Sunday 21st February 2021

 

Rewritten (27th)

 

Having recently added Pride of Bellshill or as I now fondly refer to him "Bellshill" (DB Schenker liveried 90018) back in October, I thought it extremely unlikely that I would be looking at two skodas poking their heads out of my stocking on Christmas day but tis the season of magical things, isnt it ? Like it snowing, the lovely food we all get to eat, seeing friends and family, we should all enjoy this soooo much more next time round in 2021 (hopefully she says)

 

Sooo with Bellshill (018) having recently joined Bill (028), DB Blue (034) and Malcolm (024) in what was a colourful scene for Johnson Street, the need for a bit of a reality check in the livery colours seen "on shed" . This is a modern DB yard - so red is the prominent colour- with this on mind - it makes sense that the next two 90s reflected this ... in the form of Multimodal (019) and Jack (036).

 

So why Multimodal and Jack you could ask ?

 

Multimodal was the first of the new look DB90s - i had actually tried to get to see its naming ceremony at the NEC in Birmingham, yes that's right, DB Cargo took it by truck and lowered it onto tracks inside a hall there for its naming at the ''Multimodal '' logistics event in 2017" - see pictures below - these are not mine..

 

Unfortunately, i had just missed it, but made up for this at York's National Railway museum (NRM for short) to see 028 get named into "Sir William McAlpine" - there are some clips of this on my youtube and instagram channels.

 

Getting back on topic - 90019 - I  had originally had this in DB Cargo livery in the days of Hornby's 90 being the only modelled form -  having had it rebranded from what was already a very fancy looking Hornby Class 90 with a partial CJM nose which itself was liveried into DB Schenker - CJM is a kit you can get which updated the look of the Hornby 90 into a more accurate depiction. It looked more more realistic but that's alot of remodeling to do if you have half a dozen 90s - this is one of the reasons I opted for the Bachmann class 90.

 

Driver Jack Mills (90036) or as i call him "Jack" was actually the first Class 90 to be liveried into DB Schenker red back in 2015 I think it was - and was named at Crewe station - the naming ceremony is on YouTube by youtuber railuk. It was also the first commission I had done back when I got back into modelling, I still have a little clip of this somewhere. 

 

As soon as I caught the sweet scent that Bachmann were doing the 90, i culled all of my Hornby 90s, knowing I may have less examples but equally more higher quality, detailing, new age tech (dcc lighting, sound etc) but ultimately consistency in appearance.

 

Sooo Multimodal and Jack it was ... (see pics below - there will be a more closer look at them following)...  two more red Skodas, which is more than fine, the majority of the active pool are red, so to have a mostly red pool is reflective of what one might see at Crewe Electric Depot on any given day.

 

It is my intention that when the time comes for the next 90 (90s) that I look to add one or more of the more unusual liveries to the pool, yes, there are still a few other red DB 90s but they can wait - with these two arrivals,  the DB red 90s are fully depicted

 

DB Schenker - 018

DB minus Schenker - 036 & 040

DB Cargo - 019, 028 & 035

DB Glider - 037

 

with only the Glider livery outstanding, the next one to arrive will almost certainly be:

 

EWS First Scotrail (021)

ex-Grand Central (020, 026 and 029)

DB Glider (037),

DB Backbone (039)

 

There are also the long term store varieties of EWS not seen on the network for a long time now, they are:

 

017, 023, 030, 031, 032 and erm 033?

 

and the 90s which weren't EWS'd which are still in pre privatisation sectorisation Railfreight Distribution variants (or RfD for short), their numbers are:

 

022, 025, 027, 038

 

.......

 

Note, the reliverying expert Ben from Bensresprays - has undertaken this commission and he has said these are very much first drafts and there are a few snagging issues which he will sort before these are finished but they are about 90-95% right in my opinion - there will be some updated pictures of these posted in the coming days.