Harry Basset

Thanks davidw and Poor Old Bruce, I will check the Fox website, I must have missed that as I have the works plate and name plates from them. I am looking for 1992 condition. 1966 looks far too neglected, look at that sand spilt on the running plate.

My Blue Peter does not have the RA9 marking on its cab sides although Bachmanns original picture showed the cabside with the marking. Does anyone know of a source of route availability number decals?

Alan I've e mailed an ex colleague about that pipe and rod. I suspect the rod is the linkage to operate the cylinder cocks. He has not yet replied I think he may be busy with Tornado at present, he is a travelling representative for 60163. All this debating is making me want to see BP again, a trip to Barrow Hill may be in the offing. Mike

t-b-g I agree with your final paragraph, for the money we have a pretty good Blue Peter from Bachmann. The one thing I can't abide is the wildly inaccurate angle of the slide bars, I am working on my BP to improve this. Regarding your points about boiler access doors, I assume your mention of handles not being in line refers to the bridge pieces visible, these hold the doors to the boiler shell and are not handles so don't need to line up with each other. The holes are positioned to allow water jets and tools the best access to get scale and sediment out of the water spaces. Bachmann have worked with Blue Peter in its present display condition so the holes in the sheet metal cladding may be slightly distorted and may have given Bachmann the wrong impression of their shape, however they are just for a tidy appearance.

Alan I think the rod in the picture of 60528 is to operate the front damper in the ashpan as it is connected to a bellcrank. The pipe was probably a water pipe from a valve in the cab to feed water from an injector into the ashpan to remove ash deposits during disposal. I will try and get confirmation, it's about 15 years since I last drove BP and I can't remember. Mike

Alan Sorry, I finally understand your earlier comments. Bachmann have modelled Blue Peter very much as it looked when finished at Wilton in 1991 and I guess as it looks now while awaiting further restoration and boiler work. I've not actually seen BP since it was last at the NYMR. I am sure it weould have looked very much like it does now when it was withdrawn by BR so I believe Bachmann have done a good job on it and it looks reasonably accurate for 1962. I think this started as a discussion about boiler access doors and Bachmann have got them right. Mike

Alan That door in the picture is not fitted correctly, both feet of the bridge piece should be on the boiler shell. I don't understand your comment about not putting any faith in the preserved Blue Peter. When we overhauled it at ICI Wilton we used all the doors, circular caps and bridge pieces which were originally fitted in BR service. The boiler and indeed all the loco underwent stringent checks while being overhauled and reassembled and certified for main line running. Mike

The Bachmann Blue Peter matches the picture of 60528 very closely. The circular caps cover the doors at the top of the firebox and there are strongback or bridge pieces over the doors halfway down the firebox giving access to the water space. The door at the bottom of the front and back of the foundation ring, not depicted on the model, also have strongback bridges. It seems to have been an LNER idea to have the circular caps for hand hole doors. The NELPG website shows a picture of Blue Peter at ICI Wilton and shows the circular caps at the top of the firebox and the bridge pieces lower down all as faithfully depicted by Bachmann.

Just received my Blue Peter today, number 2001. Full marks to Rails of Sheffield for honouring my original order price. I am quite happy with it except for the incorrect angle of the cylinders and slide bars, has anyone tried to correct this yet? Regarding the mud hole doors, if I remember correctly those near the top of the firebox are known as hand hole doors and those at the bottom are mud hole doors. The actual doors are oval shaped and flanged to fit into corresponding oval holes in the boiler shell, they are secured to the shell by strongback or bridge pieces as shown in the photo of a door ready to be fitted into Canadian Pacific. The hand hole doors on Blue Peter have a circular bridge casting which fills the hole in the cladding and corresponds quite closely to the effect depicted by Bachmann. The oval doors have a threaded stud and are are drawn tight against the boiler shell by tightening a nut on the stud against the bridge piece. This stud may be drilled and tapped so a tool can be inserted to avoid the door being dropped through the hole while being fitted.

A very interesting photo. It shows the second regulator handle fitted on the firemans side.

I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of Blue Peter. The regulator rodding was green when ex Wilton in 1990 and running in on the NYMR.

During its overhaul at Wilton Blue Peter was painted by Len Clarke who was meticulous in his attention to detail. I believe that as rolled out Blue Peter conformed to the official BR painting scheme.

Having the cab riding lower than the tender is not uncommon with an A2. There are several shots of Blue Peter on the NELPG website taken at ICI Wilton, on the NYMR and on the mainline. In each shot the cab floor is lower than the tender. During the final exam before being granted its mainline certificate Blue Peter was put on the weighing gear at Derby works, this equipment was so sensitive that it registered movement of one person moving about on the footplate. It proved impossible to get the weights adjusted exactly to the diagram so the loco ran with a slightly lower back end, there is a prototype for everything. I am looking forward to receiving my Bachmann Blue Peter.

The electric lights never seemed to be used very much. During daylight hours discs or oil lamps were still needed to show the class of train as the small electric lights did not show up very well. In the nineties K1 62005 and A2 60532 had fully functioning generators and lighting, in addition to white and red some lights had a blue setting which we were lead to believe was to be used instead of white during air raids.