Heljan GWR 1366 0-6-0 Pannier Tank

[railroadbill]

9 minutes ago, SRman said:

I succumbed to temptation a few months ago and bought 1366 in GWR shirtbutton livery from Rails. It too has the stiff leading axle, but running has been very good. I do intend bracing the soft Heljan pickups a little with some brass wire and/or phosphor-bronze strip - something I also want to do with their class 05 and 07 diesel shunters for the same reasons.

My 1366 was destined to go into my private (fictional) industrial fleet, so the cheapest model from Rails was entirely appropriate seeing as I was going to commit the ultimate sacrilaege for GWR mdoellers and fans and repaint it into a blue livery! I chose BR express passenger steam blue, and it is seen here partly finished with what is now my Christmas train (after repainting a couple of those German coaches into gaudier liveries). I still intend to add some white lining to the loco and some nameplates. I decided to leave the GWR number plates in place rather than giving it a number in my industrial sequence, though.

I think the blue actually suits it quite well.
 

 

Well the Vale of Rheidol  narrow gauge locos got painted in the later BR blue (with the BR arrows emblem) so there is a precedent for repainting "proper"  green to blue...

[SRman]

39 minutes ago, railroadbill said:

 

Re couplings, one nice touch with these is the already fitted  screw link couplings.  These work very effectively, straight out the box! 

 

The numberplates are good on these, almost an etched effect with the numbers a bit proud.  I had intended to repaint it black as 1367 or 1369 (which are in my Ian Allen 1962 ABC) so it would fit in "replacing"  BWTs on the layout's short china clay train,  but it actually looks great in green with the shirtbutton emblem so...perhaps...it should stay as it is....

 

Nahh. Blue's the way to go! 

 

I agree about the number plates; much better than some of the flat printed ones most other RTR manufacturers seem to offer. That's what made me keep the number rather than changing to my usual etched Narrow Planet plates.

[Garethp8873]

13 hours ago, SRman said:

I succumbed to temptation a few months ago and bought 1366 in GWR shirtbutton livery from Rails. It too has the stiff leading axle, but running has been very good. I do intend bracing the soft Heljan pickups a little with some brass wire and/or phosphor-bronze strip - something I also want to do with their class 05 and 07 diesel shunters for the same reasons.

My 1366 was destined to go into my private (fictional) industrial fleet, so the cheapest model from Rails was entirely appropriate seeing as I was going to commit the ultimate sacrilaege for GWR mdoellers and fans and repaint it into a blue livery! I chose BR express passenger steam blue, and it is seen here partly finished with what is now my Christmas train (after repainting a couple of those German coaches into gaudier liveries). I still intend to add some white lining to the loco and some nameplates. I decided to leave the GWR number plates in place rather than giving it a number in my industrial sequence, though.

I think the blue actually suits it quite well.
 

 

 

Blue does suit the Pannier very well. Infact I did think at first you had a 3650 when it was in it's Stephenson Clarke livery.

[Butler Henderson]

Well approaching four years on have not had any luck with Railtec but did do some measuring and it seems that the moulded plates are underscale so it should be possible to remove them and fit an etched brass or Railtec 3D plate relatively easilly. Wondered if anyone had.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Butler Henderson

[Halvarras]

On 18/11/2020 at 12:59, Garethp8873 said:

 

Blue does suit the Pannier very well. Infact I did think at first you had a 3650 when it was in it's Stephenson Clarke livery.

 

Gosh that rings a bell - I can just about recall seeing 3650 at Didcot painted blue in late 72/early 73. I was amused that some wag had painted a very crude BR double-arrow on it!

[Steamport Southport]

3 hours ago, Neil Phillips said:

 

Gosh that rings a bell - I can just about recall seeing 3650 at Didcot painted blue in late 72/early 73. I was amused that some wag had painted a very crude BR double-arrow on it!

 

Are you sure? I thought it got a coat of GWR green and roundel when it was at Bulmers in Hereford?

 

Photo of it looking a bit neglected in 1980 at the bottom of this page. When it had become a spare parts donor for the others.

 

https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/64/3650-57xx-class

 

 

Jason

[Halvarras]

11 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Are you sure? I thought it got a coat of GWR green and roundel when it was at Bulmers in Hereford?

 

Photo of it looking a bit neglected in 1980 at the bottom of this page. When it had become a spare parts donor for the others.

 

https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/64/3650-57xx-class

 

 

Jason

 

As sure as I can be after 48 years. I believe I took a b&w (unfortunately) Instamatic photo of it that day, I'll have to try to find it. 3650 was in and out of Hereford within 1969, would a repaint have been a priority?

[Steamport Southport]

On 11/12/2020 at 15:09, Neil Phillips said:

 

As sure as I can be after 48 years. I believe I took a b&w (unfortunately) Instamatic photo of it that day, I'll have to try to find it. 3650 was in and out of Hereford within 1969, would a repaint have been a priority?

 

Curious more than anything. The photo I linked to looks green, was it painted at Didcot or before?

 

Unfortunately that era of early preservation was a bit neglected in the magazines at the time. All they wanted was glossy photographs of the preserved locomotives working on the mainline or early schemes such as the Bluebell, K&WVR and Dart Valley. Or photos of rusting hulks at Barry.

 

Very few photographs of locomotives in the queue waiting for restoration. Rolling stock was virtually ignored. It wasn't until the 1980s that magazines such as Steam Railway was printing pictures of locomotives being restored and featured projects in depth.

 

 

Jason

[Steamport Southport]

I popped in here to say that I finally got one of these wee beasties.

 

Fantastic little model.

 

 

Jason

[Silver Sidelines]

On 11/12/2020 at 00:13, Neil Phillips said:

 

Gosh that rings a bell - I can just about recall seeing 3650 at Didcot painted blue in late 72/early 73. I was amused that some wag had painted a very crude BR double-arrow on it!

There are some nice pictures on Fickr of 3650 in its Blue Stephenson Clarke livery.  They are dated 2008.

https://flic.kr/p/5hCebz

 

https://flic.kr/p/5quyWE

 

https://flic.kr/p/qSCfP6

 

And then I have a  post card of one of the Welsh Narrow gauge engines in 'Corporate Blue suppposedly c1973':

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Silver Sidelines

[Nick Gough]

On 11/12/2020 at 00:13, Neil Phillips said:

 

Gosh that rings a bell - I can just about recall seeing 3650 at Didcot painted blue in late 72/early 73. I was amused that some wag had painted a very crude BR double-arrow on it!

 

On 11/12/2020 at 03:32, Steamport Southport said:

 

Are you sure? I thought it got a coat of GWR green and roundel when it was at Bulmers in Hereford?

 

Photo of it looking a bit neglected in 1980 at the bottom of this page. When it had become a spare parts donor for the others.

 

https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/64/3650-57xx-class

 

 

Jason

 

I've found a photo, I took, of 3650 not long after arriving at Didcot:

[Steamport Southport]

So I take it that's blue.

 

Was the other photo of it with a GWR roundel also blue? Or did it have a repaint at some point?

 

Doesn't look like a recent repaint though.

 

 

I forgot to say the interest is because I've got 3650 as a set of number plates bought in a job lot about five years ago. Possibly from someone who was modelling Didcot as 3738 and 5051 is also in there.

 

 

Jason

Edited December 23, 2020 by Steamport Southport