Steadfast

Now they have management in place again, Ott Tanak is returning to Hyundai next year. With Toyota expected to retain the line up, could be an interesting line up at Ford, with a selection of younger drivers like they had to do a few years ago, unless Lappi decides he doesn't want to risk sharing a car with Suninen. His commitment to a full season was made before Tanak returned to Alzenau. One to keep an eye on. Jo

I think your model is right. Compare the open battery switch door. The inside of it almost matches the Exec Light Grey, but is noticeable against the white above the red. Many weird things have happened in history such as repaints in the wrong shade, but I wonder if the loco got painted Mainline / Exec, then got a swallow sticker slapped on at depot level. Jo

Flickr is my go to search for anything railway. Google search seems to get worse as the years go on. Mainline livery used Executive Light Grey as the lower shade. I can't remember off hand if the upper grey is Falcon or Executive Dark Grey. Executive as a livery probably refers to this style of InterCity branding, as it can be known as Intercity executive, presumably due to the paints used. Intercity Swallow coming later. https://flic.kr/p/2ecEUmL I think your repaint looks right, Swallow logo but Executive Light Grey lower Jo

Stick "08570 Waverley" into the search box on Flickr. 100% that's executive light grey (the mainline shade). Jo

For completeness, anyone not familiar with painted sleepers to mark fouling points it is as simple as it sounds. Literally paint the sleeper yellow (other colours also available in some yards!) and perhaps the side of the rail too. Jo

Sounds eminently sensible to me. If you stop once too much, you can always ease up again. A bit like a red signal. Better to stop short and pull up than go sailing by... Jo

On the mainline it will be a WCRC or DB driver, fireman and inspector, depending who is running the train, with a representative from the loco on hand. On a preserved line, no idea, but it would follow the same logic that preserved line staff / volunteers that sign the road drive it, just like any other visiting loco, and no doubt accompanied by a rep from the loco owner. Jo

Hi Rich, Just been having a catch up on the thread. Love all the details on the individual power cars, particularly all the buffer beam gubbins on the 'naked' one. Only thing, theres not enough fag packet on here for my personal livery tastes! I'd forgotten how drab the GWT 47s looked, a bit of white to match the stock would've looked nice. Wow that's a weird looking thing. Capacity can't have been great compared to the producing Coalfish, and the sides look taller too, so awkward to load. I do love a weird wagon. I think that's a Landore depot sticker isn't it, with the LE and outline in black? https://flic.kr/p/79pY7y Jo

Apologies, my "difficult lighting" comment was referring to the prototype pic I linked from Flickr, it's very shadowy. Your pictures highlight the variation well. My comment about the cantrail and flush gangway tops was also based on the prototype picture, as the cantrail stripe between the two units isn't far off matching. If the gangway on the Bachmann 150 was massively out of position (since we know it and the 158 are similarly sized from your measurements) then the face of the 150 (or perhaps 158?) model would look off. I agree with your wheelset / suspension thoughts. The step boards should be roughly level, though IETs have the driving car step boards lower than the intermediate cars, so prototype for everything and all... If, for arguments sake, the 150 is too low, could it have been measured off a shut down unit with no air in the bags? It'll be interesting to compare the Farish 150 with the 158 when it arrives. Jo

Hi Rich, For me the threads win out because I usually browse on mobile and the blogs tend to be hidden at the bottom so I forget about them, whereas the threads are in the main body of the page. Some interesting posts on the blog, (and I've replied to the Sprinter gangways one) I look forward to seeing what this thread offers! Jo

Difficult lighting, but from this Flickr find is it the ride height between the 150 and 158 that's amiss? The 150/2 in your photo is noticeably lower than the 158, but the orange cantrail stripe should be about level, and the top of the gangways are flush. Jo

That's horrific Jim, I've been having a read of the last few pages and you have my sympathies with the situation. Unfortunately it seems a symptom of "entitled Britain" that those in the wrong cry loudest and become the "victim". It's funny how companies that treat you like the school have soon change their tune when someone gets onto watchdog/ The One show etc with their complaint. Unfortunately I doubt that tactic would work for a school, especially with dealing with such a nasty individual who'd probably spout crap online turning them the victim and you the villain. I hope you're in the day they add the yellow lines, so you can make sure they're long enough that the noise parks the other end of the street! Are you in ASLEF? Wonder if the free legal advice is worth a punt? Good luck Jo

Does Honda have any say over one of the Alpha Tauri / Toro Rosso Mk2 seats? I've long wondered if having a Japanese driver has been part of the deal, especially when he was going through his difficult phase last year, thoughts further compounded by the speed at which de Vries was despatched this year. Jo

Merehead bound from the colour? As mentioned by other posters, these wagons have the numbers on the side too. In fact it's on each side twice, and each end once, so 6 times in all per wagon. I regularly work with the oldest batch of these wagons and none have the end number obscured yet. Jo

DB still have it, it's at Toton but hasn't been out for a few years. Jo

Forgive the further GWML diversion... Apparently the 24 trains per hour on Transport for Reading means a load of freight paths have been lost. There was some day to night changes at the last timetable change. When I was doing my handling as a general rule I was instructed no more than 30 between Acton and Southall, if you get a green after Southall open up to max 60 mph because the unit has gone to Heathrow at Airport Junction. After Slough shut off because we'd be catching the unit that turns back at Maidenhead. Open up again after Maidenhead, max 60 mph. I couldn't believe how slow it felt we were going at times, but looking at Realtime Trains afterwards, we kept pace with the until in front and maintained our schedule, timed at an average of approximately 30 mph between Reading and Acton if you divide the miles by the time. I've not yet learned this section so apologies if I've misremembered a location, but hopefully that illustrates how freight and stopping passenger can mix. Back to HS2 matters now. Knocking cripples out of a Tytherington set at Westbury, for conveying HS2 stone. Jo

Absolutely right, Dirtfish is a daily (usually multiple times) visit for me. Their podcast is a regular listen too. The coverage over the weekends shows the strength of the team, with previews, stage end and behind the scenes features. I also think the drivers are a bit more open with them than the official WRC coverage. Jo

Strong performance Paul, there are some rare names in there! Jo

A bit of fun between events. https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/quiz-every-driver-to-have-driven-for-subaru-in-wrc/ Anyone able to top 20? I could've got 22 if I could've thought of the names of the faces I pictured Jo

Each power car has a name of its own https://www.lococarriage.org.uk/gwr_castles.html Jo

This is the last normal week of XC service. Had police and staff photographing them at Temple Meads a week or two back. Monday 18th is the last day in public service, diverting via Westbury. GWR now down to 3 diagrams as of this week, but predictably some days have seen more out to gap fill. Jo

Indeed it was 593. I believe it worked a charter in for a water boiling device to work forward. It had gone when I returned from Penzance about 21.20, presume it had gone back on the charter for the return. Jo

All the press coverage also mentions lack of sales as they weren't as cheap as B&M, Home Bargains etc. No they weren't, but I will miss the Wilko round here because for a few pence an item more, you got a lot better quality than the cheap shops. I've got quite a few Wilko tools which were at the right value vs occasional use balance for me, on the logic that if I used them more and they broke, it was worth me investing in a more expensive and longer lasting product. Not a single one has broken, so I still have a decent number of Wilko tools that haven't yet needed to be replaced, despite (in some cases) far greater than expected usage. Sad times. Jo

66152 was the first, it (like 59206 and the red 37s) has Gill Sans numbers. 66097 was June 2011 (per flickr link https://flic.kr/p/9WvTZq ) , and is also an RETB loco. It currently has a Highland stag on one side too. Jo

Intersting how the prototype are following the model! For many years Lima, Bachmann and Dapol issued Models with silver silencers, despite the prototypes all being built with them in a rusty finish steel. It's only the last few years of repaints that have seen silver silencers appear at the Toton paintshop. There may have been odd previous repaints of non DB locos that have gained silver silencers from Eastleigh or other paint shops, but they are few and far between. Jo