Wickham Green

....... and I said a LITTLE conservative ........... OK, I was thinking more in terms of restoration date rather than rescue date !

Ah ! - is that how they do them for the price !!?! ................... I wonder if Eileen's Emporium have got any Plastikard in L.N.E.R. red oxide ..................

Yes, there's not a massive amount of work required to correct all known errors - though it shouldn't be necessary - BUT I object to then try to match paint colours, lettering styles etc. when a fair bit of my dosh has gone into the finish of a ready to run model .............. OK, in this case, it'll end up covered in bovine essaitchonetee but that's not always the case with other wagons. Well, the Westykit version is still waiting in the drawer and it might join some other cattle wagons that are expected from China this month ( is that still right ? ) in due course : I wonder how they'll compare ??!?

Sorry, I stand corrected ! ( or sit-down corrected in greater comfort, perhaps )................. I think you may be a little conservative with 60 years ........?............

Well, the Pacer chassis was developed from a goods wagon design - not even a parcels van - so what d'you expect ?

That's easy to get round as there are no vac cylinders or door bangers to worry about - just get the Hornby 4VEP team to do the interior an' nobody will be able to see whether the far side lines up where it should.

I hope you're not confusing the K.E.S.R.'s beautifully restored S.E.C.R. coach bodies on S.R. parcels van chassis - WITH AUTHENTIC PARCELS VAN SUSPENSION - with anything that might have been running on the Southern in your grandparents' day !!?! ( ditto Bluebell, Isle of Wight etc.) They'd have travelled in bogie vehicles such as the Bluebell's 3363 which might have been more than a little musty if they weren't in regular use ( or maybe if they were ) and - without lavatories for the majority - they couldn't be pulled over at the roadside if someone 'needed a bush' !

There's a nice selection of pictures - probably mentioned somewhere above here - in Geoff Kent's 4mm Wagon Part 2 ....... and there are a few tankers in most of the general Private Owner books by Keith Turton and the late Bill Hudsdon etc.etc.

Pictures of both sides ARE now on eHattons ............. I'm sure Oxford never managed to model any of their road vehicles identical both sides so why couldn't they get a wagon mirror-imaged ?

All Southern six-wheelers - salubrious or not - had gone to the great fiddle-yard in the sky by the time of my layout, unfortunately ( nothing new about Global Warming ! ). Least salubrious at the time would have been a long set of ( Branchlines ) birdcages with a sprinkling of ( Hornby ) 58' rebuilds dragged out of Rotherhythe Road once a year to take the 'Hoppers' on 'Holiday' ....... but probably NOT behind a 700 ( or a Nelson or a Flannel Jacket ).

Couldn't find anything worth drinking at London City when I was unfortunate enough to have to fly from there in May : what other UK mainland airport hasn't got a Wetherspoons ? ......... and why on earth are there no flights to Belfast City from Gatwick now ? .......................................................... and what's this got to do with B4 dock tanks anyway ?

Minefield indeed ! ......... I was hoping to run my Esso 2672 with the three earlier Esso clas 'B' wagons Bachmann offered as a 'weathered' ( = oily ) set : 1231, 1855 & 1869 : they're all on standard 17'6'' x 10' chassis but the first should be a 1911 type wagon on 18' x 10'6'' frames ( otherwise not a bad model and should be possible to rebuild ) : the other two are numbered as rebuilt Air Ministry tanks 'class 'A' but, like 2672, the tanks are too small, they're cradle mounted rather than saddle, the domes, valve wheels, ladders and under-length platforms are in the wrong place ! With a LOT of work it should be possible to make them into ex Air Ministry Lube-Oil wagons such as 2305 shown on Paul's site - coupled, by coincidence, to the real 1855 and emphasizing the difference in tank size. All three tanks need the diagonal stays bringing outside the solebars .... anyone want to do me etched ends for these ?

A 'pagoda' cab roof could be an R1, of course ( 'bout time for a re-issue ! ) or one of those chunky Js .......... though I don't know where they'd find either to measure !!?! ( There WERE proposals for a replica R1 or three but I think the whole 'Remembrance Line' proposal's been effectively scuppered.)

Actually, Mark didn't specify WHICH 1st July Hattons were referring to ...................................

Having only the class 'B' tanker to go on, I can confirm that Bachmann have fitted the valve wheel on top and outlet manifold beneath so this one, at least, can only be BLACK. They probably could fit a longer/larger tank without the diameter discrepancy being too glaringly obvious - but they've not chosen to do so at this time ........... could I rebuild my model thus ? - no doubt, but it wouldn't leave much of the original !

Can't say I've ever drunk a pint in a supermarket ...................................................... maybe in an EX-supermarket called Wetherspoons p'raps ?

Don't forget that a number of small-tender T9s spent their summers on the Eastern Section in the thirties and late forties ........ I've never seen any evidence of 700s in the area though. ( I'm still trying to fine-tune my excuse for running an M7 ...... as for the Bachmann 'Nelson' ................................ ? .................... )

Amazing how different a Q6 looks in N gauge !!?!

Maybe it's the coaches that are SO long ( 60' ) ......... so long they can't actually get them in the office ??!?

The Oxford Rail website hasn't been updated and still says, vaguely, 2016 ! ....... anyway, we should all be able to see Hatton's usual all-round photos soon and check whether errors have been corrected and - if not - whether they can be lived with or rectified to taste ! ............. 1st July is tomorrow - I wonder how available is 'available' ?

Having now had a chance to study my Esso 2672, I think it's fair to say it's actually a fourteen tonner masquerading as a 20T wagon : not only is the tank of smaller diameter but it's shorter than the chassis whereas it should overhang slightly ............. livery's nicely applied though - but I've not found an Esso 14T anchor mount class 'B' to renumber it as !

Just to clarify the dynamo business, the 60' sets were built with dynamos on the ( centre ) Composites ONLY - but "In March 1931 the .... Board approved a proposal to modify the electric lighting ..... Because the .... sets were .... used on slower services .... the single dynamo .... was unable to supply sufficient current and so an additional dynamo with extra battery capacity was fitted to each set .... by March 1933." according to David Gould. He doesn't say where the extra bits were located but some later photos, at least, seem to show a dynamo under the Brake Third and the batteries were probably there too : It'll be interesting to see how Bachmann interpret this - the Maunsell Green sets would be correct with or without the extra electrics but not the brown or red ones ! ( Can I have a set in malachite, please ? )

Odd that the roof vents are different on the two coaches - either that's not uncommon or it's the same set as shown in https://mikemorant.s...nes/i-6WWHvCq/A somewhere further up this thread ! : it's not that the two coaches are from different sets as they couldn't be split in traffic because of the electrics ( the brakes had dymanos and not the composite - or vice versa - or something like that ).

it's probably like the ''FREE BEER TOMORROW'' signs you see in pubs ........ ''H Class NEXT YEAR'' !

To answer my own question Gramodels offer one L.S.W.R. wagon WITH Diagram Number quoted : 1410 ! ( the opens ARE unspecified 8-plankers ).