JonathonAG

That shade of blue is superb! Do you mind if I ask how you went about mixing it up? Currently I find the Precision Paints light blue shade to be almost erring on a shade of teal.

Ex-North British on Dunfermline Upper 62C On loan to cover for a resident C15 that is away for a works visit, No. 67474 stands among home engines of J36 No. 65253 'Joffre' and N15 No. 69160, with Thornton Junction's D34 No. 62467 'Glenfinnan' making an appearance also.

Well, that'll be several on order! Well done Rapido, continuing to shine a light on Scotland.

Taking advantage of the generic look of Riccarton North again. An impression of Pre-Grouping steam lingering on in Fife, as ex-North British N15 No. 69160 of Dunfermline Shed shuts off while working on the gradient downhill from Cowdenbeath, with a set of empty mineral wagons for the yard at Upper.

To reply to both your postings. Far be it a Jones Goods with blue grey stock or such, I'm looking at having the 1960's version paired with two preserved Caledonian coaches on my diorama? Why? Well it fits in with my main modelling period, which is mid 50's to mid 60's Scottish Region steam. An entirely accurate train formation historically. While it may bore you to see modelling of this period, I quite enjoy it as it showed the perseverance of Scottish Pre-Grouping designs. Almost poetic that the last two Scottish engines on the books were J36's. The rather flamboyant and beautiful designs stood out well against the more rugged V2's, Black 5's etc... The Caledonian Coaches are high up on the list as an active SRPS member too, as will allow me to slowly increase my collection of rolling stock I've worked on. I already have a DJH kit of No. 55189 (as I have been personally involved both times during preservation to have it run in BR Black), but any manufacturer that gets round to a '439' will have my money for a Caledonian Blue (dark) as preserved, LMS Crimson and BR Black versions! To tackle your gripe about the Hornby J36, the rebuild that Reid undertook was physically so different that the continuation of classing them as 'J36' was just a clever way of accounting within the NBR, effectively a new engine but classed as a rebuild. For Hornby, I don't think it would be classed as a tooling variation, that would be equivalent to expecting them to also release a K4 as just a tooling variation of the K1, when in reality there is just a common chassis. So, if you're planning on one tooling, what will you aim for? A prototype in which the exact build variation hasn't been seen since 1923 and covers 30 years of it's revenue career, or the variation that covers the remaining 44 revenue years and then the added bonus of a preserved identity to round it off. To drive that point further, 'Maude's ' exploits on the mainline during her preservation career is what has really made her a soft spot within the enthusiast community, and Hornby have done well to ensure that period of time was the preserved livery they chose for release.

That, or at least providing a good 1960's railtour recreation for when these Jones Good's finally hit my diorama... 😉 If it were to cast a spell on Rapido, my inbox is open now so they can save me the pain of some brass soldering 🤣

The most exciting part about the latest Rapido Newsletter, a presence at Model Rail Scotland from the team with a running sample of Jones Goods. Can we hope that this may be a full liveried sample? 😉 Some teases about announcements too. If we can draw some conclusions based on which event they may be announced at, Rapido could make me a very happy man! Off to go get those brass Caley Coaches kits built....

Another example of 'Riccarton North' pretending to be another region, Jubilee No. 45627 'Sierra Leone' digs into the climb on the Long Drag, with a mixed parcels service for Carlisle. Considering it's a 2007 tooling, the Bachmann Jubilee still looks the part today with a bit of weathering! A kit build Parkside Southern PMV is behind the tender.

Hornby have a GC styled tender in their range already, coupled to their Thompson O1 tooling. I managed to get a hold of a spare tender for my own 'Shire' upgrade earlier this year, very handy for having those tender pickups.

Incredible!

A bit of Scottish Pre-grouping action, as No. 62467 'Glenfinnan' departs Riccarton with a local for Hawick.

Scots Terrier, probably in reference to the NBR Class R (later LNER J82)....

I recently completed a K1 as No. 2005 in preserved 90's condition. It certainly went well over on the 'gram, and many questions raised by others as to why Hornby does seem to shy away from preserved examples in releases.

Banking On Shap. 9F No. 92233 digs into the gradient climbing past Scout Green on a cold winters afternoon, with Fairburn No. 42073 giving a right shove on the rear. The benefit of Riccarton North being rather generic, remove the bridge and it could almost be anywhere!

Well to follow up, within half an hour of filling it in, Dan at Rapido was in touch and looking to send a new chain and hook out. I was offered the ability to send the entire loco back, but I'm more than happy fitting the piece myself on arrival. Very impressed by the warranty team!

My own Lion, 1980's version, turned up today and I must say that it's a cracking little engine. Well done Rapido for capturing the essence of the loco. Sadly mine will still have to be returned to the retailer*, one length of chain and hook on the bufferbeam appears to be missing and isn't lying loose inside the box. *Since writing, have learned that Rapido have an online warranty form so have filled that in instead.

Shed Bash UK is one of the sources with notes the two D11's there in storage. I'm sure there's a photo somewhere from memory, but for the life of me can't find where. http://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/2016/05/oban-ballachulish.html?m=1

I can't say I've ever seen any evidence of such runs occurring, however two did end up in storage at Crianlarich shed. No. 62675 and 62688.

Another from Riccarton North, V2 No. 60883 digs into the gradient with a mixed train heading for Hawick and onwards.

If this is Rapido's way of spacing out my pre-order payments, I'm more than happy! 😅 Very much looking forward to my 1980's version appearing first, Rapido look to have knocked the ball out of the park with these ones.

How can that be N gauge? As somebody who models in 00, I'm both amazed and confused about how much detail can be made into such a small gauge. Fantastic.

Carlisle Kingmoor's Clan No. 72008 'Clan MacLeod' powers past Riccarton North signal box with a van train for Millerhill. The photographer was dissapointed to turn up after the P-Way gang had been along the day previously and tidied the area in front of the signal box up, having hoped to stand on a few discarded sleepers for height!

Thanks very much! While the sky, distant hill and exhaust are all composites from other images, everything else is model form. This was rather difficult to pull off, with a super detail A4 separated from tender, pushed right up to the lens. Even then, you still see pretty much the entirety of the cab interior (albeit out of focus due to lens limitations), so the image is cropped heavily to about a third of the total image space the original Raw file was.

A footplate visitor leans out of the cab of St Margaret's based No. 60019, as a rather lost 62C J36 No. 65253 pulls a pick up goods out from Riccarton.

Thank you all for the kind words, I'm rather blown away by the response! I'll slowly progress the remaining tasks on the 'to do' list and hopefully have some more photos to share shortly.