Ive seen this picture pop up a couple of times on facebook groups, which depicts the daily Wolverhampton to Great Malvern pigeon train at Brierley Hill. Theres a couple of things I like, the Eastern Region BG and the big loco on a single van.  Given that Brettell Road is set in the late 50s I am aware that I don’t have any BR steam locos, more on this aspect in a future post.

The picture features a Gresley BG but having done a little research it appears that the Hornby one, although nice on first inspection has some issues with the shape.  So I went with an old Bachmann Thompson version instead.  These also have issues with the shape as the roof had a bit of harsh angle on the sides but thats a relatively easy fix with a file.  Underframe details are from MJT, bogies Brassmasters 8ft versions and the gangways are from Wizard models.  The buffers are MJT as well being cut down 18 inch heads mounted on  bit of tube to thicken up and lengthen the shanks. The cosmetic bogie sides (which I was waiting on when I took this image are again from MJT.  The Bachmann ones seem a bit of a weird wheelbase for some reason.

Another slight advantage of doing this coach is I can substitute it for a Midland BG on my milk train and make it a little more eastern region for when I get to play with North Elmham. Eagle eyed readers might spot the screw coupling on the one end.  These coaches didn’t have them but anyone who has tried to couple a loco coupling to a coach with gangways at an exhibition will tell you that it’s nigh on impossible so in this case it’s a necessary compromise.

Speaking of North Elmham Tim mentioned that he liked the idea of a single car Derby lightweight.  So given he knows I quite enjoy chopping DMUS about and having been suppled with a Bachmann 2 car set Ive come up with this. I wanted to avoid repainting it and found where i did need to revisit the green, Pheonix Precision BR logo green (post 1954) is an exact match.

The Bachmann drive arrangement is pretty big and chunky on these.  In a regular Derby lightweight you can sort of get away with it as it only really protruded as far as the last passenger door. On the single car with its extra window it would be way to obvious so a Hight Level Kits Lo-rider power bogie has been used instead.  As North Elmham is set in the daytime Tim didn’t need the lighting so that was all removed.

You can see from tis image why the original drive arrangement had to go.  I used a slightly lighter underframe colour that usual as North Elmham isn’t set in the rain.