Titfield Thunderbolt 70th Anniversary Range

[Pint of Adnams]

27 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Mine is winging its way to me as I paid the necessary modelling tokens this afternoon. One thing missing from the above list is the Squire's car, a bullnose Morris but I don't know of one in 4mm scale.

You could add the trailer pulled by the Squire that was loaded into the Cattle Van, and Pearce and Crump's lorry obstructing the crossing that ended up broken down in several different ways, and the Town Clerk on his bicycle and...

[PhilJ W]

57 minutes ago, Pint of Adnams said:

You could add the trailer pulled by the Squire that was loaded into the Cattle Van, and Pearce and Crump's lorry obstructing the crossing that ended up broken down in several different ways, and the Town Clerk on his bicycle and...

The man from the ministry on his motor scooter and the police van?

[Miss Prism]

On 27/10/2023 at 17:47, TrevorP1 said:

 

That looks like a very nice Indian Red on the frames. I'll take a small bottle, please, Mr Rapido, if you've got any spare...

[RapidoCorbs]

Payment links for our new Wisbech & Upwell Tramcars/Titfield Thunderbolt Buffet Cars are being sent out at the moment, so Dan's made a handy video of how to remove the roof in order to fit figures (without damaging the model)!

See it here:

 

14 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

That looks like a very nice Indian Red on the frames. I'll take a small bottle, please, Mr Rapido, if you've got any spare...

 

Alas it was a custom paint sample so we don't have an easy reference for purchase, sorry.

[Pint of Adnams]

2 hours ago, RapidoCorbs said:

Payment links for our new Wisbech & Upwell Tramcars/Titfield Thunderbolt Buffet Cars are being sent out at the moment, so Dan's made a handy video of how to remove the roof in order to fit figures (without damaging the model)!

See it here:

 

Curious that the W&U Tram Car also appears to be fitted with Mr Valentine's bar... perhaps when transferred east it could have appeared on the Kelvedon and Tollemache Light Railway?

 

[PhilJ W]

The models are of the Titfield coach and the one preserved on the NNR. Neither of the original coaches had a bar and the bar featured in the film was a studio set, the coach was unaltered. The preserved coach on the NNR originally never had a bar and it was added during restoration. The bars in both coaches were fictional, one to support the storyline in the film and the other as a revenue stream for the preserved railway.

[Pint of Adnams]

47 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The models are of the Titfield coach and the one preserved on the NNR. Neither of the original coaches had a bar and the bar featured in the film was a studio set, the coach was unaltered. The preserved coach on the NNR originally never had a bar and it was added during restoration. The bars in both coaches were fictional, one to support the storyline in the film and the other as a revenue stream for the preserved railway.

 

Pedantically spoiling my jokey punning about the old Tollemache Brewery, before its merger with Cobbolds in 1957 😒

[GeoffBird]

18 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

That looks like a very nice Indian Red on the frames. I'll take a small bottle, please, Mr Rapido, if you've got any spare...

 

With a bit of luck they will need to use it again on their next GWR loco - Bulldog or Duke!!!  (or even Class 517)

[Pint of Adnams]

For those who have one of the sets and have noted in the Owner's Manual that the 3 exploded diagrams (Thunderbolt, Loriot& Dan's House, Brake Van) are available in the Rapido Technical Centre on the website, well they are not at present but I have just drawn their attention to that omission.

[rapidoandy]

It has been on the job list - sadly we have been short on staff this week and the various website updates I have to make have rolled over into next week. My apologies!

[NHY 581]

44 minutes ago, rapidoandy said:

It has been on the job list - sadly we have been short on staff this week and the various website updates I have to make have rolled over into next week. My apologies!

 

No need to apologise, Andy. 

 

People need to remember that you're having a lot of deliveries, dealing with customer orders, retailer orders, ongoing warranty stuff and no doubt prepping for Warley, as well as progressing other projects. 

 

Rob. 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

Yes I know it’s not a 14xx but 😁

 

 

 

Superb 👍

[Dan Hamblin]

I'd like to think that the carriage was salvageable after the train wreck, so not impossible to imagine it being hauled by Thunderbolt.

 

It is a lovely model, just be careful handling it by the solebar where there is a pipe running along it. The gas tank is also vulnerable as one of those fitted to my model is just hanging on by the two snapped lugs. Easily fixed with a blob of PVA or similar.

 

Looking forward to the wagon pack and the Bedford OB next.

 

Regards,

 

Dan

[PhilJ W]

Mine arrived about lunchtime and a quick perusal didn't find anything wrong. One thing though my one was extremely tightly packed in the box and it took me all of fifteen minutes to get it out of the box. This might not apply to most of the models but I was able to prise it out of the box using a strip of thick stiff card* that I also was able to use to open the roof. *The card came with a kitchen utensil (a ladle) attached.

[Pint of Adnams]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Mine arrived about lunchtime and a quick perusal didn't find anything wrong. One thing though my one was extremely tightly packed in the box and it took me all of fifteen minutes to get it out of the box. This might not apply to most of the models but I was able to prise it out of the box using a strip of thick stiff card* that I also was able to use to open the roof. *The card came with a kitchen utensil (a ladle) attached.

You managed to get the lid off the box?!

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

You managed to get the lid off the box?!

I did with some difficulty. I pushed the same piece of stiff card* as I used to prise it out of the box, inserting between the lid and the box. once it had been lifted about 4mm I was able to grip the box and pull the lid off. *The piece of card is about half a millimetre thick cut into a strip about one centimetre wide and fifteen centimetres long. A little tip, when putting the coach back in the box leave out the clear plastic sleeve, it makes it easier to get it out again.

 

[faulcon1]

On 02/11/2023 at 04:23, Pint of Adnams said:

Just received the notification from Rapido that the Titfield and Mallingford Buffet Tram Car has arrived in stock.

 

Rewatched the film last evening with Mrs Pint; all we need now is a 14xx, a GW Cattle Van, and a steamroller to complete the stocklist, plus a GW pattern water tower (preferably without bullet holes)...

You do realise that the GW pattern water tower in the film was a prop for there was never a water tower in that location. Also it's been said that Ealing Studies never asked permission to repaint Lion in the gaudy livery for the film. That reminds me of the movie Battle of Britain from 1969 when filming at Duxford aerodrome they needed permission to blow up a hanger in a simulated air raid with Foo Gas. Director Guy Hamilton said don't bother asking for permission just go ahead and blow it up. Then we'll apologise profusely afterwards.   

[Pint of Adnams]

3 hours ago, faulcon1 said:

You do realise that the GW pattern water tower in the film was a prop for there was never a water tower in that location. Also it's been said that Ealing Studies never asked permission to repaint Lion in the gaudy livery for the film. That reminds me of the movie Battle of Britain from 1969 when filming at Duxford aerodrome they needed permission to blow up a hanger in a simulated air raid with Foo Gas. Director Guy Hamilton said don't bother asking for permission just go ahead and blow it up. Then we'll apologise profusely afterwards.   

Yes I do realise that thank you, and that the line didn't end at Titfield and that the 'train shed' was sited over the continuation of the branch to Camerton and that the iron spear-tipped railings were removed by the film crew and the timber fencing substituted and a false end provided to the station building to cover the corrugated iron and the seats, chocolate machine and similar were added by the film crew and the Titfield village settings were filmed in various other locations and so ad infinitum. Thanks to Not Jeremy (Simon Castens) of this parish and his wonderfully informative and excellently produced book.

 

Oh, and Dan's house wasn't in that dell either... and the Bishop and Vicar would never have pushed the Thunderbolt in reverse up a 1:34 gradient to the non-existent water tower either!

[PhilJ W]

I was reading a book on the Tollesbury Light Railway last night. In it were some illustrations of the interior of one of the W&U coaches and two items caught my eye. They were equipped with hanging straps for standing passengers very much like those on London Underground tube stock. The other was on the end partition to the left of the door to the end platform was a picture or advert in landscape format of the type found in compartment stock and on the right what looked like a timetable in portrait format.

[Tiddles47]

For anyone interested, the latest issue of Heritage railway magazine has a 5/6 page article on the TT filming locations and Lion itself.  I got my TT coach yesterday.. lovely little thing..  

[Pint of Adnams]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I was reading a book on the Tollesbury Light Railway last night. In it were some illustrations of the interior of one of the W&U coaches and two items caught my eye. They were equipped with hanging straps for standing passengers very much like those on London Underground tube stock. The other was on the end partition to the left of the door to the end platform was a picture or advert in landscape format of the type found in compartment stock and on the right what looked like a timetable in portrait format.

 

If you are referring to the JH Meredith photograph the item on the left is a standard carriage print - it might even be possible to identify which one, most likely a timetable on the right, and another notice above the door which probably gives instructions as to not standing on the platform nor passing between cars. Around the midway point, the 'doughnut' signs on each side in windows are LNER 'no smoking' signs.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Pint of Adnams said:

 

If you are referring to the JH Meredith photograph the item on the left is a standard carriage print - it might even be possible to identify which one, most likely a timetable on the right, and another notice above the door which probably gives instructions as to not standing on the platform nor passing between cars. Around the midway point, the 'doughnut' signs on each side in windows are LNER 'no smoking' signs.

Thank you, it is indeed the JH Meredith photograph. The item on the right could also be a fare table as they operated with a conductor/guard.

[Pint of Adnams]

56 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Thank you, it is indeed the JH Meredith photograph. The item on the right could also be a fare table as they operated with a conductor/guard.

Or even a combination of the two...

[faulcon1]

On 05/11/2023 at 00:56, Dan Hamblin said:

I'd like to think that the carriage was salvageable after the train wreck, so not impossible to imagine it being hauled by Thunderbolt.

Regards,

 

Dan

The actual carriage was never used in the train wreck. That was an O gauge model. 1401 and 1456 both still had years of service to perform after the filming so naturally no permission was given to right them off in an accident. But both locos didn't survive in the end however even though 1456 was renumbered 1401 and turned to face the other way so that they could film the train running in either direction with the engine leading smoke box first. 1462 was actually a wooden mock up on a truck chassis to drive through Richmond Park and down Woodstock High Street.

Real steam locos have been purposely crashed in filming takes including one film with Burt Lancaster filmed in Europe after WW2 when there were many steam locos waiting to go to the scrapyard and so destroying them was no problem.

Even in the Buster Keating Movie The General of 1927 a 4-4-0 was really driven onto a burning wooden bridge for real and the loco plummeted into a river when the bridge gave way. It was only raised from the river to be cut up for scrap in 1941.     

[Fair Oak Junction]

I will not say the quote, no matter how much my Titfield fan brain is telling me to! 😄

I have managed to procure a correct type CooperCraft GWR cattle wagon kit off eBay. Just need to get that built/painted, the 14xx repainted, and get some weathering on them 👍

Edited November 9, 2023 by Obsidian Quarry