Pteremy

Well it does distract the eye in what would otherwise be excellent photos.

is it an illusion - or have you finally fixed the wonky railing on the embankment?

I have managed to track down a couple of references from old RMweb threads. The first is a Mica B at St Erth in 1960. This is on page 113 of Welch's 'Western steam in Devon and Cornwall'. It isn't a close up shot but it is clear enough to see that it still has end roof vents, 2 handrails on the ends, the end steps (including the latterly added central one at the top) and is in a relatively clean white livery. In a different thread there is a suggestion that the St Ives Branch generated traffic for other types of refrigerated van, possibly fish. Update: there is an article in GW Journal 97 which says that during the 1950s two traders in St Ives sent fish away by rail. The article mentions a Bloater attached to the rear of a midday passenger train. But perhaps insulated vans were also used at other times, particularly as the Bloaters were withdrawn over the course of the decade. There is also a reference to a Flickr photograph showing Mica Bs in a freight with BR built meat vans passing Aintree station en route to Bankfield Goods Yard. This is dated to 1957. Try as might I have not managed to track the actual photograph down.

'What goes with what' is one of the first steps most people take in developing model railways as a hobby, after the simple pleasure of watching something (anything) go round and round has waned. Hornby are doing a good job in getting new products to market, particularly alongside the bluetooth DCC push. But it is difficult to see any coherence in the timing of releases, particularly if you want to attract established modellers. TBH there is more coherence to the expanding Era 1 00 range, where existing regional/era preferences may not be a significant deterrent to developing a sideline interest and, perhaps of relevance, there is unlikely to be any competition.

Thanks for the update - sounds like I should get mine sometime during April.

Although being lunar based the New Year celebration only lasted from the New Moon on 10th February 2024 to the following Full Moon, which was 24th February. But it is certainly a big hiatus every year.

Do you have the same postcode as the church? If you take SATNAV as an example there are clearly some people who overlook the blindingly obvious preferring to believe what the information on their 'device' is telling them.

Hopefully there will be another 'despatch update' soon.

Yes, I can see that now. I think I was fooled by an optical illusion, an apparent 'step' at the base of the yellow dot, which is just where the panel is kept cleaner, around the letters and numbers. Indeed, looking at pictures of the real thing it looks as if the shape of spurious panel is intended to 'represent' this feature, which seems to persist even when vans were subsequently in Departmental service - e.g. p25 of Gamble's British Railway Vans v2 in the Cheona series

The faux luggage is a great idea. Adaptable to other contexts - like DMUs

As I am here.....has anymore been said recently about the delivery of the Crump coach? It seems to be a completely different timeline to the railway items.

12 of the sound functions on the Titfield version are extracts from the soundtrack of the film

With excellent Banana vans appearing from Accurascale and Rapido recently I thought I would have a go at a couple of Dapol/Red Panda conversions, for added variety. Am I right in thinking that you did not attempt removal of the spurious body side panels? Instead you seem to have camouflaged them by adding the large chalk board that these van had, plus it looks like you have scored a line to represent the correct pattern corner support?

If that is a subliminal hint it would be a welcome one!

Yes, I have seen that suggested before. But if it is the case that CR&C ones are hanging around then they still seem to have got the production run wrong. Like you I am happy to wait for a BR Green set.

Not really. Clearly the prototype is the reference point so far as appearance goes. But things like the compromises made to execute a model, the mechanism and running qualities, these are perfectly reasonable things to compare which have nothing to do with how the full scale prototype was built or ran.

It doesn't seem the Bachmann way to rapidly follow up a new release with 'missing' liveries. For example, maroon Portholes took a long time to arrive. And still no sign of the Cl 117/121 DMUs with SYP. They must have data on what sells - but stock hanging around might suggest that they made the wrong choice.

I may be wrong but I read the exchange as meaning replacement in the sense of 'spare', not in the sense of a redesigned unit.

and sometimes you just forget things! I do in fact have a solitary photographic example of a Mk1 non-corridor coach - a 7 compartment Bk 3rd so presumably a 63ft D321. Heading west from Morebath behind mogul 7326 on Thursday 26 April 1962, so around the same time in which a Hawksworth D132 was pressed into use, presumably reflecting a local shortage of more typical stock. Unfortunately no number visible.

Thanks. Even after 45 years of collecting information about the line, with spreadsheets evidencing the actual loco turns and coach formations for individual services making up the winter and summer timetables for 1957/58 to 1966, new things still turn up, or things I thought I knew prove to be wrong. So any new evidence welcomed by me. But one coach does not make a 'train', so if the aim is to replicate the actual services running on the line a Mk1 non-corridor coach (or even 2) is only ever going to be an atypical novelty. If you want to strengthen the case for your novelty, or even invoke Rule 1, then I think i may have seen photos of non corridor Mk1s at Barnstaple Junction, on SR services.

There is no photographic evidence of the regular use of non corridor Mk1 stock on the Taunton-Barnstaple Line, either 57ft or 63ft. But by c1962-3 it was certainly true that as e.g. the GWR B Sets and Bow End/Flat End Corridor stock that had previously been used in typical formations were withdrawn, there could be some unusual (atypical) coach formations, as what ever was available locally was pressed into use. For example, there is photo of what I believe to be a 63ft Mk1 non-corridor 10 compartment 3rd (Diag 327) in use on the Exe valley line in August 1962. A rather dishevelled Hawksworth D132 non-compartment Brake 3rd also appears on Taunton to Barnstaple services in April 1962, in a 2 coach formation with one of the decommissioned Hawksworth E164 Slip coaches. If you find information to the contrary I would be interested to know. But I would be (and am) tempted to apply Rule 1 on the basis that, by 1962-63 some might have been pressed into service. (Of course the Rapido B Sets would be more prototypical for you, but maybe I shouldn't say that here. Oh hang on...)

My unlined BR Black 5377 just arrived - no chance to run yet but 2 observations. I am relieved to see that the smokebox has rivets, as it should do by the 1950s. (It wasn't clear to me in earlier comments on this issue whether Dapol had in fact tooled both flush and riveted versions.) As to colour it is definitely black in natural light, but does look greyer under my desk lamp. No doubt a colour expert will be able to explain this effect. But it will be interesting to see how much colour change is apparent when running on the layout.

It would be quite nice to have an empty Titfield Set Box to put these 3 wagons in, together with the W&U coach (assuming that they would all fit that is)

Googling suggests about a month rather than 'months'. But no doubt other factors can add to the delay.

To illustrate this in the Maidment book on GWR Moguls and Prairies there are 2 photos of 4301. On p118 with flush rivets, shortly after building in 1911, and on p119 with visible rivets, ex works at Swindon in the 'late 1920's'. There is also a photo, p123, of 6332, built 1921, with (it appears) flush rivets at the front but not at the back - the photograph was taken c1930-32 to illustrate the fitting of the experimental Westinghouse air brake. While back in Andrews, p25, there is a photo of 8329 in 1928 (built as 5329 in 1917 then modified to 8329 in 1928) which, despite modification, appears to have retained flush rivets front and back.