CWJ

I like the idea of using painted transfer paper to make painted panels - could save a lot of time and effort in masking off a complex or inaccessible area. Cheers, Will

Looking good, Jon. Always nice to see something different in modern image. No fault of yours, but do the original GUV models sit a little too high on their bogies? Comparing them with the photo of the real barrier vehicle, there should only be a small gap between the tops of the wheels and the solebars. Cheers, Will

Keighley - Oxenhope (And before anyone says that's not 'authentic', I believe the W&M railbuses have been operating on the Worth Valley for longer than any other route!) That's an interesting point - I've just ordered one so I hope it's okay! The real things only have one powered axle but I'd expect the model to have two. Some form of basic compensation would help, too. From what the photos show, the mechanism is certainly unobtrusive, which is a big improvement on some other current DMU models. Cheers, Will

Wow, they look great! I'm not too concerned about the glitches with the paint finish, as these are probably hand-painted, pre-production models. Time to place a little order, I think... Thanks for sharing the links. Cheers, Will

"Why can't Peco make accurate '00' gauge track?"

Thanks for sharing this review David. As someone who hasn't yet 'taken the plunge' into DCC on cost grounds, I'm very enthused by how economical you make it sound! I've even done surface-mount soldering before so it looks reasonably acheivable. Cheers, Will

You say that as though they are some how connected! Of course Charlie is going to produce a 155 - well somebody is, you can be sure of that because I've just spent ages converting a pair of Hornby 153s into one... Cheers, Will

I seem to remember that glueing the roof on makes the body much stronger (and straighter!). The interior kit looks good; I like the handrails on the tops of the seats. Cheers, Will

Nice to see part of this layout 'in the flesh' at Wakefield - keep up the good work, it'll be fantastic when it's finished! Cheers, Will

Thanks for the update David - I was hoping there might be a painted sample (or even models for sale) at Warley. Itching to get my hands on one of these! Incidentally, a wide range of prices is being quoted by various model shops, so I would recommend 'shopping around' for the best price. Regards, Will

Sorry, I should have explained in the caption - on the day of the photo, 37409 was being 'run in' after overhaul. Presumably they wouldn't want to risk sending her out alone!

Just found another one: Been standing in Tollerton yard for ages. Cheers, Will

Hi Mick, The inspection saloon is looking lovely - will be nice to see it all lit up You seem to know what you're doing so presumably you don't need any photos, but just out of interest: Being propelled into Sheffield station by 37423 and 37409, 16th June 2010. With 37409 again a few days later, just south of York station, 29th June 2010. Sitting in the sidings alongside York station on 7th July 2009. I also took a photo of the roof as it passed under a footbridge (only a modeller would do that, knew it would come in handy one day...) but frustratingly that's the only one I can't find! Cheers, Will

Superb photos Will! Your smoke looks even better than the stuff they use in magazine articles - somehow more opaque. The final photo has nothing to give it away as Z gauge, it could be H0, or even full-size if there were some railings between the road and river! Amazing how you can create such a great scene so quickly - it must be very satisfying. Cheers, Will

Thanks Dave - I can recommend Jim's thread on doing up the Dapol 155; good luck with the Northern livery, it won't be easy! Chris - thanks for your message, I need to get on with my layout so unfortunately there won't be much rolling stock output in coming months. Cheers, Will

Thanks Joe, my carefully out-of-focus pictures have succeeded in hiding the messing brush-painted bits then! Cheers Jim, I can picture you squinting and imagining the roof being the correct profile ...but I couldn't quite face using the Dapol model as a starting point, and certainly couldn't get it looking as good as yours.

I wish I'd seen this thread before I started building my Shark! Thankfully I was building a model of one in 'preserved' condition so I could check out the real thing. I'll have to take some photos of it. Regarding the 'real things', there are a couple of these parked up at Doncaster Wood Yard, I was sure I had some photos but can't find them anywhere... Never mind, here is DB993826, Whitemoor, 27th October 2009: Hope this is helpful to someone. Can't believe these contraptions are still in service, they must be just about the oldest design of rolling stock on the network! Cheers, Will

Finally got that sunshine this morning... ...and from another angle: Only after packing away the DMU, camera, tripod, etc. did I notice that one of the bodies hasn't been pushed fully home on the chassis - typical! Reflecting on this project (which was initially supposed to be a 2-weeker but turned into a 3-monther): Things that I'd do differently next time*: Put a bit more effort into the new windows, taking time to file them down to precisely the right dimensions and getting a brighter shade of silver for the frames. Find a neater way of painting the light clusters, orange cantrail stripe and other fiddly bits (in my case, get someone else to do it!). Use a laser printer for home-made transfers, as the inkjet ones are a little blotchy. * I assure you, there won't be a 'next time' Possible Future Upgrades for This Unit (in order of likelihood): Weathering Underfloor drive using a cardan shaft to the bogie. Improved interior detail (where the motor bogie currently is) Interior lighting DCC control and sound Hope all those who have read this have found it helpful, and if anyone is doing a similar conversion please pop some photos on RMWeb so we can see how you get on. Cheers, Will

The Class 155 is now finished! (phew...) I'll photograph it next time I encounter sunshine (some time around May 2012 then...) if anyone would like to see the finished article. Cheers, Will

Put a second coat of varnish on the 155 yesterday, only for the aerosol (which I'll name and shame as a Humbrol one) to suddenly start spluttering and dribbling paint everywhere instead of spraying. After removing the cap/nozzle and checking for obstructions it worked fine briefly, before spluttering to a halt again. By this stage I had varnished 3/4 of the unit but one side of one car remains with splutter-marks I tweaked the inter-vehicle connectors by bending the pins of the plugs through 90 degrees so that the wires point towards the other car rather than down towards the track. I also put a 'wiggle' in the wires to they have the ability to expand as the unit goes through curves. Finally, I put a coat of Humbrol 'Metalcote' (the darker one) on the underfloor exhaust system, as photos show this to be made from shiny chromed or stainless steel. Weathering will, of course, be necessary! Today's job will be to print out some front end gangway doors on good quality photo paper using the artwork below (reduced quality for uploading here). If this looks okay when finished(which it might not!) then it will save a lot of work in painting on the central window, cutting out a transparent screen, and weathering it to a typical dirty finish. Photos to follow... Cheers, Will

These models look great on the (few) pre-production photos - I just hope they don't fill a coach with metal as they did on the Class 150. If they can get an underfloor motor into 'N' gauge models there's no excuse with '00'! There seems to be a common misconception that a manufacturer can simply 'modify the tooling' to produce a different model. I'm no manufacturing expert, but I imagine that in practice this would cost almost as much as making a new mould from scratch. Thinking about it, there are still design costs (modifying the CAD drawings to represent the different model), tooling costs (a new mould would need to be made for the different model, and I believe this bit is particularly expensive) and manufacturing set-up costs (i.e. a production line to apply different liveries and details to the different model). Personally I would love to see the Class 185 modelled, but I'm not holding my breath because bogies and basic body profile aside they are completely different from the 350. On the plus side, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before someone will be posting photos on here showing their conversion from a 350 to a 185, 450, etc. Cheers, Will

Gordon, I always enjoy watching your plans develop, and although I was sad to see the previous layout plan go, it's far better to stick with something you feel happier with. The transition curves add so much realism to this design, so I don't think you need to worry about it looking like a train set. Just one observation - with the exception of the engine shed lines, there doesn't seem to be a means of getting trains between the inner circuit and the middle circuit (and likewise the middle and the outer). If you were to put in a crossover or two, then trains would have a wider choice of fiddle yard roads, so you may not need as much storage space. Hope this helps. Cheers, Will PS. In response to Pete's comment, if the branch line terminus were to be located directly above some of the fiddle yard roads you could reduce the depth of the baseboards a bit. Note that the BLT needn't cover up the pointwork at either end of the fiddle yard, just the middle bit.

Hi Scott, Nothing clever here at all, just a wash of dirty dark grey/brown paint! I haven't weathered the unit yet, but I was dirty-ing the gangway doors before adding the clear screen (and also putting a dark wash on the train driver, as recommended by people who know much more than me about painting figures)... so I used up the remaining paint to tone down the snowploughs and other brightly-painted bits on the underframe. If you haven't done this before, just mix about ten drops of matt varnish with one small drop of black paint and two or three drops of a medium-brown. Slap it on, taking care not to leave visible brush marks; or where you must leave brush marks make them vertical ones, that way they look like streaks from rainwater. Cheers, Will

Thanks Stephen Sound would really add another dimension, but the trouble with this unit is that there are so many windows! Nowhere to hide a decoder, let alone a speaker. I think if the mechanism were moved under the floor, where it belongs, a decoder and speaker could be accommodated in the toilet area. Cheers, Will

A couple of quick snaps from the test run yesterday... ...with the usual apologies for my photography! Only part of one car is glazed at this stage. I was pleased to see that there were no issues with the exhaust pipes colliding with the adjoining vehicle on tight curves, and the unit ran very smoothly and quietly - a credit to Hornby's motor bogie. On the other hand, there was an issue with the wires between the two cars hanging a little two low and dragging on the rails. This could be temporarily corrected by pushing the wires back inside one car, but I'm thinking about re-arranging the sockets to be aligned horizontally rather than vertically. One of the few things these photos show clearly is the lighting - at the front end the blue-ish tinge has been successfully removed and the marker lights are somehow (conveniently!) dimmer than the headlight, which is great. At the tail end, the red lights are too bright so I may add an extra resistor to the circuit as this unit won't be DCC fitted (yet!). Tantalisingly close to completion now... Cheers, Will