Caledonian

What Paul said. The MSC version from the original release is a good example with an original but altered dome with Ross pop valves, but they haven't re-used that particular tooling. The flat-domed versions with Ross pop-valves are fairly common though. The all-black Lilleshall one would be particularly good for a late scenario.

The photies are ample testimony to this. The earlier ones were obviously taken within a day, if not hours, of coming out of the paint shop, while the last one looks a lot more "convincing" and both models as offered will clearly benefit from weathering. I don't know how long the van had air conditioning, but it certainly appears in a lot of photies.

Speaking of The Bear, does anyone know whether the blue livery is original to Colville's/Beardmore's at Mossend, or whether it comes from the 1942 rebuild by Barclays ?

And that is exactly the point about these coaches. You might be inclined to complain that Hornby didn't take the opportunity to produce a super-detailed LBSCR range to hang behind a Terrier, but for the rest of us mere mortals wanting to run something akin to the North British or the Caledonian they are an enormous improvement on those "horrible old 4-wheelers" and Triang clerestories which are all we've been offered in the past.

Me too, which makes me very happy, but it suggests that Hattons are scrambling to get enough stock to honour the pre-orders with nothing left over for general stock

I posted yesterday on the 4-6 wheel coaches on that thread. As first advertised on Hattons website, they were all due out January/February, so I immediately pre-ordered two NBR ones. The other week I was advised that the 6 wheel brake was ready, so promptly paid up and received it as quickly and as efficiently as ever. There was no word at all however of the 6-wheel compo and when I looked again at the catalogue, estimated delivery dates for all of them had shifted in some cases to December-January. Then this very day I had a notification that the 6-wheel compo is ready to go. I really can't complain, both pre-ordered items have become available at the predicted time, but it really does look as though there are problems with stock coming in from Hornby.

Most kind, Sir. Order placed

Back when the happy news broke I pre-ordered a 6 wheel unclassified brake and 6 wheel 3rd in North British livery from Hattons. Delivery at that time was predicted as January/February. The other week I was duly notified that if I electronically crossed their palms with silver, the 6 wheel brake would be despatched to me. I did, it was, and I'm perfectly happy with it, but there was no word of the 6 wheel 3rd. However, according to Hatton's website : The NBR 6 wheelers are not now due until December 2021- February 2022 and the 4 wheelers have vanished GWR coaches are also due December 21-Feb 22 LSWR coaches are due March-May 2021 LBSCR the full brake is still listed as due January-February, but everything else has been put back to December 21-February 22 LNWR stock is now due June-August 2021 Southern 6 wheelers are likewise due June-August 2021 but there's a 4 wheelbrake due March-May Now this is only Hattons, but it suggests that only limited stocks were initially released to the retailers and if not snapped up right away there may be a bit of a wait before more appear. Anybody know anyone who still has NBR coaches in stock ?

Back in the day it was one of my jobs to administer lineside allotments. Sheds were forbidden - so were children and other livestock. They also fell into two officially designated categories. Allotments could be quite large and weren't that common. Most were actually designated as lineside gardens and were directly accessed from adjacent properties, usually the bottom of a regular garden, and weren't fenced off. The basic principle was that they were occupied at the pleasure of the District Engineer and he had to be satisfied that they weren't going to interfere with sighting and access.

Looks splendid. Are you going to ruin the effect by adding the copper, it rarely seems to be visible in photies of the originals ?

Another wizard wheeze might be to run the coach behind something which doesn't affect it, Then run the Dukedog on a parallel track and see what happens when they pass.

Love the robotic pole planter

From the point of view of the LBSC and its successors that lack of total fidelity is obviously going to be disappointing, but that particular market is so very much smaller than the one Hornby is aiming for. At the most basic level I have no interest at all in purchasing LBSC/Southern/British Railways[Southern] coaches, but I have been tempted by the NBR ones, notwithstanding the limitations

It'll be interesting to see how all of this pans out, because we have an unusual situation here. Ordinarily, in consultation with the marketing people, a manufacturer will anticipate the demand fairly accurately and produce a certain number of say Stanier coaches in LMS livery and probably rather more in BR livery, and so away we go. Here on the other hand we have a product range, which is first split between four wheel and six wheel coaches and then between those with and without lights. Then we have an unprecedented variety of liveries. Most of these liveries are going to be relatively niche and nearly all of them unpredictable insofar as there's little or no reliable information on the market. Judging by the comments on this thread, coaches to hang on the back of a Terrier will be popular, the NBR ones I have on pre-order, probably much less so. In time [next year and beyond] Hornby will have a much better idea of what people want, but in this first release I suspect that the quantities of each livery released could be quite small

No, its not a Diagram 45 Caledonian brake, and the Bachmann five-plank next door isn't a real Caley wagon, but they both resemble the prototype well enough for me to run a convincing Caledonian layout until I find the patience and develop the skill to gradually replace them with better ones. Similarly, I'm aware of the "shortcomings" of the generic Hornby NBR six wheelers but they will do fine until and unless something better comes along and in the meantime are infinitely better than sitting in an armchair running layouts in my head

I will cheerfully confess that I have taken one of the new Hornby LSWR brakes and repainted and lettered it as a Caledonian Railway Diagram 45 brake. The side windows had to go and there are other minor imperfections but apart from the fact that its overscale by a couple of millimetres its a very easy bodge.

There's a splendidly detailed photie of a stripped down 474356 at St. Rollox in British Railways Illustrated Vol.18 No.1 [October 2008] Don't know about brackets, but the sort of detail "revealed" by removing the tanks includes the settling pipe, under the boiler level with the dome, the reversing lever [on the right side] and what I take to be a sandbox lever One other essential detail if the tank is coming off is a Do Not Move sign

That's the second one of my three.

Four of these locos were loaned to the Highland in 1918, of which I've managed to locate photies of three, but none of them are very helpful anent livery. One, at Fortrose Station is a head-on shot largely taken up with the crew and station staff artfully posed to hide anything of interest. Another, in O.S. Nock's book on the Highland is better and appears to show a fairly dark livery with a broad dark vertical band on the forward corner of the cab side-sheet. There may be a thin lighter line on the outside. Its possible that there may be a number on the bunker, but given the quality of the print it may be wishful thinking. There's certainly no other numbers or lettering visible and the buffer-beam is quite plain. The third, in Lambert's Highland Railway Album, taken in bright sunshine is quite clear, but unfortunately some clown has inconsiderately parked a Cummings Goods in front of it, so that all that can be seen is the cab and forward side-sheet. The overall impression is that its fairly light in colour, although that may just be the sunny day but there's certainly no lining of any kind, lettering or numbers. Can anyone who knows anything about LSWR liveries and any late wartime economies, know what we may have here ?

Why ? To make me happy of course

One can but hope...

Ah but then we get back to the whole problem with pre-grouping modelling. Post-1922 up to the introduction of the Standards there are 4 different railways to worry about and forums like this one will see complaints that the Southern [and its BR successor] is dominating the releases or that there's nothing this year for the GWR, but its still cohesive enough to offer comprehensive ranges which people will buy. Take it back to myriad railways the Great War and beyond and it gets very difficult. Much as I would love to have accurate models of the real thing, I'm all too aware that "real" NBR coaches are not a commercial proposition, so I will very cheerfully settle for these generic ones in the right livery

The paintwork might be similar in fog or falling snow, but the crests and lettering won't be. Its a bit like suggesting passing off Southern coaches as Highland Railway ones. I dare say it can be done with a bit of application and the right transfers, but my point is that the Hornby NBR coaches are promised for later on this month, while Hattons' take on pre-grouping Scottish coaches is going to be a couple of years away, so there's no contest and no need for angst over the issue of whether Hornby are muscling in on Hattons idea, which is why I've already gone and pre-ordered the Hornby ones from Hattons

Hattons are not [currently] offering NBR coaches and the Caley livery is forecast for phase 3 some years hence, so as far as I'm concerned the Hornby model in March will do me nicely to hang on the back of Maude - ok its in goods livery, but unless Hornby plan to be sensible and produce a new-tooling Class D [or J83 post grouping] it'll have to do - nicely

While the story is quite fascinating it turns out that just about everything running there was LMS stuff. The livery was the same and the only appreciable difference was that the 1Fs had second-hand Westinghouse pumps, which would make an interesting model in itself and probably upset some people, but I decided the overall picture wasn't going to be distinctive enough. It might well still happen, I still have the 1Fs and some stock to haul, but not yet.