drawn. (This last point sadly applies to the 4 CORs too, but my model will be left in glorious inexactittude for now!) All the best, Colin

Hi Mike, Re. motor bogies and their brake blocks, I've no real information to add I'm afraid. The biggest change needed on the Hornby 2 BIL chassis is to install a trailing pick-up bogie under the DTC. The Hornby model has a motor bogie there - which is wrong. A trailing pick-up bogie had shallower side frames, tie bars between the W-irons and different brake rigging. (It did have the cranked guard irons as per the Hornby model though.) If you do decide not to change the bogie, it would at least be improved by having its brake rigging set inside the wheels, not outside like Hornby have done it. Re. drawings, all the drawings I have show the brake rigging on the trailing pick-up running outside the wheels, but it never was. I should imagine the rigging on all the unpowered bogies of a 2 BIL to be rigged as per the Maunsell/Lynes standard 8ft bogie's arrangement. The good news is that the Hornby motor bogie has, as far as can be seen, the correct linkage but should have straight, 'Central' type guard irons on its leading transom. The shoe beams are also on the list of things to be attended to. They are much too deep. It is very easy to prise them off, as I found with the 4 COR's Hornby motor bogies. All the best, Colin

After the cogitation over roof vents, it seemed best to get on and do something. The DMBS has had its vents conduit and (rather unplanned at the outset)periscopes. This had the consequence of exposing two rectangular holes in the roof where they once stood - now plugged with 60 thou. plastic strip fixed with super glue to act as a joint filler. Another unplanned operation was the plugging of the erstwhile conduit knob holes on the DMBS. I had hoped to use them to locate the new lamp tops as on the DTC, where they are perfectly aligned, but they go very much out of alignment- except for the one over the innermost compartment (not shown). This has been mentioned on the SEG website: the fuse holder here is not found on 2 BIL DTCs. A quick slice and it was gone. It then occurred to me that it seemed rather wider than it should be. It should look like this one nearest the knife point. Oh dear, the one on the right is another wide-boy. The errant DTC outer motor bogie put up little resistance. One twist of the screw driver and it was gone - never to return on this unit. It will be going to the dummy motor coach of the yet to be built 4 SUB. Don't worry, I do know what I'm doing - honest! Colin

Hi Jon, Don't give up! Working on a 4-car EMU is a major undertaking. I'm sure you will come back to it again one day soon. I had a break of two months in the middle of my 4 CIG project last year. Sometimes you just need to take a step back for a while. All the best, Colin

Well, thanks for the feedback re. the Keen vents to you all. I have had a look and they do indeed look to be the best choice. I shall put in an order and just hope for the best, bearing in mind what Howard said about availability. The lamp tops should be on their way soon as I have re-ordered. Having managed to access the Southern Pride website last night I learnt that the P.O. box is no longer in use. Goodness only knows where my first letter and cheque has ended up! This project seems jinxed though, I haven't got enough 0.4mm Plastruct plastic rod in stock to put in the train control conduits. Grr! Colin

Hi Andy, You lucky chap, a real Pullman train out side the window! I am not quite clear what you mean about: 'Keens are spot on' in your post. Is this a reference to the people who also make close-coupling systems?! All the best, Colin

Thanks to all involved in this, so far, fruitless search for the correct ventilators. I won't give up looking, but think I shall be keeping the vents as they are for now and turn my attention to the DMBS roof. Having had another set of plans today from Mike King, it is clear Hornby haven't copied his roof plans. Indeed, it looks as if the Andy Mullins and Mike King 'production' 2 BIL roof plans are identical and both do not quite tally with any photos of 2 BIL roofs available to me. Given all the issues with the 2 BIL, I am extremely concerned about Hornby's next foray into the EMU market being riddled with the same or similar, avoidable mistakes. (Sworn to secrecy about that one though!) All the best, Colin

Hi Clive, As I mentioned in post #147, the current website image is different to the appearance of Simon's vents. This confuses matters somewhat. All the best, Colin

Well it's maybe a possibility Mike, but what do these Mopok vents look like I wonder?! All the best, Colin

Thanks for the offer Simon. Certainly just a good look at even one vent would help at the moment. The current P. Paints/NN Kits stock does not look like the those on your 2EPB. All the best, Colin

Hi Bertie, A very full and valuable reply, as you are a primary source of information - you were there! (I shall looking to the possibility of finding the Mopok vents, so thanks for that, it is one supplier I had forgotten about.) Re. re-varnishing, the gloss finish is most definitely present in the photographs of 2 BILs and 4 CORs that I have studied recently. For that reason, I have finished my 4 COR in a semi-gloss finish. Even the BR blue livery was quite glossy - apart from the units which received 'airless spraying' re-paints. The sprayed finish wore quickly apparently and BR went back to a brush-on paint finish. The wedge front issue is something that cannot be corrected on this Hornby model, it is just a process too far. You are right in what you say, but I already have had to add a lot of extras to the original list, and the so-called 'summer project' is looking like it will drag on into September! As for shades of green, I'm just glad the 2 BIL will be blue - one less thing to worry about. All the best, Colin

Hi Howard, Thanks for the link. I looked at that picture and I've looked at the ones on Simon's 2 EPB. Simon's are whitemetal castings and the ones in the picture are lost-wax brass castings I'm sure. They look like they are made from different patterns. There doesn't seem any evidence to presume the P. Paints' ones are suitable as there is no view of the top. The search goes on. All the best, Colin

Hi Mike, Thanks for your suggestion. Now strangely enough, I have a few ex-BSL oval vents from when I tried to scratch-build a 2 BIL as a teenager (binned!). They are just the same in proportion as the Branchlines ones, with a narrow cowl. All the best, Colin

Thanks for the information re. resin casting. I think it would be beyond me to make the vents in that medium in a two-part mould! The scanner idea would be possible if I had a master. The finished article would have to be printed in something tough like ABS plastic to stand the rigours of being on a coach roof. All the best, Colin

Thanks Simon, Those are the vents that were common to all SR units (up to and including your 2 EPB which was made on the same jigs as those 4 SUBs in the picture). I'm still looking for a solution. Are your NN Kits vents like those on the 4 SUB pictured? All the best, Colin

Hi Howard, I used to do a bit of pattern making years ago, I think the shrinkage allowance for whitemetal is 5%. It could well be that all my EMUs of SR type should have this 'wider' ventilator, including the Bulleid 2 HAPs. I think a lot more people follow the EMU topics than would be likely to buy vents, so the business model (excuse the pun) for this venture is not good! I have a suspicion that the Hornby Maunsell coaches have separately applied vents, so will look on Peter's Spares ebay shop. You did say those were correct, so that would be the ideal solution. All the best, Colin

Hi Howard, Rapid prototyping could be the only realistic way of improving on what I have already got. I will make a vent to see if it can be made to look right. The only snag with the rapid-printing process option is that I don't have the skills to produce a CAD drawing. Even more of a snag is the lack of a good working drawing for the vent as a separate component. (That last point is also why my 4 COR ended up with home-made Alpax windows - there was no available drawing accurate enough to produce the artwork for etched ones.) All the best, Colin

Thanks for the link Andy, but the see-through vents are too large. I might jus have a go at making a trial vent having seen how they are done, so it wasn't all in vain. All the best, Colin

Sorry for not replying to your post earlier Mike. I somehow missed it! Thanks for the links. I have been using the Swann-Morton knife as it is about the only way of getting in close to remove the parts required without messing up the water strips and other fine details. All the best, Colin

Hi Clive, Perhaps those seats were a bit cheaper! All the best, Colin

Now, can anyone spot the obvious mistake? I was just checking measurements from the Nick Campling drawing against the model. Having drawn in the periscopes on my sketch, something didn't add up. Well the periscopes will have to come off too, as the front one is 3mm too far back from the cab/luggage compartment partition and the rear one is wrong side of the partition,over the leading passenger compartment seats. Ironically, the two vents over the luggage compartment are in the right place. Ho hum. ('Killer BIL'? - it's going to kill me!) Colin

The latest work of yours is a pleasure to look at Lee! The oil-streaked fuel tank on the class 67 is very effectively done. Is that gloss black paint or varnish? All the best, Colin

Hi Howard, If you say the Lazerglaze is good, that's good enough for me! The door glazing should set at an angle really more flush at the top and set in quite deeply at the bottom. I've never managed to achieve flush glazing that I am truly happy with in terms of fit, but that shouldn't be a problem with a product designed specifically for an RTR model. One slight improvement to the Lazerglaze would be to run a fine-tipped black marker pen around the edges before fitting. It gets rid of that white-edge effect. All the best, Colin Put me down for a set of 2 BIL Lazerglaze if you see the chap who makes it.

Hi Andy, That could well be an option. For now, the vents will be left as a push-fit and replaced at a later stage. I do like the idea of see-through ones in brass, but that would cost a fortune to tool up for. I suppose resin casting could be done with a brass master. All the best, Colin