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Model Rail/Rapido Trains GER/LNER 'J70' 0-6-0T 'Project Toby'


dibber25
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3 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

My LNER 7128 version arrived this morning. I'll just let these images speak for themselves with the single comment that I think this is a product worth buying!

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Wow! Looks stunning :good_mini: You're a lucky man Martin!

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Now the moment Chris has been waiting for, to see satisfied modelers receive their product... Honestly, it looks amazing. The research, level of detail, workmanship. I think Rapido have really gone to town with this, it's amazing. Well Done Model Rail & Rapido :)

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I agree. I haven't taken a pair of calipers to it and have no intention to, some may do so and in time there might be seen to be some dimensional errors, but the quality of finish, crispness of design, smoothness of motor (it runs like a watch), wealth of optional details and the presentation of the instruction booklet are probably being studied right now in the offices of Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol, Heljan and Oxford and I hope some fruitful discussions will follow as a result.

Its early to judge after just a day, but for me this is how model railway RTR should be. I will absolutely have no reservations buying further products made by Rapido.

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I'm not going to quote here any of the above comments - they are ALL much appreciated. However, although it has fallen to me to 'front' this project on RMweb, it is not and never has been 'my' project. I've merely had the pleasure of doing some early test-running and of figuring out how best to fit the various extra parts. It is time for credit to be given where it rightfully belongs. True, I did push the idea of the 'J70' when Ben Jones was asking about a follow-on to the Dapol-produced Sentinel but that was all. Of course, the Bachmann-produced 'USA' came next and as a Southern modeller that suited me OK. Model Rail Editor, Richard Foster, has been the driving force behind the J70 and he did the research which we supplied to Rapido Trains. Although I've done a lot of my own research on the J70s out of personal interest, Richard and Bill Schneider of Rapido Trains are the ones who are responsible for this little model being as good as it is. We are all modellers (Bill has a GWR branch line layout). The bag of extras, including the etched parts, was necessary in order to give modellers the maximum choice of details. There were so many minor variations between the individual J70s that we could not tool for all of them. Some parts had to be left to the modeller's choice. You really need to fit the doors but the rest of the parts are less important. Your model will look fine without them. It'll look great if you put some of them on - and they are not difficult to fit. My next job is to weather one. The only colour picture I can find, the wooden body is completely smoke-blackened. However, I've an MR-105 on order for that job, and they are not yet in stock!  (CJL)

Edited by dibber25
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I received mine today. Safe to say it is a beauty, model of the year candidate for sure and definitely worth the wait. It was quite surreal opening the box of a RTR steam tram!

 

It’s simply a sublime model, it looks spot on, the finish is fantastic, and the level of detail is brilliant. I might have a stab at fitting the detailing parts and running it in tomorrow evening, time permitting - if so, I’ll take a few photos. 

 

I’m a GE modeller, but its such a charming and unusual prototype that I can see these selling well and being snapped up by collectors and impulse buyers. Big thank you to MR/Rapido for their hard work and making a J70 a reality, and I’m looking forward to my second one coming when it is ready. 

Edited by NXEA!
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44 minutes ago, MarkSG said:

 

Is that photo online anywhere? 

 

Only colour photo I have seen of one was available for sale in the late 1960's/early 70's by a "Colour Rail" type company (though pre-dated them), though the name of the firm escapes me now. We've got a copy of it in the local Transport Museum archives, and from memory it is of a skirtless one sitting "on shed" somewhere in BR days.

Certainly never seen it anywhere online though....

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Had a nice little surprise this morning, both NE 7128 & BR 68222 Arrived today for my brother and father, having seen the samples at Peterborough & Warley the one thing I did forget was how small they are. They are absolutely amazing models. I noted that the spark arrestor top had gone missing on 7128, but having looked in the box I found it so that case was solved, I've now re-fitted it and it looks like it had never come off. :) 

Chris, I've had a brief look through the manual, forgive me, but does the model have a works plate for both sides or just one side of the model? And what paint colour did you use for the Bell? 

 

Thanks

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23 minutes ago, Norton Wood said:

Had a nice little surprise this morning, both NE 7128 & BR 68222 Arrived today for my brother and father, having seen the samples at Peterborough & Warley the one thing I did forget was how small they are. They are absolutely amazing models. I noted that the spark arrestor top had gone missing on 7128, but having looked in the box I found it so that case was solved, I've now re-fitted it and it looks like it had never come off. :) 

Chris, I've had a brief look through the manual, forgive me, but does the model have a works plate for both sides or just one side of the model? And what paint colour did you use for the Bell? 

 

Thanks

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I can't answer with regard to the maker's plate as I don't have access at present to either the models or my research material and the one that I fitted out for the instruction book appears to have gone walkabout (no doubt a shed transfer to one of several 'W&U layout projects currently in progress with various Model Rail staff/contributors!). As regards the bell, I used Humbrol 'brass' paint but I doubt that these locos ever had polished bells and it is much more likely the bell was the same colour as the roof. These were lowly shunting engines, so even if the bell was brass it would never have been polished. (CJL)

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1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:

The first of my two arrived this morning.  Gave it a quick test run and posed it for a few quick photos.

Ran rather well, considering I haven't run the layout for several weeks and the track hadn't been cleaned!

 

The old and the new........

 

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On the docks....

 

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It looks very much at home in the dock setting. Reminds me of photos of tram locos in Ipswich :good_mini:

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27 minutes ago, wiggoforgold said:

Heres a picture of the J70 in its natural habitat. Lovely model. I'm sorry Chris, but mine has an appointment with a weathering session at the weekend.DSCF1566.jpg.24605735afbcf7554949a353799f902b.jpg

 

Alex

 

 

'Day 21: The vans have accepted me as one of their own'. 

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Well, mine has arrived (at least, one of them has arrived, the other will presumably be in the second batch to reach these shores).

 

The box it was delivered in also contained a Kernow stock list, a Kernow limited editions flyer, a flyer for a model railway exhibition in Helston, a receipt for my card payment, some bubble wrap, and some additional padding in the form of balled up pages of the January BRM. Which is mildly disappointing, as I've already read that one. If they'd sent me pages ripped from Railway Modeller or Hornby Magazine I could have flattened them out and enjoyed a few minutes perusing them.

 

Inside that box is the actual box containing the model. That's shrink-wrapped, so to get in it I had to first remove the plastic. Inside the box is a parts list, an information booklet, a layer of foam, then a plastic holder for the model, and a bag of detailing parts.

 

The plastic holder comprises a sleeve, which slips off to reveal a two-part inner. Separating the two halves of the inner holder releases a small plastic bag containing more parts (the door assembly and alternate cowcatchers this time), and a layer of flexible plastic wrapped around the model itself. Unwrapping that reveals...

 

...a J70!

 

It certainly is small. Disregarding the Wickham Trolley, which doesn't really count in this kind of comparison, the only loco I have that's smaller (and then only by a few mm) is the Model Rail Sentinel. The J70 is actually a tad shorter over buffers than the Hornby Peckett, and even fractionally shorter than a Bachmann LNER fruit van. 

 

What's even more incredible is the amount of detail inside, that you can't easily see. There's a lot more empty space inside the wooden shell than you appreciate from most of the prototype photos on the web. You can see right through the model, from side to side or end to end, at window level. Although I doubt that was ever really possible on the real thing, given the usual state of the windows! 

 

It runs very well straight out of the box. All I have at the moment is the genesis of my shelf-top W&U layout to run it backwards and forwards on, but maybe at the weekend I'll set up the roundy-roundy test track to let it run in for a bit. I was a bit surprised at how fast it will go - the gearing is much higher than the aforementioned Peckett. I presume that's prototypical, as they could work up a fair lick of speed on the mainline when not subject to tramway restrictions. But it does mean that a careful hand is needed to effect realistic motion on the shunting plank. It runs very well at low speed, but the difference between "low speed" and "not  really low speed", at least on my Hornby train set controller, is a bit of a hair trigger. That may be less of an issue, of course, once it's been chipped and is running on a decent DCC controller instead.

 

The instruction booklet says that the prototype of my model, number 68222, was allocated to Yarmouth and Ipswich rather than Wisbech. That's a slight blow for realism, since my layout is based on the W&U. But, to be honest, since it's based on a fictitious reimagining of the W&U (because I need an excuse to have a yard shared with mainline locos without modelling Wisbech itself, for which I don't have space), that's not really a problem. I'm sure I can find space for a reallocation on my modeller's licence.

 

Anyway, that gives me even more incentive to crack on with the layout, I've got a free weekend coming up, so I want to make a start on basic scenery, and maybe a trip to the shop to buy some track. I might even take some photos and start a layout blog, so that I have even more incentive to actually finish it!

 

Here it is next to a fruit van, neatly illustrating both the similarity in size and the fact that you can see right through it.

 

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