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In this Post on heavy goods engines I make reference to one of my earliest purchases and to one of my most recent purchases. Hornby Dublo 8F from the 1960s I have used the image above before in a Post ‘in praise’ of Hattons. A visit was made to the shop in Smithdown Road in Liverpool and it was purchased in person in the early 1960s. It was an up to date model of the time and came with a Late Crest which was exactly right for the period. When I went off to college my layout was dismantled and the 8F was put away for safe keeping. It would be around 1980 before it was properly unpacked and had a new layout to run on. Compared to the latest Mainline products the Dublo 8F looked clumsy. However it was a superb runner - probably on account of the original and in my opinion only true Ringfield Motor. Proper Ringfield Motor - Replacement Mainline tender During the 1980s I was a regular visitor to Swindon. Prior to travelling back to Newcastle I would go to Trent’s Toy Shop near the station. On one visit there was a damaged Mainline Scot ‘For Sale’. I wanted the old style Mainline chassis as a replacement for a newer poor running model. What could I do with the broken body shell and tender? Cab rivet detail and Kitmaster Glazing I was not happy with the Dublo tender for the 8F. It did have lovely rivet detail but the underframe was not set back far enough and the wheels I thought underscale with the centre pair left unflanged. I decided to reuse the Mainline tender suitably repainted in black to match the Dublo engine. Turning to the surplus body shell I gently prised the boiler handrails from the plastic boiler and repositioned them on the 8F using plastic filler to key the tiny knobs into the oversize Dublo holes. I added cab windows shaped from left over Kitmaster windows – what would we do without them? At the same time the Dublo 8F was given a new coat of satin black paint and some new numbers, 48474 being a Shrewsbury engine that fitted with my theme of a mid-Wales layout. As sold by Meccano the buffers had a thick coating of silver over black paint. Again in my opinion the model can be hugely improved simply by scraping the paint off the brass buffer heads and replacing with a single thin coat of black. Mainline pony and repainted buffers The pony truck on my 8F came with what I thought were seriously undersize nylon wheels. The solution I adopted was to cut up one pair of the old metal rimmed Mainline bogie wheels and to fit them to the original Hornby axle. There is a down side to this conversion. The clearance for the pony truck wheels on the Dublo chassis is tight and since the chassis is ‘live’ to one of the running rails, there can be occasional short circuits. I did experiment with black plastic insulation tape on the underside of the chassis but it is not good at sticking to curved surfaces. Currently I am relying on a thick coating of black paint - aided no doubt by large radius curves and reasonably level trackwork. The Dublo 8F is my oldest current engine, what has arrived recently? Possibly my most recent acquisition has been one of Bachmann’s ex GWR ROD 2-8-0s. Bachmann ex GWR ROD Class number 3023 Engine number 3023, with Early Emblem is strictly outside the period of my layout. However there were still a few sister engines supposedly left in stock at the end of 1958 which coincides with the beginning of my modelling period. My 1957 edition Observers Book of Trains has five ROD in BR stock, numbers 3011, 3015, 3024, 3030 and 3041. However my Ian Allen ‘Combined Volume’ (for winter ‘58/59) has only three left, numbers 3011, 3015 and 3024. The companion ‘Locoshed Book’ doesn’t have any 30xx numbers listed. So it would appear that by the end of 1958 all the ex GWR RODs had finally disappeared. For completeness I have included a picture of the Bachmann mechanism. As with the other recent models of heavy goods engines from both Bachmann and Hornby, the motor is a tight fit within the boiler which has been carefully filled with metal. As with the Hornby 28/38xx series engines, the DCC chip is housed in the tender. This way all available space within the engine body has been used for ballast. I like my 30xx, it runs more slowly and sedately than the Hornby counterparts but that seems to be a design feature of all Bachmann locomotives. Might that mean the Bachmann motors last longer?

Well it was my birthday today. I got home from a hard day at work to a nicely made up table and a train cake! I also got a lovely new handmade wash bag with trains on it. SWMBO makes up various bags (see previous entry for the train handbag). If you wish one for yourself or someone you know then PM me. I just realised that my last blog entry was in September. Hmmm must post something soon.

Hi Ray Always look forward to your blogs - great explanation and detailed review of various locos. Great photography too - always clear and nicely composed. The Hornby D 8F is a smashing model - they really were years ahead of their time given the production methods and available raw materials back then. The improvements are also great - not over drastic but enough to bring it up to date. Regards, Mike

Wow wow and wow, superb job on the wagons they look so real the weathering is spot on and the washed out numbers on DB 983088 are great. Cheers Peter.

The build has actually started! We have a baseboard. I decided that the size of the layout would make no difference to baseboard construction technique, so my materials of choice are 9mm plywood baseboard top: thick enough to be rigid and not flex too much and also able to take screws on the underside to [...] Source

Yep, that's small!

Pugsley, True! I'm glad you noticed, it's spotting things like that that separate the men from the boys! I haven't got round to doing it just yet but using weathering powders like you say is just what I planned on doing. I'm waiting until the rake progresses though so that they look a little more harmonious when they are all done together, especially the rusted ones. I acquired another two last week (old RJH version so need modding), onwards and upwards eh?

I had some good news yesterday - an e-mail from John Lloyd (proprietor of the 'Flock-it' machine etc) who stated that the caution about pacemakers was a U.S. requirement (its marketed as 'Grassmaster' in the US) but he has several customers who have pacemakers fitted. I've copied the email to the wife just in case! So, time to add some greenery to the disused quarry. Whilst I'd never used a machine in the past (I have used the balloon/jumper technique tho!) there are plenty of 'how-to' videos on 'YouTube' which I did watch (trying hard not to get sidetracked by videos offering views of crashing model aircraft. Spectacular!). So the process I used was quite standard and I'm reasonably happy with the results. Hopefully they will improve over time. 'Scarlet Pimpernel' and 'Eidelwiess' (the little white flowers) were added from the 'Silfor' range. Whilst expensive I think the effect is worthwhile and adds the required little splashes of colour. There's more to do, obviously - each ledge need to be treated individually with fringes of grass & weeds, but that can be done 'as & when'. Regs Ian

It's very much a work in progress, but for a first signal box, it's not looking too bad...

BR 9F 92037 paid a brief visit to Delph today following major repairs. Here she is seen close to the recently installed FPL and signal detector. The loco last saw use at Scalefour North a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it shed a con rod big end (due to the return crank unscrewing) which locked up the chassis at full tilt and doing a fair bit of mischief to the mechanism. The loco was stripped down and now everything appears OK, although not tried under power, in anticipation of an appearance on Robin Whittle's fabulous Barrow Road layout at the forthcoming S4North show in about 10 days time. Even if now fully restored, I don't think 92037 will get much use on Delph - holiday excursion perhaps? Dave.