County of Yorkshire

Hi @MrWolf. I can recommend the Dean bogies on Shapeways (a 3d print bureau), as they come in a variety of sizes and also with or without footboards. I believe they are listed by Stafford Road Model Works on Shapeways. However, post-Brexit Shapeways seems to have become very expensive. I picked up my Dean bogies for about £15-20 a pair (inc postage costs) 3-4 years ago. Now I think they’re a lot more than that unfortunately. Cheers, CoY

Correct, with the caveat that there are exemptions, depending on the size of the company. For example, the smallest companies who turnover below a certain figure, only need submit abbreviated accounts, in which a mini balance sheet is present, but no P&L. Conversely, the larger PLC must publish audited full accounts. Thus it is expected that Hornby’s accounts are much more comprehensive, compared to the relative minnows like Accurascale & Rapido (UK)

The key problem as I see it, is that Hornby still think they’re selling a product that the mass market wants, and have a corporate structure and senior management team to match this notion. “Little Jonny wants a train set for Christmas”, but I’m afraid it’s no longer the 1960s and the average 10 year old boy does not want a Hornby train set for Christmas. When was the last time your saw a Hornby set in a Smyths toy store? Or in the final days of Toys R Us for that matter? When was the last time you saw a Hornby set in the big Asda or Tesco in the run-up to Christmas? Hornby is simply not Lego and it’s never going to be. Model railways in the UK are a niche hobby and the success of the agile, relatively small start-up firms like Accurascale and Rapido are no surprise, as they cut their cloth to suit the size of their market. They understand that they’re selling to discerning hobbyists and pitch their marketing accordingly. They understand that the retailer network are their biggest advocates and best routes to market, and so fully support them and actually give them product to sell. I personally think Hornby have made some unsound assumptions about the UK market for model railways and I just don’t think the mass-market potential for TT:120 is there. It might well have been in the 1960s and even as late as the 1990s but I just don’t think it’s there now. Therefore I don’t see it as a magic wand to revitalise the company and its balance sheet. If Hornby were that bothered about maintaining or indeed growing market share, they’d redouble efforts to get the long overdue BR 2MT into the shops; announce something that’s high on the most wanted lists like a LMS 8F, GWR Saint, an NER B16, a Southern Q, or an USATC S160. They’d keep filling gaps in their steam era coaching range like GWR diners and full brakes, LMS corridor & brake comps and dining coaches, LNER Gresley brake thirds and composites. And they’d retool some of their embarrassingly out of date freight stock like GWR siphons, PO wagons etc. But as it is, it’s the Accurascales, Rapidos and Dapols of this world who are doing this and little-by-little, they nibble away at Margate’s market share because they are more agile and better understand the very market that they’re selling into. I just cannot see TT ever laying a glove on OO’s popularity given how entrenched and popular the latter gauge is. I’ve spent the best part of a decade building up a collection of post-war GWR RTR & kitbuilt rolling stock in advance of actually constructing a layout. How long would it take to build up an equivalent collection of said rolling stock in TT? No doubt more than a decade as none of the models I would want have even been announced yet. I’m not sure what the current endgame is for Hornby’s current financial situation but I can’t help feeling that the next 12 months - given the new CEX, TT range launch and the economic recession - will be key.

Somewhere, I’m very sure I’ve got a picture of an original GWR WW2 coach brown paint swatch from Didcot’s collection. Perhaps @K14 of this parish might be able to comment?

The question is, will we ever see the livery as sported by this beauty released? A C32 I believe and the diagram selected by Dapol.

Yes, I know that, but the casual/rubber-necked railway modeller may not. Fully panelled toplights are the second cousins of the 57ft bow-ended Colletts to my mind, but flush sided toplights are the cousins… Does that make sense to you?

LMS and GWR vans would be the way to go next in my view. Bachmann have a good range of newer tool LNER vans and the SR are well covered with the Rapido SECR van and the Bachmann plywood and 2+2 planked vans which still hold up quite well. LMS vans in particular were very numerous. The ventilated D1832 totalled 3,450 and the unventilated version (D1663) totalled 1,600. That’s over 5,000 very similar vans that could be done with one tooling suite. For the GWR, you’ve got to go with a classic Mica Mink van. Probably a 10ft wb diagram like a V23 (handbrakes) and V24 (vacuum braked), which were very numerous.

My only concern is that steel panelled toplights, in certain liveries, may look too similar to the 57ft BE Colletts. Easier for a manufacturer to produce of course, but perhaps not quite hitting the wow factor to sell to the impulse buyer. Please don’t think me negative; I’ll certainly be buying a dozen if I can scrape the pennies together! In terms of a BG, I think the K22 was the most numerous of the toplight full brakes, if my recollection of my Eric Longsworth GWR coaches bible is correct! I’ve a Mailcoach kit in my stash, but can’t bring myself to mask it all up for painting! The key for me will be the eventual RRP. If the corridor toplights are sub-£75, then they’re a bargain and I will buy double figures. If not, then I’ll have to pare back…

I’m just hoping that they do a good range of diagrams with at least a TK, CK, BTK & BCK all in the range. A toplight BG would be very much appreciated too!

The Digitrains adverts are ridiculously intrusive when viewing the site on an iPhone. Has something gone wrong?

Derails are doing an exclusive on the B-Set: https://derails.co.uk/derails-b-set?search=946 Might be a good ‘blank canvass’ for Brent Rob? Would shirtbutton still have been seen in 1947? CoY

Derails models have announced an exclusive version of these: https://derails.co.uk/derails-b-set?search=946 It’s a set in GWR shirtbutton without destination markings - i.e a blank canvass. I think I will partake! CoY

Excellent news. Fingers crossed for more livery variations as I fancy a set in wartime brown. CoY

The 44xx is welcome but the 45xx & 4575 variant is an odd choice as there’s very little wrong with the Bachmann model and I won’t be replacing mine. Surely low hanging fruit like the Saint and Hawksworth County would’ve been a better choice? CoY

New tool Castles in GWR livery (Tintagel, Wellington, Drysllwyn & Caerphilly) turn up fairly regularly on eBay for anything between £80 and £120 depending on condition. It’s worth setting up a notification alert for them.

To be perfectly honest, you may as well howl your wish for a RTR coaching stock variant at the moon for all the good it does beseeching the RTR manufacturers to make it. There are so many examples of where it would patently make sense to add coach diagrams to existing model ranges, but the manufacturers don’t seem to want to know. See: Hornby Gresleys - no brake third, corridor composite or dining coach Hornby Staniers - no corridor composite, brake composite or open third Hornby Colletts - no brake composite, dining coach or full brake Bachmann Thompsons - no full brake or dining coach The only OO RTR steam era coach ranges with anything like comprehensive diagram coverage are the Bachmann Mk 1s and Hornby Maunsells. You could probably make a case for the Hornby Pullmans too. This is why kitbuilding and/or RTR kitbashing are necessary to run anything approaching prototypically accurate rakes in most cases. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is.

Three “quick wins”: - Shrink the O gauge GWR autocoach to OO - Shrink the O gauge GWR B set coaches to OO - Scale up the N gauge GWR Collett BG to OO. I wouldn’t say no to a Collett variant of the mogul too (with window cab). I’d buy a few of each! Cheers.

Dapol’s GWR K42 BG exclusive for the N gauge society!

I am disproportionately delighted about the announcement of these! Though, how many do I need (the wallet has run away!)?

I still think it’s a matter of time before we see some Sunshine coaches from either Barwell or Ireland! CoY

Well that blew some cobwebs away! Really enjoyed myself today, and there was a perceptible good atmosphere amongst many of the exhibitors and traders too. I think everyone was just generally happy to be back out in the world of railway modelling. It's the first time I've seen Grantham in the flesh and it blew me away. The attention to period detail was excellent to see; from the buildings, to the locos, stock, street scenes, and even the signalling! A3s, A4s and P2s hurtling around the layout with 10 teaks hooked up behind made for a tremendous sight. I also enjoyed Whithorn - 1950/60s transition in the SC region of BR, and also Woodcroft - Edwardian GNR and one of the layouts near-destroyed by the mindless youths at the Market Deeping exo a few years back. I talked with some of the Woodcroft demonstrators from the Market Deeping MRC and I couldn't believe some of the things I was told about the idiots that trashed the layout. I also thought the snow effects on Falcon Road were very impressive. I picked up some of my shopping list from the good trade support, though it was disappointing not to find Wizard Models/Comet there, as I've a number of things I need from them. A web order will have to go in. Hornby were noticeable by their absence; I am very sure they usually attend the Donny show? Hmm. The Brucey Bonus of my day was however the procurement of two kit built Slaters GWR toplight coaches from one of the traders. I've been after some of these for a long, long while and these are finished to a very good standard and I was very happy with the price. Apparently I was the only person to spot these all weekend; the benefits of being a GWR modeller in LNER territory! With the York show now kiboshed (which was news to me until told today), this must be the northern show of the year? Cheers. CoY

How about Firefly… a foray into broad gauge! More seriously, I expect it will be something from the Saint, County, Collett Sunshine coaches, or freight stock (Didcot have virtually one example of each GWR wagon diagram that survive into preservation). My leftfield guesses would be a GWR TPO, or dreadnought coaches! CoY

What’s your best guess at the livery of a Mainline & City rake outshopped between 1942 and 1947, Miss? Cheers, CoY

Indeed. Here’s a Hornby D98 I made earlier. On balance will go for these in shirtbutton as I think the overall brown was competitively rare and I prefer chocolate & cream on coaches! Would the full 6 coach sets have been shopped at the same time or would individual coaches have been sent up to Swindon as needed? Thanks.

I need to stick my order in, but unsure what livery to go for for my 1947 needs. There’s no ‘Hawksworth’ livery of Great <Crest> Western offered but then they may never have received this livery anyway. Being last applied in 1942, I’m guessing the shirtbutton livery would have been seen for at least 6-7 years after that? I’m also assuming that the all-over GWR brown would then have been used from 1942 until sometime during 1945? Can anyone shed any light @Miss Prism @gwrrob? Cheers, CoY