locoholic

From Peter Cooper's book on the Maunsell S15s, there is only one flush-sided 8 wheel tender left, which came from Barry with 841, and is now behind 825. The 6 wheel tender that was with 847 in Barry was sold separately to go with a mogul. I bought the Hornby model of 30843 today. It's a lovely model, which will look even better when I get around to weathering it. However, I do wonder whether, if it had been painted green, I would have been able to tell it apart from a King Arthur. (It was the same when I saw Tornado and Blue Peter together at Barrow Hill.)

I can't say I'm at all worried about how model companies announce their products. I'm just happy that such lovely models as (say) the Heljan Metropolitan electric locos or the Hornby D16 have been manufactured, and there are so many others in the pipeline.

Here's a photo of my Hornby Rood Ashton Hall on my model of Pontrilas, on the line from Newport to Hereford. Sorry about the photoshopped smoke - it's not very realistic.

Thanks for the info. So other options definitely open to Hornby for future issues of this loco are LNER green, named Claud Hamilton , and BR late crest (although I've yet to find a photo of the latter)? I still hope that Hornby have constructed the tooling to allow for the valencing and older cab, though.

Well, well - I had never noticed there were two types of D16 cab. Hornby catered for different cabs on the T9 - I wonder if they will do the same for the D16? I hope they do, as I would love a model of 62613. If they've done the slide and piston valve variants already, perhaps there's hope.

Does anyone sell cast metal loco crews? That would add a little bit of weight to the cab end of the D16, and as we're told, every little helps.

I wasn't going to buy any of these - just not my area of interest. Somehow, I now own two of them. If Heljan, Hornby or Bachmann don't make some coaches to go with them, I think they're very foolish. As others have said on the S Stock thread, I also hope Bachmann use their new low-profile EMU chassis to produce some vintage Underground stock. Has OO gauge modelling ever offered so many possibilities?

I didn't manage to spend much time at the gala, but here's one shot I took last Friday near Trimpley, showing Sir Keith Park. Out of sight on the back of the train was Britannia.

Just to confirm that Royal Scot was running today, facing Kidderminster. Looked and sounded very good.

The problem is that they don't seem to be catching up. Special projects like the S-Stock jump the queue instead. Maybe the Class 117 will do likewise? But in the interim, Hornby and Heljan have had lots more of my money recently. Sorry, back to the DMUs...

Any suggestions for a paint to match to the body colour Hornby have used, so I can paint over the wasp stripes on the model to re-create the 1960s livery. (I'm a bit colour-blind, so help would be appreciated!)?

Anyone else had a dud one of these? The lights work on 12v DC, but no motion whatsoever? Any suggestions of a quick fix, or is it a case of return to sender?

At the Bachmann event at the Glos Warks Rly yesterday, I asked Dennis Lovett if there was any chance that the front-end error on the new Modified Hall would be corrected in future releases. He replied that it was possible. However, he also said that all the current ones have sold out, so there are obviously plenty of people who either didn't spot the error, or who are willing to overlook it. We shall have to wait and see.

£109.95. Need to add postage from Barwell.

All this dithering about the route from Bedford to Cambridge is very depressing. How many consultations and feasibility studies do we have to pay for? It's 30 miles, and pretty well flat as a pancake. Just draw a straight line on the map and build it! We are always being told that capacity is the big issue on the network now, so why are they even considering routes that put extra trains on sections of the MML and/or ECML?

This isn't a criticism of you, Geep, but surely the thousands of pictures of all the 3-car units are the excuse that Kernow need to get on and produce the centre car?! Every £ spent on stop-gap 2-car models must reduce the amount available to spend on the version that everyone's waiting for, with 3 coaches.

Please forgive me if this has already been covered: am I correct in thinking the current release of Pullmans are in LNER condition? If so, have Hornby indicated whether they are going to do a run of these Pullmans in 1950s BR condition?

Not the Hornby one, then, which I believe is listed at well over £100, even though it's RailRoad. Reasonable & cheerful, maybe, but surely not cheap! On the subject of the Stanier 2-6-0, I can't imagine many people buying more than one, which may be putting Bachmann off, but that's true of many of the more obscure types that are now available RTR, and makes it even more crazy that no-one has done the J69 tank yet, as there are loads of livery variations of those that I would buy.

I'm giving the new Modified Halls a miss. Seeing how Bachmann have kept improving the V2, I'm hoping that the current Modified Hall will not be their final attempt. I'm also trying to imagine what price I would be willing to pay for one of the current ones, in order to have a go at the surgery that Brian Kirby demonstrated, and not be too upset if I mess it up.

Well, in the now-locked thread about Bachmann's new model there was a photo of the Bachmann display cabinet at the DEMU exhibition today, and there was something that looked distinctly like the NR 150. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98964-new-model-from-Bachmann/page-13

The evidence is the rueful chuckle I get from staff at the shop counter when I use the words "It's on your website", after I've enquired about an item I want to buy. And the fact that quite often I've bought things from them that aren't on their website at all. Is that satisfactory evidence, your honour?! It's still an excellent shop, and I would recommend them to any modeller.

As the New Model from Bachmann thread has been locked, I'll have to put this here. In the photo of the Bachmann cabinet at DEMU that Nobby posted this morning there looks to be a yellow NR Class 150 - is that not a new model too?

I wouldn't put too much faith on the Hereford Models website. I suspect it's not updated automatically like some of the more high-tech sites. However, Hatton's are still showing plenty too.

Here's a side view taken in the late 1980s of the first train out of Ooty in the morning. Anyone who can make a model of all those connecting rods and gears has my undying admiration.

HS2 Bill was in the Queen's Speech, so no sign of George Osborne baulking at the price tag and getting cold feet.