Andy7

Laughing out loud. Indeed I’m thinking I may have pipped them by some margin.

The 69 is finished, hurrah (just a tiny amount of weathering powder to go on the exhaust silencer. Very pleased with the result, the chassis needed as many modifications as the body. All chassis bits were bespoke made and I added buffers and pipes off Hattons 66’s which come with the required spares in the box. So Hornby 56 body with Bachmann 66 roof centre and Hattons 66 bits. Will be getting a run out of Badgers Cross layout next Monday and Tuesday. Video will be only YouTube later in the week. Its not a perfect copy but it is rather close. Some compromises have had to be made including the lights. Still looks the part and the lights still work as per Hornby 56. Let me know your thoughts.

Couple of pics. 69002 body is almost complete, transfer done, glazing and cabs refitted, drivers fitted etc. Just got to modify a chassis (on-going). I have fiddled with my FREIGHTLINER 08, new DCC chip fitted with stat alive, cab light added and pair of drivers in the cab. I have also purchased a steamer (well 2 actually). A Hornby black 5 with DCC sound (very good on a V5 decoder), smoke box flicker tied into shovelling sounds, front lights and a seuthe smoke unit. All in its excellent and at a very good price. It did have 2 downsides, horrendous weathering (factory I think) and the boiler details were different to ones that run on the mainline. Cue Hornby black 5 number 2! Correct boiler and unweathered. So I have essentially swapped the good stuff onto the new loco. Not that easy though, one was a Factory DCC sound the other DCC ready, very different internal setups. So swapped body for new one and had to modify as per the first one to take all the gubbins in the right places, had to swap all the wheel sets over as well then swap tender body and wheels onto original chassis. All very confusing and rather daunting but now complete. Next I had to paint various bits to blend the 2 projects into completed models. Also now have a functioning but not required black 5 to put on eBay. Will add steamer pics tomorrow when real coal load added to tender and 3 man crew painted and added. Also completed another 3 WCRC Pullman liveried 57601 locos (one for myself). 2 to sell on, I have now completed 6 of these. So much more in the pipeline.

Just a couple of pics of 56090 at home on the layout with the Prestwick tanks. Looks fab and glad I did myself a new Colas 56 as the old ones didn’t quite hit the spot. Going to do a partner for it at some point. Next update will be along soon.

The 69 is now fully painted (I have also nearly completed the transfers). Completed shell pictures tomorrow. Then I will start to modify the chassis.

The GBRF 50’s head uphill just before Grampound Road heading south. Sounding and looking fantastic.

You can definitely get some second hand. In the box you get an extra set if bufferbeams complete with buffers (every loco comes like this). I would offer some myself but use the buffers on various other projects so have no spare. Hopefully someone may be able to help.

Some better pics of Colas 56090. Looks the business and is fitted with Legomanbiffo Loksound V5 sound file. I have also started painting the class 69! Hopefully have all the colours on by the end of the weekend.

As always a shed loads of work going on. I have finally finished the Colas 56 and EMR purple HST power car as seen below. I will update more later in the week but just letting you know I’m still busy plugging away.

Absolutely agreed on the Bachmann 166. I painted one in GWR and it was a torturous job. Looked good when done though. Keep up the great work Jerry.

Great work Jerry. Question about the transfers for 43102 (Intercity): Where did you get them from? Thanks Andy

I forgot to say, my journey was Truro to Stockport. My family all still live round there. Small world hey, keep the pics coming.

Absolutely cracking job so far. Really good stock to run and plenty of it. I grew up in Cornwall and we always travelled up to Manchester on the train so Exeter was a regular pass through. Looking forward to more progress.

I have some of these (yet to use them but they look great). Andy

Excellent, thank you. I see the Colas one joining my fleet.

I will be interested to see how fast (slow) these fans are going to spin. If they go too quick it will look like a disc (stroboscopic effect) thus making it pointless, not moaning just pointing out a fact. Still no mention of independent lighting functionality which is much more important than rotating fans.

I will say that the Mk4 was still a much better car than any competitor offered at the time and it is still a VW so that will explain the numbers remaining. It also had some decent engines (PD and arguably the 1.8t). For me out of all the Mk2’s I have had (9 of), a Bora TDi and a Passat TDi, the Mk4 Golf was a very much low point. I always thought the Mk5 was nice and can see that being a classic down the line.

Absolutely don’t agree with the Mk4 Golf reaching classic status, it never will. Average looking at best and a huge down step (yes it had all the modern safely features but design and performance were a let down) from a Mk2 Golf (pinnacle Golf model for me). The Mk3 was always a bit of a damp squib (it followed the Mk2 after all) but the Mk4 made it look good and ironically now the Mk3 will probably become a classic (certainly more about it than the Mk4). BTW I have only had German cars for the last 17 years and the Mk4 Golf (V6 4motion) was the only one I haven’t really enjoyed owning. Poor build quality with all the VW intrinsic issues built in. In fact it had so many faults even with only 63,000 miles on the clock and a decent spec, I got rid and was pleased to see it go. In the future only R32 and some Anniversary (Diesel and Petrol) will be left, the 2.0 (GTi) with 115 bhp will be but a memory (bad one).

If Accurascale move at medium pace and produce their own 59, you should still beat Dapol to deliver the goods! Only funny because it’s true. I’m looking forward to the CDA’s Fran.

Recently returned from a trip to Kenya and took these pics of a Martial Eagle that had caught a guinea fowl and was not about to move off it, this allowed us to drive very close to this stunning predator and I took the below pics.

Great announcement and will be following with interest to see what modern liveries appear. Have you anymore info on the lighting setup these will have?

Had a 1991 Mk3 fiesta 1.6 s (90 bhp) as my first car in 1999. It was pretty decent but had already been repaired on the rear arches by that point (8 years old). Sold to my brothers mate who wrote it off within 2 weeks of having it.

Mini update with more to come. I have sold my Colas 56’s and started to redo a pair to my new higher standards. Settled on 56090 as one of them which brings an interesting exhaust arrangement. 2 of the 4 exhaust ports are longitudinal and the other 2 are laterally positioned. See the picture below. Does anyone know why they are like this on 56090? (there may be others but not looked into it). Obviously I have copied the real loco and I’m super pleased with the look. Anyway painting has started as can be seen in the other picture. Will get the orange on tonight.

Another mini update with a project I started on Friday. When I saw the purple EMR HST Power car 43274 running with Intercity Swallow 43102 I had to model them. I had already bought appropriate coaches for use on my ROG scrap run train so now these will be transferred up with the intercity logos. So far I have 43274 fully painted and varnished with detailed chassis. I need to fit a driver, cant rail stripes and then when decals become available I will complete it. In the meantime I will start on 43102. Before anyone says it, the lights are wrong (4 versus 6 in reality) but this is the best currently available. Can’t wait until the full train is complete. Just a couple of pics for now.

Indeed and it looks very nice. The question is do I wait and see what other liveries appear or do I paint now? I might wait out a bit as I think 69001 is off to the paint shop very soon.