Just had an email from "Rails" to say my latest acquisition is on it's way, the Hornby 2 car "Brighton Belle" (Well, I AM modelling the Southern Region after all!). They have a few left on offer at £89.99, a straight £100 off Hornby's list price, and although I managed to resist for a week or so, I gave in to temptation last night. I have about a dozen Pullman coaches, so I might just look at making it up into the full '5BEL' unit, especially as there are sets of carriage route name boards etc. available to help me. Pics will follow in due course (That's before Tom gives me a nudge!) Keith.
Hi keith ..... Cant you get a photo sent up before they send it in the post ..... C'mon ...... start thinking outside the box. cheers toto
If you want to use their standard Pullman cars as the centre cars for the Belle, you'll have to do some coupling adaptations. The Belle cars all have electrically conducting multi-pin connectors. Also, the side profiles of the standard coaches differ slightly as the Belle cars taper inwards from the waist line to the gutter line (as did the Pullmans in the 6 CITY, 6 PUL and some 4 COR units). I am also a little jealous as I paid full price for my 1960 unit, not wanting to miss out!
All my coaches, including the Pullmans, I have fitted with pickups and lighting already, so I wouldn't necessarily need to adapt the conductive couplings to get this operational. I have also fitted all my stock with Kadee's, but I may find it better if I do use some existing Pullmans to make up a 5BEL unit, to change them for the 'close-coupled' type. I'll have to see when I get the "Belle" delivered. Keith.
Hi Keith. I didn't actually mean you would have to adapt the couplings to get the lighting operational: what I meant was that you would have to adapt them so they can couple together. Probably the easiest option would be to fit your standard couplings to the Belle motor coaches, but see what you think when you receive them. http://www.click
SRman wrote: Having had a look at the couplings, I don't see any easy way to link the lighting connectors through. I'll look at possible modifications, but I may have to bite the bullet and 'invest' some of the money I saved on the price of the 2 car unit towards the 3 centre cars if I can find some. Keith.
Congrats on the bargain buy, They are a top looking model in the orignal livery. I have a set in BR Blue and had to wait a while to get the 3 centre cars in Australia (7months), so started to look at what it would take to convert standard cars. In the end the list of items different made waiting and getting the correct cars the right choice and the connections also were a consideration in this. I'm now "thankful" I waited as the set really looks the part and saved in modifications repaint etc that wouldn't have given the correct unit make up any way each of the 3 cars has some detail variations. Just check the car numbers when ordering from memory their is an info sheet in the box with the correct Hornby "R" numbers for the set make up for the 3 extra cars to make sure you get the right ones My set are in storage at the moment awaiting a house move and new layout. So can't post any photos http://www.click
Not the world's best photos, but here are the 1960 set on its own, the 1969 set on its own, and the 1960 set pretending to be coupled to the 1969 set (no end couplings actually fitted!).
It seems the 3 car matching set for the 1960's "Brighton Belle" are now unavailable, and as rare as rocking horse poo, so I may be a while getting hold of a set, as I think my using standard Hornby Pullmans idea is a non-starter due to the coupling connectors. Due to their having been produced in limited numbers, I may be in for a bit of a wait! Keith.
The best I can suggest, Keith, are two options: 1. look for the earlier 1930s centre cars (you'll need to change the second/third class designation on the side of one car), which were sold individually rather than as a pack, or 2. shop around some of the smaller and more obscure dealerships as they may still have stock.
Got around to fitting a decoder to the "Belle" today, Hornby has marked pin 1, so easy to fit the decoder the right way around (8 pin plug). Set it up, but found the table lamps don't light up, so reversed the decoder plug, lights now work, but loco runs in the wrong direction.......doh! Seems like Hornby got pin 1 wrong (again!), so had to reverse direction in the cv's to put things right, typical! Apart from that, all good, just got to keep an eye out for the three centre cars now........I should be so lucky! Keith.
Yes, I found that it was configured by default to run with the motorised car at the rear of the unit. I didn't bother adjusting CV29, just remembering that the non-powered driving car is the 'front' of the unit.
Had a run over to Stafford show today in the hope that I might be able to find a trader with the R4582 3 coach set, either new or pre-owned, but no luck. Seems these sets are as rare as rocking horse poo, so I'll have to keep looking. You never know, Hornby might do a further production run as they just have with the 'West Country" and "Battle of Britain" loco's. Keith.
Hi Keith I had a trawl of any Ozzy suppliers web sites, that may have had any sorry no luck, there are some a odd BR blue gray ones around still but not all three versions, these were sold as separate cars in Oz unlike the ones in Pullman yellow and brown that came as a pack. Good luck in your search, if I find a set in my travels will let you know. http://www.click
