Pteremy

In case it helps... I have a set of Crimson and Cream Mk1's to make up a 'summer saturday' interregional set c1958 (Wolverhampton-Ilfracombe). But they all have M numbers. The official BR(W) 'Working of Coaches and Vans in Through Trains' specifies the required set formation for services such as this and indicates that some sets would be provided by WR and some by LMR. Strictly speaking my particular set should have been provided by WR - but photographic evidence through the late 1950's and early 1960's suggests that, in practice, things were not always as neatly organised as the written requirement (no doubt reflecting the reduction in services and coaching stock, and also regional boundary changes). So, from a modelling perspective, it is perfectly reasonable to model the coach set as if one of those originating from the LMR.

A quick google reveals examples of 'khaki' that are sandy coloured, like the colour Dapol have used. But I agree it is not obviously a good choice of colour for North West European use rather than, say, in the Middle East. Surely the correct shade of khaki must be documented somewhere - it cannot have been unique to ROD locomotives?

Is it the weight? You can see the coach weights - as simple numerals - painted on the ends of GWR coaches in the 1930's and in BR days, but i don't know when they first started doing this.

I don't think this is the answer to your problem, but I mention it just in case. When i first put my set together (on DC) one set of coach lights was not working. Then I read somewhere in this thread that the coaches need to be assembled in the correct order. Problem solved.

A poor example - it was made clear when the Chaldrons were announced that they were expected to run with locos made by other people: There has been a surge in interest in the birth of the railways, along with intrigue in pre-grouping and the Victorian era with recent locomotive releases, not to mention the interest in industrial heritage and its railways. With this in mind, the Chaldrons are a logical release to satisfy these growing areas of interest within the hobby.

There is an interesting dichotomy evidenced on RMWeb. Understandable regret at an old order passing, angst at the possible loss of (to my mind) anachronistic things such as a catalogue. And yet joy that there are new entrants responsible for a new 'golden age', high quality and price friendly models of both widely popular prototypes and prototypes that would previously have been the preserve of kit makers or scratch builders. It seems to me that the key issue for us all is how to engage the 'purchasers' of the future - modellers, collectors, or whatever they see themselves as - to secure a continuing, diverse base for the hobby.

With the introduction of the new Bluetooth control system I have been expecting Hornby to announce some sort of rolling programme to update/adapt/retool all their existing locomotives to allow for the easy fitting of the new system. Has anything been said along these lines (either when the new system was introduced or subsequently)?

I have been running my sound fitted 18000 this weekend. One thing I have yet to master is a smooth transition from F1 Diesel engines to F3 Turbine. The instructions imply that F3 will turn off the F1 diesel engines and, by implication, start the turbine. But doing that seems to cut the sound out altogether. I can only manage a clunky transition by turning off F1 and only then starting up F3, with a brief sound gap (although curiously I can get a seamless/overlapping transition the other way around, from F3 to F1). Has anyone else been more successful than me?

I don't think that any railway modeller or collector who happens to do a bit of buying and selling online has anything to worry about. These days tax investigations are largely driven by data. That could mean the data listing everyone who, for example, invested in a particular avoidance scheme. Or, as here, it means mining a pile of data to identify potential non-compliance. So they will be primarily looking for a scale of activity that indicates an undeclared business. Yes, technically, if you buy things with the specific intention of selling them on at a profit then you are trading. But if that is what you do, and you do it on a regular basis, then you know what you are doing - making money not modelling/collecting. And that is quite distinct from someone who, say, actively curates their model collection and occasionally sells items that are no longer required.

Whitworths describe their dried figs (on the front of the packet) as 'Naturally ugly but delicious', so maybe not unlike a 15xx?

To answer my own question (I suspect) I have found that Sharpie ink is heat resistant up to 260 deg C, and can be removed with rubbing alcohol. So perfectly possible to experiment with.

The plastic light fitting or the LED itself? I have seen that recommended for LEDs, and I see that you can also get glass paint for painting LEDs. I thought that using a filter would be helpful because I could experiment with different strengths until I found the one I preferred. But sometimes low tech solutions are the best! And I suspect that I need to reduce the intensity of the light anyway.

Over the last couple of days I finally got round to fitting a sound decoder to my 10800. I bought a Loksound 5 decoder from Road and Rails intended for a Class 16, which i thought might be a reasonable approximation (this was before a bespoke decoder for the 10800 was made available). I never heard the original and the sound is a sufficiently 'old throaty diesel sound', unlike anything else I have, that I am quite happy with it, even if it isn't particularly authentic. I am happy with the driving experience as well. On a rolling road I thought that I had a problem with a headlight at one end. I found that F19 switched the cab light on and off and F20 the headlamp on and off at one end only. But on the track I have found that, even when stationary, F20 controls the light at both ends. What I think I missed on the rolling road is that (with this decoder) when you change direction you have to reapply F20, it does not change automatically like the directional lights! What I don't have is a middle light on the bottom row of lights, at either end. I think that 10800 had them, but I am not sure if the model does, as there does not appear to be an LED in the middle? As an aside I managed to knock the cab light LED off when attempting to fit some filter material to turn the white LEDs a more authentic yellow. Sadly this was over engineering as the body is such a tight fit that it would not go back on with the filter (and clapton tape used to attach it) in place, thin though it is. If i can get a replacement element then I will fix it. But I can live without it, whereas the headlamps are, in my view, one of the distinctive and attractive features of 10800.

These have been delayed slightly https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/accurascale-mk1-coaches-order-now Interesting insight into the QA of the manufacturing process that the problem was not spotted sooner.

Gave my Titfield coach a spin today. Should the gas pipe on the roof be straight, connecting (in theory) to each of the gas lamps, possibly through short spurs? Or were the only external connections at each end, as on the model?

I do think it important to include 'design' in the mix, as, for most of us, a model needs to be 'usable'. For example, if a detail only needs a very small quantity of glue to be attached then it is not surprising that sometimes too little is used, or perhaps none at all, and at some point the joint fails. From what I have experienced and read all manufacturers suffer from this to some degree or other. The issue for the purchaser is that they then need a degree of luck to spot the failure - something loose in the box on arrival, or something pinging off on the workbench. If something falls off while the item is on use on a layout you may never find it. So yes, I welcome the level of detail, but the end product still needs to be usable, and that is an issue for the designer.

I cannot claim to understand the precise nature of the problem you are experiencing. But, as has been noted in this thread before, the 15xx does seem to be good at highlighting layout imperfections. In the last week I have been running my 15xx, back and forth, with a 3 coach load. It stalled at 2 places that have sometimes caused issues before, particularly with short wheelbase locos - a Peco point and a section break. [This is on the DCC half of my layout, but with switched sections left over from when it was just DC.] I think that the issue in both cases was that the track was particularly uneven at one or more of the joints, of which there were several over a very short distance, but electrical connectivity could have been a factor. So i decided to do what I should have done ages ago, fix the track, reducing the number of track joints. Having done so the 15xx glides around as sweetly as I would want - and expect - it to do.

When I first researched the proposed liveries I thought it possible that they had tried to avoid the 1950s liveries that Bachmann have used on their more 'generic' tanks. Maybe they will appear in a future run. Tourret (p251) says this was done from 1964

Unfortunately the best livery isn't being offered - the chocolate and cream with lining and red droplights is 'as built' with GWR styling. I don't know how long they lasted like that but at some point in the 1950's they lost the lining and red droplights. (My guess is that this probably happened fairly quickly, in the same way that pre nationalisation features were removed from regular coaching stock.) They were still in that condition until the early 1960's when the SYP was added. I have ordered a SYP version and will either leave it like that, or backdate it by painting over the SYP. (My inspiration is a photo taken at East Anstey, in April 1963, with no SYP.)

My D6356 arrived yesterday. (In less than 24 hrs from Kernow!) I have not tested it yet but the paperwork includes the information that the lighting function has been improved, with separate control of front, rear and cab lights.

Retooled in the sense of correct for the final batch with revised front end - D6334 to D6357. But they may have retooled the internal gubbins as well, which would apply to all the versions newly released.

So amongst all you pannier rivet counters no one knows? My guess is that they were the same - i could live the fact that they were not, assuming the differences, if any, were minor. It would just be nice to know, one way or the other.

Well that's good - but not one of the retooled, final batch, versions. Unless I have missed something they (other than the Blue one) were only available for preorder until I Looked today.

Looks like the other new versions have arrived - Kernow have sold a 6356 to me and posted it (and Rails seem to have them as well). Slightly surprised that there has been no publicity yet.

On a point of detail, was the 1948 batch 9662 to 9672 identical to the 1949 batch 9673-82? If they were then I can preorder 9681 with the intention to renumber to 9670.