Something for Cheltenham

Just a little something I've been working on, it's an evolution of my Class 108, which is also receiving a refresh. 

That's nice!  Now's a good time to do it, thanks to the Covid-19 !

Indeed, the main reason I started work on this was to take my mind off the current global situation...

The Derby Lightweight has also had a refresh, this has allowed me to recreate a combination I had the joy of riding a couple of years ago.







As a bonus, given how they are almost the same unit, I can easily convert the 121 into a 117.

Turning back time on the Cross-City South to the 90's...

The 121 has also had the Regional Railways treatment.

Good work!

A little pedantry, if I may be excused- I suspect a fair number of members here are to young to remember these in anything other than their decline!  

For roof-mounted four-charachter headcode boxes it's markers or domino's, I think, but not both?  

Dominos above seemed to be a WR thing, but would have vanished when markers were added to units that didn't have them already (some had 3, some 2, some only 1 and some none) when integral red tail lamps were allowed- oil tail lamps were used until a red bulb was included much later.

I think there was a change in regulations too- two red tail lamps were used in case of failure; previously, so I was told, only the Royal Train was allowed two tail lamps.

Possible the latest to receive them were the Class 123/4 sets on the trans pennine which had four charachter headcode boxes below the windows (one or two piece) and oddly 53355- the last Gloucester Class 100.  When I first saw it, it has dominos in the two character headcode and an oil tail lamp, but gained markers late '87 (carrying an oil tail lamp working alongside 2nd generation DMUs!) and lost the dominos early '88 before withdrawal in mid '89 with it's Cravens chum.

A single marker provided at roof level was because units weren't expected to be on Class 1 work (lower outer markers) but Class 2 work (top centre).  A minority of sets had 4 markers, but really the lower centre was redundant

Marker lights carried a rim for a red shade, but as far as I know were never used that way- a red bulb being installed instead.  Previously two white bulbs were carried to guard against failure.

Generally roof-mounted headcode boxes were plated over (and should be roof coloured apart from the odd heritage repaint with plain black).  The 127s converted for parcels use weren't, but were (technically...) disused although you could change them by hand.  107s in scotland were mostly painted over, but a couple did become visible later on.

Since the above screenshots were taken, I've done a bit more work on the headcode boxes, the BR Green units have been given 4 character indicators in place of the dominos and the Regional Railways units are in the process of being plated over, I've gone for black but since reading the above post, I'll change it to the same colour as the roof.

I'm only 28 so much of what I've created it from reference photos and vague memories of the 1st generation Units Central Trains inherited at the time of privatisation. 

The BR Green units have had the yellow warning panel modified to match the original as added by BR.

The Regional Railways livery has also been modified slightly, the more I looked at the above screenshot, the more I noticed how wrong it looked, it's now a more accurate shade of light blue, a little thicker and lower down on the body side.

Given all units have a pretty standard 'Derby' cab, I've been able to pair them all with the BVETMD Class 108 as the running gear.

ap1991 wrote:Given all units have a pretty standard 'Derby' cab, I've been able to pair them all with the BVETMD Class 108 as the running gear.

You'll need to chech the length though- a 117 is around 64 feet and a 108 is about 58 feet.  Most low density sets were short, except the 114s, high density and cross country were long.

For the three three most similar looking low density types:

• 107- short, heavyweight, high side windows, roof headcode + 2 markers
  
• 108- short, lightweight, low side windows (as on the Derby Lightweights), either sort of headcode depending on the batch + 2 markers
  
• 114- long, heavyweight, high side windows.  lower headcode and upper marker only, later plated headcode and two markers.  Upper marker retained or removes, usually with a patch
  

Like this (escuse the direct link to the images, so you can see them both)

and


You'll also see regional differences on the placement of the vacuum pipes on some classes (including those two above), either mounted just under the buffer beam, or piped up to the top of it as in those two images.  The 107 has white-over-red markers, English sets certainly always seemed to be red over white.  Opaque glass was common.  The dents on the cab front on the lower image are from the control air pipe coming off it's stop below, and flailing around until replaced.

All small things, so don't be put off by it, I wasn't aware of the difference in window height at the time, althoggh 107s always looked "wrong" when i saw them- it was surprising how little notice we took of "Bog Carts" and "Carts" back in the day!  

Up here, Kingmoor 108s with barred windows were common but as the north-east received new sets we got 101s with barred windows (legacy of Corbridge tunnel, i think) and lovely 104s with AEC engines including one still with no AWS.

Some classes had a mixture of engines but after refurbishment, Leyland was concentrated on those, with AECs on the unrefurbished classes.  Have a listen to a 104 on YouTube for the full raspy experience, and there's a clip of a 108 from inside on the KWVR which gives a good flavour of them.

thehoviskid wrote:

ap1991 wrote:Given all units have a pretty standard 'Derby' cab, I've been able to pair them all with the BVETMD Class 108 as the running gear.

You'll need to chech the length though- a 117 is around 64 feet and a 108 is about 58 feet.  Most low density sets were short, except the 114s, high density and cross country were long.

You certainly have an in depth knowledge of DMU's! 

Yes, the length has already caught me out, I started off re-texturing the 108 into the 121 but quickly realised the difference in length was very noticeable. 

In regards to the cab, I was referring to the internal cab view, from what I can see the differences are minimal.

I've just discovered https://www.railcar.co.uk/ - I've lost several hours to this site over the long weekend!

I think I've got my head around the different BR liveries, head code boxes, lights etc.

The 121 now comes in 3 different liveries - 

• BR Green (May remove yellow warning panel and central headlight to recreate original condition)
  
• Regional Railways
  
• BR Blue (I'm not sure the shade of blue is correct so this one may not get released)
  

The 117 has also been given the same treatment as the 121's, no screenshots as they look pretty much the same as the 121's below...




I've also been refreshing my Class 108, I've build an extra centre car, the TBSL, this can be used to recreate an original 4 car set, it also comes in BR green and BR Blue and Grey, I need to create the DMCL so the 4/3 car can be as authentic as possible.

I couldn't get the shade of BR blue to look right so that 121 has been archived, for now, but digging through my archive of old photos, I found a couple of photos of 121032, when it was in use with Arriva Trains Wales in Cardiff, it fits quite well with another Graymac route...

The green 121 is rather suitable for NWM as it's an ex Chiltern unit.

I've also added headlights to all of the 121's,.

Still to do - 

• Add foot boards to the 117 fleet
  
• Add headlights to the 117 fleet
  
• Create the DMSL for the 108 fleet to allow for accurate 3 and 4 car sets to be created.
  

Hopefully a release isn't too far away.

With the 121 fleet released, I've turned my attention to the Class 117, the textures have been cleaned up, window spacing corrected and foot boards added.

Just needs headlights adding now, I also need to randomise the headcodes and destination, Pwlleihi has never seen so many trains!

I did toy with the idea of making an ATW liveried 117 out of curiosity...



The Derby Lightweight has also been refreshed, I've made a power trailer set too, to be dragged behind a 108.....

The 121, 108 and 117 headlights all looked a bit 'flat' and not quite the right size, so I've made them 3D, so far the WIP 108  has been given this treatment with the 112's and 117's to follow.

Also, with thanks to thehoviskid, the 121's will also be receiving exhaust pipes, which I rather embarrassingly forgot to add before release.  

I have also found a font that doesn't look too out of place to generate replacement destination blinds, if anyone has any suggestions for alternative fonts that would look even more accurate, shout up...

New headlights have been now been been fitted to the 108's and 121's, the 121 fleet has also had exhaust pipes fitted.

Since release, I've discovered that the Class 121 never actually carried the Regional Railways livery so I've modified the bodywork slightly so it's now a Class 122.

Still to do - Add the headlight glow, but as the headlights are now in a uniform position across the fleet this is only a quick job.  The 117 fleet still hasn't been updated but they're next.

In the below screenshot, those of you who have my short Great Western route may notice it's had a slight refresh, I've replaced most of Dennis Lances textures as although very good, they were showing there age, I've also refreshed the sea wall area to be more realistic, I'll aim to upload the refreshed version shortly.  For those of you who don't have the original, it can be found here - https://adamp19914.wixsite.com/bvecentral/routes