Tuesday, December 9

More on (or moron) Mark 1s

Finally, I've some more progress on the Mark 1 coaches. The RB has had all the ridged dome vents added (ABS, I think), and I've finally got the BSO sides onto the remains of the Mainline Blue/Grey BSK last seen in January. Here's pretty much the current state of progress, with Bachmann B1 bogies modified by filling the mounting hole and re-drilling for a smaller pivot, an interior made from the BSK "cage" and guard's compartment (with the cage shortened) and an FO interior loo (I picked up the interior from Railwayana at Warley for £1.95). The middle bit will come from a TSO interior or some Southern Pride bits.

BSO body, interior and bogies

Checking the reference for the interior layout

There's an interesting thread over on RM Web where Fred Flood is doing a BFK by cutting up and re-arranging bits of Bachmann Mark 1. This follows in the footsteps of other thread relating to what can be done with the Bachmann Mark 2 and Mark 2A models by Brian Kirby. This is quite inspirational and I'm struggling now to finish the BSO and the RB (see photos here) off because they won't be as good (or at least not as good a match for unmodified Bachmann coaches) as cut-and-shut Bachmann versions and (worse) have cost as much and will have taken longer!

Never mind. Such is almost always the modellers lot.

I'll probably end up doing my nut to do a pair of Mark 1 sleepers, only to finish them a day after Bachmann final get their act together and get some in the shops!!