[Camborner]

I had a couple of quid spare today, so I decided to purchase this odd looking little thing to sit at the third station on Parkway.
For those of you who know little about the Railbuses (which included me until this afternoon), they were a very lightweight type of railcar designed for use specifically on little-used railway lines, and as the name suggests share many aspects of their construction with a bus, with a modified bus body, and having four wheels on a fixed base . These proved to be very economical, but also somewhat unreliable. The lines they worked on were mainly closed during the Beeching Cuts and, being non-standard, they were all withdrawn in the mid-1960s.
The kit was packaged in the normal style, and when I got it out of the bag, the first thing I thought was 'What have I bought!?' The parts looked a little complicated to assemble at first, and the instruction picture looked as clear as mud-I mean picture as the is only one exploded view of the entire kit. However, after actually reading the instructions, it soon became much clearer. The kit advises you to build the chassis, then set that aside for painting, and then assemble the body, and then paint that as well, then glue the two together. The chassis is easy to assemble, quite a relaxing time, even if the suspension springs got a tiny bit fiddly towards the end. Then came the body, which was quite easy until you get to the part where you install the opening doors-trying not to get glue onto the doors, you have to put the roof on, and try and get the doors on both sides to sit in the slots-doors which have a habbit of falling inwards. This was the part that led to quite a lot of swearing on my part-yet I hope it will be worth it in future Camborne Parkway videos. Moving from the doors to the interior-there isn't one, not seats or even simple blocks, which doesn't look good in this model with it's windows. They will also later betray the model's unpainted interior if you follow the instructions to the letter.
The kit has quite a lovely litte headcode thing on the front, and it gives you a choice of which headcode you will permanantly install-A1 or B1. However, if you're in a hurry, do NOT do what I stupidly did, and glue the thing in with poly-cement, as it all turned black within seconds.
Despite the problems above, the kit, when finsihed, yet unpainted, looked like a quite a professional little thing. Painting the d--ned thing is another matter. If you're a skilled painter, it'll be fine, but I have the painting abilities of a snail, which meant the yellow lining down the side mucked up my lovely BR green I had just finished to perfection!!! Arg! But a quick re-paint with some green soon fixed the problem. Just before I got some on the windows! Thank heavens for white spirit! Beware when you come to paint silver-It'll specify things to paint as silver such as the exhaust when the instructions never tell you to put an exhaust in anywhere.
Moving on to the transfers, most are easy to get on. However, a small accident which would never normally happen (I won't go into details-and it's not that!) meant I lost on of the numbers and one of the data panel, which means that there is still one of each type at one end. The real mean ones to get on are the two yellow 'V's that go around the cab. Both ended up twisting around like there was no tomorrow when I tried to put them on the model, but eventually, they got to a reasonable 'V' shape. There is also another which is in red lettering, reading : PARK ROYAL VEHICLES LTD. B.R. DIESEL RAILBUS. The instructions of the kit gave no picture to illustrate where any of the transfers go, I managed to work the others out via the pictures on the Dapol site, but I cannot see where this one would go. Any ideas?
And now for the moment of truth, when it went on the tracks-amazingly, it rolled along freely, although it did stop on a fourth radius bend. She looks quite good at the small station on my layout, and she'd look even better if the kit had been decorated a bit better.
So, what's the 'Out of ten' score? She's quite simple to build, with one major exception, and it can roll freely along straight track, and it includes opening doors. However, she's a nightmare to get the lining right, as well as the silver details, the transfers can be hard to apply sometimes, and there is no interior detail of any kind. I think it's about a 6/10, maybe a little more if you can decorate it properly.

[Caledonian]

Its an old kit, but a good one - still Airfix when I build my first one and the text about it on the instruction sheet is a historical gem, written when the real thing had just been introduced and full of brave new world optimism, with no hint of the running problems that were to come - and yes its a useful bit of kit. I really don't know why Horby haven't produced one. Every layout should have one.

It really is a kit which should be painted before assembly though and if you're not that confident stick to three colours - green for the bodywork, grey for the roof and black for the chassis, underframe - and the interior. There is a kit available which combines this one with a motor and interior detail. I've heard mixed reviews though, and if you're just going to stick with the Dapol one straight out of the bag, ann overall coat of tar black inside is surprisingly effective.

[Camborner]

[Mallard]

I haven't seen the Dapol kit, but If I remember correctly, when Airfix did them, they did have seating in. I had one many years ago, but honestly can't say yes or no to the seating. Mine got broken during a move many moons ago, so I threw it away.

[K9-70]

I also had the original Airfix model, and from what I remember, there was no seating unit included with the kit.
If you wanted to motorised it, a Piko 4 wheel railcar motorised chassis fitted the Airfix kit.

K9-70

[TerryB]

I think I've still got the one I built ....in the 1960's ....
I made a right "Pigs Ear" of it .....
I might still have it up in loft [with all my old unused/unwanted Triang & 3rail stuff] ....
I'll take a look next time I go up in the loft.....

[TerryB]

I think I've still got the one I built ....in the 1960's ....
.....I'll take a look next time I go up in the loft.

Here you go .....I found this in a box [discarded in the corner of the loft]


No seats fitted,one window missing,it seems to have defied my best efforts [45+years ago] to destroy it.

T.

[Mallard]

Thanks guys. I wasn't too sure about seating, so this confirms there wasn't. Bless you.

[TerryB]

It should'nt prove too hard to fit some cardboard seats in for a bit of extra detailing ....assuming you can get the roof of without breaking it .....
I might even be tempted myself,but I've more important things on-going on my layout at the mo. .......[like the acquisition of one of those coaling towers like "micks" layout has ]

T.