County of Yorkshire

I popped into the show late on Saturday afternoon. I have to say that this was the friendliest show I’ve ever been to; almost all exhibitors were very generous with their time and advice! Outwell Village was probably my favourite. A real treat to see a sleepy East Anglian backwater on the eve of the Second World War. The track work was particularly well done in code 75, so much so that I struggled to believe it wasn’t EM! The scratch built buildings and the weathering of the stock was also very inspirational. I also thought Chester Road was a fine example of what you can do with a small baseboard, and the operator gave me some excellent advice on my own layout project. I enjoyed Settrington, as funnily enough I had passed the extant station site when driving up to Pickering that day! The attention to prototype detail was very well done, especially given it’s N scale. I appreciated Holly Bank Road and Lomond Street too. Many pictures were taken. Finally, a very reasonably priced refreshment kiosk made a nice change from some of the more expensive catering seen at ‘bigger’ shows. I’ll be sure to attend the summer show in August. Keep up the good work! CoY

I see Kernow have listed the fishbelly and 9ft American railmotor bogies as spares on their website. I think they include wheels and at £8 each seem like a bit of a bargain?

That’s helpful to know, thanks. Is it Railmatch or Phoenix Precision colours you’ve used there? My airbrush has been sat in its box since I bought it in the Modelzone closing down sale a decade ago! I’ve not mustered the courage to give it a go yet…

Hi Neal, I love the 70 footers! Sorry for missing this, but how did you paint them? Was it an airbrush or rattle can? Cheers, CoY

The Durham wheel slip was in October 1994 and it was repaired within 18 months, back in service 1996. She worked mainline again until 2001 and on the NYMR until 2002. Its also a Peppercorn designed Pacific, not a Thompson. Definitely good to see her back, though.

I would prefer opening doors and working brake gear and dynamos before detailed interiors.

Nice coaches! From top to bottom I think what you’ve got there is: - Collett C77 corridor third - Collett D127 brake third - Churchward (toplight) C30 corridor third - Collett C54 corridor third - Collett D84 brake third - Collett D94 brake third - Collett D95 brake third - Collett E127 corridor composite - Collett E128 brake composite - Collett E162 corridor composite - Hawksworth E165 corridor composite Suspect most will be either BSL or Comet metal kits. The toplight may well be a Slaters plastic kit. Cheers CoY

Which ones have you gone for Robin? I can’t decide between shirtbutton or overall brown. Need to actually see the livery samples first!

Picked up the Coral, Aero & Hydra wagon kits in 4mm from Brian at the Donny Exo. First thoughts are that the Coral & Aero kits are amongst the best 3d prints of railway rolling stock I’ve yet seen; I don’t think they’ll take much fettling. The crated propellers for the aero kit are particularly fine. I look forward to making them up.

Well it’s not Collett Sunshine coaches, as apparently they’re identical to Collett bow-ended coaches. That’s why Accurascale never produced the Manor, and why Hornby never produced the Grange, as they were identical to the Bachmann Hall and wouldn’t have sold. Oh, hang on… 😉

Au contraire…

A re-run of the Manors?

What a load of tut. Compare a Collett C77 ‘Sunshine’ corridor third with a Collett C54 ‘bow ended’ corridor third. They’re chalk and cheese, and would contrast well in model form; especially if the former had proper flush glazing. I think late-period Collett coaches are a massive gap in OO GWR RTR. An essential coach from the late 30s to the mid 60s, as well as the preservation scene. I’d buy at least a dozen.

Not a model railway bargain as such, but my local Lidl has these storage containers in stock. £1.99 (were £2.99) for a pack of four. They’re a perfect size to store kitbuilt wagons and the like - as modelled by my kitbuilt GWR Mink C! Works out at 50p each; I might go and get a few more.

Absolutely not; bargain bin fodder. As I’ve said in the announcements thread, imagine if this had’ve been a new-tool County with the newer Collett coaches in the 1945-1947 Hawksworth livery (which H have never done). I’d have bought at least a couple! I’m struggling to understand who this train pack is aimed at? Enthusiasts and time-served modellers are all hanging in for a new-tool County, whilst newer modellers and those who aren’t fussed about the fidelity of their models aren’t going to fork out £180 on a 40 year old loco tooling and a couple of (50?) year old coaches. You could probably buy the constituent parts of this train pack at a swap meet for about £75 or so. I genuinely think the 2024 range announcement is an admission from H that they’re no longer going to pursue the high-spec end of the market with new tooling. As such, there is zero chance we’ll see a new tool County or Saint from Hornby this decade. Thank goodness for our friends at Dapol, Accurascale and Rapido! CoY

I agree. Imagine if that train pack had’ve been a new-tool Hawksworth County with the more recent Collett coaches in Hawksworth livery - cor! I’d have pre-ordered a couple of those. As it is, that Railroad issue train pack looks ripe for bargain bin fodder. This isn’t a range announcement that gives any confidence that Hornby will trade out of the red and into the black on the balance sheet. There’s nothing in there that you would buy in volume/multiples of. Personally this makes it about 3 years in a row where I’ve not pre-ordered anything. CoY

Did anyone carefully read the Accurascale email on Tuesday regarding 90% of the Manors having sold through? I noticed this tidbit: Pick up your Accurascale Manor today, before they sell out, and plan ahead for further releases with Accurascale taking on God's Wonderful Railway. Surely, a match made in heaven! Hmm! I still think Collett Sunshine coaches are in desperate need of a retool and an expanded range of diagrams. Accurascale would make a magnificent job of these I think. CoY

As of Friday morning they only had 1x LMS grey (about 10 in stock), 2 x LMS bauxite (each about 4 in stock), and 1 x BR grey (I think about 8 in stock), so yes, they didn’t hang about. I picked up some of the Southern 8 plankers too; all very much needed for my 1947 GWR layout! I wonder how many modellers realise that these types of wagons were pooled and could be seen all over Britain? I suspect not as many as we RMWebbers seem to think. I’m surprised that these LMS 5 plankers were so heavily discounted relatively soon after initial release (late September iirc). I do hope that these have sold well enough overall to encourage Rapido to continue expanding its steam-era wagon range. Given the recent announcement of the LNWR box van I suspect that they have. CoY

Hattons current have these at just 17 sheets in their Black Friday sale. I’ve picked up a few, and at that price, I’m not afraid to detail & weather them! Cheers, CoY

“Plenty of variants” could infer either a GWR 57/8750 pannier or a Saint. Though probably not a Hawksworth County as they were pretty uniform over their 20 year career. Panniers: - with/without topfeed - flush or riveted tanks - cab cut-out profiles - various liveries from all shades of GWR and BR, as well as panniers that were sold on to LT & the NCB - possibly even the 97xx condensing variant! Saint: - high cab & low cab running plate - various chimneys - various tenders - various GWR & BR liveries - dare I say it, but the Atlantic variant? Not long to wait now!

I agree, but my comment was in relation to the OO RTR manufacturers per se. We are seemingly in an era where novelty and esotericism are the order of the day, and not filling the gaps of the essential workaday locos… its irritating in truth. CoY

I simply can’t believe Heljan have announced the LNER Garrett in OO - of which there was only ever one built - whilst we’re still waiting for a decent Saint (77 built) and County (30 built)! I just don’t get it. Can anyone tell me?

GWR Saint or a Hawksworth County? 🙂

Some new pre-war coaching stock from any of the GWR, LMS or LNER would be good to see. I still find astonishing that you cannot buy any of the following coaches to modern RTR standards: a GWR dining car and full brake, a pre-war LMS composite corridor or brake composite corridor, or a pre-war LNER corridor brake third or composite corridor. Surely a range of GWR sunshine coaches, LMS period I or II coaches, or some LNER Gresley coaches in a wider variety of diagrams then Hornby have thus far produced (and without tumblehome issues!) would sell like hot cakes? This stock is an essential part of the British railway scene 1924-1965. And that’s nothing to say of pre-grouping corridor stock also, some of which was quite long-lived! It will be extremely interesting to see how well the forthcoming Dapol GWR corridor toplights sell. CoY

Kings never carried the GWR wartime black livery. Kings, Castles and Stars got unlined GWR green during WW2, all other classes were turned out in unliked black however. On this topic, I’m very much in the camp of “it depends where you’re modelling”. I have a stack of Kings, Castles, Halls and Granges because ultimately I want to model a mainline or secondary main line location in the late 1940s. For the same reason I don’t have many 56xx’s for example, which were very geographically restricted. Loco fleet composition is as intrinsic to period accuracy as are buildings, the street scene and rolling stock! CoY