Modelling sleeping car trains - Mk3 era onwards

[CaleyDave]

Hi CaleyDave

Thanks for that - really useful.

Have any of the Mk3 Sleepers been painted into teal?   I don't think I have seen any...

Cheers

Ben A.

Yes, a grand total of two, for the launch of the Franchise. http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/04/01/inaugural-caledonian-sleeper-leaves-fort-william
No idea if any others have been painted since but I suspect that this might be all the Teal we get until the CAF Mk5's arrive.

[Eddie Reffin]

There is currently two Sleepers in teal but the vinyls on the real thing have faded badly already compared to the locos which were painted

[Adam1701D]

I don't believe that there are any plans to re-livery more Mk2 or 3 coaches in Teal, as Serco have their hands full keeping the fleet running reliably.

[Adam1701D]

There is currently two Sleepers in teal but the vinyls on the real thing have faded badly already compared to the locos which were painted

My vinyls are much more durable (and I've done more than four coaches) 

[geoffc]

Having bought a blue FGW Class 57 from one of the box shifters at a ridiculously low price, I started researching the coaching stock to go behind it. The Night Riviera usually runs with four SLEPs, one TSO, one BFO and a RUB. At the moment these are a mixture of Dynamic Lines and GWR Green liveries. As an example the up Riviera on the 29th of September consisted of SLEPs 10534, 10563, 10594 and 10616, RUB 10225, TSO 12161 and BFO 17173.
Roof vents vary between coaches, TSO none, BFO one each end, SLEP one and RUB two over cooking area.

To model these there are several choices:
Electra Graphics in either livery on later Farish Mk3 shells with buffers.

Farish,  there are no suitable off the shelf stock, but as Farish print the sides it would only need new silk screens to produce them.

Dapol, as the window openings  are part of the moulding it would need new sides for both the SLEP and the RUB. The existing moulds could be used for the BFO and TSO and painted in either livery, preferably with the Dynamic Lines livery corrected the pink is red at the moment. All underframes would need to have buffers.

Do it yourself.
The Dapol BFO and TSO can be converted to Dynamic Lines Night Riviera stock by fitting buffers and decals from Railtec for the Night Riviera branding and the data panels. The braver could strip them and repaint in GWR Green and use Precision Decals. The SLEPs would be extremely difficult to reproduce and the only viable option at the moment is the Electra Graphics/Farish route. I am in the process of modifying a Great Central RFB into a RUB using a spare Mk3 coach for the extra windows, if successful it will be painted GWR Green as there does not appear to be a source of Dynamic Lines decals, when completed I will post details of the conversion.

All of the above noted refer to FGW, other operators may have different variations on things like  window spacing for the RFB.

As with any modelling project using good photos of the actual subject is essential. In this age of the internet this is quite easy to come by. Amongst others I used:
Taunton Trains
Cornwall Railway Society
Wikimedia
http://railphotoanthology.weebly.com/coaches--wagons.html
abrail

Geoff

[matt-b]

Is the scotrail brand a good seller generally in N gauge?

Quick look on hattons, on there bargains page the only Graham Farish DMUs on sale are both in the new livery


Matt

[Adam1701D]

I've sold quite a few Saltire livery packs for Scotrail DMUs and the new Caledonian Sleepers have been really popular.

It's possible that some people are spending a tenner to re-livery an existing DMU rather than £80 or £90 for a new one (which is overpriced for the old GF 158).

[CaleyDave]

Is the scotrail brand a good seller generally in N gauge?

Quick look on hattons, on there bargains page the only Graham Farish DMUs on sale are both in the new livery


Matt

Thats a good question and dare I say difficult to judge.
The Farish DMU are old and poorly detailed models. The 170 is reasonable but lacks DDC or Lights (an updated version is in the catalogue but not in scotrail) and the less said about the 158 the better.
CandM models nabed the (1980) mk3's and 156 as limited editions so they cant be used as a better guide.
Mean while your left with the class 68 and 47/7 both of which will not have any coaches (unless you want to pay £200 because you never bought the MK3 mentioned above  ) which could potentially hurt/be hurting sales.
The RevolutioN class 320 may give a better idea of how the Scotrail market is but the combination of kickstarter and electric will still limit any predictions.

I wiant to say Yes but I am of course bias and as it stands I am on track to own two of every DCC ready present day Scotrail unit or locomotive  .

The sleeper is popular down to its wide geographical up the WCML and stretching all over Scotland.
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Because so few MK3 have made into Teal the First branded coaches would be a must (unless you only want to model the Fort William portion). A retooled class 90 in Scotrail would make an ideal partner but that perhaps belongs in another topic!

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Do it yourself.
The Dapol BFO and TSO can be converted to Dynamic Lines Night Riviera stock by fitting buffers and decals from Railtec for the Night Riviera branding and the data panels. The braver could strip them and repaint in GWR Green and use Precision Decals.

You are right about the RUB but Be careful with the BFO.
The windows Do not line up with Normal window's spaces at the guards end. The HST TGS would be a good starting point the guards compartment windows need moved slightly closer to the door.

[geoffc]

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Do it yourself.
The Dapol BFO and TSO can be converted to Dynamic Lines Night Riviera stock by fitting buffers and decals from Railtec for the Night Riviera branding and the data panels. The braver could strip them and repaint in GWR Green and use Precision Decals.

You are right about the RUB but Be careful with the BFO.
The windows Do not line up with Normal window's spaces at the guards end. The HST TGS would be a good starting point the guards compartment windows need moved slightly closer to the door.
[/quote]

Yes this was a case of trying to do two things at once, what I should have said is that the HST TGS will make a reasonable but not accurate representation of the BFO.
The differences on the BFO are:
All doors are pink.
On one side the small window by the guards compartment does not exist.
On the other side  the small window is replaced by two large windows spaced differently to the rest.
It has buffers.

Bearing in mind three new sets of sides need to be made and possibly one roof for the current dies, will it be viable for Dapol to produce them. How many FGW Class 57s did Farish sell?

Geoff

https://shed83a.smugmug.com/CoachingStock/Mk3-Loco-Hauled/Mk3b-BFO/i-qS4RHdr/A
https://shed83a.smugmug.com/CoachingStock/Mk3-Loco-Hauled/Mk3b-BFO/i-fcqVHt8/A