NIR Railbus

[Dhu Varren]

Twenty or so years ago I decided to build a model of the NIR Railbus. As the real railbus was built using Leyland National bus parts, I purchased two Tower Models Leyland National bus kits, one red London Transport, one green London Country.

I looked closely at the bus kits, and decided that there were not enough windows of the right size to build the railbus, so the project was shelved, and the kits consigned to the junk box.

More recently, while having a sort out, I came across the unbuilt kits, now robbed of parts for other road vehicles, and decided it was time to dispose of them. However, it suddenly came to me that the BREL Pacer was a development of the railbus, and it too used Leyland National bus parts. A quick check revealed that the Hornby Pacer had windows of the correct size, but it would require two bodies to give the correct number of windows for the railbus.

Two bodies were obtained and examined. Sure enough, with a bit of cut and shut, the two sides could be produced for the railbus.

 

 

However, the roof profile was totally incorrect, and was too wide. It was decided to make up the sides only from the Pacer bodies, and use the roofs from the bus kits, suitably shortened and spliced together, plus the two front ends.

 

 

Apart from the doors, the Pacer sides were not deep enough, so plastic strip was used to extend the depth of the sides.

 

 

All the parts were assembled, but the bus roof heating units were not correct for the railbus. The Pacer one was, so one unit was removed from a Pacer roof, and fitted to the railbus. It was also discovered that the Pacer doors were not the correct pattern for the railbus, so the Pacer doors were removed, and those from the kits were spliced in instead.

 

 

The pictures show the origins of parts. Red or green parts are from the bus kits, orange or brown are from the Pacer bodies, and white is additional plastic, except for the white line above the windows which was part of the Pacer livery.

The Pacer underframe was totally unsuitable for the railbus, except for the axleboxes, so these were cut out, and along with black plasticard, and white plastic strip, used to build the railbus underframe.

Motorising was the most difficult bit, as I did not want anything protruding into the passenger compartment, so everything had to fit below the floor. Four different transmission systems were tried, driving one axle, and eventually one was found that was not too fast, slow or noisy. A small Mashima motor and flywheel powers the railbus. Hornby Deltic wheels were used with a three point suspension system to ensure the best possible contact with the rails. The Deltic wheels were used as they are plated and stay clean longer, they also have a wider tyre which makes for smoother running through point frogs, and the flange is slightly coarser than Jackson Romford wheels which helps such a long wheelbase vehicle negotiate sharp curves.

 

 

A sound decoder has been fitted, again below the floor, but the speaker is fitted inside the roof. Connection to the decoder is by phosphor bronze strip fitted to the inside of a window pillar on each side. It is thin enough and narrow enough to allow the glazing units to be fitted over it, so no wires within the passenger compartment. Thin wires connect the top of the strips to the speaker, and the decoder is attached to the bottom. The sound is generic, having been taken from the ESU website and modified to be acceptable in conjunction with video footage taken of the railbus on the DCDR, in other words, sounds like a bus.

Holes have been made in the railbus ends for red tail lights and white headlights, still to be fitted.

 

The interior is made up using plasticard and the seats from the bus kits.

All during the construction and testing, something bugged me about the ends of the railbus, but I could not figure out what it was. Only when it came to painting did I realise what it was. There were two versions of the Leyland National bus, the Mk1 and the Mk2. They both had similar, but different front ends, and the railbus used the Mk2 front. My bus kits were Mk1. I don’t know if Tower Models ever produced a Mk2 bus kit, but I certainly was not going to undo the work already done.

Painting was done using my concoction for NIR light grey all over, and then after masking, my concoction of NIR light blue, followed by the orange panel, all sprayed. The black on the ends was masked and brush painted. Decals were made up on a PC and printed on to clear decal paper.

 

 

 

 

To finish the railbus, glazing and lights need to be fitted, and the underframe completed.          

Edited February 5, 2020 by Dhu Varren

[Edo]

Looks great - well done !...great piece of work.

[paulincelbridge]

Excellent bit of kit bashing! That looks really good.

[David Holman]

What a fine piece of modelling and creative thinking. 

Lovely job!

[Mike 84C]

Ingenious thinking outside of the box or even the bus! It looks brilliant     

[Robert Shrives]

A bit late joining but great work and I also had bits of pacer body lounging about . However the efe leyland national metal body provided the donnor ends and roof, along with the pod cut out of the roof.  I fitted a plasticard back to the metal end allowing a plasticard box to be formed but used the Loctite "Extreme glue" branded glue - seems a flexible gel supper glue as well. Phots show the "progress" so far - amazing what you can do getting sprouts on early !!   Needless to say not neat as Dhu Varrens, some filler required and the roofs not a perfect fit- more haste less speed sadly.   Chassis - well have to think about that and have chopped up the bus seats to make a rough inside. Cab pics seem to suggest the Leyland windows kept out the draught and driver had an inner desk and screen inside the curved end sections.

 

Pics are massive enlargements and show misalignements  but in the "flesh" as long as you shut your eyes and look the other way pass muster - a bit  of a 5/10 must try harder - but lets see what a dose of filler can tidy away. 

[Dhu Varren]

A lot of hard work there, with all that cutting and filing of diecast material.

[Robert Shrives]

Very lucky the only cuts were behind the front pillars and shortening the roof . The natural panel lines helped in cuts and filing - managed to cut green roof 1mm short so a spot of filler required.  For anybody else on this road - if you take care and cut  the front off but leave a good section of the floor by not cutting straight across you get a "landing" for the chassis to screw too.   The other totally selfinflicted error was I got one side wrong handed and had to cut about and start again. This has left oneside weaker than it need to be.. a real case of haste and speed.   At least the metal roof and end adds to weight. 

Off to try a bit of filler.

   

[jhb171achill]

A truly SUPERB job, Dhu Varren. Naturally, for anyone wanting to scratchbuild that unique vehicle, it can be seen in person at Downpatrick.

Excellent attention to detail.

It always struck me that panting that yoke in then-“Enterprise” livery was a 1980s incarnation of the GNR painting the Fintona tram in its most modern railcar livery, as then used on the “Enterprise” when it was first dieselised!

[Galteemore]

Great photos above of railbus both finished and in progress. That last picture of DVs could be Portrush on a summer Saturday.

One of the nicest livery ironies was in Belfast Corporation. Most trams were dark blue and cream, but the oldest, open top, trams were red and cream - just the same as the brand new trolleybuses !

[Robert Shrives]

Well a bit of progress.

After umpteen fill and sand cycles now painted in a gloss light grey. 

I could perhaps add some archer rivets along the top of windows but most pictures they can be barely seen.  The join between cab end and door looks better in flesh and will have had rails over.  Quite a bit more to do but to me seemed a good leap / stumble forward.