Halvarras

Ah, the famous D3052 - I saw this one myself on a visit to Willesden in 1973, got a broadside photo but it didn't come out as well as this one, sadly. It would have become 08039 if it had lasted a while longer. That year one of the railway magazines reported Stratford's D3248 as still being in black - I found it in the shed on my next visit but it turned out to be green with a liberal coating of oil and dirt! It carried the standard block serif style numbers. Russell Saxton once shared a b&w photo of a green Class 08 still without wasp stripes as late as December 1969. I may still have it but from memory it was D3583 at Chester. It could have been mis-dated, except the Class 24 in the shot was carrying data panels which only proliferated that year. This was certainly very late for a stripeless 08, or any shunter, but my lingering doubt about it is that some years back b&w photos were published in consecutive issues of magazines by Adrian Curtis showing maroon D1033 and green D7030 devoid of yellow warning panels, which wasn't possible (the Hymek's light green stripe had also virtually disappeared). I think a late-build Class 22 (D6341?) was similarly affected. I can't recall all of the details now (although they'll be somewhere in the mags as I still have them) but the images were from one collection and I think the consensus was that a particular brand of film didn't age well. That said, it seems unlikely that the sharper contrast between alternating stripes of yellow and black would age out of existence on any old film. Perhaps one day confirmation (or denial) of D3583's remarkable survival will be forthcoming. BTW both of the acquaintances mentioned above passed away in late 2021. Sobering thought, since I'm older than either of them.......

Where the engines are - perfick! 👍

In the early 1960s there was a Perranporth - Paddington service, surprising as Perranporth lost its railway in February 1963. The front cover of 'Modern Locomotives Illustrated' on the Warships features the train on the Berks & Hants line hauled by a D6xx. (Not long before closure I remember sitting on a sand dune and seeing the steam rising from a train making its way from Beach Halt around the curve to the main station, I must have been 8 or 9 - one of my few memories of steam. I visited Perranporth just last Monday and still love the place as unlike so many locations it still looks and feels much the same as it did 60 years ago - rail service excepted!)

Or the previous owner of @Holby Railway's model renumbered it from 08800 to 08880.........in which case........did 08880 ever carry Inter City Swallow livery?! (Rapid exit, stage left 🤐!)

With Bachmann's 'Bill' & 'Ben' ("with moving eyes") 😜! Only kidding...... As someone with an enduring interest in china clay trains (I can recall them being hauled by Class 22s and Warships) and now living 10 minutes' walk from the docks entrance I have to like this layout - it does look kind of familiar!!

Yep, same 'ere - I was offered a PSA check alongside my annual blood test in November 2018 - said yes just to be sure nothing was going on in the nether regions. "OK, but just be advised that if the result is above 4 it could get intrusive....." It was 5. Uh-oh. After more tests the prostate diagnosis was received mid January 2019 ruining the run-up to my retirement at the end of March. Lots of reading material about the various treatments 😕 and plans up in the air for a month until an oncologist told me that 80-90% of men in my position go on 'Active Surveillance' and no, this wasn't kicking the can down the road. After a spell on 4-monthly PSA checks I'm now on 6-monthly and the last result was slightly less than the 5 which started it all. Obviously I'm going to say, long may it continue, but with my next check imminent I'm touching the wooden table I'm sitting next to here, just in case......

Er............🤔.........I do believe you are correct!

You're probably correct, the way things are going, but it depends on whether one relishes the modelling challenge! I stuffed a spare Bachmann pannier tank chassis under a Lima 94xx in full knowledge of Bachmann's impending model (which turned out to be not so impending....) because the challenge appealed - the result was good enough for me, the overall cost was considerably less than the RTR model and there's the satisfaction of 'I made that'. I suppose the decision revolves around, how soon do you want a Saint/how cheap can you find a Star donor (so that when Murphy's Law kicks in......well, see above), or are you happy to get on with other projects while waiting for a manufacturer to produce the required cutting-edge Saint.......which of course could be a long wait as this course of action will fail to prod Mr Murphy to initiate his Law! We never had to face such dilemmas in the past - D I Y was usually the only way 😃!

I've noticed that too - as you say, hard to spot but in standard front 3/4 views it manifests as 'lumps' in the roofline above the windscreens. The Swindon designers must have decided the 'lumps' looked somewhat inelegant and smoothed them away on the production locos! D800 carried only green livery; D801 carried green and maroon; D802 carried green, maroon and blue. D801 was withdrawn first, in August 1968, followed by D800/2 two months later. I can still remember seeing a maroon D802 passing Carn Brea near Redruth on an up parcels in late August 1967, and the next down train being the 'Cornish Riviera' headed by Hymek D7029! I also recall 'copping' D800 at a foot crossing on an up train between Chacewater and Truro and thinking it was D880, quickly realising that was impossible and a missing chunk of paint had altered its identity on the leading corner! (Missing chunks of paint were nothing new on Warships in the late 1960s, some were really bad, e.g. there was nothing 'Magnificent' about D828 by the end of 1968!)

According to 'The Book of the Warships' (Irwell Press), regarded by many as the 'bible' on these locomotives, page 101 states that only the first three were built without raised walkways. Generally speaking the Swindon locos had the fan grilles themselves nearly flush with the roof with the walkways standing proud and NBL machines had the grilles raised to be flush with the walkways, but inevitably there were exceptions - D832/66/67 had the NBL raised type (D832 still has them) from new while D833 - the first of the NBL build - had the Swindon flush pattern. At withdrawal D861 had a pair of Swindon grilles and D834 had one of each, both probably having run like this since works attention in 1963.

Strange coincidence - I was unaware of the existence of this vehicle until a few days ago. I've just obtained Hornby's 6-wheel blue/grey 'Generator Unit' DE320104E, did some digging and discovered it was employed to power 'Cinema Coach' DM395017M (a former LNWR 12-wheel sleeping car, now preserved) until around 1967/8 - when (extreme) old age caught up with the 6-wheeler it was replaced by DB975056 - BR horse box S96300 turned 'Generator Van'- this one! I assume it was painted BR blue to better match the blue/grey Cinema Coach but the only photo I could find of this combination was black & white. This pairing lasted until 1973, not sure what happened to the generating horse box after that but its usefulness must have contributed to its survival 50 years on. I'm having trouble visualising how this incident could have happened but won't speculate as I wasn't there. I hope the car driver makes a full recovery.

Agreed - I've obtained some good-quality items from S & J over the years.

"....GT3 locomotive model in BR Black Early Crest and BR Green Late Crest colours -- expertly crafted to capture the spirit and charm of the original." Wow, I had no idea GT3 actually ran in BR black and green liveries. Every day's a school day 😜!

Nice to know the ol' grey matter still works regarding the number sold, if not the number dumped. I suppose the latter are still close to the Mersey if not actually in it, assuming the manner of their disposal is correct. I had never clapped eyes on one either until Hattons took one in a couple of years ago, I was really surprised to see it. I can't recall now how they had valued it, other than it being WAY above yer average mineral wagon! I remember 'Thawpit'! A clear liquid in a glass bottle with a gauze-faced pad on top. We used the stuff a lot in the late 1960s to remove tar stains from beachwear caused by residue from the 'Torrey Canyon' tanker disaster which hung about for years afterwards. Not much fun removing it from between toes, but 'Thawpit' wasn't really suitable for that task - probably just as well.....

Green D800 'Sir Brian Robertson' or blue D804 'Avenger' by any chance?

I have a memory from the distant past of being informed (can't recall where or by whom now) that 841 were sold and 10,000 dumped in the Mersey - the former sounds more plausible than the latter, although dumping stuff in such a manner was not frowned upon back then the way it would be today (understatement!) Anyway I offer this to be possibly shot down in flames 😊

And the Thornaby 27s (D5370-78, later 27024-32) were freight-only and not boiler-fitted, so had a Class 25/3-style gap on the underframe where the water tank would have been.

That is true, although following its engine transplant in 1963 D6123 made several trips as far south as Birmingham on mileage accumulation and general testing ('Condor' service to Aston from memory - I have further information in an issue of 'Classic Diesels & Electrics' magazine but would have to look it up.......)

The 'LGW' peaked-roofed grain wagons having lasted well into the (Scottish) diesel era I would really like Dapol to re-issue 4F-018-025 but using the lime wagon moulding instead of the salt wagon this time (still not perfect but closer, with roof hatches and no handrails) - and paint the bl**dy thing brown not bright red this time 🥴! Unfortunately it appears that there is (was) only one source of transfers - guess who? 🙄

The Class 142 'Skippers' were active in the South West from September 1985 until October 1987 - the good condition of this unit and the vegetation on the right looking like it's just coming into leaf suggests Spring 1986?

What an oddball! Love the prominent 'DIESEL LOCO' painted on the cab side, presumably to avoid confusion, cos it certainly looks confused! A great find - and I thought fireless locos looked a bit odd........the endless variety of wagon movers to have existed over the past century or so never ceases to amaze!

Leave your coat where it is Keith, many thanks for a quick walk down Memory Lane, some familiar names there I'd almost forgotten about! I once had a collection of Minic Ships, including if memory serves the liner Canberra, NS Savannah and HMS Devonshire (?) which had a helicopter on the back with tiny revolving 4-bladed rotor, a pair of tugs, various bits of quay and breakwater and the all-important plastic 'sea mat' to assemble it all on. Somewhere at home I still have a surviving price list dated April 1962 (I turned 9 that month!) with my purchases marked on it, it surfaces from time to time but I can never remember where it is. Most if not all of them were bought in a small shop called Barham's in Falmouth. I was very surprised to see them back on sale again in a model shop in Brixham about 10 years ago but wasn't tempted to get back into them - that ship sailed long, long ago 🤭!

Southern Railway No 49S (BR DS49) looked very much like a garden shed mounted on a coach bogie powered by a Dorman engine. It was apparently constructed at Exmouth Junction wagon depot in 1939 and worked at Exmouth Junction and Broad Clyst, ending its days at Yeovil via a spell at Folkestone in 1950 and scrapped in early 1960. I was oblivious to its existence until the publication of 'Modern Locomotives Illustrated' No 222 on Departmental Locomotives (Dec 2016 - Jan 2017) in which a photo appears, and marvelled at its curved corrugated iron roof, four pairs of hinged side doors and all-round high-level windows. I've tried in vain to find a photo I could provide a link to. Despite its ramshackle appearance it's sobering to think that this contraption existed for two full decades, the same as the Deltics and around a year longer than the WR hydraulic era. Its scrapping deprived some chickens of a sturdy coop 🤭!

OK, just checked - my older model is a Mainline body on an early Bachmann split-chassis (after the original failed) but this later chassis was designed to fit the Mainline body without tooling changes to the latter, so should have very similar overall dimensions to the old chassis. The main part of the earlier chassis fits neatly between the inner bonnet sides of the new body, but the fit at both ends doesn't really work, especially the cab end where there are irreconcilable differences. The body securing screws on the new body are 80mm apart but 86mm on the old chassis where they are right behind the bufferbeams. Most things can be made to fit with enough brute force and ignorance (😬) but since the Mainline bodyshell is a decent model your first choice is the right one - find a Mainline body, or an original Bachmann equivalent (31-350 - 3) if the price is right, as you can be sure it'll fit with a minimum of fuss. Another consideration is that a Mainline non-runner should provide you with a source of spare parts for your own chassis too.

Off the top of my head no, and the later/current Bachmann model was new from the ground up so probably not a straight fit. I have both so I'll check. Back later......