Wild Boar Fell

Looking forward to the new Mk4s, typically I have my ones nearly ready for painting. Will be interesting to see if the tooling allows for any differences on the welsh ones, the TOE having the most obvious difference on the outer end. Admitted the intermediate coaches you'd have to know where to look to see the differences (loss of the end baffles on one side only).

The odd thing being that they could do a much closer representation of a RLO using there Mk2F tooling but haven't. 1/2 of the RLOs have smooth sides like a RFB but the other half just have the windows blanked.

Certainly is WBQ, I've got to build that in OO at some point soon. The that span is the old Crosfield siding, it's a different span as far as I can tell and no longer used as far as I know.

No train, but a railway photo. The CLC in the snow at Woolston. 28th December 2020. Rather fitting I thought. Happy New Year, Wild Boar Fell

We used up our yearly allocation already?

Hopefully I'll post a summary in the next few days, but just wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful 2021. Matthew

One will be, Test Car 2 will be in the Serco red and grey colours that it carried until the impressive restoration by the Quorn Wagon Group last year (?). My understanding is that TC2 regularly came upto Bank Quay when undertaking slip testing. The dual era build will be of Test Car 3 MENTOR (Mobile Electrical Network Testing, Observation & Recording), mainly because I've seen it in the yard plenty of times and it looks an interesting (read difficult) challenge. My MENTOR will go into Railtrack yellow as Railtec fortunately do transfers for this livery.

Looks like Bank Quay's fleet of Test Cars is set to increase with the latest 2 donor vehicles. One will be a simultaneous build with DCP who will also be building its current form. The other was a regular visitor to Bank Quay. The question is, which are they?

I wouldn't worry if that was the case, we'd get free updates every few days, although we would get progressively slower with each new version...

As mentioned, some work has also been going on with the HST fleet, to try and give a bit of variety a few have been renumbered/ re-named. To give the impression of a bigger fleet, 3 power cars have different identities on each side. There were chosen to be a mix of named and unnamed examples. They have all been given a light weathering, as the photos from the era mostly showed these to be relatively clean. 43155 City of Aberdeen has been given the earlier XC branding, based on a photo of the prototype at WBQ on Flickr. All others have the more familiar revised livery. Namers are: 43153 The English Riviera 43155 City of Aberdeen 43180 City of Newcastle Upon Tyne 43196 The Newspaper Society Founded 1836 (As per the Hornby release but with Fox plates added) 43080 shown previously (Very old photo) is being converted into a buffer fitted power car, but needs the extra van area windows adding. Can't imagine I'll be seeing many more passenger HSTs on my way into work when normality returns, although looks like there will still be a few VP185s keeping the 37s and MTUs company for the yellow fleet. Wild Boar Fell

Thanks folks, yes the triple grey is definitely growing on me as one of my favourites. Still think EWS is my favourite on a 37, probably from seeing them a Fort William on holiday many moons ago. Hoping I haven't mucked these up as badly as the Dyson that is now in need of a repaint. Some more 37s to show. 689 needs its glazing, 046 needs the headlamp drilling out and 429 needs some lamp irons. I'll show the HSTs at some point honest! Wild Boar Fell

I hope everyone is doing well. A little bit of progress on the 37 front, 37896 has now been virtually completed with the numbers added along with the glazing. The loco has also now been mounted on a DRS 37/4 chassis and then weathered based on photos. My Bachmann 37706 'Conidea' has now been renumbered, I had found 706 was in EW&S colours during the era of WBQ so a suitable alternative had to be found. Therefore petroleum sector emblems were replaced with the Mainline logo and the loco became 37709. This one seems to have lasted a bit longer in service than some of the others, seeing out its days as a sandite loco. Not one to normally attempt weathering locos myself, this was a bit of a leap of faith using Revell powders and the new Humbrol washes. I am however reasonably pleased with the results, although they are no James Makin standard by any means. I do at some point want to add the rust spots to 709 where the double arrows and depot plate previously were. Hopefully some photos of slightly cleaner HSTs to follow... Wild Boar Fell

Various bits of progress on a few projects, most of the resprays are nearing completion with them at the transfers stage. The two 37s are pretty much done other than the numbers of 896 and the orange on the nose of 698. The Virgin 47 has now become 47817 rather than 844 as I fancied one with a name, and plates don't come much bigger... Currently one side is done, but the stripes have disintegrated on the carrier paper so the side shown was applied in about 7 pieces. This loco has also had one end 'Crewe Cut', with the other cab still to do. Being of an electrical bias, I'm hoping I do t get kicked out for naming after our clanky counterpart :p . My favourite of the two 47s has got to be 476, this is now complete other than numbers. As per 817, the plates are from Fox. To me the livery is simple but smart, possible even smarter than RES. The Class 60 is also progressing with numbers and TOPS panels added. I need to work out where all the tiny marking go at solebar level. As per the prototype one 0 is missing from the number and a section of the construction sector logo remains on the roof. Another minor project has been to remember one of the DVTs, this has now become 82127 on one side, with the 'Flying Lady' logo. It carried the latter until at least 2001, after it had lost the Abraham Darby name and vinyls. The idea being it will add a little variation to the fleet and represent the earlier end of the layouts timespan. It will only be visible however went the DVT is on the northend of a rake. Happy Modelling, Wild Boar Fell

Hi RP, the 37 is a previous generation Bachmann 37/4 (37431), I had originally intended to put it into DRS Compass, back when that was the new and shiny livery. Issues with spraying at the time meant I shelved the project. During the lockdown I dug it out and decided to put it in something more appropriate for my current modelling era. The RCH covers and plugs were cut on the cameo cutter and the transfers are Railtec. The chassis still needs rebuilding as it's currently got no buffers. I do want to do another at some point, possible as 612 or 608. If modelling them, just be aware that the position of the branding varies in the vertical between locos.

Yes, AAR is also a 27 way, presumably a similar arrangement of pure through wiring is used on the RHTT. Therefore any two compatible vehicles to work together on them

There seems to be the odd rumour about the power cars being modified to work with 'Blue Star', to me that seems unlikely but happy to be proven wrong. Certainly the way I would approach the HST haulage would be to have an adapter jumper between the power cars and the 27-way on the 'yellow fleet', taking the critical signals between power cars. Any traction interlock would likely be within the 27-way and therefore could be interfaced with the 43s. I note the formation includes one of the genvans, therefore removing the headache of interfacing the HST's ETS with that of conventional stock. Therefore not actually having to 'Blue Star' the power cars. I doubt we're going to see RTOVs or 37s multi-working with the power cars, although I do think that'd make an interesting challenge.

Thanks SG, for my conversions other than remove the hopper, I cut the chutes off the body and reattached these to the chassis as they are retained on the prototype. This also features the coupler mounts so is useful to keep. The flat top is slightly recessed according to the photos. Other than that, a bit of warning panel yellow and some OHLE flashes (at least one got EWS red). Hope this helps.

Continuing with the resprays, 37698 and 37896 have progressed to the transfer stage with one size of each nearly finished. The loadhaul orange still needs adding onto 698s noses. Transfers are from Railtec, still need to get some numbers ordered for 896. A further 37 has gone into EWS red & gold but is only good enough to be a practise body as it covers a failed attempt to put it into DRS Compass. Next in the queue is 60021 Pen Y-Ghent, in unbranded sector livery, this needs the detail and black window surrounds painting. This loco was repainted from a poor QC EWS 60048, the chassis of which is under 'Teenage Spirit'. Not overly happy with the yellow ends which are a bit heavy combined with existing glue marks underneath lose most of the detail. Accompanying this are two 47/4s, set to become 47476 Night Mail in parcels livery and 47844 in Virgin, both locos were chosen because they suited the Spanner Mk3 boilered bodyshells I had. With a spare 56 chassis in need of a body (it currently has a colas body for use on Arley Dale), I quite like the idea of a Dutch with Transrail 56. Time to start looking for something appropriate to start with. One day I will get back to working on the layout, honest.

With 37s being the focus of my attention recently, I thought I'd pose a few on the layout with a few of the other lockdown projects. I don't think I'd previously mentioned the Flask Barriers, these being coverted Bachmann CEAs. Makes a nice little project if anyone's looking for a simple modifying project.

Managed a little more painting over the weekend, still a long way to go and a fair bit to make neater.

Not managed to get any modelling done since the previous update, until this weekend. Still trying to get my head around respraying. This time mainly using acrylics as they were easier to get hold of. Currently using water instead of acrylic thinners so might amend this soon. Decided to go for a few 'simple' liveries for practise... oh no wait.. Loadhaul, Transrail and EWS. A little bit of creepage around the masking tape but hopefully nothing too difficult to correct, fairly chuffed especially with the Loadhaul so far. Both the 37s are being converted from /9s as this was what I could get hold of as spares. The next exhausts are going to be made on the roof, hence why these haven't been painted yet. The Loadhaul loco is set to become 37698 with the EWS doors on each side. (Flickr link, embedded) The Transrail loco will be 37896. (Flickr link, embedded) The details won't be a perfect match, but close enough for me for now (they'll only be getting chassis if i'm happy with them). Happy Modelling, Wild Boar Fell

Thank for the kind comments, also thanks SynodicSpectre that's very kind of you cheers. Croydon Junction, I managed to see bits of a 730 up close earlier in the year (Cab No.1 or Cab No.2) on the production line and very smart they looked indeed. Not seen any outside for a while, think it was mostly 702s out there last time. Must admit my favourite styling of any of the new builds are the Flirts, something a bit APT ish about them.

It appears that there are now two Mk3 DVTs and at least one ex Anglia Mk3 on the GCR, One of the DVTs being the AAR compatible 82306. Anyone know why they have appeared there please, hazarding a guess testing rather than preservation? Kind Regards, Wild Boar Fell

Can't see the 69s being used for sleeper work, as far as I am aware there is no ETS on a 56 and certainly not on a 66. As far as a model is concerned, you'd be into at least tooling up a new body (the roof is noticeably different), the amount of visible changes to the underside remain to be seen.

Like Electras but don't want to put up catenary? Like HSTs but bought the wrong Mk3s? Want a way to combine your interests? Look no further... (Not my photo, link to Flickr) Wild Boar Fell