One of the trains I want to recreate is this one. A summer Saturday service using spare Manchester Pullman stock and a pair of 31/4s. The 31’s and the RFB are already done but whats also needed is 3 Mk3b Pullman coaches. Lima have done mk3 Pullmans so they are the obvious choice to use in this instance.
One little tip that you can do to any Inter-City liveried Lima mk3s is to sort out the amount of silver on the window frames. Lima supplied their coaches with the whole frame painted silver while in reality there is only a fine silver beading arround the inside of the frame. As the coach seems to be moulded in the same colour as the grey I gently sanded the silver off before re-applying with a ruling pen (it doesn’t have to be an expensive one for this). The difference can be seen above.
The other area that the Lima coaches have always disappointed is the ends and particularly the treatment of the gangways. Within a set it pretty hard to see and not really something to lose any sleep over but as one of the Pullmans will be at the end of the rake I wanted to improve the look of the end.
On the left is a tarted up lima end with MJT retracted buffers and new handrails. Its worth continuing the striped arround the end as lima didn’t bother. On the coach on the right I have fitted Four most models extended buffers and cut holes for the tail lamps. Mk3 Pullmans had them at least as early as september 1986 if not from new, as you can see i havent bothered adding these to the inner coaches. The big change is to cut out the original gangway and to fit a spare Jeouf one on its place. Obviously the roof needed to be cut too so that it would fit.
That’s a good trick with the window frames Jim – makes all the difference!
All of the Mark 3B’s were constructed with built-in electric tail lamps on both sides & ends. The only Mark 3A’s that came with them were the sleepers.
Bob.
One wee thing I meant to add – the gangway doors and surrounds I’m sure should be beige and not the earlier yellow….
Bob.
Thanks Bob. There was only a small batch of loco hauled Mk3b’s running in 1987 according to my combined volume. the main batch being FO’s of which the Pullmans were a part and a small batch of 3 BFO’s. I dunno if any more came later but I cant recall ever seeing a loco hauled Mk3b SO. You are right about the gangway colours but the inner ones will have Keen floating ganyways fitted so you wont see them.
No, that was it for the 3B’s Jim (except of course for the Mark 3B styled DVT’s)
I think these relatively simple mods particularly to RTR stuff are excellent, they really do make a significant improvement, particularly the window frames on these. I wish more modellers would tackle stuff like this, they’d get so much more out of the hobby.
Thanks Paul
I had your 15 minute hero’s in the back of my mind while I was adding this post.
For those not so proficient with a lining pen (i.e. me) Shawplan do replacement etches frames and Southern Pride do sticky plastic replacements if you don’t to get superglue everywhere. For gangways, I got a pack off eBay (I forget the name of the supplier – cottage industry) but i’ve not tried fitting them yet. Also for the bogies I have Colin Craig etched frames with Southern Pride cast bogie sides as Lima’s aren’t correct.
Ian
Hi Ian
I have used the shawplan frames on my catering conversions (see earlier) but both they and the southern pride ones replace the whole window frame. You will still need to line out the inner chrome frame regardless.
See an older post for thoughts on the bogies. I use my own inner frames (available from brassmasters) and add the missing bits from wire and microstrip.
The keen gangways aren’t perfect but at least they are vaguely like the real thing. Avoid the corrugated paper sort as they are nothing like the gangways used on mk1-3 coaches.
I agree about the cardboard gangways – hopeless. I did see some Mk1 replacmeents from A1 on a stall at the DEMU showcase a couple of years ago, but no idea what they look like built up. in this day and age, we need some proto-typical gangways for all corridor coaches.
Ian
Comments above about the only Mk3b seated coaches being FOs and BFOs are correct. However, it’s worth noting that six of the FOs were converted into TSOs for Arriva Trains Wales within the last couple of years, so there are now some TSOs over a decade and a half after they were built.
The main differences the 3bs have from the original Mk3as are the built-in tail lamps, the square HST-style central roof vents at each end, and a different interior – they had a new design of lighting raft and overhead luggage rack, and IC80 seats which are a modified version of the IC70 design with less intrusive armrests.
Mk3b FOs can still be seen in close to their original form in use with Greater Anglia – they’ve had new fabrics, and half of them are fitted with a disabled toilet but other than that most of the original design remains.