MRE2

To slilley and Forward! thanks for the information. Now I have to get another A4, and possibly make a decision - I already have Woodcock in BR purple blue with red lining so do I have a duplicate loco or find out what others may have had that livery. Ohhhh..........nightmare LOL

Thanks to everyone who has noticed. All personal contact info can be changed EXCEPT the email. As all your account activity is linked to the email address it affects your orders, award points, newsletters, special releases, and general club information that you will not longer receive. Hardly a huge issue for professional software engineers to resolve............

I have tried to change my personal contact email at Hornby as my current address will be defunct at the end of the year. I am a member of 3 Hornby clubs (Hornby Collectors, TT120, Scalextric) and they all have the same email attached to them. There is no way to change your personal contact info on the website so I called customer service to get my email address changed. Not possible apparently, as it is linked to your orders, bonus points, newsletters, etc. I asked how I would receive advice when my orders are available, how I would receive club special release and offers information, and regular club news and updates. If my current email is not available and my contact info cannot be updated, Hornby basically tell me "tough luck, our system isn't capable of making any change". Yes, I am pretty annoyed about this (synonym for pissed off, angry, etc) as I pay for membership and am entitled to receive information, offers, etc, and I have advance orders in the queue. I cannot think of any other company, resource, website etc, that doesn't permit personal contact info to be changed. I suggest the Hornby system is outdated, inefficient, amateur, contrary to good business practice and is having a negative effect. How do Hornby expect to do business if they can't (won't) contact established customers. The girl I spoke to in Customer Service was as helpful as she could be, but admitted it has been a known issue for some time and there are many other people who have been affected. Begs the question, why aren't Hornby doing something about it ? How many others are not able to get the benefits of paying to join their clubs and are taking their business elsewhere ?

Thank you Ian Rathbone. Yes, I am aware of those variations (just like the Garter Blue with British Railways that I mentioned in the OP) but it is completely different colours that interest me, not small variants on the same colour. I do agree, the full black smokebox and odd lining are not aesthetically pleasant.

A few months ago I showed my Hornby P2 Streamliner in Wartime Black. Yes, I have a 'thing' about different colours, so I thought I would show my Gresley "Bugatti style" streamlined collection. I'm not sure about the W1 as built in there, but I can't find any evidence yet of a different colour on any of the others. No doubt somebody will chime in with something like "Garter Blue with British Railways" but that's not a different colour so I'm not interested in that. Anyway, I'm a crap photographer, so in case you can't make them all out this is the list : Shelf 1 = B17/5 in Apple Green, Wartime Black, BR Green Shelf 2 = W1 in Garter Blue, BR Green, BR Express Blue Shelf 3 = W1 in BR Black, as built Grey, Silver Grey Shelf 4 = P2 Apple Green, A4 BR Purple, P2 Wartime Black Shelf 5 = A4 in BR Express Blue, Silver Grey, BR Green Shelf 6 = A4 in Wartime Black, Apple Green, Garter Blue Maybe you will like them, maybe not, but I am quite happy so far, unless anybody has a picture of a P2 or B17/5 in photographic grey or similar...........

Sadly my experience of KR Models is pretty awful regarding the Fell. I made and paid for my order on 8 February 2020. In 2022 the Fell became available, but apparently my order was lost due to some corruption in the KR Models ordering system/software. However I was able to prove I had made an order, so was promised a loco would be sent to me. On 10 December 2022 I received a package, with a Fell box loosely rattling around in a cardboard box with around 4 inches to spare all around. What I received is pictured below - a known faulty model that had been run and broken, it was obviously a return with details included by the returnee. Having already been assured in person by Michael Revell at the Milton Keynes show that my Fell order was all 'in hand' I was extremely upset at what I received. I contacted KR Models and got a reply including a prepaid return label to send it back. I also received a message that I had received a refund for £154 that I had not asked for - I wanted a Fell loco that I had ordered. The faulty model was returned, the following day I received another email from Michael revell agreeing that I had a shoddy experience and a Fell would be reserved 100% for me in the next batch due in February/March 2023. This is a quote from that message : "We can offer you a Fell locomotive when the 2nd batch arrives, and I can 100% put your name down for one of them. Hell, given what you’ve experienced up to now, I’m half tempted to offer it you for free. The ETA for these arriving is End of Feb/Early March. If you don’t mind waiting that long, then great. I can put your name down for one. You aren’t the only customer waiting for one." On 12 August I received an email saying the Fell was back in stock. On 13 August I received an email from Keith Revell asking if I still wanted one, despite the earlier issues no model had been set aside for me despite the promise I would be listed to receive one. Quote from Keith Revell "As we don't have a current outstanding model then you can order one if you wish." So, on 15 August I duly went onto the KR Models website and made a new order for the Fell. I was dismayed to see that the price of £174 is £20 more than my original order. I emailed Keith to express some dismay at this, listing the issues with my original order, being sent a known faulty item, a refund that I didn't ask for, and having to make a new order. I am 'old school' and don't expect something for nothing, so I am quite happy to pay the original price for my order that KR Models never fulfilled. I received a disgraceful email from Keith Revell by return : "We are a small company and we are not in the habit of giving away money. We have done what we need to do to keep you happy, but apparently, this isn't enough for you." On 16 August I emailed to both Keith and Michael Revell listing the errors, promises, and general awful customer service, and respectively asking for a refund for the difference in price that I had to pay. To date on 26 August I have not received a reply from either person. It seems that customer service and satisfaction is non-existent, KR will grab as much money from you as they can, send faulty items, renege on promises, mess up orders, and generally instil bad feeling. Reputable company ? I don't think so..........

Is there any proof or evidence that the streamlined P2s were outshopped in photographic grey ? It is quite possible, but no searches can produce a picture (so far). As a new design, it would be normal to have some publicity or reference photos, or did they all appear new in Apple Green ?

Halfords rattle can, matt black

Posted 8 hours ago (edited) 23 hours ago, MRE2 said: P2 in wartime. The 'Streamlined Bugattti' P2s only ran in 2 liveries before the Thompson rebuild started in 1943. So, my 2003 Lord President now sports its wartime coat, and looks pretty good next to 2005 Thane of Fife. Its not perfect (and I don't take great pictures) but I haven't done a repaint before and I'm quite pleased with it. It will look good next to its wartime sisters A4 and B17/5 that I have, now to get going on the W1 as the next project. To Donnyrailman : Looks good to me dose your wartime black. What paint did you use , Halfords rattle can, matt black

P2 in wartime. The 'Streamlined Bugattti' P2s only ran in 2 liveries before the Thompson rebuild started in 1943. So, my 2003 Lord President now sports its wartime coat, and looks pretty good next to 2005 Thane of Fife. Its not perfect (and I don't take great pictures) but I haven't done a repaint before and I'm quite pleased with it. It will look good next to its wartime sisters A4 and B17/5 that I have, now to get going on the W1 as the next project.

Help. I have been trying to locate a cowcatcher for the Triang/Hornby R358 Davy Crockett wild west loco. I have found pictures of resin-3D repros but no links to the items.Can anybody point me in the right direction to obtain one please ?

As a Kings Cross secondman and driver I had a lot of experience of KX Goods Yard. As a secondman I regularly worked local goods trains to Hitchin, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Cambridge, and Temple Mills from the goods yard. Some were unfitted, some partially fitted, and some fully fitted. The Temple Mills trains were run round at Finsbury Park #2 signalbox (outside Finsbury Park depot) and proceed via Canonbury, Dalston, Victoria Park, and Stratford. The return working followed the same route and proceeded from Finsbury Park # 2 box via the "creep up" back to Holloway and thence over the viaduct to the Goods Yard. The Huntingdon train was an old-school pickup goods, we shunted at Stevenage, Hitchin, Biggleswade, Sandy, St Neots, Offord, and put the remaining wagons into the old cattle dock behind Huntingdon station. I also regularly worked 4S82 Freightliner from the Goods Yard, this was one of our top link jobs into lodge at Newcastle, returning the following day with 1E05 Flying Scotsman. We also has 3S15 and 3L21 parcels trains from the North Shed in the Goods Yard, these were Doncaster return workings for us, one of which was 3E03 parcels from Scotland. We also worked the balancing Freightliner train into the yard, it was 4E86 which means it originated in Scotland and arrived in the Goods Yard at 04.48. Another regular working was 6E47 fish train which we worked up from Doncaster, arriving in the yard at 02.00 after going north with 1D06 express at 18.08. All of these workings finished in the mid-1970s. After the heady days of long distance freight and parcels, as a junior driver I worked on the yard pilots regularly. There were still 3 pilots in the early 1970s, soon reduced to 2, and by the end of the 70s there was just one. During this time the freight guards, who were based in an old brick building between 5-Arch signal cabin and the site of the old turntable, moved down to the signing-on point in Kings Cross station with all the other train crews. The shunters remained in the same building until the yard was finally closed - they were a law unto themselves, ran the job so that everything worked and nothing was ever reported, proper old-school railway ! Over the years various parts of the Goods Yard became disused and closed down, although the same names were still used. The Potato Market, the Cattle Pens (adjacent to the site of the original 1840s Maiden Lane Station that was used before Kings Cross station was built), the Bonded Yard, the Coal Drops, the North Yard, etc etc were all known to Kings Cross crews for over a Century. A typical shunt movement could be described as "up the tunnel, back over 99 handle, then propel into the Road" which of course referred to one of the sidings still in use from the days when horse traffic was used as road transport and the horses were stabled in the Goods Yard (the cobbled roadways and some of the stabling is still extant). We had to shunt the Cement sidings, adjacent to the North London Incline where Midland men brought the cement trains down into the goods yard, they would go right into Goods & Mineral tunnel then propel back up to the cement sidings. One place I never went to was The Farm : this was the group of sidings reached by climbing the steep incline that went behind Goods & Mineral signalbox (including having a single line staff to access) and was the collective name for the sidings and traders access on the site of where Mrs Wilberforce's house was constructed for the film The Ladykillers, which also includes lots of footage of the signal at the entrance to the tunnel, and the gantry at the south end of the tunnel for arriving trains. Before they started to tear down the yard buildings a lift the track, I had a good opportunity to have a look round one morning. On a sunny summer Saturday morning in the 1970s, arriving on 4E86 Freightliner, having no rush and a curious mind, I spent a couple of hours wandering in and out of many of the buildings. Office furniture was still in place, together with old magazines and general rubbish. In the warehouses, ropes and handles for the old wagon turntables were still in corners where they had been thrown maybe 50 years before. General rubbish such as broken crates from the fruit & veg traffic, numerous old and rotting sacks, discarded paperwork from consist lists, etc etc, were all over the place, giving testament to the huge amount of men and work that made Kings Cross Goods Yard one of the busiest places in North London. I am happy to have known and been part of it, maybe not at its peak 1850 - 1950, but as a busy working yard with some good memories.

I want to convert a Lima loco to Hornby Dublo type couplings. No, I'm not weird (most of the time) but I have large consists of Hornby Dublo wagons and want a bit more traction variety. I have a couple of Lima J50 locos which are ideal for the job, but I need to have Dublo type couplings on them. The Lima couplings are easily removed, but the mounting points on the chassis are too low for even the flat Dublo coupling bars although the location is otherwise good. I am not sure if a cranked coupling bar would work (even if such a thing was available ?) so am wondering the best way to achieve the conversion. Any ideas or solutions ?

This picture posted by simon b reminded me that as train crew we would go into the shed shown above the signal box, that was the repository for waste paper etc. It was usual to collect as many 'gentlemens entertainment' magazines and distribute them among various messrooms, cabins, bunks, etc for the amusement of the troops.

I once worked a freightliner with a name roughly painted on. Sorry I can't recall the number or date (it was in the 1970s) but we had a few hours riding in DRACULA. Definitely unofficial but we had a laugh about it at the time.