Silver Sidelines

My first Mainline Restaurant Buffet came from the Cheltenham Model Centre in 1986 for the princely sum of £5.50. For the time it was a well detailed model and far superior to previous Mainline Mk1s which had holes in the sides to aid assembly. Original Mainline Restaurant Buffet – with re-painted roof I parted with my first Mainline RB in 2008 and upgraded to a Bachmann Restaurant Unclassified with metal wheels, wire handrails and close couplers. However there was a slight problem. The Bachmann maroon RUs only come with E or W prefixes. If you want an M prefix on a ready to run restaurant car with kitchen facilities it seems to me that it has to be the old Dapol / Hornby twelve wheeler. Fast forward to 2015 and there has been some correspondence on RMweb about the old Mainline / Replica Railways Restaurant Buffet Cars and in particular what to do about the recessed glazing and the raised window surrounds. I would take a second look at a Mainline 37-114. Main

My last Post discussed the merits of various proprietary couplings that could be used to close the gap between two B Set Brake Composites. Sometimes the solution is so obvious that it gets overlooked. Close Coupled B Sets, Airfix back, Mainline front A search of the Internet points to an old blog from TimVenton currently with a work bench thread on the Scale Four web site. The picture montage below is from Tim's old Blog and shows two types of semi permanent ‘bar’ couplings that were used on some of the prototype coaches. B Set Inner Bar Couplings, Diagram E129 left, Diagram E147, coaches No W6907W + W6908W right, courtesy of Tim Venton If a simple bar was good enough for coupling the prototype why not for the model? 29 mm x 5mm strip cut from translucent vinyl divider What to use? I settled on some thick plastic / vinyl film that I could cut with a craft knife. Coupling bar cut to shape, 1/8 inch diameter holes at 24mm centres