33lima

Latest progress on this 4-car set! Bodies have been masked and roofs spray-painted mat black (which, like the previous 70 Class model, turned out a to-me-pleasing satin finish). Grey sides were carefully touched up where the maroon had bled thru the previous masking. Having finished the underframes - three power cars complete with plasticard and tube engines, engine mounts, air tanks, fuel tanks etc and a trailer with LMS-style underframe - most of the recent effort has concentrated on the interiors. Two of these are adapted Hornby Stanier compo units, the main modification being removing the toilet from the cab end and fitting a rudimentary driver's cab. Two interiors with basic seats (for the open layout vehicles) were scratchbuilt from plasticard. Ballast was added from fireclay pushed into voids in underframes and under some seating. Above you can see one of the modified Stanier seating units, next to its bodyshell (a 42-43 series power car with compartmented layout). I still need to box in the front seat, where c.1960 a heat exchanger was fitted, as visible from the grill and the partially-plated over leading passenger window, on the front RH side of the body. Below is the powered vehicle, one of the 36-39 series and the only vehicle in this set with guard's accommodation; in these vehicles, without the large sliding doors fitted to most such MPDs. This sits on a modified Hornby Calder Valley DMU trailer chassis with 5-pole HST trailing and motor bogies and the same DMU's bogie frames clipped in place of the HST's. The front coupling has been replaced with a less conspicuous wire loop to permit hauling a brown van or freight. The buffer bean has been fitted with an etched brass screw link coupling. SE Finecast flush glazing has been added. I need to adjust the sit of the body on the underframe a little. I plan to replace the plasticard buffers with brass ones, for this and possibly all the cab ends. The last pic shows the powered car refitted with the alternative plain board corridor connection cover, and next to it, the un-powered trailer with the more attractive but less common windowed and painted type. I have started making air horns and the next job will be completing the heat exchanger compartments, flush glazing the other 3 cars, fitting everything together and checking fit, sit & running, then adding the air horns, wipers and other final details. I've also started work on another 80 Class set, the cut-up BR Mk2 coach parts for which you can probably see in the first pic.

Ford Monza Blue looks ok, to my eyes:

Lovely jubbly! A fine model of a distinctive coach. Nice work on the interior, all you need is somebody to prop up that fine bar!

It's also worth bearing in mind that a 1/76 scale model painted in exactly the original colour will appear too dark, because of 'scale effect'. This concept has been out in the open since at least the days of an Ian Huntley article in a modelling mag maybe 30-40 years ago, but is explained online here: http://www.cybermodeler.com/color/scale_effect.shtml ...and that's before we get into the weathering effects of the sun/oxidization & general exposure to the elements, not to mention whether the sample in question is viewed under artificial or natural light.

Aha! So they did after all go for 4+4 seating bays (x4=32) during the MPD conversion, then, not counting the bench and single seat at the bar! Thanks for uploading!

Thanks David! Yes the vacuum-formed windows are the venerable South Eastern Finecast 'Flushglaze' product, still available for a wide range of coaches and locos: http://www.sefinecast.co.uk/Flushglaze%20Windows/Flushglaze%20Windows%20Page%201.htm Highly recommended. Some, like the Hornby LMS variety I'm using here, come with moulded-on ventilator framing. Others, like those for the Hornby and Lima Mk2a/b coaches, come designed to fit around the ventilator framing, where these are moulded as part of the coach bodyshell.

Latest progress! Three underframes - real power car, one dummy power car, and a trailer - have now been completed, apart from two needing the distinctive cable ducting between junction boxes being added to the sidesoles and in the case of the outer cars, etched brass couplings being fitted. All four bodyshells have now had the NIR maroon (Damask Red car spray, on top of ford Polar Grey) and had the inner ends and front corridor connections brush painted in matt black. Corridor connection covers are shown push-fitted, including the two plain black ones; all of these can be removed or exchanged between cars to preference. Tho not as common as time went by, I prefer the version with the small window. Getting the height of the cab front windows is a little tricky as, when painted, these should be just high enough to reach the upper maroon, leaving none of the lighter colour visible above. The power car, 36-39 series with the slam-door guard's compartment, is seen fitted loosely to its underframe. With its HST bogies now having Hornby Class 110 DMU bogie frames, this one at least has (round) roller-bearing axle boxes, which is correct for MPDs; the other underframes will just retain their (square axle-boxed) Hornby LMS-style bogies. I have cut away the front coupling and replaced this with a florist's wire loop which will not interfere with the cosmetic screw-link coupling to be fitted and will also enable brown vans, freight wagons or even other MPD cars (or trailing coaches) to be hauled. You can see the side grills for the heat exchanger fitted c.1960, behind the guard's doors. Roof vent layout is based on photos, and is basically as built but less the bowed rainstrips and the train name board holders, tho by late NIR days, some roof ventilators seem to have been removed. Air horns and some other details have yet to be fitted. Flush glazing is being prepared, and interior units need to be made (for the two cars with open seating) or adapted (for the two with compartments). PS in the background of the first pic is a damaged Tri-ang L1 which at some point will be converted into a GNR(I) S Class! The old Tri-ang suburban coaches also visible are at present slated to become a simple MPD conversion (no tedious cut and shutting, accepting having too few compartments) with a couple of the same maker's mainline coaches, all painted in 'eau de nil', as a representation of the 'turquoise train' seen on the Bangor line in the very early 1960s. I've decided in the absence of other info that this might well have been a new MPD on test on that line, before it was cut off from the rest of the network; like this new set pictured at an unknown location, captioned as taken in October 1959.

Hi and thanks, the MPD converision drawing would be very useful, both for Kieran/Kirley, who's building a model, and for me, as I may do some day and tho awash with drawings of GNRI catering vehicles, for some reason never got any NCC/UTA diner drawings from UFTM. Are you able to scan them, if I pm you with my email address? Or better still, can you attach them here? Thanks again! Ivor

Thanks Kieran! Managed to find a drawing of 90/549, which I just emailed, tho it looks like you'll need to make some assumptions about the UTA's increase in seating, which was possibly at the expense...sharp intake of breath...of the bar!

PS in case anyone with an eye for detail is wondering why I modeled the sliding doors in the brake compartment to sit flush with the sides, instead of recessed...many pictures confirm that these doors were built that way. I'm not sure when they were adapted to sit flush when closed (as seen in NIR days) but (i) all the pics I've ever seen of MPDs in UTA green (Brunswick or 'eau de nil') show flush doors, the few that appear recessed actually being open, I'm fairly sure and (ii) conversely, all the pics I've seen in late UTA/NIR maroon & grey show the doors sitting recessed when closed. The only exception that comes to mind is a pic of one of these 'suburban' units captioned as taken in 1970, which shows the car in maroon & grey with MED-style 'wedge' on lower cab front. This car still has the sliding door sitting flush. It seems likely that the 'suburban' MPDs were converted to recessed doors when between 1968 & 1972 they were rebuilt to open seating, losing most of their slam doors and gaining a corridor connection. It seems reasonable to surmise that recessed doors were fitted to the other MPDs with sliding brake compartment doors, at or soon after this time. So as a general rule, MPDs in any UTA green livery should have flush doors; in maroon & grey, recessed. Naturally this excludes MPDs with no brake compartment and those built with slam doors for the guard's accommodation.

Are these any help? Bangor, 1993, 916 if I'm reading the number right:

Sputnik update! Below are a few pics showing the current state of play. All for bodyshells have now received their coat of ford Polar Grey. Work on the underframes is proceeding slowly but surely. for the 36-19 series power car (nearest camera) the underframe work included cutting away the platform over the leading bogie to accommodate the HST power bogie, then removing, modifying or adding various components to produce an MPD-like layout, including new underframe trussing, absent entirely on the Calder Valley DMU centre car chassis used. Because this has angular rather than straight buffer beams, these had also to be rebuilt. Work on two of the three modified Hornby Stanier underframes for the two dummy power cars and trailer car is well under way. For the latter the old, GWR-style battery boxes needed cut away and replaced with a single LMS-style one, on one side only, centred. The other needs one of the battery boxes repositioned and another added as well as various other MPD-style components added. Both need new, round buffers and all three need the little square plates seen on MPD buffer beans, added from plasticard. Outer cars will receive etched brass screw link couplings tho likely with wire loops on the bogies to enable them to haul brown vans, conflats or other suitable wagons. Note the two different types of corridor connection cover, loosely fitted before final painting, and the fact the two rear cars - dummy powered cars in the 40-14 and 42-43 series - have lost the front seat row, with the window half plated over and a grill for the heat exchanger fitted to many MPDs about 1960. also the wider-spaced headlights, on the trailer (second from the camera). Next job is to finish work on the underframes and mask and paint NIR maroon. Then the interior units, air horns, wipers, flush glazing outer couplings and other final details.

Now, isn't that a sight to warm the hear of any railcar fan! Lovely! Especially like the way you made the curved perspex corridor connection for the car in original livery (Pale Green upper cab front). With one of the double-enders evidently getting 'Enterprise' red over blue, the only major MPD livery not featured in that great line-up is 'eau de nil'. Keep the pics coming, please!

Wow! Looking great. If there's one thing better than a good MPD, it's two good MPDs. The 4-car NIR set looks a treat, on the move. Lovely piece of work.

No helicopters I'm afraid, just some more panzers, pictured back in 1984: That Italaeri 1/35 Panzer IVH again, this time in warmer climes: Next, the weather has turned colder again! The Wespe 10.5cm SP gun was converted from the Tamiya Marder II, the former vehicle not being available in 1/35 kit form, back then; I also converted an Italaeri Panzer 38(t) to a 15cm SP heavy infantry gun. The Sdfz 250/3 command variant is I think a Nitto model; it came with the overhead 'bed-stead' frame aerial as seen on Rommel's half-track 'Greif' but as my aim was to produce vehicles representative of those used by the units of a Panzer Division in 1944, I replaced that with the later 'pole and star' aerial, although retaining the early body shape.

Here's some pics on the latest progress on this 4-car MPD set. The 4th car - a trailer, on the right in the group shots - has now had cab, roof and corridor detail added, as well as some filling-in of windows to replicate the differences in the prototype - in this case, a middle passenger window converted into a half window + door; and a half-window behind the cab reduced to a door-sized window. I need to sand down the door fittings around the window ahead of that and re-scribe, and fit hinges to, the newly-formed door window behind it. Headlight position on MPDs seems to have varied, with the original units having theirs quite close either side of the corridor connection, but this type of trailer had them further out, so the difference visible in these pics is deliberate. Grills have been added to one side of both the non-brake dummy power cars and the leading passenger compartment's window on that side half covered over, where the heat exchanger was fitted. To make these grill, rather than make a mess trying some thing too clever, I scribed rows of closely-spaced lines on some very thin (10 or 15 thou?) plasticard sheet, cut it to size and glued in place, sanding lightly afterwards to reduce their prominence. Two types of corridor connection cover have been made: two each of the plain board and the windowed version. The former seems to have been much more common by NIR days but the latter looks more attractive. The three unpowered vehicles (two dummy poser cars and a driving trailer) will be fitted with a modified, lowered Hornby Stanier chassis - the unpowered trailer at the back in the pics has had one fitted before modification, to check fit. The power car (no.39) has been fitted to a Hornby Class 110 'Calder Valley' DMU centre car chassis, modified to take HST power and trailing bogies which have been fitted with the bogie frames from the same DMU - this involves cutting away the platform over the space where the motor bogie willl be, but leaving 'shoulders' each side to take the pegs either side of the bogie frame - here, the empty HST chassis was used as a template for the shoulders. Work is already under way to modify this chassis further, the better to resemble an MPD one, starting with removing some extraneous components and fitting underframe trussing. The last pic is 39 side-on, sitting on the Calder Valley trailer chassis. The small brake compartment behind the driver's cab goes some way to hide the 5-pole Hornby Ringfield motor bogie. Further digging thru photos showed that by NIR days, this vehicle had lost the little hatch (with small window above) which was designed to cover the tablet exchange apparatus. So I had to fill in the window (which I had opened up, earlier!) and remove and sand smooth the hatch below it. I'll replace the front bogie frame with one without a tension lock coupling, later, tho I may fit a wire loop to permit hauling an NCC 'brown van', one or more of which were a common sight behind an MPD, even into NIR days. Three power cars and one trailer will provide a bit of flexibility, with the former able realistically to haul quite heavy goods trains, if desired. Nearly all MPDs had driving cabs, including trailers, the main exception being diners and a pair of LMS-type coaches (526 and 527) which were fitted to run with MEDs and MPDs. Next job will likely be priming the bodyshells with car aerosol grey primer. Cab-front horns on power cars have been left till after painting in NIR maroon & grey.

Very possibly, even tho the other modelling forums here don't specifically cover AFVs; but as I'm a tank nut too, in for a penny: Italaeri Panzer IVH, Tamiya Panzer II:

Thanks Kieran - your MPDs must be nearly ready, too, look forward to seeing more pics of them when they're all up and running. Sputniks rule, OK!!! Today, Kirley Junction; to-morrow, zee vorld! HAH!

Tried WoT but not into multiplayer with it's artificial 'tiers', grinding or free-to-play or pay-to-win and all the gamesmamship, plus it's too 'arcadey' for my tastes. No realistic functional gunsights and no interiors either, unlike Steel Fury, a proper tank combat simulator which also has AI-controlled infantry, towed and 'off-map' artillery and airstrikes:

Nice model Nelson, is it a 1/72 job, or you into that 'Bolt Action' wargaming which I gather uses about 1/56th? Anyone interested in tanks should give this a try: Like they say, travel to interesting places... ...meet interesting people... ...and kill them:

OK, here's the final model, barring numbering. Should have dusted her before taking the pics but never mind! I have fitted etched brass 'fold-up' screw link couplings to the outer ends and plasticard double steps to the cab-end bogie frame sides. I had run out of wasp-stripe paint (!!!) for the lower cab fronts so used lining transfers blacked over with a marker. I have some Mabex UTA 'red hand' roundels but for the 1960s I needed the later UTA crest, like this: Decals for these are now available commercially I gather, but for now I'm using the same home-made waterslide decals I made for my previous models. I still had some left-over lining transfers with a few mils of transparent decal material around the edges. So I dipped the end of a bit of thin but stiff wire in grass green paint and carefully marked in a roughly shield-shaped oblong, then another green oblong running left to right below this. After doing four and waiting for these to dry, I used the same wire to mark out lines to simulate the red lion on the left of the shield and the brown Irish elk on the right. A dark metallic blob above the green shield simulated the helmet and three tiny spots of yellow formed the crests or feathers above it. Finally a white diagonal band was applied to the green shield and three ting strips of white to the grass below it. At some point I'll likely get some of the commercial transfers but for now I'm happy enough with the home-made version. I think I preferred the British Racing Green that I believe I used on previous UTA railcar models, which is very close to the colour I used this time (Rover Brooklands Green) but fractionally more blue-ish. Not much in it tho and I'm fine with the result. Another 'train from Memory Lane' joins the stud, which for me, is what it's all about.

Multi-Purpose Diesel train - progress update To recap, using bare Hornby Stanier bodyshells as a base, I'm making a 4-car UTA MPD set. There will be a power car, two dummy power car and a trailer, so that there will be three power cars for hauling freight trains if required. The powered vehicle will have Hornby a 5-pole SWB motor bogie, from an HST set but refitted with Hornby Calder Valley DMU bogie frames in a modified centre car chassis. All vehicles will be from the first set of MPDs built by the Authority, as the coaches from which these were converted are basically Stanier look-alikes (the next batch had non-corridor slam door configuration; then came some with bus-type seating and narrow windows, then a final batch of double-ended power cars). The powered vehicle will be one of the 39-41 open third series; the dummy power cars will be an open third of the 40-41 series and corridor composite 42 or 43; while the trailer - nearly all MPD trailers, known as 'mules', had driving cabs - will be from the 529-534 series, which were corridor thirds. A note on references For reference, I have the works drawings via Mark Kennedy at the UFTM, many of which I photographed and uploaded to my RMweb gallery, here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/member/15566-33lima/ Here are the (RMweb photos of the) drawings for the cars I'm building. As always, photos need used in conjunction with these - for example some toilet windows are absent in the plan views. The set is to be finished in NIR maroon and grey. By this time they had lost the bowed rainstrips and the destination board mounts from their roofs and acquired new heaters which meant some spouted bodyside grills they didn't have earlier. Although some roof vents disappeared towards the end and they had long lost the curved plexiglass corridor connection covers first fitted to the MPDs, the original UTA publicity pics at Whitehead are still great references for most details, including roof ventilator layout. For photographs and data, the main sources on UTA railcars are: - 'Diesel Dawn' by Colm Flanagan; - 'The UTA in Colour' by Derek Young; - 'Irish Railways in Colour' by Tom Ferris (volume 1 only - unforgiveably, volume 2 left out the MPDs); - '35 Years of NIR' by Jonathan M Allen; - 'Rail runabout' by Sam Somerville; - 'Irish railways Traction & Travel' (notably 2nd & 3rd editions) by the Irish Traction Group. There are also some decent photos of MPDs in 'Irish Railway Album' by Colin Boocock, 'Irish Traction in Colour' by Derek Huntriss; and 'Railways in Ireland' part 2 by Martin Bairstow. The model so far Work has continued on the three stripped-down bodyshells prepared so far. Cab fronts have been laminated from plasticard sheet, with a thin later in front and a large opening cut in the inner layers to form a recess behind the windows, so the glazing will fit pretty flush. Retracted corridor connections were made and added. So far I have completed one cover, one with a small window and three horizontal ribs, which style was common from the early 1960s until well into the NIR era; two cars will have these, and two will have the plain board cover that was also common. Headlights were added from cuts from a plastic tube, with the end dished or reamed out with the tip of a modelling knife before cutting off. Below these, a little square of plasticard each side formed the lamp brackets. Air horns will be made and added to the upper left cab fronts after painting, I think, so as not to get in the way of masking. For the inner ends, a plasticard outer bulkhead was added, scribed to simulate planking. Corridor connections were added, with thick darning thread wrapped a couple of times around the outside to simulate folds. Rudimentart but robust support arms were added to the top each side and an outer frame cut and added to the outer end. The pic I'd taken about 1991 of trailer 532 at RPSI Whithead was useful, here. Steps were added on one side from plasticard strip offcuts, plus some of the other fittings seen. On the 36-39 series car, I added two small grills behind the cab on the LH side, made from thin sheet plasticard scribed, then cut to size, and finally glued on and lightly sanded. These grills I think appeared when new train heating systems were fitted. One of the snippets CME WAG Macafee told me about the MPDs was that train heating was always a problem; when going downhill water tended to flow from one linked water tank to the next and fitting non-return valves created other problems. Also added were door hinges and handles, lost when the cab ends were sanded in to shape. Plus the same, for the guard's compartment double doors in the 36-39 series car. I need to add wire handrails to the guard's doors but that will come later. Next and finally for this session I added roof ventilators, referring to those publicity photos which are by far the best reference I've seen for this detail, at least for the ex-'Festival' MPD cars. These are a mix of rectangular vents and a sort of drum-shaped vent axia type. The former has some subtle contours and I think can be represented quite well by just a small rectangle of plasticard, rounded by sanding. The vent axia types are made from a short cut from plastic tube fitted into a flat collar cut from plasticard sheet. It's hard to be sure but I think I've got the arrangements about right; each car in the set has a different arrangement. Exhaust pipes were cut from a cotton bud shaft and fitted into a hole cut in the roof at the cab end. Next task will likely be the 4th car's bodyshell and then the power car chassis.

There seems to be something of an NIR building boom at the moment, if the forum is any indication, and for a change, the UTA's Multi-Purpose Diesel railcars are getting a decent look-in. Having nearly finished a power-twin set that I'd started back in the 1990s, I'm now building a 4-car set based on the original batch of MPDs. These were designed to handle Belfast York Road to Londonderry Waterside expresses and a good job they made of it too. They were converted in the late 1950s from LMS-style coaches built just a few years before for the 'Festival' express. While their advanced transmission gave trouble in later years - using MPDs to haul heavy overnight freight trains in between passenger turns didn't help - they were fast and ahead of their time, which is likely why they acquired the name 'Sputniks', the Soviet satellite being a synonym for all that was space age and modern, in those days. Because of their close family likeness to LMS Stanier coaches, the initial batch of MPDs is a relatively straightforward conversion from a suitable RTR coach. Back in the early 1990s I built two 3-car sets, all from Hornby Staniers, finishing the first in NIR maroon & grey and the second, in UTA Deep Brunswick Green with frontal wasp-stripes. This set is for member Train Model as a follow-on to his 70 Class set and while the donor coaches will be the same, power will come not from a modified Tri-ang Hornby Hymek motoe bogie, but from a more satisfactory Hornby 5-pole ringfield power bogie, taken from an HST chassis, refitted with Hornby Class 110 DMU bogie frames and fitted to a modified centre car trailer chassis from that DMU. For the bodyshells I'm using some of the last of a set of unfinished shells, picked up 20 years ago. The Hornby Stanier is a 57' composite and while the length is fine, the window spacing will be a little out for some of the cars, tho it's hardly noticeable and not worth correcting. First task is to strip off the roof detail, both ventilators and the prominent ribs all have to go, a carefully-weilded Stanley-type knife doing the trick. Lots of sanding later and they're done. Next, the cars need one or more windows 'plated over' - half-windows for a composite and open third power cars, plus a passenger window for the brake open power car. The Fourth car will be a corridor trailer or 'mule' as they were called, which I haven't started yet. Other windows need opened up, referring to works drawings and available photographs, including the UTA publicity photo pictured above. Next it's time to start forming the cab fronts, from plasticard, using three sheets laminated, glued in place and then sanded and trimmed to fit. Windows can then be cut and the corridor connection built up between them. Before fitting the cab I cut away most of the bulkhead behind, leaving just the two vertical 'prongs' which secure the bodyshell to the underframe. The green MPD in the background is the recently-completed 'suburban' set, awaiting UTA crests and numbering. Next task will be to make the cab fronts for the other two coaches, and make a start on the trailer.

Yup, lovely job alright, those old bomb-proof Mk2s are a great source for projects like this.

Gorgeous! That suburban sector livery driving trailer is a blaze of colour and nicely rendered, down to the NIR logo on the corridor connection cover's warning diamond. Super work. Keep those pics coming Colin! Ivor