Dapol announce Mk3 Sleepers?

[SteveB1510]

Hello all,

Delighted to see this.

But while I accept the practicality that for the time being any Caledonian Sleeper model has to be representative, as there are no imminent suitable Mk2s for the support vehicles, I hope they'll add the First livery to go with the CS "stag" coaches as I believe very few (1? 2?) have been painted teal.

Cheers

Ben A.

only 10580 and 10693 repainted
john

While I know not many Mk3 sleepers have been painted CS Teal, I have to admit I thought there was still slightly more than 2 going around these days?  I'll see if I can find out.

Cheers, Steve

[Portpatrick]

When I watched the highlander sleeper go through Watford last July there were a number of teal in the consist.

[njee20]

There are obviously a number of mk2s as well - at the very least 6702 and 9801 from 30 seconds on Google.

[Ben A]

Hi all,

I have checked and only two sleepers have been painted teal - 10580 and 10693.

cheers

Ben A.

[Steven B]

Here are some BR(M) sleeper trains from 1985. Sleeper trains were often quite long - 14 coaches wasn't uncommon, especially once a few parcels vans had been added to the train - the Euston to Manchester & Liverpool train could have more parcels vans than sleepers!

That said, it's perfectly possible to model a five or six coach long train as several services split en-route - the Euston to Liverpool & Manchester train split a Stafford, with a BG, Sleeper and two or three second opens heading further north.

The non-sleeper portion of the train would often work daytime services; The Euston to Holyhead train listed below ran the route during the day-time, the sleeper only being added for the overnight service, giving a good reason for some shunting of passenger stock.

As a general rule of thumb a sleeper trains should be made up using:
1. At least one BG - usually at the loco end of the train, but also in the centre if the train is to split and work to two destinations.
2. A number of Mk3 sleepers (see note below)
3. A few Mk2 TSO - air-con Mk2d for Glasgow/Edinburgh trains, non-air-con for secondary routes

There were two types of Mk3 sleeper - with (SLEP) and without (SLE) a pantry. Externally they looked the same but the SLEP has space for an attendent who would provide hot drinks. Often a SLE and SLEP ran as a pair so seeing an even number of sleepers in the train is very common.

There's nothing wrong with mixing BR blue/Grey, and both versions of Intercity in the same train. BR didn't worry about it so why should you?


Bristol - Glasgow & Edinburgh
BG SLEP SLE SLEP Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-BSO BG BG SLEP SLE Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO

Euston-Holyhead      
SLEP Mk2d-BSO Mk2d-TSO Mk2d-TSO Mk2d-TSO Mk2d-TSO Mk2d-TSO RBR Mk2d-FO   Mk2d-FO   BG 

Euston-Stranraer      
BG BG BG BG BG Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO SLEP SLE SLEP BG

Euston-Inverness      
BG SLEP SLE SLEP SLE SLEP SLE Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO   BG 

Euston-Glasgow/Edinburgh   
BG SLEP SLE SLEP SLE SLEP SLE BG Mk2d-FO Mk2d-FO Mk2d-FO Mk2d-FO Mk2d-FO BG 

Euston-Liverpool/Manchester      
BG BG Mk2c-SO Mk2c-SO Mk2c-SO SLEP BG SLEP Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO Mk2c-TSO BG GUV

Plymouth/Penzance-Paddington
BG BG SLEP BG SLEP SLE SLEP Mk2d-BFK Mk2d-TSO Mk2d-SO Mk2d-SO Mk2d-SO GUV

[SteveB1510]

Hi all,

I have checked and only two sleepers have been painted teal - 10580 and 10693.

cheers

Ben A.

Thanks for confirming that again Ben.  As I said before, I didn't realise there are only 2, but I'll take both your words for it.

Cheers, Steve

[AdrianC]

I remember getting the Glasgow QS/Edinburgh - Inverness/Aberdeen on a number of occasions. I'm sure the Portions split/joined up at Perth which must have made for some serious shunting (twice, given NB and SB trains). Not sure of formations but I don't recall them being too long even though they swapped half the train, probably only a SLE and a SLEP for each destination and a couple of MK2As and a BG per portion (although that's still 10 coaches....)

With all the shunting there was a considerable wait at Perth, and still we'd arrive at Inverness at about 5am. Not great if you were in the seated bit!
I do remember travelling in one carriage where the lights went out every time we pulled away from a stop.....

[LowerQuadrant]

Just stumbled across this topic. I'm quite new in british themed modeling, so this was actually new to me. Night Riviera sleepers are precisely what I need for my Cornish layout, but Dapol hasn't announced any of these in February... so I guess we can forget about it in 2019? Any informations, anyone?

[Cutter]

I keep hoping for Gresley sleepers and full brake to complement the existing Gresley items.

[PLD]

I keep hoping for Gresley sleepers and full brake to complement the existing Gresley items.

The Full Brake is available as a plastic kit from the NGS. It is probably the easiest coach kit to assemble currently available (so should not be feared by anyone with no kit building experience) and even includes a RTR Dapol chassis so is fully compatible with the Dapol Gresleys.

[njee20]

Just stumbled across this topic. I'm quite new in british themed modeling, so this was actually new to me. Night Riviera sleepers are precisely what I need for my Cornish layout, but Dapol hasn't announced any of these in February... so I guess we can forget about it in 2019? Any informations, anyone?

There's not been any more information on them since TINGS, when they had an EP. Given how long it's taken to get things like the HIA limestone hoppers from EP to production I wouldn't be surprised if they were not this year, no. That said, it should just be a modification of the existing mk3, so hardly a whole new model.

[Intercity]

It would be nice if they could restore faith in many modelers, after all the 142 took how many years?, we aren't holding our breath for a timely release.

[njee20]

In some ways that's a bit unfair, it's not like they didn't release anything in the time it took to get the 142 to market, it just took a bloody long time.

That said I presume they're re-using the chassis, roof and end detailing for the mk3 slepeers, so it's  basically the windows, interior (if different) and liveries (where different, GWR and Intercity should be alright). That shouldn't be a huge ask. But again, the HIAs were shown last year at the Horsham show, which was just last weekend, so a year down the line they've not been seen. The 86 new liveries keep slipping, and that's an existing model. The 50 has been oh so close for ages. They do seem to struggle to get anything over the line!

Then are they going to find the CS ones underwhelming sellers because there aren't many of them in real life and you can't get the requisite mk2s for a proper rake (same goes for Intercity on that point), the Jarvis one just seems a weird choice too.

[Intercity]

I agree that my statement may have been unfair, however despite the class 68 being a success, they have too many projects that have dragged on or not been updated, it just doesn't instill a good vibe in people that you are expecting to part with hard earned money for.

With regard to the tooling for the SLE and SLEP, aren't the ends different with inbuilt lights (will they work?), and the pipes etc for the water tanks, with these subtle differences the underframes may also be slightly different, with that said the roof may be the only thing they can reuse (and I'm not totally sure of that).

Maybe we will be presented with a compromise.

[nookfield]

If you check on the Dapol Digest an update was made by Joel (Dapol MD) last week.