Hornby "Slip Ups"?

Hi  All.  A couple of years ago I fancied having a Southern Parcels ( BR S) running on a soon to be built ? Railway Layout. But I found out later that I had purchased a poor imitation of the van Bogie B Passenger Brake ( not for passengers though). I have been advised that I can improve the appearance with Roxey mouldings , but, after reading about both Triang and Hornby going to all the trouble of "tooling" for a.new van or wagon, they sometimes don't "come up with the goods". Would some kind modeller please advise me on this what was " a must have 1980's railway van? I believe ". Is it like the famous GWR Clerestory Carriages" either too short or completely wrong all together , a handsome van it is though. IMHO. All the best. Kevin

The simple answer Kevin, bearing in mind your desire to have something suiting your region and period and without having to make tricky alterations, repaint, apply transfers, etc, is to run whatever looks best to you. So long as the type, region, livery, etc reasonably match what you are after, why beat yourself up trying to achieve perfection? It will still look good from 3 feet away and give much pleasure.

After all, perfection is only ever seen through the eye of the beholder and if it makes you happy, then you've had done a good job.

So, stop worrying so much about not being able to take a kit or RTR product and fashion it into your dream piece of rolling stock and just enjoy what is easily achievable. Life is too short for extended faffing about and getting nowhere fast!

Make a simple, achievable plan and enjoy your railway, oh and your handsome van!

Best,

Bill

I think that's good advice Bill.  Hornby, from time to time,continue to release "models" from decades old tooling and methods and you really do need to watch out for that.  Their models from new tooling and up to date methods are really very good.

For me, I find the challenge of upgrading old models and kits to be fun.  You do need to have good pictures and drawings, parts and the ability(will) to make your own parts.

I say do what you reasonably can and enjoy running the trains.

John

Hi Bill.  Thank you for your reply. Region correct , Era  correct, Appearance not too bad . The annoying thing about it is Bachmann do one in N gauge, why I asked them.Their official reply " Our competition has already made one in OO"All the best. Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Sound advice from Bill and John. Running rtr stock usually involves some compromise, if it passes the 3 foot standard and looks the part,  who cares if the window shouldn't be there or the roof is the wrong profile. Plus you can easily triple the cost by adding/replacing all those bits that were left off for whatever reason. At one time I used to run the Hornby long GWR clerestory coaches. No resemblance to any prototype, but they certainly looked the part. Same goes for the Airfix/Dapol/Mainline/Hornby GWR Centenary coaches. Reasonably close to the prototypes, but a rake of these behind a Castle or a King, bees knees.

I would like a Great Northern railway post office coach, closest is a generic done by Rivarossi years ago in ATSF lettering. Close enough, change ATSF for Great Northern, job done. Looks the part, and for the princely sum of $3 for the decal and $10 for new metal wheels and Kadee couplers. 
Bottom line, spend the additional cost where it makes a difference. New numbers, passengers, lights, not new battery boxes or brass door handles. 

Nigel

Hi Nigel. Thank you for your reply. You raised some good points. I do believe that I have seen such carriages, and they "Ran them into the Ground" as they never got a wash let alone a new coat of paint. So a few good coats of weathering would really do the job. And maybe give better results ?   All the best. Kevin

Is this the one you already have Kevin?

http://www.hattons.co.uk/301972/Hornby_R4306E_LN02_BR_Southern_green_Maunsell_4_wheel_passenger_brake_van_in_BR_Southern_green_Pre/StockDetail.aspx

If so, it really is a most handsome van. Well done!

Bill

Hi Bill.   Thank you for your reply. Yes, but I knew what I was buying when I purchased it. The vans in question were made in the eighties by Hornby, and there were two types both Bogie Vans, the one I really wanted, along
with most colLectors was the "Bogie B" which had four sets of double doors each side and a Guards compartment.
The really annoying part as I have mentioned before Bachmann do an N gauge version. All the best. Kevin

The van in the link looks very good to my eye, must be newly tooled.  Of course, being me I'd find something to do to it.

It is a brake van not a PLV or GUV which look similar.  The giveaway is the central door marked "GUARD".

I did this BR CCT (GUV in SR parlance):



Slaters kit.

John

Hi John.    Thank you for your reply. This is a very fine well made van, definitely a cut above the Hornby samples.It looks more like a well made kit? All the "Roxey mouldings " parts in the world added to a Hornby Van would never bring it up to such a high standard.   Kevin 

This was the new Bogie B van that Hornby introduced a couple of years ago.  It's to modern-day standards and is an excellent model.

http://www.hattons.co.uk/51173/Hornby_R4536_Non_gangwayed_Bogie_Passenger_Brake_Van_B_BR_Ex_SR__/StockDetail.aspx

Hi Robert.     Thank you for your reply.  Yes that's the one. And you would never believe it ? Hattons sent me an email recently , as this Van is on my wish list. Saying that they had a preowned van in stock. But the email went to the "Spam folder", typical me being me I never check there, never delete anything until there is so much, then I delete the wrong stuff .   All the best. Kevin

Just noticed these:

Bachmann Branchline 39-530 SR PMV parcels van S1151S in BR green with

Bachmann Branchline 39-273 Mk1 GUV General Utility Van S86724 in BR green

useful for Southern Region parcels workings.

John

Hi John.   Thank you for your reply, I have the SR Parcels Van, but not the Utility Van.The GUV as they got called is much like the Hornby Vans.   All the best. Kevin

Hi Bill.  Returning? to the Hornby thread and Dean bogies, I dug out one of my Triang Clerestories , 1st time having a proper look at it . The former owner had made a start on conversion ? and there are some non original bogies? which would stabilise any coach( solid casting and non Triang wheels) the roof is off, so it looks like a box of parts? Is there a way that I can determine the origins of the Bogies ie trademark or number? Plus the fact I wouldn’t know a Dean Bogie if it bit me on the ???   Best wishes. Kevin

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Bill.  Returning? to the Hornby thread and Dean bogies, I dug out one of my Triang Clerestories , 1st time having a proper look at it . The former owner had made a start on conversion ? and there are some non original bogies? which would stabilise any coach( solid casting and non Triang wheels) the roof is off, so it looks like a box of parts? Is there a way that I can determine the origins of the Bogies ie trademark or number? Plus the fact I wouldn’t know a Dean Bogie if it bit me on the ???   Best wishes. Kevin

I'm not sure we're on the right thread here Kevin, but good to know that  you're thinking of doing something with the old Triang clerestories, the  brake coach being the only really useful one.

You say that a past owner had made a start to converting it, but unless you know what he was aiming at, it may be best to decide what you want to do and plan accordingly.

As for identifying your replacement bogies, it's more than difficult without a photo, so over to you on that one.

I'm close myself to starting a clerestory auto trailer using an old Triang brake coach and will be ordering appropriate Dean bogies from 247 Developments.

Good luck and have fun,

Bill

Hi Bill.  I wrote “ Dean “ Bogies in the search box, but couldn’t find the correct thread. That sounds like an interesting idea. have you begun a thread on it ??? As I really wanted to convert to LSWR , but got put off by certain comments and I do have a couple of GWR Locos that I purchased in error. How are you going to “ create a driving cab” or are you going to buy a “ cab end “ ? I wouldn’t dream of stealing your thunder, but, I would to copy your ideas ifthat is okay with you.    Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Bill.  I have just found your GWR autocoach kit bashing thread . Does that mean that you will have one regular roof and another with a Clerestory Roof coach? That should add more interest. Best wishes. Kevin

Joining in a bit late here: while coaches mostly tended to stay within their originating region/railway, parcels vans could, and did, travel from one end of the country to the other. There are plenty of photos online of the Southern types (4-wheel and bogie types) in Scotland and northern, eastern and western England and Wales. The same could be said for parcels vans that originated with the other railway companies, including finding themselves in Southern territory.

In short, buy and use whatever parcels types take your fancy. 

I know I chipped in on the earlier thread about the Triang 'utility van', but for all its inaccuracies, it doesn't look bad with a decent paint job (already done on the most recent Hornby releases), decent wheels and a lot of weathering (most of the Southern's wooden vans never saw  a carriage washer … ever!).

On the subject of Southern's CCTs/GUVs, I don't know if any of the 32' ones were ever modified thus in real life but I've seen some model ones that were modified to run on bogies and it looks fairly decent to my eye