Dapol Maunsell coaches

Dorsetmike · February 20, 2015, 04:35:38 PM

I seem to remember hearing that Ashford works used the lighter shade and Eastleigh the darker, or another rumour claimed that the difference was between Locos and coaches, anybody got any other ideas?

Mr chapman · February 20, 2015, 05:03:11 PM

I believe the Ashford/ Eastleigh theory is correct. I heard years ago it depended on weather it had a LSWR or SECR green undercoat. Its one of those things that seams lost to history and best guess applies to modellers. Its tuff to find a colour photo that's not faded from the time. Colour shades are notoriously difficult to get right. No one seams to be able to agree on grouping colours definitively. Let alone pre grouping

talisman56 · February 20, 2015, 05:04:29 PM

Just had a look at the Craftmaster paints page and they have two shades of SR Olive Green listed - the darker shade is labelled 'Eastleigh Olive' and the lighter one 'Ashford Olive'. So the difference exists but I've not yet found the rhyme or reason for it...

Mr chapman · February 20, 2015, 05:23:36 PM

Some people refer to the lighter one as Sage Green, a former LSWR colour. As applied to the Dapol ex LSWR M7. The olive green out of Eastleigh know simply as olive green is more of a SECR Wainwright green. As applied to the Farish ex SECR N class

Hope that helps.

Southernboy · February 20, 2015, 07:47:12 PM

Just to muddy the waters ...

A year or two back I raised the question of Southern liveries on one of the specialist forums because I was confused by the variations on offer from Phoenix precision paints.

As previously stated, there is Dark Olive Green (Eastleigh) and Light Olive Green (Ashford), which apply to locomotives. But there are also Coach Green (1924 - 1929) and Coach Green (1930 - 1935) before you move onto pre-war Malachite and post war Malachite.

Just for interest, and not applicable to Maunsells, but from 1921 the LSWR introduced their own green for carriage stock, which from my understanding was more of a 'Holly Green'. Stock with this livery would have still been seen into the later 1920s.

As to why the variations in colours ... well remember that 'international standards' or anything of that sort simply didn't exist back then. One man's 'sage green' was another man's 'moss green', and paints were produced by relatively small, local manufacturers.

So although a recipe may dictate 'an undercoat of A to be covered with two parts B and three parts C' ... the results could still vary regionally.

And at the end of the day - I think these slight variations lend interest to our trains

CarriageShed · February 20, 2015, 11:15:38 PM

Interesting. Dapol have issued pretty much everything in Maunsell Green recently so I haven't got anything to make the comparison, other than Poole Farish coaches, and they certainly are darker. In general though it doesn't matter. Different paint batches and different maintenance depots produced different tones of Maunsell Green, so no pre-war locos or rolling stock were all entirely the same in colour. And that's without taking sun bleaching and dirt and weathering into account. It's all fine.

talisman56 · February 21, 2015, 10:30:57 PM

So I bought up all the yellow Light Bars that Model Railways Direct had...

Bealman · February 21, 2015, 10:34:10 PM

Geez that yellow lighting looks the part. Very atmospheric.

UPINSMOKE · February 21, 2015, 10:35:31 PM

Quote from: talisman56 on February 21, 2015, 10:30:57 PM
So I bought up all the yellow Light Bars that Model Railways Direct had...

Really like the picture coaches look superb

need to get mine fitted at some time. Great work

Mr chapman · February 24, 2015, 04:14:21 PM

IMPORTANT
Dapol maunsell owners. Stop using light bars immediately! Will explain later when I'm near a computer.

Mr chapman · February 24, 2015, 05:10:11 PM

Ok... I've been running a maunsell fitted with a light bar for a few hours. I noticed today when the coach caught the light a slight distortion in the roof. I checked the roof over and sure enough there is a VERY slight dip in it. I removed the body to check the light bar. All looked OK so I held the light bar under power between my fingers. Being LED's the bulbs don't generate any heat. HOWEVER... the diode (I think?) IS giving off quite a bit of heat.This bit here

The component lines up perfectly with the dent. Its so slight I couldn't pick it up with the camera but I have removed the light bar to prevent any further distortion. As I've only got the one bar handy I cant tell if its a dud or they all run hot in this area. These mount slightly differently to previous coaches so it could be a design fault. I would urge everyone with a light bar to hold this component to check if its running hot. After posting the initial picture I don't what people to start melting coaches because of me!

talisman56 · February 24, 2015, 05:37:57 PM

Is this continuous running, Mr Chapman? DC or DCC? I've checked my three light bar-fitted coaches and cannot see any issues at the moment.

Having only a DC end-to-end layout where the maximum length of run is about 15 seconds, the lights on my stock only light up when power is applied to the track and turn off again when power is zeroed. I was going to take the full fleet (12 coaches) down to the club running-night tonight and see how many the T9 will cope with - perhaps I will still do and check the light-fitted coaches after a while and see what the status is...

EDIT: Thanks for the warning, BTW.

Second EDIT: Having had a look back at your initial picture, the wires linking the light bar to the plug look a lot shorter on your bar than the ones I've fitted to my Maunsells. Perhaps they're a different batch?

Mr chapman · February 24, 2015, 06:07:10 PM

Could be. It was old stock from my local shop. Its on DC power and has been run for maybe three hours in drips and drabs at a maximum of 30mins in one session. There is just a very small mark that could be lost by weathering. I'll email dapol first, see if I can get a body shell. My terrier will pull seven and a van easily. The union mills T9... 80-100! No exaggeration

EtchedPixels · February 24, 2015, 06:13:03 PM

There have been a few other reports over time (not many) of faulty light bars getting hot and melting the coach roofs. It shouldn't be getting hot at all.

Alan

Mr chapman · February 24, 2015, 08:27:12 PM

I know its not supposed to be hot, just thought it was worth flagging up. Check your lights

I've had a couple blow in a set of colletts on DCC, but they went distinctly orange before so I knew they were on the way out. This looks normal and works fine, its just running hot.