217 RIVER FLESK

Was just wondering, the blue Hornby King (R3370) , is that meant to be the early 'light' blue or the slightly later 'darker' blue? Cheers, Mike C

Must admit that I was surprised by the amount of 'backlash' through the gear train - not a criticism you understand though. Lovely model, just a shame that some of the pipework round the air pump fell off in transit - still looking for my tweezers in order to refit bits. Also did note that one of the fine wire handles on the tank fillers had been badly bent - the down side of trying to incorporate such detail in to a model.

Totally agree adb968008 with your comments about not having the '1960s' appeal, but for anyone having been to a preserved line where one is running, I bet the S160 is the one loco that sticks in the mind (of 'normals') due to that whistle. Lets not also forget that soon so many of the preserved steam fleet in general will have been preserved for far longer than they were ever owned by the big railway, so in time more people will remember any loco as a preserved item as apposed to being 'real'. & didn't the LMR have one for a while after the war? They are an odd ball, but I still feel that they'd sell better than you'd think as there plenty of people out there who buy x, y & z just because they like it. As I said, I'd buy one in OO, but I'll pass on the HO version. Cheers, Mike C

Must admit I keep wondering how long before someone jumps in & does a OO S160 - there's no way that I could justify one on the Western Region in 1960, but that wouldn't stop me buying one as they are stuffed full of character - I've never seen anything as big as a 2-8-0 rocking from side to side as the one at Merehead Quarry a few years back when it was trying to haul the train of loaded stone wagons & as to the exhaust . . . So come on Dave, how about giving it some thought? Cheers, Mike C

Trouble is 31285 currently has a shifted tyre, so you can only model it dumped at Exeter . . .

Hi Paul, It was actually your website that I used for reference - that's one heck of a resource you've built up - thanks Cheers, Mike C

I purchased the Bachmann 3 wagon set & on the strength of that also went a head & purchased the TMC 6 wagon set. On closer inspection I noticed that if you look at the wagons with the end discharge door positioned to the right, on the Bachmann 3 wagon set you can't see the brake rigging (as it's on the far side of the wagon), but on the TMC 6 wagon set you can see the brake rigging. From a quick search of the net for pics of 16 ton mineral wagons, it would appear that the 3 wagon set have been assembled correctly, but the TMC set have had their tops put on the wrong way round ie turned through 180 degrees. Can anyone confirm that I'm right before I go & alter the 6 TMC wagons? Cheers, Mike C

Hi Arran, When you say more 20ft & 40ft Bells are being done, are they re-runs of the previous items or will they be carrying different fleet numbers etc? Cheers, Mike Collins

Mine's the same, but daft question are they meant to have red tail lights or just front white marker lights? As to the front marker lights being rarely used, I only knew Cromptons from the late '70s onwards & I certainly never saw them in use but by then I seam to recall that some locos had already lost one or even both due to body repairs. However as mine is D6507 in green, I'm happy that mine do work. Other than that, as you say, an absolute cracker of a model - the weight of some of the models these days almost frightens me when I pic them up. Love the hollow exhaust silencer box that you can actually look down inside. Have to say I find the side radiator grille a lot better than it appears in some of the really up close pics - but should it be a dull silver in colour - surely it should be loco green like the rest of the body side? When first run, there sounded to be a hint of a rub in one direction, but this is now fast disappearing. One well happy bunny Cheers, Mike C

Ye mine's 'on shed' too - dull (in all over green with no yellow panel to liven things up) & ugly - just like the real thing - well done again Dapol Dave Cheers, Mike C

So DapolDave, Is it too early to ask for a preliminary date for when the disc fitted 22s might be hitting the shelves? Is all the CAD work now finished? Cheers, Mike C

Anyone know where push-pull set 600, come to that set 610 as well, spent most of their working lives? South Western section by any chance? Cheers, Mike C

Hi Dave, Finally got round to having a look at a few more pics & comparing them with your CAD image, can I make the following comments: 1) You show the clip that holds open the top centre disc at '4:30', where as the pics that I've come across seem to show the clip at '3:00' http://railway-photography.smugmug.com/Class21-28/Class-22/16807189_jqZ55W#!i=1340678249&k=DhBPTz5&lb=1&s=A 2) I guess this really does fall under 'rivet counting', but there appears to be a rivet head located above each of the oblong horn(?) grilles, whilst fine, as the rivets on the window frames are replicated, is there any reason why these can't be included? 3) How will the models arrive in their boxes? I'm assuming that they'll arrive without any discs fitted & then it will be down to the end user to either fit 'open' or 'closed' discs? What detail if any will be represented behibnd the discs, as sometimes the top centre disc was folded over to the right & not the left as one would have expected. http://www.railblue.com/pages/In%20Depth/class_22_header.htm (See pics of D6319 & D6309) 4) Finally will the discs be illuminated & if so, how? Will all be lit when the model travels forward & only if an 'open' disc with a hole is fitted will any light be able to be viewed through the open hole? 5) Still don't think that the red tail light looks quite right yet - still requires stretching in the vertical direction?? Cheers, from what must seem a very picky Mike C

Hi Dave, Just looking at a pic of D6313 http://railway-photography.smugmug.com/Class21-28/Class-22/16807189_jqZ55W#!i=1340678249&k=DhBPTz5&lb=1&s=A The lamp brackets on the CAD image left & right appear to be awfully close to the edge of the front compared with those on D6313. Also what about the red electric tail light low down on the doors, the pic appears to show the outer housing for the light being slightly oval as opposed to the CAD drawing being circular. Cheers, Mike C

Hi Dapol Dave, Many thanks for your prompt responce. I can see where you are coming from about wanting to have a wide number spread across the class, but my own personal preferance would be to go for disc locos with the 'eyebrows' - far easier for people to remove the 'eyebrows' at home than to add them, should they want to create a particular loco. If it's too late to incorperate them in to this front version, might we see a version at some point in the future with 'eyebrows' with a third front style? To me the 'eyebrows' give the locos a feel of being an early design i.e., not as neet & tidy as some of the later classes - plus they would match the D600s. Anyone else out there with a preferance for / against 'eyebrows'? Cheers, Mike C

A question Dapol Dave, if you initially go down the road of producing the disc front without the 'eyebrows', is there any likelyhood in the foreseeable future that a disc front with 'eyebrows' might be produced? Are there any plans ever to produce a version with the 'eyebrows'? Cheers, Mike C

Thanks Nick. I'd trawled all the way through the postings in this thread, but had missed the other thread - still a new boy on here stumbling around in the dark! Cheers, Mike C

I too was wondering about the small round openings above the headcode boxes - are they really openings for the horns? Just seams strange that Dapol appear to have made a small protrusion on I assume the cab glazing unit (I haven't dismantled the loco yet, so could be wrong) with the intension of these openings being treated as lights. Cheers, Mike C