Another blue EMU!

Previously I said I couldn't stomach the thought of making another blue EMU - so here's another one!

I found myself with two of the three coaches required so decided to start production of another class 501 unit.

Feedback on the other two units during recent shows has been really positive, with most people understanding that it's a better alternative than scrapping. However one recent comment started me off on a little investigation - what about headcodes and destination blinds?

After lots of research, I found a good selection of pictures of the class 501, of which the SR EMU is based.

Now the Dublo version is a bit of a mongrel - it's based on a class 501 but has carriage numbers from an EPB unit, even though the class 501 has shorter carriages. having found the correct carriage numbers previously, this one will form unit 501135 (the previous ones being 133 and 134)

For the headcode, I struggled to find a suitable font. On SR EMUs, Gill Sans looks reasonable but on the 501 the font is different. In the end I had to take a screenprint and then crop the image:

After lots more cropping, colour, brightness and contrast corrections, I had the graphics I needed and printed them ready to stick onto the plastic window:

The result looked ok but not great - printing black onto matt paper produces a charcoal effect, so after more tweaks I used gloss vinyl and printed the lot in one go, producing a black overlay to stick over the clear cab glass:

Looks reasonable and I'll probably apply the same graphics to the other two units. I have several destinations and headcodes B1, B2 and B4 for added authenticity.