SRman

Not all that long ago I was scouring my books and the web for the opposite to the OP; I wanted to find a blue 31, pre-TOPS with the four arrows, with or without 'D' prefixes. I also required it to be a 'skinhead'. For this, I noted all of the combinations I found for that pre-TOPS period (ignoring anything with TOPS numbering), together with the dates of the photos if given. Variations include the earlier and rail alphabet typefaces as well. I cannot find my notes at the moment but if I do, I'll post them here. I was renumbering a detailed Lima 31 004 "toffee apple" fitted with a Hornby RailRoad chassis, but wanted a blue star version to make it a little more versatile, hence the research.

I'm willing to bet that the running qualities of that sample were excellent, even if it still needed tweaking of details.

The new blue BIL has now entered service on my layout and has been running as part of a six car formation. Unit 2134 in green with the small yellow panels and first class yellow stripes added leads, with 2086 next (straight out of the box Hornby), with unit 2147 bringing up the rear. 2147 is the unit I showed a few posts back, renumbered from a second 2134, with full yellow ends and first class stripes added.

I wonder, too, whether Hornby will hold good to the promise of supplying replacement seat units with the see through corridor windows for previous models, for those who want them, or if that promise will have died with the departure of Simon Kohler. I hope they will supply them as I have three earlier models to fix up. I converted one DTC only using an old Triang Mk1 composite interior section which had almost identical compartment sizes to the VEP unit. That was a lot of work and I only had the one seat unit that suited - all my other spare seat units are from other coach types and none matches the compartment size of the VEP.

I'm not sure how true this is, but I was told many years ago that when QR painted the two gold liveried locomotives, 1281 and 1461, they chose one from each of the then current main suppliers (English Electric and EMD/Clyde), with the ministerial idea that the two would run in multiple to celebrate the centenary. Of course, the laymen and bureaucrats in the government hadn't realised that the multiple control systems were incompatible - the two have never been able to run together in that way!

Hi Rob. Rails stated in a recent emailed newsletter that they had received an initial batch of the 'main range' version with more to follow later (I think they said October, but don't quote me on that). If that is true, then it may also apply to other retailers.

Glad you are making progress, Norwenglish. Looking forward to seeing the pics when they come. I was reading an article just the other day about a naturalist in northern Norway: he joked that Summer was the favourite day of the year where he was!

Trying to find any decent shots of the cab interiors of the Z or G16 has eluded me (I haven't looked for the H16 so I could feasibly have missed something there!). If you, or anyone else do find them, please share the source here (references or links - please don't breach any copyrights).

For renumbering and adding yellow panels on mine, I mainly used Modelmaster and HMRS pressfix or methfix ones, the latter particularly for the black end unit numbers on the full yellow end one. The first class '1' numerals for the doors on the green NRM one were from HMRS. The first class yellow stripes were from the HMRS BR coach stripes and lining sheet but had to be largely hand-painted for the corridor sides. When running in multiple, I prefer to put motor bogies in the centres of units (ie with motorised coaches face-to-face). Likewise, with kit-built units from DC Kits and Bratchell Models, I prefer to use motor units in the centre coaches of three or four car units but even so, Bachmann's 4 CEPs run fine with motors leading or trailing.

I'll second that!! I have seven Heljan ones at the moment: 33/0s in green, green fye (new moulding), blue fye and EWS liveries; 33/2 in blue fye; and 33/1 in blue fye, and dutch liveries. I have lightly weathered a couple but I really need to weather a few more of them. Peter's work is really inspirational for that.

Terry, there are suppliers of those jumper cables around. I last bought some Blacksmith Models ones (not sure if you can still get them) but other possible suppliers include Roxey Mouldings, Craftsman (look for the old Lima class 33/1 conversion kit), MJT and Howes for the Heljan spares, if those are available (items come and go from their stocks). Note that there are other alterations needed to make a 33/1, including rearranging the front handrails into three pieces with gaps for the jumper mountings, and cutting out the lower edge of the cab front and adding the Pullman buffing plate. Alternatively, you could locate and purchase a Heljan class 33/1 as that was already a good model to start with.

Mine are on DCC but see my post #977 above with a link to a video of two of my three units running as a DCC consist. In this case I have them running with the motors towards the centre of the unit but when I have run three together, at least one unit has to have the motor bogie end separated by at least one coach from the rest of the train - I have experienced no problems with this at all. As Phil said, on DC they will be sharing the same power feed from the controller but most of these units have the same motors and characteristics as each other so no problems should be encountered. If you make sure all units are well run-in, that should also help with smooth multiple running.

I would be happy to do this for you, Rick, as long as you aren't in too much of a hurry. I tend to take my time doing these things. I was looking at the prices too. Rails is slightly cheaper than Hattons for the blue BILs. Going slightly off topic, while looking at said prices, I also looked at the 1960s Brighton Belle and Rails is again slightly cheaper than Hattons for the motor/dummy motor pack, but considerably more expensive for the three coach pack. Oddly too, when doing a search for the Belle on Rails' site, the search results showed a higher price for the motor coach pack than when actually clicking on the item and seeing it in detail. I suppose the moral is, check and double-check the actual shopping cart prices before ordering to make sure you get what you are expecting. (None of the above is intended as criticism for either trader. I have dealt very happily with both in the past and have had nothing but excellent service from both. Simply, there may be a little bit of human error in some of the inputs into the stock systems - none of us are perfect!)

I have pre-empted the green with yellow ends - both syp and fye. However, I was going to repaint one of my green units into blue fye but Hornby's announcements beat me to it, so the remaining plain green unit will also gain syp in the not too distant future. I renumbered the one with fye to 2147. One other thing I like about the new blue unit from Hornby (not the NRM one) is that it has the earlier, slender buffers, where all of my existing units have the later heavy style. I also shot a quick video of two of the units in multiple on my layout (this was actually just a test of my new HTC phone's video capabilities, but stringing the three separate clips together turned out reasonably well!). http://vid98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/jslynn/Rail/Hornby2BILsinMultiple2_zpsb58fa7b8.mp4 (for some reason I can't embed the video as I normally do.)

I want to order a blue BIL but it has to take second place to a few bills! Still, not long to the next payday.

The last batch of 2 BILs built, still well and truly in SR days, had the heavier buffers and stronger underframes. So both types of buffers could feature on BR green or BR blue units quite legitimately, depending on the unit numbers you choose.

Sound decoders can be a little tricky sometimes. That's where the NCE Power Cab has an advantage, in that it has a little more programming track power so will mostly reprogram sound decoders with no problems, where others (including the NCE Power Pro system) don't quite have enough "oomph" to succeed. Blast mode on the Zephyr may well overcome this too. NCE tacitly support 'improving' the programming track output on their Power Pro system with a documented modification on their website - I'm not sure where this leaves their warranty, though. On one occasion, even with a Power Cab, I could not get an ESU LokSound to accept any reprogramming. Something in the combination of sound decoder and circuitry on the vehicle concerned was causing the problem. I temporarily swapped the decoder into a Hornby class 60 and it then accepted the reprogramming with no further problems. Once done, I swapped it back and all was well. Going back on topic, as others have already said, all systems should be able to program a decoder address, even without the readback facility. The exception may well be a slightly recalcitrant LokSound decoder!

I agree with what has already been said. However, with the Power Cab, there is also a sort of 'wizard' interface that will lead you through setting/resetting the address without ever having to know the CVs involved. When you use the programming track, choose option 1=STD which will then lead you through setting and activating short or long addresses. NCE allow a leading 0 to indicate a long address, so anything in the range 1 -127 is a short address, whereas 01 - 0127 is a long address, thereby increasing the number of available addresses by 127! As an aside, NCE does not allow address 0, unlike some other systems. The usual default for any decoder when you buy it is 3 (short), so that is a good address to choose if you are selling the loco/unit.

Back to the decoder fitting issues: I received my weathered example last week and after running in on DC on the rolling road, tried to fit a decoder. I thought the Hattons small decoder would do the job but it was just too tight a fit - as per ColinK's warning earlier, don't let the decoder touch anything metal. Mine did with the squeeze when I put the body back on, so went pffft! I could try another with extra insulation around it but it was still a rather tight fit, so I think I'll have to order one of the DCC Concepts ones recommended.

Ordered mine now - another green syp one.

Isn't that mouse just a tad overscale? I'm not questioning its realism, though. Very convincing!

Southern Region Models/Ayjay are showing a 4 COR in 4mm scale on their website, also available through Radley Models. I can't vouch for the quality but I have built one of their resin 2 HAL units and it's not too bad, apart from over-heavy roof and end details. Links below: http://www.southernregionmodels.co.uk/ http://www.radleymodels.com/southern-region.html I have no connection to either firm other than as a satisfied customer.

Like a lot of modelling projects, we have a choice of compromise or scratchbuilding, where no RTR or kits exist. If you can live with the compromise on width, then no one else will probably ever realise or know that it's not quite accurate!

Thanks Gary. I do actually have a number of gravestones to install in the church grounds, eventually. Some will be on the side of the hill, which means a bit of landscaping for paths and stairs for the visitors (the incumbents won't really care if the hillside is too steep for walking!).

Doug, I needed something that was still dark and relatively neutral but slightly warmer because of large, bare areas of the hurricane grey making the layout look a little cold and lifeless. Don't get me wrong, the hurricane grey works well, but I felt there is just a little too much of it at the moment. Once I can get the scenics on, that will all change anyway. Your layout is somewhat more advanced than mine and what little of the grey still shows blends nicely into the background.