My name is John Miller and I am one of the “oldest” members of the Greenock & District Model Railway Club, having joined shortly after its inception in the late 1970s.  My main modelling interest is British Railways Scottish Region, 1950s to 1970s in ‘OO’ scale, although due to space considerations at home I also dabble in ‘N’ gauge.  My railway interests extend to helping on a regular basis with the restoration of a 12” to the foot scale Class 126 diesel multiple unit and I have modelled several DMUs in addition to locomotives and other rolling stock.

Over the years I have also resuscitated, repaired and overhauled many locomotives and other items of rolling stock belonging to Club members, hence “Dr. John”.

Here are a few examples of my own work (all OO scale):

“Clayton” Type 1 diesel-electric locomotive number D8507 (Class 17)

English Electric Type 5 diesel-electric locomotive D446 (Class 50)

BR Swindon Cross-Country three-car DMU (Class 120)

BR Swindon Inter-City six-car DMU (SC79xxx series)

BR Swindon Inter-City three-car DMU (Class 126)

Park Royal railbus number SC79970

BR Mark I passenger brake van number M80504

In addition, I have been collecting Hornby Dublo since I was a young boy in the early 1960s and I am now planning to build a large 3-rail layout at home.  This system, using a central live rail and electrical pickups, was introduced by the Meccano company in 1938.  Other manufacturers brought out 2-rail systems in the early 1950s but Hornby Dublo did not follow suit until 1959 and although (like all Meccano products) it was of high quality, it was not enough to save the company and production of 3-rail and 2-rail ceased in 1964 at the time of the Tri-ang takeover.  Tri-ang was itself taken over a few years later and its products then started appearing under the name “Hornby Railways” as the name “Hornby” was recognised as a marketing asset.  The products of the present day Hornby company are well made with high levels of detail, but they are completely different from Hornby Dublo and share only the name and the track gauge.

Hornby Dublo locomotives, rolling stock, track and accessories are very popular today with collectors.  Some rare items can change hands for hundreds of pounds, especially if they have their original boxes, but it is still possible to build up a good layout and enjoy running it without spending a fortune.  Hornby Dublo was made to a very high standard and will run almost indefinitely if correctly maintained, even though every item is now over 40 years old.

Spare parts are available to members of the HRCA, which is a non-profit making organisation devoted to the collecting and operation of Meccano Hornby trains in ‘OO’ and ‘O’ gauge.

more at: The Hornby Railway Collectors Association

 

“Clayton” Type 1 diesel-electric locomotive number D8507 (Class 17)

This type of locomotive was introduced on BR in 1962 but sadly, despite their attractive and modern design, they proved to be unreliable and all 117 locomotives had been withdrawn from revenue-earning service by 1971.  One example, which survived in industrial use at a cement works, is preserved today.  The model was built from the excellent Dave Alexander white metal kit and is shown hauling a goods train headed by a shock-absorbing van built from a Parkside Dundas plastic kit.

 

English Electric Type 5 diesel-electric locomotive D446 (Class 50)

Following experiments with the “Deltic”-outlined but mechanically quite different prototype locomotive DP2 in the 1960s, a fleet of fifty locomotives was built to a more modern design by the English Electric company and entered service from 1967.  Initially on hire to BR, these locomotives were mainly used in pairs on the then non-electrified section of the West Coast Main Line before being transferred to the Western Region, where they acquired warship names and a cult following which resulted in a large proportion of the class being preserved in the 1990s. 

When new they contained some very advanced electronics for the time, but the rigours of railway service resulted in all fifty locomotives receiving major refurbishment mid-career.

The Italian manufacturer Lima has produced several variants of the Class 50 in both original and refurbished condition.  Although it is dimensionally quite an accurate model (apart from the windscreens and bogies) and a good runner, the level of detail is fairly poor and it benefits greatly from some attention to improve its appearance.  I acquired a second hand example many years ago which I initially intended simply to de-name and renumber to represent the earliest era, however removing the printed nameplate also took off some paint and it turned into a full detail and respray job.  I used a Craftsman detailing kit supplemented by scratchbuilt components such as lamp irons and wire for the jumper cables.  By the time I had finished it the new and highly-detailed Hornby model was on the market, but thanks to the availability for reference of a complete cab from D437 at Bo’ness mine has one feature missing from the Hornby version – windscreen washer jets!

BR Swindon Cross-Country three-car DMU (Class 120)

BR Swindon Works built three batches of this type, two originally for the Western Region and one for the Scottish Region.  My model depicts one of the latter which worked on the Aberdeen-Inverness line from 1960.  The seven Scottish units were unique among BR DMUs in having tablet exchange apparatus for single line working fitted to the guard’s doors.  These are not yet fitted to the recesses I made in the model.  The kit is from the now-defunct manufacturer MTK (Modern Traction Kits) and the bodywork is constructed from pre-punched aluminium with white metal or plastic ends.  The underframe detail supplied in the kit was not particularly accurate and this has entailed a great deal of research, modification and even manufacture of components, a process which is still ongoing.  No interior was supplied in the kit and instead of MTK’s optional vacuum-formed seating I have used Colin Ashby individual DMU seat units which are supplied in various sizes and have now been positioned in scratchbuilt interiors – fiddly but worthwhile.  The first class section contains seats with extra “padding” made from Plastikard.  I have also detailed one cab end with dummy hoses, jumper cables and sockets and a screw coupling.  Some MTK products are being improved and reintroduced by a new company called No Nonsense Kits.

BR Swindon Inter-City six-car DMU (SC79xxx series)

Another MTK product, this picture has been included to show models under construction.  Due to the aluminium construction of the bodyshells it is necessary to treat them with etch primer before painting can begin.  These kits are very time-consuming to build and are not for the impatient.  Many windows were pre-punched in the wrong place or size and extensive alterations were required.  I have equipped this unit with US-made Kadee automatic couplings, which resemble the “buckeye” couplers used on the real thing and are much neater than the “tension-lock” type fitted to most British models.  Two of the power cars have been equipped with Lima motor bogies; this will allow various authentic 3- and 6-car formations to be operated.

Like the Cross-Country unit described above, this kit came without interiors and with incomplete and inaccurate underframe detail.  I spent many hours studying photographs, drawings and the only surviving vehicle from this batch remaining in the UK (trailer buffet first Sc79443 at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway) in order to work out the layout of underfloor equipment, interiors and roof details, fabricating parts from scratch where required.

All four power cars have now received scratchbuilt interiors with Colin Ashby seats, while the two trailer cars are being equipped with first class compartments cut from Replica Railways corridor carriage interiors.  A set of custom-made route indicator stencils has been ordered from a specialist manufacturer to provide the finishing touches on the cab ends.  When painting in early DMU green is complete the model will receive cream bodyside lining and warning “whiskers” on the outer end panels. 

 

The real “Inter-City” units of this design worked mainly on the Edinburgh-Glasgow service from 1957 to 1971.  Five power cars were subsequently sold to the LAMCO Railroad, a mining railway in Liberia, West Africa, for staff transport.  One vehicle was extensively damaged in a crash there and pushed into a swamp after being stripped of any useful spare parts.  The LAMCO railway has been abandoned for many years, but the other four Swindon DMU power cars might still exist somewhere in the country.

BR Swindon Inter-City three-car DMU (Class 126)

This model is not kit-built but was made from three Mainline BR Mark I carriages and other parts.  Most of the carriage sides around the windows have been removed, cut and repositioned, while the full cab-end is an MTK casting.  These units worked services between Glasgow, Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer from 1959 to 1983 and were gangwayed at one end so that all passengers in a six-car set could have access to the buffet car which was included in some units (not this one).  My model includes one of the two first class trailer cars from the earlier Sc79xxx batch (see above) which outlived their contemporaries and were incorporated into the very similar Class 126 fleet allocated to Ayr depot.

The model shows a unit in its final blue and grey livery which was applied from 1977. The only surviving real unit of this type is preserved at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway, West Lothian, Scotland.  An important item of industrial heritage, it has recently undergone major restoration and rebuild work with financial assistance from the UK Heritage Lottery Fund.

more:
Swindon Diesel Preservation Society

 

 

Park Royal railbus number SC79970

In the late 1950s BR bought 22 lightweight four-wheeled railbuses from five makers, including one in Germany, as an attempt to solve the problem of high running costs on selected branch lines.  The Park Royal type, which came from a builder better known for its road vehicles including the Routemaster bus, was used in Scotland until 1968 and this model depicts one of the Scottish units.  The kit was originally announced by Airfix in 1960 and is still made by Dapol.

 

No motor or interior parts are provided but these are available from a variety of sources.  I have motorised this railbus with parts taken from a Lima “starter” train set locomotive and have added (non-working) cast white metal headlamps to the roof.

 

BR Mark I passenger brake van number M80504

Following nationalisation of the railways in 1948, BR developed a standardised range of carriages using design elements from all four companies from which it had inherited its coaching stock fleet.  One of the earliest types to emerge was the gangwayed passenger brake van (type code BG), which provided accommodation for the guard and up to 8 tons of luggage evenly distributed.  The word “passenger” denotes that the vehicle could form part of a passenger train; there was no public seating.

 

Although it was built to the same body profile as Mark I passenger vehicles, the underframe was shorter at 57 instead of 63 feet.  More than 1100 Mark I BGs were constructed.

Several manufacturers modelled the Mark I BG over the years, but until relatively recent times they all had the same problem.  A standard underframe was used so the BG was the same length as its accompanying passenger carriages, which usually meant that it was too long.  However in the case of Hornby Dublo the BG was accurate but the others were too short.

To address this problem a plastic BG body kit appeared from The Railway King in the 1980s.  It was designed to fit on the chassis of a Lima general utility van, which is a scale 57 feet long.  I purchased one of these kits but I was reluctant to cut up a Lima GUV, especially as I had a trio of Mainline Mark I chassis left over from the construction of my Class 126 DMU (see above).  The only problem was of course that a standard chassis was too long, so some major surgery took place to reduce it to the correct length and with a little ingenuity the Railway King BG body was fitted.

The Railway King body mouldings were very good; unfortunately the same could not be said for the roof which was a rather flimsy vacuum-formed affair.  I replaced this with a Southern Pride Mark I carriage roof suitably cut down to size, equipped with cast white metal “ridged dome” ventilators (these vary between vehicles so a reference photograph was essential) and secured with long brass screws after fabricating brackets to retain the screw heads within the chassis.  This was just one of the many fiddly jobs which resulted in the BG spending an embarrassingly long time in the works.  I based my model on a photograph of the real M80504 at Crianlarich.

Other challenging tasks included applying white lining around the grey-painted areas, fitting glazing sections (complete with window bars cut from thin plastic rod) inside the body (avoiding the Plastikard strengthening plates and brackets necessary for fitting the body to a chassis for which it was not intended) and detailing the outer end with a gangway cover, tail lamp, handrails, dummy dropped buckeye coupling and pipework including a steam heating hose fabricated from aluminium tube and other items.

As in the case of my Class 50 locomotive, a commercial manufacturer (Replica Railways this time) brought out a ready-to-run model before I had finished mine.  However as far as I know there has been no scale length BG model available in blue/grey livery with “BRUTE Circuit Only” markings indicating that the vehicle was intended to be used on a particular parcels service.  As the Replica model was based on Mainline components it looks uncannily like mine when they are turned upside down and compared.