Mark 1 56ft 11" Suburban Coaches inn OO/4mm, By Accurascale

[stewartingram]

3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Perhaps you need to think about buying 6 coaches and turn them into 4.  I am sure @Clive Mortimore can advise on a good saw.

I don't think he would - he only does multi-colour coaches!

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

 

Suitable for a class AM4/0 sadly not for the big windie 304/1s, wrong toilet window design. Only 5 needed, a SLO for the DTSLO, a BS for the MBS, a SLO for the CL, and a S for the DTBS. A second S for the additional compartments on the CL and MBS, and bits to make the brake of the DTBS. The cabs on the driving trailers make up the rest of the length.

 

As for a saw, I don't use them. No matter how thin the blade is it cuts wider and on a good 15 part cut and shut you can lose a millimeter or more very easily. A craft knife doesn't lose length.

......and a warm Craft Knife Blade cuts cleaner too.

P

[Invicta]

2 hours ago, Karl said:

The Keighley & Worth Valley, Llangollen and North Norfolk have them in regular service. The KWVR are in lined maroon (another vote for this livery to be done early in the production here, particularly if the metal trim around the windows as per the KWVR ones can be replicated!) and the latter two have theirs in Crimson. I'm sure other railways have the odd one or two but those 3 mentioned often run full 3, 4, 5 or 6 coach sets of just these.

IIRC the GCR have at least a couple- I've certainly travelled in one on the Mountsorrel branch

 

https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/2015/10/suburban-coach-arrives/

[Covkid]

4 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

Whilst not something that fits the Black Country 1968-93, they will be perfect for the tripcock 31s and for those doing steam in the 50s and 60s, and the price point for the level of detail is astonishing.  I must admit at first I thought "ooh, two thirds of a Class 304" but they are 7 ft too short for that...

Those luggage racks are a work of art.  Will the Mk2s have luggage racks?

Not in your time period but at least two or maybe three will find their way into the Dudley line rakes complementing the ex GWR non corridors pre Beeching. Yes, the AM4s and other family members are way up there on the desired list. 

 

As previously noted the luggage racks are amazing !!! 

 

Good choice Accurascale 

[Ian J.]

Not directly on my radar, but I could use a rake, possibly two. I'd been thinking of trying to assemble a Bachmann based set in blue from whatever I could find secondhand, but this saves me that trouble 🙂

[No Decorum]

I’ve been digging through details and can’t find any mention of tail lights. Will there be tail lights?

[Islesy]

10 minutes ago, No Decorum said:

I’ve been digging through details and can’t find any mention of tail lights. Will there be tail lights?

Not, there won’t be I’m afraid. With formations fluctuating, it’s not always the BT, or S, that could be at the rear of the train, so our choice was to fit tail lights to all, or none.

[Metr0Land]

1 hour ago, miles73128 said:

I think you mean the 4 COM, that was a 4 EPB reformed with two compartment trailers. Only to be used in the peak and had a red cantrail stripe to denote (dangerous) compartment stock. This was in response to an violent incident .  

 

IIRC these rush-hour only variants lasted until the May94 timetable change.  Never heard them called 4COM before.  The ones I'm thinking of were 2EPB of 416/2 type.  Just checked a bit of my video from early May94 and 6263 and 6271 def had some compartments with red stripe.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Metr0Land

[Lambton58]

4 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Recessing the area round the window ( inside ) and using individual glazing panes was a fairly good solution on the old Ian Kirk Maunsell coaches ......... but rather fiddly in a mass production environment.

Back in the early 1990s I recall watching a chap at EXPO EM glazing his carriages with the very thin cover slip glass for microscope slides.  He said he used glass because nothing else looked like it and the cover slips were thin enough to cut and look convincing.  He was building a model of Stevenage in the 1930s and had some absolutely exquisite models.  I think he was Joe Paternoster-Rowe but I could be wrong @Flying Pig do you remember him and those models?

 

Back on topic...  @Accurascale Fran  - very nice and a good choice

Edited June 6, 2022 by Lambton58

[andyman7]

3 hours ago, miles73128 said:

I think you mean the 4 COM, that was a 4 EPB reformed with two compartment trailers. Only to be used in the peak and had a red cantrail stripe to denote (dangerous) compartment stock. This was in response to an violent incident .  

Yes, this was the remarshalling of remaining non corridor compartment EPBs after the Debbie Lindsay murder in 1981. Not the same as compartments marked 'Ladies Only'. (I've not heard the 4COM designation either; the red stripe was also added to unfacelifted 2-HAP 2-EPBs which had half a coach of non-corridor compartments).

Edited June 6, 2022 by andyman7
Brain fade

[hmrspaul]

11 minutes ago, Lambton58 said:

Back in the early 1990s I recall watching a chap at EXPO EM glazing his carriages with the very thin cover slip glass for microscope slides.  He said he used glass because nothing else looked like it and the cover slips were thin enough to cut and look convincing.  He was building a model of Stevenage in the 1930s and had some absolutely exquisite models.  I think he was Joe Paternoster-Rowe but I could be wrong @Flying Pig do you remember him and those models?

 

 

Ah dear Joe. We were only discussing him a few weeks ago at the York area O gauge group - someone had brought a brochure from a MRClub London show of the early 1960s when he was writing about the molecular structure of metals and how this affected soldering!

 

Anyway, to the point, I still believe the Mopok system was best for these metal coaches without frames for windows. A clear film and thick paint - the metal is only 1/8in thick (if that!). What is that in 4mm scale? A clear plastic box painted might work much better than the proposal. 

 

Paul

[No Decorum]

1 hour ago, Islesy said:

Not, there won’t be I’m afraid. With formations fluctuating, it’s not always the BT, or S, that could be at the rear of the train, so our choice was to fit tail lights to all, or none.

😭

[John Isherwood]

5 hours ago, jjnewitt said:

I think you'd be surprised.

 

Judging by the response to my post - I think not!

 

CJI.

Edited June 6, 2022 by cctransuk

[robertcwp]

48 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

Yes, this was the remarshalling of remaining non corridor compartment EPBs after the Debbie Lindsay murder in 1981. Not the same as compartments marked 'Ladies Only'. (I've not heard the 4COM designation either; the red stripe was also added to unfacelifted 2-HAPs which had half a coach of non-corridor compartments).

I think you mean BR 2-EPBs, like this one:

2-EPB_6277_LondonBridge_3-5-94 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

I think I have seen the 4 Com designation in carriage working books of the period, along with 4 Bed for a 319. The relevant books are not in easy reach at the moment.

[andyman7]

1 minute ago, robertcwp said:

I think you mean BR 2-EPBs, like this one:

2-EPB_6277_LondonBridge_3-5-94 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

I think I have seen the 4 Com designation in carriage working books of the period, along with 4 Bed for a 319. The relevant books are not in easy reach at the moment.

Yes! Of course, brain fade.

[Mallard60022]

Slide Glass may be OK for glazing kit builds, but there is an issue with the curvature of many coach sides, Bulleids for example and MK1s with a 'continuous' curve.

It is what to do with the RTR jobs that is the tricky one. 

Some of my Bachman Mk1s are pretty rough, but I CBA to change them at the moment, de3spite that glazing usually easily removed and replaced; life is too short.

P

[Covkid]

5 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Slide Glass may be OK for glazing kit builds, but there is an issue with the curvature of many coach sides, Bulleids for example and MK1s with a 'continuous' curve.

It is what to do with the RTR jobs that is the tricky one. 

Some of my Bachman Mk1s are pretty rough, but I CBA to change them at the moment, de3spite that glazing usually easily removed and replaced; life is too short.

P

An easier method is to email Brian at Shawplan and pick up some Lazerglaze.  Coincidentally, I have a Bachmann Mk1 NC partway through Lazerglaze at the moment and the product is fantastic. 

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

Hi Mike,

 

It's a valid point but with the brass bearing set up employed on these coaches they are tremendously free rolling and that's the most important of all. The die cast chassis allows the full interior to be modelled without the need for a "false floor" to hide weights to be employed and gives a nice solidity to the model. Steam locos will be able to handle these coaches easy enough. 

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

How well a steam loco will cope obviously depends on your gradients, and that could be an issue for me.  For me the nagging concern with die-casting is rather more the unknown quantity of whether there is a risk of the dreaded Mazak rot appearing a few years down the road.    But we'd never buy anything if we worried too much about something that won't become apparent for several years.

 

Most of my coaching stock is corridor, so suburbans should help redress the balance.  But I'm glad this stock (rather than the 64' versions) are being produced and I will be ordering some Crimson ones in due course - not immediately as I have too much stuff on pre-order as it is.  The shorter coaches are what I remember most often as a youngster, or corridor stock of course.  A rake would be mostly the all steerage class so I hope there are always more number options for those than the composites and brakes.  Not yet sure how long a rake I'll be going for.  I'll probably want some maroon ones if those come out later too.

 

Can't say I came across the Lav versions, but I suppose that's down to where I was.  They would only make sense on medium length routes anyway, as corridor stock with fewer drafty doors tended to be more apporpiate on long distance work, whilst the gents at the station was adequate provision for inner suburban workings, but they did need the multiple doors to keep station dwell times down. 

 

I love the detail of the interiors - the luggage racks are particularly impressive, but it does all seem a bit of a waste of effort as in practice you just won't see the racks as the normal viewing angle for models is from above.  Magnetic clips to the roof is a long-overdue innovation.  It will make it so much easier to paint the interior & fit passengers, wiring in a tail lamp on the last vehicle of a rake. 

 

As it happens only ten days ago I had ordered a shipment of 500 HO ready-painted plastic passengers from China for the princely sum of twelve quid - some of which are seated.   OK, so they may be cheap and nasty third class figures, but surely that's what belongs inside a third class carriage!   Their quality won't be noticeable when inside a vehcile, and I'll have so many I could model rush hour overloading!  The blurb says the glazing is prism-free, although others have commented to the contrary in some of the postings above.  In practice anyway you never could see perfectly into the full size coaches from outside because of the dirt on windows, dim lighting etc.

 

As for the lighting, I am delighted that Accurascale have chosen what I see as the perfect approach.  I regard lights very much as a "nice to have" as long as it's not too costly.  I certainly can't justify the addiitional cost of a separate function-only DCC chip in every coach; and it will work fine on DC too.  But if you really want to fit a chip, at least the roof design makes the lighting easy to get at.   More importantly the presence of pickups and lighting means I won't need to faff about fitting resistors to make the stock detectable - not of interest to everbody I know but a selling point they seem to have overlooked.

 

All in all, this promises to be another excellent addition to the range.

[cessna152towser]

5 hours ago, Islesy said:

6 hours ago, andytrains said:

But no Sc prefixed numbers!

Yet....

 

I have more than enough Bachmann and Hornby Dublo suburbans already but these new Accurascale coaches with their diecast chassis will be a must have for me, once the Sc prefixes are announced if not sooner.

[jjnewitt]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

Judging by the response to my post - I think not!

 

Lol. I wouldn't base anything on the number of people who press the like button on RMweb...!

 

Justin

[John Isherwood]

5 minutes ago, jjnewitt said:

 

Lol. I wouldn't base anything on the number of people who press the like button on RMweb...!

 

Justin

 

That's what the BBC are saying about the Prime Ministerial vote of confidence - nonetheless, he won!

 

CJI

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

That's what the BBC are saying about the Prime Ministerial vote of confidence - nonetheless, he won!

 

CJI

 

Please don't turn it into political gunfight.

[John Isherwood]

Just now, AY Mod said:

 

Please don't turn it into political gunfight.

 

Irony / humour - please don't jump down my throat every time I draw breath!

 

I carry no candle for any political party, having been subject to politicians' whims throughout my forty year local government career.

 

CJI.

[AY Mod]

2 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

humour

 

I didn't see any.

 

The forum rules indicate it's a minefield so it's daft to enter.

[John Isherwood]

20 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

I didn't see any.

 

The forum rules indicate it's a minefield so it's daft to enter.

 

To spell it out - the quote was "I wouldn't base anything on the number of people who press the like button on RMweb"; topically, I (humouously / ironically) indicated that the same could be said of the confidence vote.

 

No indication of political bias on my part - just an attempt to lighten the mood; (wasted, apparently)!

 

CJI.