SRman

I have a whole fleet of the Matchbox J2 pick ups. The intention was to detail them up a bit and fit glazing, but newer models have rather stolen my thunder for doing that. As has already been pointed out, these were pretty well to OO scale. Quite a few other 1950s and '60s Matchbox (Lesney) models were to railway scales. Their catalogues of the times actually listed the scales in the descriptions for each model.

The one I forgot to include in the above post: Hornby 60 077 Canisp in Mainline's adaptation of the Railfreight two-tone greys, with etched name plates fitted.

I have had a rolling program of upgrading printed name plates with etched ones over the last few years. I put in two orders to Modelmasters just before Christmas to cover most of the remaining diesel and electric models I have, although a couple were not available for various reasons (either not made or out of stock). The following photos show the ones I have fitted so far. London Transport (ex-Metropolitan Railway) Bo-Bo no. 8 Sherlock Holmes has benefitted from having its over-thick plastic plates replaced by the etched versions, although I have to say the Heljan version was not too bad at all. ViTrains class 37, 37 428 David Lloyd George needs a little more work to patch up the paintwork at either end of the new plates - that's where I had to scrape off the slightly longer printed versions. This locomotive had its yellow bits overpainted with a deeper (correct) colour, plus some black paint inside the noses to reduce light bleed. It has the TTS sound chip in it from a Hornby RailRoad class 37, with a home made speaker enclosure to house the speaker. Note that the front of the nose is not quite seated properly, a known weakness of these very early ViTrains class 37s. I like my Lima class 73s for their liveries, but the running qualities were nothing to write home about. All of my operational ones except one now have Hornby mechanisms (the odd man out has a ModelTorque motor fitted). 73 125 Stewarts Lane 1860 - 1985 looks much better with the etched plates instead of the printed ones. It would benefit further if I weathered it lightly. Another hybrid locomotive is class 59, 59 005 Kenneth J. Painter, with Hornby chassis and Lima body. I experimentally fitted LED head and marker lights at one end only - something I would rate as entirely successful but I need to tidy up the internal wiring a bit. The plates are black, where I think they should be blue for the earlier condition. I may flood some blue paint into them at a later date, but they still look good now, as is. And finally, for the name plate fittings for this session, Hornby class 09, 09 012 Dick Hardy, now sports the etched plates. The printed ones were just a tiny bit longer, but I didn't modify them at all; you don't see it from normal viewing distance, and only notice if it is pointed out at closer viewing distances. Since placing the order for name plates, I have landed a few more models, two of which are named! I'll have to order plates for them next time I place an order. First up is Heljan BR blue class 47, 47 508 S.S. Great Britain, bought second-hand but almost unused. I spent yesterday evening gluing the buffer beam pipes and coupling hook in, then cut them all off at a level just below the bottom of the buffer beam to clear the model coupling swing. I still think this looks better than having a bare buffer beam. Also from the same source, and almost unused, was BR blue Heljan class 33/1, 33 117. This one is not named (whew!) but needs some buffer beam detailing and weathering. p.s. I only spotted the cat hair on the front of the 33 when looking at the photo full-screen. I wish our Toby wouldn't share his hair quite so freely!! And finally, from eBay, sound-fitted Hornby 08, 08 844 Chris Wren 1955 - 2002 in EWS livery.

If it is of any help, I use Micro Krystal Klear to stick all of my kit glazing into place. It is actually a glazing medium itself, It sticks well to most surfaces, dries clear and retains a little flexibility to reduce the impact of knocks or careless handling. It starts off as a milky white PVA-style liquid and can be thinned with water. Any excess can also be wiped away with a damp cloth. For applications like car, bus, truck or locomotive windscreens, it can also fill any small gaps if your cutting and shaping of these items is less than perfect. I'm sure there are other brands of similar materials too.

At least one LMS sleeper was sitting in poor external condition in a siding at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell Railway when I visited in 1999. It was in BR blue and grey.

That really looks good with the 150 and the 142 in multiple.

Just use the double entry system: you enter through one door and distract the other half, while the dog enters through another with the package tied to his collar. QED* ! * Quite Easily Done.

Groooaaan! And you lot thought I was a bad one for puns!!

I agree with Rick, above. Did no one at Dapol even think to actually test this so-called DCC-ready locomotive on DCC? Did they not look at the headcodes and the lighting and say "This doesn't seem right."? Did they set any of the models beside others, even from their own stable (and that could include their N scale models too), to see how the livery colours compared? Obviously not!

The photo may not be what you wanted, but there is a lot of useful modelling detail in there ... particularly useful to those of us living thousands of miles away and unable to just go down the road to get such shots. The platform walls and textures alone are worthwhile details for modellers to take note of. The train in the background is merely incidental to the main subject matter!

A further update on my E6007: The Hobby Shop, Faversham and DCC Supplies have come good on the promise of a replacement bogie frame. In fact, a whole bogie assembly arrived in the mail today. I have now unclipped the bogie frames and swapped them so my model now has 'proper' brake gear. I figured it was easier just to swap the frames rather than messing around with the drive shafts and resoldering wires. The frames are clipped at the front and back of the bogie chassis, and there are also two more clips, one each in the centre of the sides of the bogie chassis.

I got a response from Dapol on Facebook acknowledging the livery and PCB problems and saying that the next batch will have corrected circuits, but failing to answer my question regarding supplying replacement corrected PCBs to those who request them.

Surely they could still multi- using the blue star connections. The SR-style EP and multi-working connections were different between JA and JB, but the standard blue star connections allowed working with many other diesel types.

Ooooooh! Discrimination in the ranks, now??

I used a very small drill and drilled two holes close together then elongated them into one vertical slot.

That's perfect. It shows the colours to be pretty uniform throughout the train, including the 73. That gives a fair comparison and a good indication of the tones, even though, as Chris (dibber25) pointed out, it cannot be used for exact matches of shades of paint. It also means that for use with the Pullmans, the 73 should match them. However, the problem then raises its head: should the Hornby Pullmans be the lighter shade or the 73 the darker shade. The photo suggests strongly the former should be the case, for modern usage. Of course, it can also be argued that Hornby didn't model their Pullmans as the modern versions in the VSOE, and that the cours may well be correct for the 1940s/'50s/'60s. That leaves the keen modeller to repaint the Pullmans, or the less keen to accept the compromises. In this case (livery detail errors aside), I think the Dapol colour choice on their Pullman 73 looks fairly close to what is indicated in that photo. OK, so the next challenge is for someone to sellotape a Dapol Pullman class 73 and a Hornby Pullman coach to the side of the VSOE somewhere then photograph the lot in full sunshine!

While agreeing with this, photos with more than one of the subjects in view can give a good comparison. An example of this is a photo of three Southdown buses, wearing three variations of the Southdown apple green. Such photos can put paid to arguments about 'correct' shades of colour. Now, has anyone got a good photo showing the Pullman 73 on the VSOE Pullmans with all at the same angle and no shadows to throw spanners in the works?

Update: I have tried emailing the suggested alternative for Dapol - still no response from them at this stage.

I would like to add that I was not saying to Downer "Don't use it"; I agree with Chris (dibber25) in saying it's your layout, you can run whatever you like. While my answer to his question seems fairly definitive, there is every possibility that there were exceptions to the rule (not that anyone needs that as an excuse, either). If you really need an excuse, there is always the old Modeller's Licence to fall back on.

Poor Old Bruce is right about their use on the Worth Valley line. I'm not sure if they have done something to make theirs more reliable for distance running, or maybe they simply maintain it more frequently than in BR days (per mile or operating hours).

No, Downer. They weren't really suitable for anything else. Their axleboxes tended to run hot if they were run for any length of time, so they didn't even suit trip working.

I got brave and decided to try hiding toning down the vertical bars on the main cooling group grille with a little bit of black wash. While I had the paint out, I also toned down the white pipes on the bogies. The photo actually shows the grille bars too well, but from normal viewing distances and angles, the vertical bars are far less obvious than they were.

A lot of sensible suggestions and sound advice in the above posts. I hope I'm not muddying the waters with a couple of extra ideas, here. If you really must convert one of the old locomotives, fitting one of the available replacement neo-magnets can dramatically reduce the power consumption, thus making the loco more suitable for conversion to DCC. However, if it ran like a dog before, this may not improve things much. Another possibility, which adds electrical complication, is allow your layout to be switched to DC power for running sessions with the old locomotives 'as is'. This means you will need isolating sections in your tracks, and also that you ensure the two power supplies (DC and DCC) can never accidentally meet. The latter has been my solution, where I have a 4 pole multi-position switch that allows the whole double track lower level to be powered on DCC or fed to the two tracks through an old H & M Duette controller. I have experimentally converted a couple of old Triang and Dublo locomotives and units to DCC, but for the most part I would say it was not worth the effort, although my old, double-motored (pre-ringfield) Triang Hymek was an outright success using a TCS T1 decoder. I used a neo-magnet in a Dublo/Wrenn R1 0-6-0 tank and successfully chipped that, but my plans for a Dublo SR EMU were put on hold when the neo-magnet fitting proved to cause undesirable side-effects: the magnet in the power bogie attracts the tinplate sides of the motor coach with almost comical effects on its running!

Thanks Peter. I plan on getting it running every year! Maybe this one I'll succeed.

Moving along the line a little (literally), I have done a little reseating and filling on the Wills stone viaduct section. The last arch in particular wasn't sitting properly, but is now much better. The filler is still in its raw, unfinished state - it has to harden properly before I attempt to sculpt it to match the stone courses. After this, I'll be able to paint it properly (the existing paint was really just a rough wash to reduce the visual impact of the light grey plastic. I can't glue it into place yet as I still need easy access to the tracks behind to lay the third and fourth rails.