SouthernMafia

Mocking up the parcel depot today out of some 5mm foam board. Getting a good feel for the size of the finished product. No parcels stock to hand... Laser file also pretty much there as well.

A sign of things to come, GWR appear to be operating a full electric service this afternoon east of Maidenhead, excluding branchlines of course.

The white 153 livery was applied in readiness for redeployment of Class 153s away from GWR. In theory, if it's painted green it's staying with GWR. Conversely, the white IETs being built for GWR will be vinyled in GWR green, eventually. The Class 802s are arriving painted green already from the factory. Something to do with procurement and ownership of the fleet I believe.

A busy period moving my life from Hampshire to Berkshire means modelling has been restricted recently, however I am now settled into the new flat, and in the past week the small station board has also made the trip to its new home. The idea is that by only bringing the small board I will be forced to work on it instead of play trains...in theory Whilst physical modelling has yet to commence, digital modelling has been in full swing in preparation for some upcoming laser cutting. The station building has taken priority, and the 2D files have been produced. In the meantime I decided to design the Parcels depot, and a mock up may well follow. I hope to also have this laser cut. As mentioned previously, this building is loosely based on the one at Southampton Central... More soon....(he says)

Perhaps the attached image might shed some light. Points were apparently run through on inward working.

David, many thanks for the comprehensive information, a great help.

Thanks, when would this bus have been suitable from? I figured mid 90s to late 90s which I will also be running.Otherwise I was going to get one of these, which is seen here at Weymouth in 1993: Unfortunately I haven't found an accurate Southern National model of this yet, only Western National ones I think in full green otherwise this one is the most simlar: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292172665388 In terms of route numbers, I've seen 1, 22A and 501, are all these acceptable?

All been a bit quiet on Portland lately due to various things but mainly lack of spare time! However, I'm moving flats soon (to somewhere that cuts my commute by about 75% giving me back at least 2 hours a day, hurrah!) To assist in the move, not all the layout is coming with me (yet) so two boards have been shifted back to the parents gaff for the time being. The station mini board and main board 1 will come with me where it is hoped that scenic work will progress at a lightening rate ready for Basingstoke in March....hmmm! In the meantime I've been thinking about building and infrastructure placement and the fuel sidings (that were never designed to be fuel sidings but have turned into fuel sidings) just weren't sitting right for me. I played around with some wagons and settled on this: The siding on the left will be slewed over to run more parallel to the siding on the right, and fuel depot bits and tanks will then be added. This gives me a bit more space and looks much more on purpose. I've also bought a model bus that will fit well on the station forecourt. This will be detailed and weathered with passengers and maybe even an open door, and I'll change the destination to '22A Portland Bill', which I've seen in a photograph so taking to be correct...? Lastly my modern image modeller self got the better of me and I've accidentally bought a Colas 60 to go with all the other locos I really don't need. But it does look rather nice. Obviously I had to stage a scene or two... 60087 and 60007 on shed 60087 on ballast duties at Portland.

Oh dear, that does look rather nice doesn't it. I'm not a fan of factory weathering but aside from the overkill on the light clusters that is a job well done, a nice touch with the sun bleached faded roof too. A note on the motor car, did the Bachmann 350 have such a large black block as well? I owned a 350 for a short period of time (in hope of producing one of these on the cheap and then realising how much effort it would be!!) but can't recall the motor housing. It's a shame, seems they haven't learnt from the 150 and actually earlier units like the 158 and 170 had a better aesthetic arrangement! Whatever happened to the lovely underfloor example in the MPV? With a bit of tinkering I'm sure that could've been adapted for future D/EMU use.

As I've mentioned in the Class 800 thread Hitachi have undertaken work to "un-muzzle" the diesel engines on the 800s so they will match the performance of an 802, and more importantly an HST at 125mph. With the line speed limitations West of Exeter and in Wales, and the increased performance gained from improved acceleration, an IET will certainly match an HST and get there before it.

Electrifying to Swansea always seemed a bit of a daft idea. One HST an hour occasionally two, to be replaced by now bi-mode IETs that are quicker than HSTs due to acceleration, provide more seats and would have had no impact on overall journey time from Cardiff to Swansea over an HST whether wires went up or not. And this benefit to Wales will happen this Autumn, years before electrification would've been completed. But of course the politicians are having a field day in moaning about it.

That looks the absolute dogs! Sadly a 4-car is way out my budget at the moment (let alone a 12-car!) what with the 4TC about to arrive but I'm sure the 450 will be around for a while, and might even see a price reduction in years to come! Lol...

Ed that looks great and exactly what I had in mind as well, albeit I'm waiting to see the modern Oxford version. Hopefully by the time that's released someone will have produced a small cradle...in fact I know a man with a 3D printer...

I'm trying to match blue grey colours on a Bachmann EPB. Purchased Phoenix Paints pre-1985 Rail Grey and Rail Blue. The grey is completely different, almost like Executive grey! Have I picked the wrong colours? I have sprayed it on to white primer...have resprayed part in grey primer to experiment to see if this makes a difference. I imagine this will make a difference with the blue, which I have yet to try. Thoughts/advice appreciated.

Like the tail lamp and CDLs but I do hope they get the flash rate correct - the video on the website shows it as roughly equal time on and off and in reality it is on as a very quick blip with a faster flash rate.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C29394/2017/07/06/advanced 1W32 arrived Reading nearly 5 hours late after being trapped at Airport Jnc. TBW was eventually set up but again lack of trained NR ground staff in any quantity means it takes a long time to get it operational.

Total loss of signalling in the Hayes & Harlington area this afternoon, which was a repeat failure from yesterday as well. NR are still working on the fix now but understand the Relief lines are open at least. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a day free of problems between Reading and Padd but this afternoon was just totally catastrophic, not to mention the inability to run much of a service west of Reading because of stranded and out-of-hours crew.

On the occasions I've seen a pair of Voyagers operate south of Reading it has been 1 Train Manager and 2 catering staff (or even up to 4 with First Class hosts).I imagine IETs will operate in a similar manner. Commuting along the now very masty GWML I have got used to it but I remember when the first masts were going in West of Reading in significant quantities and feeling almost nauseous because of this new repetitive mast-zipping-past view I had to endure!

To provide flexibility in the service and best use of resources. Not every current HST diagram is filled to capacity. Most services will run as 2 x 5-car or 9-car sets, but there will be times a 5-car is ample. There are 93 Class 800s and 802s of varying 5 or 9 car sets compared to an approximate fleet size of 52 HSTs for GWR. Furthermore, eventually service frequency will increase from Bristol TM, South Wales and Devon & Cornwall, meaning 5-car sets provide the additional capacity in between the already existing HST-come-9/10-IET diagrams.

Appreciate preorder price removed for the first 4, but theres now nothing on the other versions either...used to be able to preorder for £39.99 and £44.99 respectively....

My understanding of this has changed - during testing the IETs are still Hitachi's and so aren't being painted. Once the Passenger certificate is granted by the ORR then GWR have a bit more control over them, and subsequent new builds will be green ex-factory, and painted. The only vinyls will then be the logos, ala the 802 that arrived 10 days ago (that hasn't been vinyled yet but is planned to be)

I'm not sure on the exact finance arrangements but Eversholt own the Class 802s and will lease to First, but First have put money into them as well so I'm not 100% sure on what the arrangement is. As for the 800s... Press Release "This is part of the £5.8bn programme covering the design, build, finance and maintenance over a 27.5 year period of the class 800 series fleets of the Great Western and East Coast Main Lines." The Class 800s are financed by DafT who have contracted out to Agility Trains, who then lease to the TOCs. That's my understanding any way, happy to be corrected ?

Have a couple of Warriors built waiting for these but still unsure whether to wait for Oxford or take plunge with these. Another interesting load I'd like to model is the digger carrying warwell (I assume it's a warwell) as seen on engineering trains a few years ago: https://flic.kr/p/nS8xjT Does anyone have any closer pics of these, particularly the ramps?

Class 800 - DfTs - can't paint em. Class 802 - First Groups - can paint em.

Southampton Docks this morning - first Class 802 arrives in the UK.