Caledonian

Thank you gents, both, your comments provided the necessary clues which led to this: In 1950 the Salt and Alkali Company combined with other companies to form Amasol Ltd., which in turn was taken over in 1959 to become part of the British Soda Company. Amasol produced the popular “Shaka” Table Salt.

Straightforward question but the answer is seemingly unknown to Google Can anybody advise as to the actual dating of the Shaka Salt livery? Yes, I know the Bachmann model has the wording Non-Pool which suggests a comparatively late date for that particular livery, but that label aside how far back does the base livery go? 1920s or pre-grouping?

The OP wasn't, but he isn't the only one enjoying this thread

I have a recollection of an article in Model Rail. I'll have a look

If you don't have a copy of Sawford, City of Aberdeen [which is preserved at Tanfield] has an identical cab to the Dalmore one, with the exception of square spectacle plates like the exhibition model

Can I suggest a Black Hawthorn? Apart from the dome it looks uncommonly like City of Aberdeen, their 912 of 1887. There's an unfrocked photie in Eric Sawford's The Last Days of Industrial Steam p128 Or better still, try this one: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/2/2c/Im1887v64-p6.jpg

Given the heavy weathering evident on the loco the sign above and to the right is a touch ironic

Ah, it looks very nice but who took that photie and when? Coat, hat...

Its got a new handle, its got a new head, but its still the real old original axe

I'm assuming the first one is a Bachman Collectors club one, which duplicates a Hornby offering from a few years back - I have a rake of the latter with Bachmann small couplings. I can recall some discussion a few years back on these very pages in which someone commented that the livery was correct and flashed a [black and white] photie to prove it. Although I've not seen it in the flesh a Google search also turns up the double M and broad arrow on a Bachmann tank wagon of recent vintage although its a much prettier colour.

With respect, that proves nothing. We know for example that in the 1900s North Eastern Railway locomotives were turned out in either lined green or in black, but that didn't prevent photographic grey being used for official photies - a good current example being the reference used by Bachmann for the new E1/J72

If Dodo is an indication of where 560 is going I'd say that any debate over its original colour under that superb weathering is pretty academic

Whilst I agree as to the ambiguity over the real colour on the original photie, what tilts me towards the photographic grey is the presence in large numerals of the works number, and the Peckett legend along the running plate. Don't get me wrong, I do find this an attractive locomotive and if one should perchance fall into my hands I will leave it exactly as it is

True, but I rather like the sight of an L&Y puggie hauling ironstone tipplers bigger than it is. I agree that 560 looks splendid and would venture to say superior to the H&P one if only because more versatile than a biscuit. I still can't help feel though that the original wasn't green but photographic grey.

We've had them on the Tyne and Wear Metro since it opened in 1980, They come in two forms - something similar in concept though not appearance to that shown, and in addition a big red button in the Section 12 stations.

True, but I was talking about the paintwork or rather lack of it. I think that the important point here is that the wagons do appear to be properly maintained. Repairs are being carried out but they aren't being painted, or rather their original livery isn't being restored, A question then arising concerns the two weathered salt wagons currently offered by Bachmann. Once again they display raw replacement planking, but both are clearly identified as Non-Pool and presumably have a home to go to. Are these fictitious renderings or do they reflect a post-war shortage of paint?

I do have to say that this lot look very Bachmann-like

Yes indeed. My late father had his name down for the Navy as an engine room artificer and the promise of P.O. rank as his call up was [slightly] deferred until he'd completed his engineering apprenticeship. Instead he went down the pit at Valleyfield in Fife, but was still registered as belonging to the Navy and perhaps apocryphally he used to tell how he noticed how at the war's end a lot of his fellow conscripts were being discharged ahead on him. When he enquired at the office, the manager looked at his file and fell about laughing because it turned out that a certain percentage of naval conscripts were being temporarily retained for minesweeping duties

School is not something that occurred to me, but I'll confess that I was looking forward to an interesting back-story

I'll go with what Dougie said - and the term is still in use

Hmmm... prefer the Mk.1 it has bags of character, while this one may be more conventional its just a shed

Thank you both. I'm actually assembling a small collection of early 1970s stock, inspired by Longcarse West and by Ben Alder's photies of Aberdeen Ferryhill. Its primarily going to be hauled by a couple of 350hp shunters and a Class 26 in early TOPS, but as most of it comprises vanfits, steel highs and suchlike I was wondering about the practicalities of occasionally backdating it.

I'm almost embarrassed to ask such an obvious question, but when were PCA cement tanks introduced - are they compatible with the last days of steam?

This, I'll cheerfully admit is an idle question. On the prototype questions sub-forum somebody asked what a Bachman one-plank wagon lettered to Morris & Griffin of Newport was actually used for. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/137054-pre-group-wagon-loads-for-single-plank-wagons/page-1 After much rummaging around, the said Morris & Griffin were found to the the proprietors of the Usk Chemical Works: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.5817&lon=-2.9809&layers=168&b=1 As you can see there's a fair amount of railway track in and attaching to the works, which strongly suggests that not only did they have at least one wagon but they must also have had a works loco [or two] to shunt it. A Peckett would seem the obvious, although Avonside is also a possibility, if only because of the proximity to Bristol. Anybody able to identify it [or them] ?

There was a similar bank at Polkemmet. Regularly tackled by double heading of Barclays; no more than six 16T fulls - and taking a run at the bank.