A prediction from the July 1980 Railway Modeller

[andyman7]

Browsing through some back numbers I spotted this letter in the aforementioned magazine which predicted that manufacturers might soon run out of Diesel models to make without resorting to duplication. I found the assessment of where the future opportunities might lie very entertaining with the benefit of 42 years' time travel. Every single item suggested has since been made - sometimes by more than one manufacturer, even if in some cases it took a few decades.

[andyman7]

This is the final bit...

[Steamport Southport]

Fell? Never heard of it!

 

 

Not long before they nicely printed a photograph of a dead Baby Deltic...

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Captain Slough]

I actually have an NBL D600 warship - built by my dad using 2 Hornby Class 29 bodies, a Triang 37 chassis, part of the nose of the Class 37 and some plastikard.....  (The class 29 bodies and the 37 noses and chassis were left over from "Monty Wells" Baby Deltic conversions)

 

I imagine an actual RTR one would have all the grills in the right places and nose-end detail but at speed this wasnt as obvious, and standards were a bit lower in the 1980s...

Edited March 21 by Captain Slough

[Flying Pig]

2 hours ago, Captain Slough said:

I imagine an actual RTR one would have all the grills in the right places and nose-end detail but at speed this wasnt as obvious, and standards were a bit lower in the 1980s...

 

An actual rtr one in the 1980s would probably have had the grills in the right place (Lima were quite good at grills) but whether the overall shape would have been as convincing is another matter (I know yours isn't quite right either).  There were some very approximate rtr diesels in those days, and long after.

 

I do think your model needs its nostrils though.

[Captain Slough]

ideally a paid of Cl.58 bogies as well as they are fairly close in frame design to the LMS 10000 design that was reused by both NBL for the Cl.41 Warship and Metro-Vickers for the Cl.77/EM2

[steve1]

15 hours ago, andyman7 said:

Browsing through some back numbers I spotted this letter in the aforementioned magazine which predicted that manufacturers might soon run out of Diesel models to make without resorting to duplication. I found the assessment of where the future opportunities might lie very entertaining with the benefit of 42 years' time travel. Every single item suggested has since been made - sometimes by more than one manufacturer, even if in some cases it took a few decades.

 

Does the writer of the original piece also do the lottery? They were pretty accurate in their predictions in that article.

 

steve

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

 

Does the writer of the original piece also do the lottery? They were pretty accurate in their predictions in that article.

 

steve

 

Took over 40 years though!

 

The only ones that probably were viable RTR at the time were the ones that got made - GWR DRC and Classes 50 and 56. Otherwise it was MTK and Q Kits with a lot of swearing!

 

 

Notice above. Is that R G Brasher in the other letter the one who posts on here?

 

 

Jason

Edited March 21 by Steamport Southport

[Flying Pig]

1 hour ago, Captain Slough said:

ideally a paid of Cl.58 bogies as well as they are fairly close in frame design to the LMS 10000 design that was reused by both NBL for the Cl.41 Warship and Metro-Vickers for the Cl.77/EM2

 

A Triang EM2 bogie would be even closer :)

[MattR]

I don't think the Baby Deltic is ugly at all -- it's a lot better looking that a regular Deltic to me.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, MattR said:

I don't think the Baby Deltic is ugly at all -- it's a lot better looking that a regular Deltic to me.

Where's the 'dislike' button?

[Clive martin]

The Baby Deltics were never ugly i remember an article i Rail Enthusiast describing them as pretty little things that also sounded rather nice ,one thing  that article did not predict is that by 2024 we would have a brand new full size baby Deltic being built!

[Clive martin]

11 hours ago, Captain Slough said:

I actually have an NBL D600 warship - built by my dad using 2 Hornby Class 29 bodies, a Triang 37 chassis, part of the nose of the Class 37 and some plastikard.....  (The class 29 bodies and the 37 noses and chassis were left over from "Monty Wells" Baby Deltic conversions)

 

I imagine an actual RTR one would have all the grills in the right places and nose-end detail but at speed this wasnt as obvious, and standards were a bit lower in the 1980s...

I rather like that model it just needs some headcode discs and communication doors to complete ,as the body side grills are not correct it could be a model of a diesel electric version of the early warship,it also reminds me of one of the diesels that used to run on the merryvale model village in Great Yarmouth ,i have been searching for years for a photograph of one of these,and also i would love to know what happened to them when the railway went over to rtr G scale !

[Halvarras]

10 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

 

A Triang EM2 bogie would be even closer :)

 

Yes for sure, which is why I shoved a pair under my MTK D600 in 1993 (powered at one end only,  a plastic roof between the cabs saved a lot of weight).

[PeterStiles]

I rather like the 2969s narrow gauge modeller who said "and the Double Fairly is scratch built, no one's ever going to make an R-T-R one!"

[Clive martin]

Its quite amazing back in the 80s 90s i never thought we would ever have any rtr models of the diesels that did not last into the tops era ,class 14 15 16 17 21 22 23 28 29 43 and also the one of prototypes yet i think we now have them all!

[Captain Slough]

28, 29 were both already RTR - the 28 in 1961 by Hornby-Dublo, the 29 by Hornby around 1979

Edited March 22 by Captain Slough

[Clive martin]

49 minutes ago, Captain Slough said:

28, 29 were both already RTR - the 28 in 1961 by Hornby-Dublo, the 29 by Hornby around 1979

Yes you are correct about the class 28 i forgot about the Dublo model ,back in the day they used to be rather expensive and quite rare and not that easy to get hold of before the days of e bay etc, i ruled out the Hornby class 29 as it was something of a halfway house not being a 21 or a 29 !

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On 21/03/2024 at 11:09, steve1 said:

Does the writer of the original piece also do the lottery? They were pretty accurate in their predictions in that article.

Except the DMU's. Only identified some obscure fruit machine, ignored the ubiquitous BR bogcarts which were far more numerous, widely distributed and longer in service than the likes of BTH and NBL diesels. (I realise that T-H (and Lima?) likely had some available circa 1980 but RTR OO was off my radar at the time.)

[kevinlms]

46 minutes ago, Clive martin said:

Yes you are correct about the class 28 i forgot about the Dublo model ,back in the day they used to be rather expensive and quite rare and not that easy to get hold of before the days of e bay etc, i ruled out the Hornby class 29 as it was something of a halfway house not being a 21 or a 29 !

A class 25 is halfway between 21 and 29!

[Clive martin]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

A class 25 is halfway between 21 and 29!

Hi kevin i am not sure you understood what i was getting at describing the Hornby 29 as bit of a half way house between a class 21 and 29, it was the unfortunate mish mash of details on the Hornby moulding that were not correct for a 21 or 29 perhaps i am being bit pedantic ,but i think the detail differences between a class 21 and 29 are numerous enough to warent a correct well researched model that we now have in the shape of the Dapol class 21 and 29!

[Flying Pig]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

A class 25 is halfway between 21 and 29!

 

By that logic a Class 27/2 is halfway between a Class 24 and a Class 31, and two of them make a Deltic.

[Clive Mortimore]

On 21/03/2024 at 07:36, Captain Slough said:

I actually have an NBL D600 warship - built by my dad using 2 Hornby Class 29 bodies, a Triang 37 chassis, part of the nose of the Class 37 and some plastikard.....  (The class 29 bodies and the 37 noses and chassis were left over from "Monty Wells" Baby Deltic conversions)

 

I imagine an actual RTR one would have all the grills in the right places and nose-end detail but at speed this wasnt as obvious, and standards were a bit lower in the 1980s...

Snap!!!!

 

As a model maker/plastic card butcher I do miss the days when if I wanted a model of class XYZ I enjoyed making it. Today's models are far better than I could have imagined back in the 1980s when I was told no manufacturer would ever make a BTH or a Baby Deltic.

 

At least there are still some gaps in steam classes and DMUs

 

 

 

As for EMUs

[Clive martin]

10 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Snap!!!!

 

As a model maker/plastic card butcher I do miss the days when if I wanted a model of class XYZ I enjoyed making it. Today's models are far better than I could have imagined back in the 1980s when I was told no manufacturer would ever make a BTH or a Baby Deltic.

 

At least there are still some gaps in steam classes and DMUs

 

 

 

As for EMUs

I love that warship i have always been a big fan of your scratch built and kit bashed locos ,their is something quite magic about a scratch built model ,back in the day before they became available rtr models  of things like class 15  16 23 etc were things of wonder to me ,i also did the Monty Wells baby Deltic conversion i remember nearly cutting one of my fingers off doing this conversion !those dmu and emus you are working on are going to be fabulous ,the old art of building stuff yourself seems to be making a comeback with 3D printing ,it might be a while before i go down that road i still enjoy carving and cutting plastic sheet !

[Captain Slough]

@Clive have a look in the "modelling BR Blue" subforum to see my attempted Cl 310 EMU done by similar methods to your models here