SouthernMafia

Following a thorough read of this thread and an impending show I decided to tackle my Intercity 73102 properly. I had previously corrected the lower Intercity white to beige and also changed the roof colour some months ago from black. However I didn't touch the bodyside black or warning panel yellow as I thought I could live with it. After leaving the model alone for a while, I decided to tackle the pickups this week using Temeraire's method and am pleased to report much smoother and reliable running. I then also had to sort out my DCC sound installation as I had a vibration caused by the speaker rattling on the cab/headcode wiring when the body was on (custom build speaker enclosure which I made too tall!) Annoyingly in sorting this out, I've chipped away some of the paint on the roof, so this needs redoing. Also a number of grilles popped out, and my not very careful gluing needs covering up. I then thought, I may as well correct the black whilst I am here, so the model is currently masked up awaiting spraying. I know that the black should be executive dark grey, but what colour was the roof? Pictures on Flickr seem to show various different colours which is most likely down to weathering/lighting/camera, but does anyone know what it should be? If its also Exec Dark Grey this is a great help as the airbrush only needs to be filled once! I will then attack the warning panel yellow, and also thinking of adding a Replica headlight to each end to model a loco from around 1991 with the orange cantrail too. 73103 seems a good candidate as it is unnamed and remained in Intercity livery for the duration of my modelling period. Note I have ambitiously masked the double arrows in hope I don't need to buy any transfers! The printed nameplates have yet to be rubbed away.

Viewed two arrivals from Didcot at Reading today both with pans up on arrival. Then passed another 10 car near Cholsey with pans up so all looks good. Various new signs enroute too including Simon's 'Class 800 Diesel' at Moreton cutting, and some strange signs with a black background and various configurations of white shapes shortly before, I'm sure someone knows what they mean.

There was at least 1 rake kicking about still in 2000. (10 mins in)

Platform 0 and new track work has appeared on maps:

New trackwork has appeared for the Crossrail Jnc and turnback sidings on maps:

The plan is for them to start from tomorrow.

Thanks James, now I look more closely at your photograph I can see what you've done more clearly. It is a pain that solebar, but with a rake of 10 to do (and counting!) I'm living with it for now. I've done an RFB for my Intercity rake, however I was able to retain most of the original livery and thought the same could be done if they had made the Virgin 1st. It just seemed odd they never did it in Virgin but did in Intercity and Blue Grey. Looking forward to the Bachmann mk2s but these are still good models especially for the money you can get them for.

Great stuff James, funnily enough I've also just bought 3 in Virgin to complement my existing Intercity rake. Annoying Hornby never did the 1st Class coach in Virgin though! Could you elaborate on exactly what plastic you had to remove to get rid of the solebar please? It's also on my list of things to do.

A handful of trains are booked to use the mainline platforms in both peaks but none are booked during the day. Also useful when running a 2 track railway, and during Henley Regatta. 1C90 1706 Pad - Westbury and 1J93 1805 Pad - Frome are the two busy trains in the afternoon Peak, which I see continue to call in January in the new timetable, I thought they might go with the introduction of Class 1Dxx 387 services which call Maidenhead and Twyford only before Reading. The Henley branch has also been retimed allowing a 20 minute connection off the HSS trains. I'm sure the residents of the branch will voice their views to the platform staff at having to wait around for 20 minutes now, even though previously at least once a week they would miss the 3-6 minute connection due to late running on the mainline. And having been one of those platform staff they really do love to come and tell you all about it.

ORR have confirmed Paddington to Didcot can now be fully used for electric services. This will commence with a soft launch of 387s on 28th December before a full launch on 2nd January. As usual it came right down to the wire...literally !

Hour 4 of this debacle - perhaps rather predictably, efforts to move the whole 15-car ensemble have failed, and now they cannot uncouple anything. 57 will drag the whole shambles into Southall yard, where hopefully they will be cut up on site.

Automatic Drop Device. There's an explanation somewhere in this thread if you can find it..

First big failure today. 800020 and 800012 have had an ADD activation at Southall on the Down Main working 1B05 Paddington to Swansea. Train also unable to take diesel power and has been declared a failure. Another 800 is coming to rescue it from North Pole and there is also a 57 available should that not work. Train has also been evacuated as running on battery power for lights and heating, which also have given up the ghost. Been stood currently for over 2 hours as I post this.

Ah yes aware a 12 car wouldn't fit but couldn't see why an 8 car wouldn't fit seeing as you can get a 7 car Turbo fully platformed.

Appeared to manage it...What is the problem you're referring to ?

Regarding turning, 800s aren't signed off to go via Greenford yet. Turning at Reading is rarely accepted by NR train running because of the potential for congestion it causes from an unpathed move. It also requires a Pad driver who signs Reading West curve as Reading men don't sign 800s yet, and that's even if you can source a spare driver. Similar story in the Bristol area. A service train is unlikely to be turned in service just to put 1st at the right end because it will incur a delay (cost). So this requires an ECS move which again requires spare driver and path. From where I sit it seems Hitachi are just focusing on getting the things running reliably for now before faffing about with less significant problems such as which end 1st Class is.

8-car 387 testing around Reading and Twyford tomorrow and Saturday...not being dragged lol. Kick off just after Peak.

With many of the Oxford - Pad and return stoppers having dwell time at Didcot to either lock out a set or for pathing reasons, I doubt a Cholsey etc to Oxford journey will actually take much longer, it might even be quicker in some scenarios, and if some sensible platforming happens it will be a cross platform interchange from 4 to 5 at Didcot. Hardly the end of the world. Try changing at Reading on a daily basis where 7 minutes is far from adequate especially when you regularly lose a couple of minutes enroute and arrive on Platform 3 for a high end connection !

I might have missed this, but could you enlighten me as to what an Imperium Decoder is and why it is relevant to the 121s? I'm thinking of getting the Railtrack version and now wondering if a particular decoder is required. Thanks.

An alternative method to installing a Kadee coupling to the TC - I prefer my Kadees at the correct height and use this method on all of my Southern Region units and locos. The Kadee sits where the buckeye coupling in real life actually is, but this obviously requires a small piece of bodging a £300 train ! Firstly you need to remove the coupling mechanism. This can just be cut off but I prefer to remove it and retain for possible future use. The body needs to come off, then the interior, then the circuit board, and then some small bits of plastic that hold it in place with 4 miniscule screws. You'll then need to cut the moulded buckeye off the TC, and drill a rectangular hole (use a rectangular drill bit...) about 4mm wide and 1mm deep as centrally as you can. Next you need a piece of 2.5mm to 3mm diameter brass tube, depending on how tight a fit you want the Kadee. I used 2.7mm as that's what I had and it works well. This can either be stuck directly to the chassis base, or a hole drilled through and stuck to the bottom of the circuit board, as the images show. I find it's easier to get it straight if drilled through. Poke the Kadee through the rectangular hole, super glue the end of the precut brass length (about 5-6mm should do it) poke through the Kadee, poke through the hole in the chassis and allow to go off. Be careful not to get glue on the inside of the Kadee hole otherwise it will not rotate !

Just to prove that there is infact some work going on on the actual layout itself... Have been mulling over adding a second carriage siding for a while. Had the point ready built from years ago, just so happened to fit perfectly. Bit of embankment cutting back to become a cliff face and things are coming along. Polyfilla to be added to the front to give it a bit more of a rock appearance and then plaster some paint on it. Both sidings will take 5 Mk1 coaches (when board 4 receives the same treatment), which is going to make operating even more entertaining. Still not sure what's going on top of the embankment cliff, probably a load of greenery, a footpath and a discard shopping trolley. Also decided on the final alignment for the fuel siding, which is to remain one siding and will be fenced off neatly with pumps and pipes to be added soon (hopefully). A bit of realignment of the turnout in the foreground to become more Y shaped has provided me a bit more space to achieve this. The second siding will become a general siding, thinking some dropside wagons (OCA etc) with depot stores, used sleeper chairs etc etc) As the layout remains at the parents gaff progress is limited to when I can get home, but some annual leave this week has given the opportunity to sort it out a bit. Don't expect a huge improvement from the current state for Basingstoke in March, but at least I'll have a few buildings and a couple of extra sidings to play with! Maybe some proper signalling too, who knows the layout might even work still...

This morning's overrun was all down to paperwork, the physical work was all done on time.

Whilst it definitely seems sensible to close the crossing, could a mitigating factor be the second crossing? In that the wires still can't get from minimum to maximum height within the required distance ? Yes its a few hundred metres extra (if that) but is the angle still going to be too steep ? If this is the case then closing the first crossing has no merit because the problem will still exist.

The 4 tracking can't come soon enough. 1V58 broke down at Filton Abbey Wood today for 85 minutes, causing chaos by preventing anything running towards Bristol. With 1V59 and a GWR unit at Bristol Parkway also, this left just one operational platform for South Wales traffic and northbound XCs. At least with the 4 track and presumably some sort of reversible working around the Patchway area, a failure can be worked around and the Cardiff to Bristol TM corridor would remain open. Of course when it does open something will fail in another operationally challenging location!!

https://www.railengineer.uk/2017/11/07/under-the-wires-to-swindon/ We know a lot of what's been said here already, but an interesting summary all the same. NR sound confident that the bridge will be rebuilt in 2019.