The Siphon G, by Accurascale - From Milk To Mail!

[Wickham Green too]

Perhaps a shot of an Accurascale Rail Blue Siphon with an Accurascale Rail Blue 37 or Deltic could dispel an doubts people might have ??!?

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Perhaps a shot of an Accurascale Rail Blue Siphon with an Accurascale Rail Blue 37 or Deltic could dispel an doubts people might have ??!?

That’s a great idea - however in the meantime, these are back to back extracts from @AY Mod and @McC posts.

 

In spite of @The Stationmaster 50 yr old (😁) memories of the exact shade of blue of these things (his reminiscences are always very welcome), I’d say If those are the same blue then either the cameras and lighting used to take them are lying (very likely), they’re a different colour in reality (unlikely), or I’m a (insert cricketing term based on a 1960s, and now politically incorrect stereotyping description of a gentleman from a very large country in the far East 😆). 
 

@AY Mod version have a sort of purplish hue to them! 
 

I don’t view these on a ‘puter (haven’t had one for years) but a smart phone - I agree with poster’s comments about blue and how it’s seen by various cameras v the naked eye - I have recently purchased an old guitar in a shade of blue which is notoriously difficult to photograph - and the shade changes in real life dependent on lighting - the phone camera’s attempt to reproduce this gets the lighting admirably but varies the shade of blue even more 😄

Edited May 15, 2023 by MidlandRed

[MidlandRed]

4 hours ago, Covkid said:

 

With respect though, from memory there was a subtle difference between NPCCS used for parcels and that used for circuit newspaper and Royal Mail. I started my career at Machynlleth in 1978 and one of the jobs was to meet the 0415 Salop-Abetystwyth "mails", by this time a Swindon cross country DMU hauling a CCT. Mostly a BR CCT but occasionally an SR or sometimes an ex LMS GUV. These were often filthy.

 

Hung around Paddington a couole of times late at night and from memory the siphons in Newspaper use were quite clean - remembering the orange ETH fitments clearly.

 

So maybe decide what traffic your siphons are in ?

@Covkid and @ClikC, I couldn’t agree more - my intention is to use mine either in a parcels rake or behind a DMU. I have a reference photo of a class 116 pulling one on the N Warks line, but the livery is indeterminate (it’s basically filthy).

 

I can only think that @The Stationmaster and his colleagues arranged for their NPCCS newspaper sets to go through the WR washer to avoid disturbing the ambience at Paddington - although the scabby external state of some of the Hydraulics subjected to such washing makes one wonder whether whatever dirt emulsifier was in use didn’t rot the timbers of the wooden bodies Siphon Gs!! Trains like the Red Bank parcels always seemed to have stock in various shades of filthy (you could see the grey of the blue and grey usually though). 

Edited May 15, 2023 by MidlandRed

[Krieghoff]

Just secured the Enparts AS exclusive. 👍👍

That completes my three. 

[The Fatadder]

Doesn’t bother me what shade of blue w2768w arrives, seeing as it will be out of the box and into the IPA the moment it gets through the front door before becoming one of the first AS siphons of that variant to appear in GWR livery….

 

Just hope the delivery doesn’t miss the good weather.

[nigel newling]

On 13/05/2023 at 13:08, ClikC said:

Any thoughts for offering EM/P4 drop in wheels as an accessory for these?

Never mind drop in wheels, what chance we can persuade Accurascale to offer alternative brake yoke mouldings with the brake blocks set at the correct gauge? It will break my heart when I have to take a craft knife  to these beautiful bogies in order to get P4 wheels in.

Nigel

[ClikC]

2 minutes ago, nigel newling said:

Never mind drop in wheels, what chance we can persuade Accurascale to offer alternative brake yoke mouldings with the brake blocks set at the correct gauge? It will break my heart when I have to take a craft knife  to these beautiful bogies in order to get P4 wheels in.

Nigel

 

I mean, I want RTR  Primary and Secondary springing, RTR glide.

[Dunsignalling]

50 minutes ago, MidlandRed said:

@Covkid and @ClikC, I couldn’t agree more - my intention is to use mine either in a parcels rake or behind a DMU. I have a reference photo of a class 116 pulling one on the N Warks line, but the livery is indeterminate (it’s basically filthy).

 

I can only think that @The Stationmaster and his colleagues arranged for their NPCCS newspaper sets to go through the WR washer to avoid disturbing the ambience at Paddington - although the scabby external state of some of the Hydraulics subjected to such washing makes one wonder whether whatever dirt emulsifier was in use didn’t rot the timbers of the wooden bodies Siphon Gs!! Trains like the Red Bank parcels always seemed to have stock in various shades of filthy (you could see the grey of the blue and grey usually though). 

The stuff in the Laira washer took out body stopper almost as effectively as it stripped paint.

 

However, I don't think wooden-bodied stock was generally put through washing plants. Too many gaps for the rotating brushes to get ripped by...

 

A pal of mine rubbed a SR utility van with a wet rag about 1972 to reveal crimson livery under the filth, and I suspect there might have still been a Siphon or two carrying old paint under new muck by then.

 

John 

[RHF9019]

Having painted many things Rail Blue over the years, from 4mm upto 12" to the foot, it is a colour that reacts to its surrounding colours. 

 

Prime example being yellow. If you look at Western Champion and Western Courier on the SVR, on their own Champion looks a totally different blue to Courier. Put them side by side and they look the same. The difference is the size of yellow panel, Champion has small panels whereas Courier has full yellow.

 

Paint a coach all over blue and it looks a different blue to a blue/grey one. Adding a yellow first class stripe again alters the perception of the blue.

 

I have lost count of the amount of times I have started painting with Rail Blue and have been convinced the blue is wrong.

[The Ghost of IKB]

4 hours ago, ClikC said:

TBH, shade of rail blue is immaterial, with the possible exception of those wishing to model an 'ex-works' Siphon-G*.

 

These require weathering to the point where you have to squint and get the angle of lighting just right, in order to confirm they were in fact intended to be rail blue at some point, but are now just filthy grey/brown/dirty.

 

Case in point, and as if I needed any justification for more NPCCS, the Class 86 is rail blue. Everything else is debatable.

 

From John Woolley on Flikr

 

*Said people should be shunned in the street

Agree with everything you said...... e xcept that rail blue loco is an 85 not 86.

[Southernman46]

The blue on this one looks a bit red-ish  🙄

Best Siphon ever and there's quibbling ??

[ClikC]

43 minutes ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

Agree with everything you said...... e xcept that rail blue loco is an 85 not 86.

 

And there I go dropping a clanger, roof tanks should have been a dead give away, get more evidence I should learn to read XD

[MidlandRed]

3 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

The blue on this one looks a bit red-ish  🙄

Haha!! However it could appear to be another colour entirely under the fluorescent lighting at Paddington 😬

 

Lovely model - one of the best of the liveries. 

Edited May 15, 2023 by MidlandRed

[Metr0Land]

12 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

The blue on this one looks a bit red-ish  🙄

Best Siphon ever and there's quibbling ??

Stroudley's improved blue?

[Captain Kernow]

18 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

Best Siphon ever and there's quibbling ??

Quite.

 

[Ian Hargrave]

21 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

The blue on this one looks a bit red-ish  🙄

Best Siphon ever and there's quibbling ??

It had to happen. A little known but recognised neurosis identified as Delivery Expetancy  Symdrome. Colloquially known as DES.This usually manifests itself in illusory visions of colour leading to symptoms like concerns such as Will it match my Hawksworths or Mk.2 ?  leading to a general loss of appetite and disturbed sleep patterns.

 

There is a known effective therapy for sufferers. Running Black treatment is recommended,thus dispensing with troublesome colour shades. This can be achieved by operating a black Hornby Peckett hauling a rake of Accurascale Chaldrons with coal loads. Is there a DES sufferer near you ?

[Dunsignalling]

Back in the day, colours of rolling stock tended to vary for several reasons. By the time BR blue came along, railway paint was mass-produced and thus pretty consistent when applied.

 

However, the quality of that application seemed variable (to put it mildly).  The colour I remember wasn’t stable and faded quite quickly, but not predictably or consistently.

 

Consequently, the odds against two adjacent vehicles (even if clean) being an exact match grew the longer they were in service.

 

John

Edited May 16, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[SteamingWales]

When are we going to see someone exclaim that they have had an email from DHL of shipment 😅

[Pedro32]

Hi team Accurascale, @McC

 

Having seen this great early review today:  I had a question about the flexible nem magnetic couplings provided in the detail bag. Will these be supplied as a coupling pack that we can buy separately in due course? 

 

thanks 

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Pedro32
Clarification

[gwrrob]

1 hour ago, SteamingWales said:

When are we going to see someone exclaim that they have had an email from DHL of shipment 😅

 

My invoice says Royal Mail tracked 48.

[The Stationmaster]

On 15/05/2023 at 17:09, MidlandRed said:

That’s a great idea - however in the meantime, these are back to back extracts from @AY Mod and @McC posts.

 

In spite of @The Stationmaster 50 yr old (😁) memories of the exact shade of blue of these things (his reminiscences are always very welcome), I’d say If those are the same blue then either the cameras and lighting used to take them are lying (very likely), they’re a different colour in reality (unlikely), or I’m a (insert cricketing term based on a 1960s, and now politically incorrect stereotyping description of a gentleman from a very large country in the far East 😆). 
😄

Minor point of correction 39 year old memories, I don't know where you got 50 years from but you were a decade adrift.  But note whatI did say about variations due to all sorts of factors.  Incidentally as a. matter of  fact regarding dirt the news vans were kept very clean internally and as clean as circumstances allowed externally including occasional exterior hand cleaning using a solution of BR GIC (General Interior Cleaner.  It appeared to have very similar properties to Fairy Liquid but applied at the right time was the only thing we knew of which could remove white Exmover staining caused by Carriage Washing Machines or incorrect use of Ex when hand washing.

 

Here's a Pau Bartlett photo of an ex-works Siphon (Newspaper) Packing Van

 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/paulbartlettsrailwaywagonphotographs/h34373447#h25239624

Edited May 17, 2023 by The Stationmaster

[BenL]

1 hour ago, Pedro32 said:

Hi team Accurascale,

 

Having seen this great early review:  I had a question about the flexible nem magnetic couplings provided- Will these be supplied as a coupling pack that we can buy separately in due course? 

 

thanks 

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

The Siphon G is looking stunning and clearly a new level for UK 4mm RTR rolling stock, by some distance by the looks of it. 
 

The only relatively minor concern I have is the coupling gap when using the tension locks - it looks a little wider than I would have hoped in this video at least. I guess this is a function of having to cater for second radius curves and that luddites like me who still use tension locks despite having gentler curves might have to try out some shorter tension couplings, such as those offered by Bachmann. I don’t suppose Accurascale would be able to offer a shorter tension lock coupling as an accessory at some point?

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Minor point of correction 39 year old memories, I don't know where you got 50 years from but you were a decade adrift.  But note whatI did say about variations due to all sorts of factors.  Incidentally as a. matter of  fact regarding dirt the news vans were kept very clean internally and as clean as circumstances allowed externally including occasional exterior hand cleaning using a solution of BR GIC (General Interior Cleaner.  It appeared to have very similar properties to Fairy Liquid but applied at the right time was the only thing we knew of which could remove white Exmover staining caused by Carriage Washing Machines or incorrect use of Ex when hand washing.

 

Here's a Pau Bartlett photo of an ex-works Siphon (Newspaper) Packing Van

 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/paulbartlettsrailwaywagonphotographs/h34373447#h25239624

Sorry @The Stationmaster, I guess the 50 yrs (making 1973) was a way of saying a very long time ago - if I’d have picked 40 from the random ‘long time ago’ number generator it would have been more accurate!! Interesting info re the cleaning routine - you must have had a better budget than other regions (although it clearly didn’t extend to the filthy one in use behind a DMU on the N Warks line in the early 60s which I have a photo of!!)

 

For anyone wanting W2980 if you want the colour represented in @AY Mod photo you’re out of luck - it’s definitely in rail blue on the Accurascale site 😃

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by MidlandRed

[AY Mod]

17 minutes ago, MidlandRed said:

For anyone wanting W2980 if you want the colour represented in @AY Mod photo you’re out of luck - it’s definitely in rail blue on the Accurascale site 

 

Dog with a bone. Why don't you just wait until you've got yours.

[MPR]

This should please everyone, all together, all at once!

(Siphon G at Buckfastleigh, Sep 18th 2005)

Edited May 17, 2023 by MPR