Steadfast

I resemble that photo 😅 Nice to chat earlier Paul. That's my 2 days at the show done, avoided the burgers and baps, the smell of which was wafting in the front doors making us hungry, so settled on a takeaway tonight. I enjoyed the show, even though a lot of the layouts weren't my cup of tea there was some very good modelling on show. Hopefully we did our small part to help entertain people on the DEMU stand and help promote the diesel and electric powered side of the hobby. Jo

Looking forward to this one. I've achieved what I thought was the impossible by repainting an entire HST rake (minus one power car, but with an extra buffet so still 10 vehicles) since Monday. The question is, how far will I get with the decalling over Friday and Saturday at the show? Answer is probably not as far as I'd like! Jo

I'm not intending to at present, got a lot of plates to keep spinning at the moment, but that's not a never. Jo

It's a particular flow for the glass industry that causes that weathering. Went to somewhere in the Merseyside area, I think there was something added to stop the load blowing on the wind, which made the wagon side sticky. Those on Mendip and Tarmac work down here weathered a lot more traditionally! Jo

Thanks for sharing @TomE . I had the chance to see the 4mm sample recently, and somehow the N one seems even more impressive - perhaps because of the dinky nature of the real things? Amazing to see no loss of detail between them either! Which reminds me, I must dip in to the train funds and put my order in Jo

Talking with a friend we reckon Newey is Aston bound, and possibly what has kept Fernando there for the future? It's known Daddy Stroll made Adrian a big bucks offer at one of the earlier rounds. Jo

Interesting how things get names. At work the Jacobs crackers were the RMC hoppers out of Whatley. The Colas diamonds we call the diamond geezers. Of note, both this and 67027 have blue rectangles of vinyl over the GBRf logo as they are painted, not vinyled, so can't be removed. The blue isn't a perfect match to the paint. Jo

Nope, it went a while back. There should have been an ex Anglia set (better nick and toilet tank fitted) to replace it when the 90s went, but Covid saw to that. It was done at Eastleigh, and retained Anglia livery but with blue doors. Flickr link: Jo

Mk4s on the TFW loco hauled for the last few years, which have always been power doors. Jo

No doubt someone will correct me if wrong, but the Lymington CIGs appear to have CDL fitted. 1497 and 1498 had retrofitted panels on the lower doors, to the same design as 121032, and likely the Chiltern bubbles too. Seen here on this Flickr link Jo

It's the real deal, looks like they've been lit by blue and red lights from opposite sides. Jo

I massively need a t-shirt with that label on it! Jo

No, that's a Dapol motor. I'd recommend a look at the Bachmann spares website www.Bachmann-spares.co.uk and if nothing is obvious, send them an email. Jo

That's pretty much it, mixing the Yeoman and Hanson wagons was very rare in that time frameYou may on occasion get a Yeoman and Hanson set joined together to form a jumbo, and this would have been from Westbury to Acton, but this would be very rare and something I think I've only ever seen once, after severe disruption, perhaps a snowy weekend? I have never seen a photo of such a move, the one time I can recall was a Sunday night. Note that this is two separate trains being moved to London on one service, rather than the wagons being mixed to make one train. HOAs, IIAs and HTAs have regualry been mixed with both quarry's JHA fleets, the HTA use finishing when DB ceased to haul the Mendip traffic. As mentioned, subsequently cut down HHAs and HYA/ IIA coal hoppers have been introduced since Freightliner took over. . In 1998 there was a period that an ARC set was working out of Merehead, but this didn't last long and I can think was likely to be either Merehead were short, so a Whatley set was provided to add capacity, or the end customer was an ARC site, but wanted a product that could only be obtained from Merehead. This is definitely the exception that proves the rule. Flickr link: Jo

Looks great livery application, especially the frosty detail. The colours look great too. No doubt you've got a list already of tweaks Adam, a couple of things I've noticed. Pic linked from flickr: - The large white text should have a blue stroke (same colour as blue end of loco) to make it stand out from the frosty image behind (present both sides) - The DRS logos and numbers on the white end are black or navy on the sample, but should be a mid blue. - Front end number on the white end is blue, appears to be black on the blue end. Again, Flickr Links below: Hope that's a help, it looks to be shaping up nicely. Jo