Accurascale's First Steam Locomotive; GWR Collett 78xx Manor Class!

[88C]

Despite telling myself that I don't need a Manor I have succumbed and ordered a Bradley Manor. The pictures of the painted samples have convinced me that I was wrong, the detail is superb and to my eye the green looks spot on.

 

It is also refreshing to see the response to comments made by knowledgeable posters on here, well done to the Accurascale team.

 

Brian

[Mallard60022]

Erm. 4 at Reading from '62 till '64; renumbering required, but I definitely remember one () on a diverted working down through Yeovil and Seaton Junction, to Exeter Central, due to the usual flooding issues. Or on a Holiday Express to Exmouth, via the same route. Last resort is a FootX FA Cup tie at Exeter as St J's Park is on the SR route!

P

[22C]

Looks fantastic.

 

I’d be interested in knowing others’ thoughts - could the finish of the safety valve bonnet potentially be an area for improvement?

[The Stationmaster]

16 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Erm. 4 at Reading from '62 till '64; renumbering required, but I definitely remember one () on a diverted working down through Yeovil and Seaton Junction, to Exeter Central, due to the usual flooding issues. Or on a Holiday Express to Exmouth, via the same route. Last resort is a FootX FA Cup tie at Exeter as St J's Park is on the SR route!

P

Here is my phot of Reading's 7816 in somewhat grubby condition at reading High Level on the Up Pilot turn in 1963 (this photo was one of those used by the designer of the Accurascale 'Manor' as a guide for where to put the electrification warning flashes and how the warning frame on the tender appeared).  The tender will be noted with a little bit of cleaning attention to remove subsequent layers of filth and paint and it spent time behind a number of Reading engines being moved to another one every time its current partner was sent off to Swindon for condemnation.

 

The 'Manors' came to Reading to replace a succession of 63XX which were up to their mileage, or otherwise in failing health, working mainly on Redhill trains and also often appearing on the Up Pilot.  The latter sometimes meant a rather rapid outing to Paddington when a diseasal with a sickly boiler needed something to supply steam to its train in order to keep the punters passengers warm or to help a dieasal which was incapably of helping itself because it had lost its Voith.

 

PS Before anyone asks the question it is not carrying Class 1 lamps but Pilot lamps.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[57xx]

2 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

And when you do, let me just remind you that there were a total of 863 57XX and 8750 panniers, with such exotic variations as 'to top feed or not to top feed' or 'to rivet the tanks or not to rivet the tanks',

 

A version without the damn top feed would probably not only satiate period modeller's appetite, but also solve world hunger and the climate crisis all in one go.

[MrTea]

6 hours ago, Accurascale Fran said:

 

I promise you that we are working on other regions when it comes to steam, but more on that in the future!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

Now this is good news from Accurascale. 
 

I hope you realise what you’ve unleashed with this comment Fran - let the frothing commence!

 

Seriously though, the Manor looks splendid and I love the way the team are engaging with the community on here and elsewhere online. 

[figworthy]

A hopefully simple question regarding the dimensions.

 

What is the distance from the face of the front buffers to the rear edge of the rear tender wheels, and what is the distance from the face of the rear buffers to the front edge of the front bogie wheels ?

 

Whilst it would be nice to see 7840 (Figworthy Manor) trundling around, it can't clear the points to allow it to end the run around loops, it won't be very practical.  I can't see the powers that be supplying a pilot engine just for the purposes of releasing it.

 

Adrian

[Guest]

More important for me, what's the length over buffers, I make it should be 244mm +/-0.5 ?

Edited December 21, 2021 by Guest

[Phil Bullock]

28 minutes ago, figworthy said:

A hopefully simple question regarding the dimensions.

 

What is the distance from the face of the front buffers to the rear edge of the rear tender wheels, and what is the distance from the face of the rear buffers to the front edge of the front bogie wheels ?

 

Whilst it would be nice to see 7840 (Figworthy Manor) trundling around, it can't clear the points to allow it to end the run around loops, it won't be very practical.  I can't see the powers that be supplying a pilot engine just for the purposes of releasing it.

 

Adrian

Manors make very good pilot engines….

[Hal Nail]

10 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

Any thoughts please gentlemen? 

It never ceases to amaze me what bothers people. I'd probably straighten the smokebox door over worrying about the coupling! 

[Phil Bullock]

3 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

It never ceases to amaze me what bothers people. I'd probably straighten the smokebox door over worrying about the coupling! 

Good job we are all seeing different things! Should lead to best possible model ….. and the fact that most of the items have already been sorted speaks volumes 

[Phatbob]

Oops, while pre-ordering a pair of maroon siphon Gs, I seem to have also ordered an Earlstock Manor.
 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Phatbob
Typo

[Black 5 Bear]

13 minutes ago, Phatbob said:

Oops, while pre-ordering a pair of maroon siphon Gs, I seem to have also ordered an Earlstock Manor.
 

Good choice !

[TrevorP1]

On 21/12/2021 at 12:23, Accurascale Fran said:

 

I promise you that we are working on other regions when it comes to steam, but more on that in the future!

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

Being very selfish, a Brit with the Accurascale treatment would be very nice - and it could  be used on all regions. 

[Mallard60022]

18 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Here is my phot of Reading's 7816 in somewhat grubby condition at reading High Level on the Up Pilot turn in 1963 (this photo was one of those used by the designer of the Accurascale 'Manor' as a guide for where to put the electrification warning flashes and how the warning frame on the tender appeared).  The tender will be noted with a little bit of cleaning attention to remove subsequent layers of filth and paint and it spent time behind a number of Reading engines being moved to another one every time its current partner was sent off to Swindon for condemnation.

 

The 'Manors' came to Reading to replace a succession of 63XX which were up to their mileage, or otherwise in failing health, working mainly on Redhill trains and also often appearing on the Up Pilot.  The latter sometimes meant a rather rapid outing to Paddington when a diseasal with a sickly boiler needed something to supply steam to its train in order to keep the punters passengers warm or to help a dieasal which was incapably of helping itself because it had lost its Voith.

 

PS Before anyone asks the question it is not carrying Class 1 lamps but Pilot lamps.

 

 

 

Do you happen to know if they were Up or Down or both Pilots Mike? I think the Down would have been a Hall?

P

[Ramblin Rich]

19 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

..... The latter sometimes meant a rather rapid outing to Paddington when a diseasal with a sickly boiler needed something to supply steam to its train in order to keep the punters passengers warm or to help a dieasal which was incapably of helping itself because it had lost its Voith.

 

 

PS Before anyone asks the question it is not carrying Class 1 lamps but Pilot lamps.

 

 

 

"Lost it's Voith" is the best turn of phrase I've seen for ages - genius!

Just to upset Phil Bullock now - that coupling is hanging straight down.

[Phil Bullock]

27 minutes ago, Ramblin Rich said:

 

"Lost it's Voith" is the best turn of phrase I've seen for ages - genius!

Just to upset Phil Bullock now - that coupling is hanging straight down.

That’s a form 1 then! 

[Rockalaucher101]

I told myself I wouldn't do it, I said I'd try to cut back. But it appears 7812 will be joining the fleet in the future. Can't complain, it looks stunning!

[Miss Prism]

4 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Do you happen to know if they were Up or Down or both Pilots Mike? I think the Down would have been a Hall?

 

Reading pilots varied.

[The Stationmaster]

22 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

 

Do you happen to know if they were Up or Down or both Pilots Mike? I think the Down would have been a Hall?

P

For many years the Down Pilot was always a mogul - and one everybody tried to cab when it made a shunt into No.7 bay.  But as dieselisation spread (complete with failures) it was almost inevitably a bigger engine - either a 'Hall' or a 'Castle'.  From what I saw the Up Pilot was usually a 'Manor' in the diesel age once some had filtered back to Reading (although I did see a 'Grange' on it on one occasion and the reason for that was that it didn't have to get any farther than Paddington when taking over a failure or being added to give the passengers a bit of heat.

 

Although the Reading passenger Pilots were involved in moving around vans (and shunting Slip Coaches back in the day) they were also very much standby engines to take over from mainline train failures

Edited December 23, 2021 by The Stationmaster

[Miss Prism]

Back in the day, Reading pilots were ten times more good looking than a Manor:

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Miss Prism

[maico]

It's a bit like spot the ball competition but the 21 rivets on the top of the curved footplate seem to have gone AWOL...?

 

Great looking model

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by maico

[Accurascale Fran]

Hi @maico,

 

Correct. 

 

Due to the requirement for mould release in the injection moulding machine, we originally had the longer looking rivets along the front of the locomotive. Our options were to have a row of long looking rivets, or none at all. Due to the feedback from modellers, we removed them from the tooling for the decorated samples to see how it looks. This appears to be the done thing with other GWR RTR locomotives which can be very bare in this area, with even the most modern models featuring little or no rivet detail around the front of the running plate. 

 

We have come up with an idea following assessment of the decorated samples to try build up a row of rivet relief using printing technology to see if this works. We are discussing it with the factory at the moment to see if it can be done. If it cant, then we will have to go without this single row of rivet detail as we are just restricted by the technology available to us.

 

Cheers!

 

Fran 

[murphaph]

Would it be an option to mould the rivets in negative (ie as depressions) to try to fool the eye, or would that scream "wrong" and draw more attention to the area than leaving it blank?

[McC]

3 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Would it be an option to mould the rivets in negative (ie as depressions) to try to fool the eye, or would that scream "wrong" and draw more attention to the area than leaving it blank?

 

It would be still impossible to release from the mould I'm afraid. It's impossible to place any detail on that plane in the moulding process, which is why we're exploring alternatives. The entire footplate, chassis and boiler are die-cast and we've put a lot of effort into the perfect rivets

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by McC