Robin Brasher

I ran my Hornby 'City of London' and 'Duchess of Atholl' at the Wessex Group of the Hornby Collectors Association meeting at Corfe Mullen last Tuesday. They both ran very well hauling three Mainline Stanier coaches on an 8' x 4' layout with Peco large radius points, It was nostalgic and reminded me of the train set days in the 1950s when we ran Hornby Dublo maroon Pacific locomotives with three coaches on imaginary journeys on the the West Coast main line.

If you have scatchbuilt or kitbuilt a model locomotive you appreciate how difficult it is to produce an accurate working model. I have now tested my D1 at the Hornby Railways Collectors Association meeting. The D1 ran very well and I liked the firebox flicker, it reminded me of the firebox glow on my Tri-ang Hornby M7. I like to run my locomotives in but I had a limited amount of time on the club layout. The instructions say that running in is not necessary so after a couple of circuits I tried it with three Mainline Stanier coaches. The D1 seemed to struggle a bit with these but I will only be running it with a few Bachmann ex SECR coaches so that does not matter. The Tri-ang L1 with magnadhesion could haul over six Mk1s on steel track.

My D1 has arrived care of DPD. It is a delightful model and I am pleased to see that the cycling lion on the crest is facing the locomotive on both sides of the tender. The other picture shows a Tri-ang Hornby L1 and how much models have improved over the last fifty years. My only criticism is that the coupling between the locomotive and tender is a bit delicate and fiddly. I hope to give the D1 a test run at our Wessex Group of the Hornby Collectors Association meeting this evening.

The track is glued down with Copydex. It is meant to be a bit like a smaller version of a Hornby Dublo train set with a minimum amount of scenery and buildings which is easy to take to village halls and set up. I expect I will ballast the track and add a few buildings like a pub and a church, One of the sidings fell off so I am not sure if Copydex is strong enough to attach the track securely. If one length of track gets damaged it is a lot more expensive to replace by post from Hornby than it would be if it was available locally.

Thank you for the information about the 08. I took my TT layout to Winterborne Kingston Village Hall last Friday. The trains ran very well. My baseboard is 4' 6" x 3' 6" and just fits in my car although it is a bit of a handful taking it up and down stairs. I have added a Gaugemaster backscene which is 4' 6" x 6" and fits in nicely.

I should have ordered these directly from Hornby as it honours the price at the date of ordering.

The trilogy of Hornby Dublo inspired Duchesses has given me the opportunity to compare the Hornby Dublo and Hornby models. The Hornby Dublo and Wrenn Princess Coronation models were excellent and have stood the test of time. Hornby Dublo probably chose to model 'City of London' and 'Duchess of Montrose' because they were the first members of the class to be painted maroon and green respectively. The shortcomings in appearance of the Hornby Dublo and Wrenn models only became apparent to me when the new Hornby models appeared with the main difference being the larger diameter wheels on the Hornby version. The Hornby 'City of London' has the lining in the right places which is a bright yellow as in the prototype. Conversely the lining on the Hornby 'Duchess of Montrose' is more subdued than the lining on the Hornby Dublo model. The gold lettering and lining on the Hornby 'Duchess of Atholl' is better than the Hornby Dublo version which is unlined. The gold was unique to 'Duchess of Atholl' and, being more subdued than the yellow lining and lettering of the British Railways locomotives, looks better to me.

Thank you. I have amended my post

Five Duchesses (Nos 6230-4) named Buccleuch, Atholl, Montrose, Sutherland and Abercorn were built as conventional engines. In their final years all the Duchesses reverted, more or less, to the classic lines of conventional engines.

A trilogy of Hornby Duchesses inspired by the Hornby Dublo models. 46245 'City of London' in BR maroon with the late crest, 46232 'Duchess of Montrose' in BR lined green with the cycling lion crest and 6231 ' Duchess of Atholl' in LMS crimson lake. I find it interesting how the Duchesses evolved from conventional locomotives in maroon livery with a single chimney, to streamlined locomotives, then back to conventional locomotives in various experimental liveries with smoke deflectors and double chimneys before settling to lined green livery. Finally some reverted to maroon livery. I find the lining and lettering rather bright on 'City of London' compared with the subdued tones of 'Duchess of Atholl'

My Bachmann Bulleid Southern coaches have arrived at the Swanage Station Shop. I am not sure what to run the set with on my model of the Swanage Railway. In the 1950s a T9 took charge of a set of three Bulleid coaches for the Salisbury train so perhaps a T9 in Southern livery would be suitable motive power.

Looks like Kernow was right as my BR maroon 'City of London' arrived at the Swanage Station Shop today. The prototype 'City of London' created a lot of interest when it appeared with 'Duchess of Montrose' at Crewe Station on the front cover of the Hornby Dublo 1959 Book of Trains. Both locomotives had 'Royal Scot' headboards. 'City of London' was in British Railways lined green livery when the photograph was taken. An artist retinted the locomotive British Railways maroon for the front cover.

My SECR 6 wheel brake van no 2036 in SECR grey has arrived and I am very impressed with the model and the information sheet inside.

I wandered down to the Furzebrook Railway bridge every hour from our Purbeck Model Railway Group meeting today. The picture shows 5021 'Rodney' looking immaculate and tailing a train at 10:15 to the wonderful Frome Viaduct. Only one other train spotter there and by 12:18 I was the only person taking pictures there.

Pleased to see you enjoyed watching the Swanage Railway trains. The beer garden is included in our 1/43 scale 0 gauge model of the Swanage Railway at the barn at Godlingston Manor in Swanage.

A topical scene for King Charles lll's coronation day. Hornby 6220 Coronation crossing Corfe Viaduct with a set of Coronation Scot coaches over Corfe Viaduct on the Swanage Railway.

I wish him a happy retirement. He always seemed very enthusiastic. I met him when he did a talk for the Wimborne Railway Society. I asked him if he Hornby was going to make a rebuilt West Country class. He said it was in the bag and lo and behold it appeared a year later. It was a bit like sending a request to Father Christmas.

I ordered mine through my local model shop on a preserved railway and I have not heard anything about it being cancelled. I had my doubts about ordering it in the first place and now the decision has been made for me. I have still got the original Caledonian 123 and a couple of coaches.

I have now found out it is a Rivarossi 1:87 scale set. Apologies for the confusion.

A few years after the 'Night Ferry' appeared on the front page of its catalogue Hornby has announced its HR 4364, 5-unit 'Orient Express' 140th anniversary pack for £365. This is for period ll 1921 - 1940. The inaugural run was in 1883 but the set did not run in the UK whereas the 'Night Ferry' did. I have fond memories of the train passing Beckenham Grammar School and also seeing it at Victoria Station.

Hornby's latest advertisement says that its 2023 models will not be around for long. I don't think that they should be advertising the fact that their models do not last as long as Hornby Dublo (Meccano) models.

Thank you for the pictures. This picture shows 76084 at the back of a train at Furzebrook to the wonderful River Frome viaduct today (Sunday 26 March) at 11:21. In British Railways days over 15 members of this class ran on the Swanage Railway from the 1950s to the end of steam hauling a wide variety of trains. I don't think that 76084 was among them,

It is interesting to see which 'Flying Scotsman' locomotives have sold out, which are still on sale and which ones have not arrived yet. R30209 the Alan Pegler version and R30210 number 103 both in LNER green are still available. The Alan Pegler version is my favourite as that locomotive hauled me from Kings Cross to Keighley in 1969 and I am surprised it did not sell out first.

To run a through service from Swanage to Wareham has involved a lot of hard work over the last 51 years.