Brighton Belle All The Way! 

Many thanks for your interest. Yes, I hope it's sooner rather later before we see it back on the main line. I know I'll be booking a ticket for a ride in style and comfort. Cheers!

Hello Ajee, Thank you for your comment, delighted you enjoyed. Feel free to check out my other uploads and if you can "ping" the video to a TV screen for an even better experience of what's on display! 😉

Hi Greg, Many thanks for your observations and interest. If you wind back a couple of years you should be able to come across an overview of my layout in two parts. In truth I'm a Stanier LMS man through and through!

Hi Chris, Many thanks indeed for that endosement! Cheers, Graeme

Do you know, I find myself in total ageement and I cannot at the same time reconcile or rationalise why this should be the case! When steam finished and corporate livery took over I loathed it along with the drab depressing 1970s. As a result I have absolutely nothing of that period on my layout. (I did, however, welcome the later sector/business liveries which in the main did look smart and imho worked well). When I was putting together the Wrenn BB, I came across the blue/grey set and I thought I doesn't look that bad at all, it seemed to work, apart from the yellow cab ends.Of course, it didn't last as the trains were worn out and it met its end circa 1972 I think? How strange!

Hi, Thank you for your observation. Delighted you enjoyed!

Hi, The blue/grey Brighton Belle is a Wrenn model...a bit hard to find!

Hi, I thought this might interest you. I have a picture of the Belle running in the two liveries as one unit. It works with the Wrenn Pullmans, but it wouldn't work with the scale length Hornby version on my layout. The length of the layout is 18 feet. The shunter is a Bachmann model. I have to say that announcements from the industry and major retailers pass me by these days and I already have two tiny 'Terriers' one 'BR' and the other 'Brighton Works'...one of which will make an appearance on the next regional upload. Many thanks for your comment.

@@crewelocoman5b161 There is a video on here of the mixed livery belle, very nice. The wrenn units appear to be quite close coupled. Is the motor unit propelling from the rear? Out of interest why wouldn't it work with the hornby units?

@@Night_Ferry Hi, I picked up the Wrenn Belle in umber and cream for a reasonable price. It was in exemplary condition. This spurred me on to get the Blue/Grey one, a livery and era which I loathe, but for some inexplicable reason I found that it rather suited that train. Unbeknown to me, the three centre coaches in both sets wobbled terribly, so I had to undertake measures to rectify and eliminate the toy like wobble. This I did by inserting very thin metal strips between the bogie pivot and the underside of the coach. Most of the coaches including the power units required the the windows to be stuck back in place as well. The power units were quite tricky to dismantle and re-assemble, one of which I had to re-solder a power connection. Not easy for me with only one hand with nimble fingers. When it came to running, yep, I did the predictable thing like everyone else which is to pull and run the set "forwards". This didn't work. Hesitation and stuttering occurred every time with both power units over points and crossovers (???). As a final last attempt I rearranged the units so that the powered units pushed the train around from the middle and the back of the set, in effect the powered units going "backwards" which I doubt they had done before, if at all. I knew that pushing the set round the layout wouldn't be a problem, the vehicles were heavy, but best of all it worked as you can see from the video. No hesitation or erratic running issues! The Wrenn Belle could be made to work with the Hornby Belle I suppose. For me it comes down to aesthetics. It simply wouldn't look right! The Wrenn Belle is essentially the old Hornby-Dublo Pullmans, too short and a host of other inconsistencies compared to the Hornby model. The B.B. was like the BR. Mk2 coach, a monocoque construction with no underframing, and the coach was fractionally longer that the older loco hauled vehicles (you can see this in the VSOE set that usually rides behind Clan Line). Also, as far as I can see there is no connection on the Hornby power units to enable this to happen. No, the Wrenn units are fine as they are, but definetly not coupled to the Hornby set. Anyway, the Hornby set is a total nightmare to remove from the rails and re-assemble and I'm not doing that again just for curiosity sake, I've already had to replace the powered car on that one. Many thanks for your comment...I hope this explains my reasoning a bit more!

@@crewelocoman5b161 Thanks for the comprehensive reply. A slight misunderstanding there. I thought you meant a pair of modern units wouldn't work together. I didn't think mixing and matching new and old was a good idea. Like you say, very different models from different times. Interesting about the front coupling, I have never noticed that.

@@Night_Ferry Sorry, my fault, not extending to a Hornby ten car unit would be too long for my layout.

Hi Mark, The set carrying the head/roof boards is the latest Hornby version (R2987). Many thanks for your interest and observation!

@@crewelocoman5b161 awesome! Be great if you could do your usual drive by with the units, thought for a minute you had bought the Exley Set that Rails Of Sheffield had up for sale: 2K and reduced to £1000 😱🤣

@@markwalker4016 Many thanks for your input. To be honest, if I had that kind of money to spend I'd probably be modelling 0 Gauge or even Gauge 1. . .er "usual drive by with the units"...?🤔

Was thinking how you do a drive by ( 9fs and bulleids spring to mind ) where you review detail accuracy, would be interesting to see how they all stack up!

@@markwalker4016 Many thanks! I'll add that to the list.