RAILS ANNOUNCE CALEY 812 CLASS 0-6-0s

[curlypaws]

Waiting impatiently for my BR Black Weathered model to come into stock. I have to say, the loco looks stunning in the Caledonian Blue livery though.

[Butler Henderson]

The blue certainly takes the eye away from the tender issue.

[tractionman]

I was thinking in the photos I've seen the black livery helps minimise the look of the tender flare?

 

All the best,

 

Keith

[wainwright1]

Just ordered my preserved blue loco. It can run with my Hornby North British J36.

 

Merry Christmas

Ray

[Off Tackle]

Approximately 22 hours after phoning Rails yesterday regarding the pre-order status I received my Caley 812 - I don't think there's a universe where you can get better customer service and delivery efficiency than that. Kudos to both Rails and the Royal Mail. Just unboxed, and she truly is a thing of beauty. Not got her on the rolling road yet but based on appearances I'm very happy with my purchase.

 

Stunning livery with a wealth of finely applied details. 

 

[Paul_sterling]

I was hoping my as built one would arrive today, as payment went out at the weekend, but nothing as yet, eagerly awaiting this one, as I have a bit of a thing for 0-6-0 tender locos haha. 

 

Paul 

[drt7uk]

13 hours ago, THS92-GWR-NO said:

 

Looks awesome!

Is that the "as built" or preserved?

 

The as built! I initially ordered the preserved but when the livery samples came out decided I preferred the lighter blue, and am happy with my choice!

[craigowen1976]

Yorkshire Santa flew by last night… Delighted to have received this absolute beauty! A few snaps on the rolling road, in the darker Prussian blue.
 

A quick advice query though: when I started running in, the motion seems quite ‘jittery’ and noisy, in a way I’ve not noticed with new locos previously (I was hoping to attach a video clip to illustrate, but can’t work out how to do so on here?) - almost as if somethings not ‘tight’ in the chassis assembly. I don’t think this is a general issue with the production, likely just a 1 off.
 

An hour of running in both ways and light oil on the rods doesn’t seem to have settled it… before I cross the bridge of sending back for checking etc, does anyone recognise this or could suggest a simple cause / potential fix? I’m happy to perch on the phone to Rails and run the gauntlet of Christmas postage if needs be… but I’d much rather get it running on the garden railway if it’s just a a case of turning a screw or two! Thanks in advance for any tips ;-)

[amdaley]

2 hours ago, craigowen1976 said:

Yorkshire Santa flew by last night… Delighted to have received this absolute beauty! A few snaps on the rolling road, in the darker Prussian blue.
 

A quick advice query though: when I started running in, the motion seems quite ‘jittery’ and noisy, in a way I’ve not noticed with new locos previously (I was hoping to attach a video clip to illustrate, but can’t work out how to do so on here?) - almost as if somethings not ‘tight’ in the chassis assembly. I don’t think this is a general issue with the production, likely just a 1 off.
 

An hour of running in both ways and light oil on the rods doesn’t seem to have settled it… before I cross the bridge of sending back for checking etc, does anyone recognise this or could suggest a simple cause / potential fix? I’m happy to perch on the phone to Rails and run the gauntlet of Christmas postage if needs be… but I’d much rather get it running on the garden railway if it’s just a a case of turning a screw or two! Thanks in advance for any tips ;-)

 

If its bad enough to worry you then I would send it back asap. 

[GWR8700]

Apologies if this has been covered before, but was the dark prussian blue ever carried by Caledonian locomotives or is it merely a preserved phenomenon?

[bluesparkdave]

23 hours ago, curlypaws said:

Waiting impatiently for my BR Black Weathered model to come into stock. I have to say, the loco looks stunning in the Caledonian Blue livery though.

Me too! Hope it comes before Christmas!

[shedman]

Here is mine ready for Gala Day at the South Lancashire Railway Trevor

[Bon Accord]

2 hours ago, GWR8700 said:

Apologies if this has been covered before, but was the dark prussian blue ever carried by Caledonian locomotives or is it merely a preserved phenomenon?

 

There were two shades of CR blue, light and dark as depicted on the models.

Both 828 and 439 have carried both in preservation. 828 is of course currently sporting the darker shade whilst 439 wears the lighter variety have previously been in the darker blue for most of it's preservation life.

[JohnR]

2 hours ago, GWR8700 said:

Apologies if this has been covered before, but was the dark prussian blue ever carried by Caledonian locomotives or is it merely a preserved phenomenon?

 

There is a whole catalogue of books written on the subject! But, simplifying things somewhat here is the story.

 

The Caley painted their locos at two different works - St. Rollox (Glasgow) and Perth. The suggestion is that Perth had the lighter blue - white was mixed in with the official blue. However, the lighter blue also seems to have become standard on the Caley from around 1905-06. 

 

The "as preserved" model has some detail changes which dont represent the class in pre-group days, but I'm not going to let that stop me.

[Michael Hodgson]

This may well be apocryphal, but the explanation I have seen somewhere for CR blue was that the paint was not bought in from a paint manufacturer, rather their paint shops mixed all their own paints as & when required, so concocted a witches brew of some official formula expressed in the form of 1 bucket of white lead to 1 bucket of tallow to 2 buckets of ....  Result being that it was all done rather approximately by eye and the shades of blue were therefore somewhat variable.  That together with the tendency of blue paints to fade and for soot to get absorbed onto the paintwork, so discolouration would occur over time 

[turbos]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

This may well be apocryphal, but the explanation I have seen somewhere for CR blue was that the paint was not bought in from a paint manufacturer, rather their paint shops mixed all their own paints as & when required, so concocted a witches brew of some official formula expressed in the form of 1 bucket of white lead to 1 bucket of tallow to 2 buckets of ....  Result being that it was all done rather approximately by eye and the shades of blue were therefore somewhat variable.  That together with the tendency of blue paints to fade and for soot to get absorbed onto the paintwork, so discolouration would occur over time 

It’s discussed in detail in the Caledonian Livery book by the late Jim McIntosh the evolution of Caley Blue from a dark to a light shade. It started with the light blue being applied for the Jubilee engines in 1897.

The ‘Blue Saloon’ Officers Saloon CR No.1 was painted in the two shades, above waist was in light blue, below the waist was in dark blue.
The beautifully detailed liveries applied to the Caley’s locomotives is not achieved by chucking a bit of this and that in a bucket and somehow amazingly getting it looking right, artisans do like a bit of leg pulling! Goods wagons were a little less precise in the exact shade, but high profile engines and carriages were presented and maintained to a very high standard prior to the Great War.

 

Brian.

[Henry 84F]

Evening all,

 

Picked mine up from Sheffield today. Looks brilliant; have only had a small play so far. The shop sold me a 21-pin decoder to fit to it - this is what the Caley's box says it needs. But the instruction manual says it needs a NEXT 18-pin. Before I take the body off, have I been sold the correct decoder? Apologies if covered already!

 

Henry

[Dragonfly]

6 minutes ago, Henry 84F said:

Evening all,

 

Picked mine up from Sheffield today. Looks brilliant; have only had a small play so far. The shop sold me a 21-pin decoder to fit to it - this is what the Caley's box says it needs. But the instruction manual says it needs a NEXT 18-pin. Before I take the body off, have I been sold the correct decoder? Apologies if covered already!

 

Henry

 

Based on a post at the bottom of Page 25, unfortunately they have Next18 sockets. Looks like Bachmann ran out of time to redo the boxes, hence the incorrect labelling. Should have a replacement stick-on label for the box end in there somewhere.

[Henry 84F]

4 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

 

Based on a post at the bottom of Page 25, unfortunately they have Next18 sockets. Looks like Bachmann ran out of time to redo the boxes, hence the incorrect labelling. Should have a replacement stick-on label for the box end in there somewhere.

 

Thank you for a prompt and comprehensive reply. It's a bit frustrating that, when asked, those who commissioned the model sold me the wrong decoder to go with it but we are all human. I'll have to go back and look at the trains in those shiny display cabinets again

 

Henry 

[Kaput]

Bit of a silly question but is there supposed to be something to hold the tender drawbar in place?

[Nile]

1 hour ago, Henry 84F said:

Evening all,

 

Picked mine up from Sheffield today. Looks brilliant; have only had a small play so far. The shop sold me a 21-pin decoder to fit to it - this is what the Caley's box says it needs. But the instruction manual says it needs a NEXT 18-pin. Before I take the body off, have I been sold the correct decoder? Apologies if covered already!

 

Henry

 

The label on the box is wrong, there is a replacement for it inside the box plus an explanation why. Quite frankly Rails should have known this and offered you the correct decoder.

[Michael Hodgson]

15 minutes ago, Nile said:

 

The label on the box is wrong, there is a replacement for it inside the box plus an explanation why. Quite frankly Rails should have known this and offered you the correct decoder.

Mine arrived the other day, and I haven't yet had time to open the box.

The explanation was on a little slip enclosed with the packing invoice and describes the socket change as an "upgrade".   

So Rails definitely do know about it.

[Rotorstorm]

On the subject of the tender top making the model look more like it belongs in the Bachmann Thomas’s range, that’s not really fair since the Thomas range actually managed to get the top right!

 

(I have no intention of altering the Caly to be a “Thomas” model BTW, had the toy and thought it may be worth showing the comparison since it was the only previous ready to run version I’ve come across)

 

[JonathonAG]

Thought I should add this in, apologies if a bit crude as the image was taken on my phone rather than the usual camera.

 

A comparison of the Rails version of preserved 'Oxford Blue' 828 and the makeshift Caledonian Lamps made for the Caley Reunion in 2018, painted from the same paint tins as used on No. 828 (and still used for touch ups today).

 

[Ben Alder]

1 hour ago, Rotorstorm said:

On the subject of the tender top making the model look more like it belongs in the Bachmann Thomas’s range, that’s not really fair since the Thomas range actually managed to get the top right!

That tender really shouldn't be part of a new release  2021 loco range....