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What's your latest acquisition?

Peter C

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The LNER one looks to be of the Thompson-design that you can see in the film Elizabethan Express in the formation of said train.
Thanks - I might have to have a watch of that then. The name rings a bell.

I don't think anything other than Pullmans had the table lamps. Overhead lights could work or if small enough LEDs could be used to replicate reading lights in compartments?
I hadn't thought about trying to make them functional but that would be an interesting project I expect. Would some kind of tiny fibre-optic cable (I think that's the right stuff - you get it on some Christmas trees) work I wonder?

-Peter
 
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hexagon789

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Thanks - I might have to have a watch of that then. The name rings a bell.
Link to said film, a wonderful mid-1950s time capsule:

I hadn't thought about trying to make them functional but that would be an interesting project I expect. Would some kind of tiny fibre-optic cable (I think that's the right stuff - you get it on some Christmas trees) work I wonder?
That might be a better idea, the smaller llights would probably look more correct
 

Iskra

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They are sone lovely coaches, though being an LNER man myself (my great-grandfather was an engine driver for said company) I'm more partial to LNER designs such as like the 1938 'New' Scotsman and the various streamliner designs, and the semi-streamlined Thomsons of the later-1940s.

I've never been taken with LMS designs, they never looked as 'clean'-lined or modern as the LNER's in my opinion, though the "portholes" aren't too bad one of their designs I do like, nice one in your pair of photos.
The LNER did have some wonderful design and publicity.

Equally, I can find beauty in the form of the functional from the LMS too.

Personally, I can enjoy them both. Hence why my layout is loosely set in a part of the world where the rolling stock of both the LNER and LMS could be found under BR :)
 

hexagon789

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The LNER did have some wonderful design and publicity.

Equally, I can find beauty in the form of the functional from the LMS too.

Personally, I can enjoy them both. Hence why my layout is loosely set in a part of the world where the rolling stock of both the LNER and LMS could be found under BR :)
Plenty of such locations in the Lancashire/Yorkshire borders area I believe that were joint routes I think.

And under BR you had plenty of transfer of carriages of the Big 4 between regions anyway.

My favourite is seeing a Syphon G van in a short train at Kyle of Lochalsh, that must've done some travelling!

:lol:
I think fitting lights that small to such small coaches would take him longer than it took to build the layout as a whole!

-Peter
Indeed ;)
 

Cowley

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:lol:
I think fitting lights that small to such small coaches would take him longer than it took to build the layout as a whole!

-Peter

Yeah I’ll give it a try but I think I might need to set a crowd funding page. :lol:
@Iskra - both coaches look lovely but the job TMC have done on the blood & custard LNER one has really bought the detail out hasn’t it?
 

Iskra

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Plenty of such locations in the Lancashire/Yorkshire borders area I believe that were joint routes I think.

And under BR you had plenty of transfer of carriages of the Big 4 between regions anyway.

My favourite is seeing a Syphon G van in a short train at Kyle of Lochalsh, that must've done some travelling!


Indeed ;)
Exactly, that's another reason with my Yorkshire heritage I can use a lot of locally used stock down here on my layout too :)

Wow, that's an interesting example!

Yeah I’ll give it a try but I think I might need to set a crowd funding page. :lol:
@Iskra - both coaches look lovely but the job TMC have done on the blood & custard LNER one has really bought the detail out hasn’t it?
Thanks! Yes, TMC do an excellent job- I think blood & custard is quite a tough livery to weather too.

I am getting closer to getting an airbrush though. My next move is going to be clearing all my stock off the layout, so that I stop procrastinating and actually crack on with the build of it.

- - - - - - -

However, today I joined the bubble club. It is second hand DCC fitted for £110 in mint condition. It was incorrectly not labelled as DCC fitted so I got it at the same price they were flogging a DC example at. I saw the label on the box said DCC fitted and took a chance that the chip hadn't been removed and it paid off this time. Sadly, it's a Western Region example but these units were used in Scotland and it will prove very useful on Fort George I feel. I will probably remove the couplings from one end at least and fit the parts pack. This was from the Clark Railworks website.

thumbnail_IMG_6339.jpg
 

hexagon789

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However, today I joined the bubble club. It is second hand DCC fitted for £110 in mint condition. It was incorrectly not labelled as DCC fitted so I got it at the same price they were flogging a DC example at. I saw the label on the box said DCC fitted and took a chance that the chip hadn't been removed and it paid off this time. Sadly, it's a Western Region example but these units were used in Scotland and it will prove very useful on Fort George I feel. I will probably remove the couplings from one end at least and fit the parts pack. This was from the Clark Railworks website.

View attachment 104699
That's a lovely model, I need one of those in Blue/Grey - which will then require Tayway branding.
 

Cowley

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Very nice @Iskra. I love bubble cars and like you say it’ll look at home on your layout.
 

Peter C

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However, today I joined the bubble club. It is second hand DCC fitted for £110 in mint condition. It was incorrectly not labelled as DCC fitted so I got it at the same price they were flogging a DC example at. I saw the label on the box said DCC fitted and took a chance that the chip hadn't been removed and it paid off this time. Sadly, it's a Western Region example but these units were used in Scotland and it will prove very useful on Fort George I feel. I will probably remove the couplings from one end at least and fit the parts pack. This was from the Clark Railworks website.

View attachment 104699
That looks lovely. Is it the Bachmann one? They're certainly good models (and the number of lighting functions is amazing - you can individually control the destination blind lights at each end!) with decent motors.
My only issue would be they're fairly light and the DCC decoder is visible through one of the windows but the livery and detail more than makes up for that. :)

-Peter
 

Iskra

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That looks lovely. Is it the Bachmann one? They're certainly good models (and the number of lighting functions is amazing - you can individually control the destination blind lights at each end!) with decent motors.
My only issue would be they're fairly light and the DCC decoder is visible through one of the windows but the livery and detail more than makes up for that. :)

-Peter
No, it's the Dapol version- a cheaper version but I've no issues with it yet and I'm very happy with how it looks. There are reports online of bogies catching the underframe detail but I had no problems on my brief test run and can't see it causing me too many issues on my end to end layout as there aren't really any corners anyway!
 

Peter C

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No, it's the Dapol version- a cheaper version but I've no issues with it yet and I'm very happy with how it looks. There are reports online of bogies catching the underframe detail but I had no problems on my brief test run and can't see it causing me too many issues on my end to end layout as there aren't really any corners anyway!
Ah OK. It does look quite nice and if you've not got lots of curved bits on your layout I don't see how the bogies could catch. I was originally going to go for one but it kept derailing on my layout.
The Dapol ones have a lot more weight to them than the Bachmann ones I think; that and you can get them cheaper (as you say).

-Peter
 

Iskra

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Ah OK. It does look quite nice and if you've not got lots of curved bits on your layout I don't see how the bogies could catch. I was originally going to go for one but it kept derailing on my layout.
The Dapol ones have a lot more weight to them than the Bachmann ones I think; that and you can get them cheaper (as you say).

-Peter
I can understand getting the Bachmann version- it looks good and derailments can be incredibly frustrating so it's worth paying more for a model that works properly!
 

61653 HTAFC

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I've a Dapol one in blue/grey, it runs fine on a temporary 2nd radius oval used for running in, so should be more than fine on a more permanent layout- particularly an end-to-end one with no sharp turns. I can see the appeal of the Bachmann version, but the significantly higher cost isn't fully justified in my opinion.
 

Peter C

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I've a Dapol one in blue/grey, it runs fine on a temporary 2nd radius oval used for running in, so should be more than fine on a more permanent layout- particularly an end-to-end one with no sharp turns. I can see the appeal of the Bachmann version, but the significantly higher cost isn't fully justified in my opinion.
We discussed the Dapol 121 issues this time last year I think (?) and it certainly seems the quality-control is a bit hit-and-miss. Some people have had models which which fine but others get ones which would rather be off the rails than on :lol:
I'm not sure I could justify the higher Bachmann cost by saying it's better than the Dapol one in every respect, but there are certainly some positives (lights, detail) but there are also some drawbacks (weight, or rather lack of).

-Peter
 

reddragon

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Exactly, that's another reason with my Yorkshire heritage I can use a lot of locally used stock down here on my layout too :)

Wow, that's an interesting example!


Thanks! Yes, TMC do an excellent job- I think blood & custard is quite a tough livery to weather too.

I am getting closer to getting an airbrush though. My next move is going to be clearing all my stock off the layout, so that I stop procrastinating and actually crack on with the build of it.

- - - - - - -

However, today I joined the bubble club. It is second hand DCC fitted for £110 in mint condition. It was incorrectly not labelled as DCC fitted so I got it at the same price they were flogging a DC example at. I saw the label on the box said DCC fitted and took a chance that the chip hadn't been removed and it paid off this time. Sadly, it's a Western Region example but these units were used in Scotland and it will prove very useful on Fort George I feel. I will probably remove the couplings from one end at least and fit the parts pack. This was from the Clark Railworks website.

View attachment 104699
Beware if its Dapol - they don't like curves! Or did you strike lucky?
 

Iskra

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Beware if its Dapol - they don't like curves! Or did you strike lucky?
I appear to have struck lucky. However, my layout is end to end so doesn’t really have curves anyway. If needed it can run on the side of the layout that is totally straight :)
 

61653 HTAFC

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We discussed the Dapol 121 issues this time last year I think (?) and it certainly seems the quality-control is a bit hit-and-miss. Some people have had models which which fine but others get ones which would rather be off the rails than on :lol:
I'm not sure I could justify the higher Bachmann cost by saying it's better than the Dapol one in every respect, but there are certainly some positives (lights, detail) but there are also some drawbacks (weight, or rather lack of).

-Peter
It seems that I also got lucky with mine. I'm very much in the "Sam's Trains" camp when it comes to value-for-money, some of the prices asked for Bachmann models that were designed getting on for 2 decades ago, are frankly ridiculous. On the other hand, no manufacturer should be releasing a model that can't stay on the track, no matter how cheap they are.
 

Peter C

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It seems that I also got lucky with mine. I'm very much in the "Sam's Trains" camp when it comes to value-for-money, some of the prices asked for Bachmann models that were designed getting on for 2 decades ago, are frankly ridiculous. On the other hand, no manufacturer should be releasing a model that can't stay on the track, no matter how cheap they are.
I'm with you on the value-for-money bit (I've certainly moaned enough times on here about the prices of models). The Bachmann 121 is a new tooling I think so that would go some of the way to justify the higher price tag but not far enough really given the issues I've described!

-Peter
 

Cowley

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I'm with you on the value-for-money bit (I've certainly moaned enough times on here about the prices of models). The Bachmann 121 is a new tooling I think so that would go some of the way to justify the higher price tag but not far enough really given the issues I've described!

-Peter

So did I read right earlier that the Bachmann one has headcode panels that change?
 

Peter C

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So did I read right earlier that the Bachmann one has headcode panels that change?
I'm not sure - mine's the NSE one so it's not got the headcode panel, just a destination blind at each end. But the destination blind lights can be turned on or off individually, which is quite nice. I assume it's the same for the headcodes on the BR green version?

-Peter
 

Cowley

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I'm not sure - mine's the NSE one so it's not got the headcode panel, just a destination blind at each end. But the destination blind lights can be turned on or off individually, which is quite nice. I assume it's the same for the headcodes on the BR green version?

-Peter

Ah ok. I think it was this that confused me:

you can individually control the destination blind lights at each end!) with decent motors.
 

Cowley

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Ah - sorry! Though it would be cool to see someone make some motorised headcode blinds in model form...

-Peter

Yeah it would be wouldn’t it. Probably doable in 0 gauge I suppose.
I’ve spent £104 on railway stuff today. o_O
That’s two new coaches and three sets of motion sensor lighting kits to make up my four coach night train.
 

Peter C

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Yeah it would be wouldn’t it. Probably doable in 0 gauge I suppose.
I’ve spent £104 on railway stuff today. o_O
That’s two new coaches and three sets of motion sensor lighting kits to make up my four coach night train.
I can't exactly comment given the similar price of my most recent purchases :lol:
What kind of coaches are they? Also it's interesting to hear you can get motion-sensing lighting kits for N gauge as well as OO. Is it Train-Tech that makes them?

-Peter
 

Cowley

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I can't exactly comment given the similar price of my most recent purchases :lol:
What kind of coaches are they? Also it's interesting to hear you can get motion-sensing lighting kits for N gauge as well as OO. Is it Train-Tech that makes them?

-Peter

Yes it’s the Train-Tech ones Peter. I’ve already done my BG and that’s got a tail lamp as well, plus this arrived today so one set of lights will be for that:

0249E3D5-327F-4E39-B21E-089571125F10.jpeg

(That’s Tammy Wynette standing by my mk1)
I’ve bought these as it the cheapest way of getting blue and grey N gauge mk1s at the moment plus they’re ready weathered:

451CBCF1-8020-4FDE-B201-4E5DCDF1B274.jpeg

That’s the second set of those I’ve bought. I’ll have to tone the roofs down with the airbrush and remove the ADB 97xxxx numbers (this is from a set of departmental test train coaches). But the ones I have already look the part.
 

Peter C

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Yes it’s the Train-Tech ones Peter. I’ve already done my BG and that’s got a tail lamp as well, plus this arrived today so one set of lights will be for that:

View attachment 104723

(That’s Tammy Wynette standing by my mk1)
Ah cool - I remember you mentioning that one now. Liking the addition of the cat too ;)

I’ve bought these as it the cheapest way of getting blue and grey N gauge mk1s at the moment plus they’re ready weathered:

View attachment 104725

That’s the second set of those I’ve bought. I’ll have to tone the roofs down with the airbrush and remove the ADB 97xxxx numbers (this is from a set of departmental test train coaches). But the ones I have already look the part.
Those do look nice. That sounds like quite a good way of getting coaches then if they're good-quality; the weathering doesn't look half bad.

-Peter
 

Cowley

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There we go, first run out on the mail train:

6F76E793-1281-4DBA-A877-E0E8AC630B70.jpeg

I’ve broken the first rule of Lapford there by not weathering it…
 

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