locoholic

A couple of Class 31s around Sheffield:

31116 and 31227 at Rotherwood Sidings, with lovely rusty coke hoppers, presumably from Orgreave, on 16th April 1981?

And an unidentified one at Tinsley, on the same day.

I used to live in Dursley, and managed to get a few shots of Class 31s on the Berkeley nuclear flask trains.

This would have been around 1997, when the brake van was still used. Seen at Standish Junction.

The Sharpness branch is mostly in a cutting hemmed in by trees...

This looks like a different pair, in the siding at Berkeley.

I can't find my notes of the loco numbers, sadly.

How much would people be prepared to pay for a centre car? As someone posted previously, perhaps the same price as the Bachmann Inspection Saloon - around £60? I would pay that. But I don't think I would pay £260 for a 3-car unit when I've already bought a 2 car one.

If only some common sense was applied to this and a centre car was commisioned, instead of duplicating RTR obscure steam locos.

As an Essex man, I took Class 31s for granted, but did take a few shots - not as good as some of the ones above, sadly:

The first was at Rayleigh on 10th Feb 1982, after an embankment slip between there and Hockley, and the second is 31138 between Hockley and Rayleigh on the up evening post train from Southend Victoria, that I think carried mail from the Access credit card centre.

I've put a few old Class 31 photos on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/127441156@N08/

I've tried putting them on RMWeb, but keep getting messages saying that kind of file is no good. Are there any instructions to enable me to put photos into posts like the folk above did?

Thanks

Andrew

What it means is that there are fewer pieces (2-car units in this case) for the total costs to be shared around than if Bachmann chose to release these units as a catalogue item.

At £200 a go, that is a self-fulfilling prophesy. And I disagree that there would be hardly any market for a centre coach. I'm not saying it should only be sold separately.

I just get the impression that Bachmann haven't exactly fallen over themselves to get this project moving, and therefore Kernow don't feel confident about throwing even more money at it to get the centre car tooling done. I suppose we should be grateful that at least they managed to get Bachmann to use the right shade of green, unlike the recent issues of Southern region Bullied and Mk1 coaching stock.

So a 2 car Hampshire unit costs £200, whereas a 2 car Class 101 can be had for £127 or thereabouts. This means Bachmann is charging 50% more for a commissioned model. From this, it seems that Bachmann aren't really interested in any further business of this nature, which is their prerogative, of course. However, as someone who would love to see some of the more obscure DMUs in RTR form, I find this rather disappointing, especially as Bachmann chose to duplicate the Class 101 rather than go for another unit not yet done in OO, such as a Class 120.

The "problem" of the middle car for the Hampshire unit is particularly odd - surely Bachmann can see that a 3H would sell well, and would try to expedite matters for Kernow? If cost of a 3H is now a deterent, why could the centre car not be sold separately so that the those of us who forked out for a 2H could upgrade to a 3H, rather than having to buy another whole unit?

Latest Facebook posting from Kernow is particularly cryptic, accompanied by a photo of a P class and the H class double-heading on the Bluebell Railway.

I used to commute from Kelvedon into Liverpool Street in BR days, and it was pretty awful then. Sounds even worse now. The population growth in the region means the Ely to Norwich line needs to be wired, and rather than HS2, a new line should be built from Thetford through Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and Dunmow to ease the pressure on the existing East Anglian main lines. And the whole franchising system shouldbe scrapped, as it demonstrably doesn't deliver the service it was meant to.

I went to Steam at Swindon last Saturday (sorry - I couldn't face the drive up the M5 and the M42 to Coverntry) and looked in vain for any mention of a commisioned King from Hornby. Did I miss it, or were those rumours just ill-informed?

Top marks to Hornby for choosing to produce a model that seems to have made many of us impulse-buy, breaking our loco selection rules in the process. Lots of Hornby models in the shops now. RRP being charged by box shifters for main range Cock o' the North. Retailers and Hornby's cashflow must be looking healthier. Good news! Long may it continue.

Do people really want Super D to run as in pre-groping days or do they want one in LNWR livery? Some of the Belpaire locos carried what was effectively LNWR style with number plates on the cab sides.

 "Pre-groping"??? Surely that is a BBC term for the days of Lord Reith, before such practices became widespread?

I notice that all three varieties of Coal Tanks are currently shown as "in stock" on the Bachmann website.

I think there were some people at a museum in Swindon who were rather hoping that Hornby would produce a new King model, for when Lode Star is sold out.

Excellent news about the Coal Tank, but I also agree about the lack of pre-grouping stock. I was really surprised when the Bachmann catalogue came out and there were no SECR wagons. The ones they did for their Collectors Club sold out very quickly, so I expect a second batch with different running numbers would have been popular with the modelling public. I know they weren't accurate models, but what precentage of Bachmann customers are experts on pre-grouping freight stock? I was also surprised that SECR and GCR (and now LNWR) brake vans haven't been announced. Given the apparent readiness for manufacturers to commit to producing ever more obscure locomotives, something to go at the other end of the train would seem a logical commercial move. they certainly aren't squeamish about producing nice colourful pre-1923 private-owner wagons.

There is a precedent for all this: It is possible to buy an extensive range of pre WW1 German trains, mostly Bavarian, complete with HO scale period figures, including King Ludwig and his entourage.

Of course, Hornby could have done Railroad versions of both 1361 and 1366 types a couple of years ago, using the chassis from the Electrotren 0-6-0 tank engine, but that would have been far too design clever.

i'm getting a bit cynical about these sporadic bouts of 4mm RTR claim-staking, which are generally followed by years and years of waiting. Anyone for a 3-car Hampshire DEMU, for instance? Or even a 2-car BR blue one?

In fact, I shall use this opportunity to announce the formation of my own company, Brigadoon Models, and hereby stake my claim to the Fell Diesel, GT3 and a Webb Greater Britain 2-2-2-2 compound, with separate DCC motors so that the driving wheels can rotate in opposite directions simultaneously.

I suppose it's just foolish to think that Dave Jones and Heljan could co-operate, thus reducing tooling costs, so that us modellers could pay a little less for the models. Maybe they might sell a few more as a result?

Railroad P2 was on the counter at Hereford Models this afternoon - the gap between the driving wheel flanges is tiny - the proverbial cigarette paper would have trouble squeezing in between. Nice looking model - can't wait for the up-market version.

Yes, 'Dudders, my poor, fragile ego is now nicely polished and shining like the dome on the Stirling Single.

 

I hereby stake my claim for the title of Pedant of the Week - the Stirling Single doesn't have a dome - the shiny bit is the safety valve cover: but you knew that, didn't you?

I still can't decide whether to go for the GNR or LNER Atlantic. Somehow the idea of pretending the GNR version was hauling railtours in the 1950s is spoiled by the story of its poor steaming due to the removal of the superheater, which is presumably why Henry Oakley has steamed in my lifetime, but never 251.

Paul

 

Alas these appear to be as equally camera shy as the ICI POO's that were working to Cadishead from ICI Wallerscote!

 

Mark

I just can't believe that no-one has commented on the camera-shy ICI POO. There must be a brick out-houseful of puns and mirth on that subject.

If only they had made Carry On Trainspotting.

Thanks for that, Andy.

I still think it's a bit odd that the 1F isn't even on their website as an item due in the next 60 days, so the three variants just won't show up on the "radar" at all - perhaps they should market them as ghost trains?

Another vote here for the Bagnall - also using a standard Bachmann controller, it runs very smoothly at slow speeds, and copes well with dead frog points. It's also a lot heavier than I was expecting.

I was thinking of fitting the body to a Bachmann class 03 chassis - not sure I'll bother now, although I think it would look a bit better, bearing a passing resemblance to the 6 wheeler in this old advert:

Is it me, or have the 1Fs disappeared completely from the Bachmann website? I hope it's just a mistake following the new catalogue release, and they haven't gone for a Burton (Hall) like the budget sound locos.

Is there any connection between this and the O gauge version that Ixion made?

I always assumed that the presence of MR No. 1000 in the Thames Clyde Express set indicated that the NRM MR compound hadn't sold as well as hoped, and there were a lot of surplus models to sell.

 I was going to respray BR maroon but will probably wait until Bachmann produce that livery - can't really understand why they haven't produced it on the first batch to be honest.

Yet another example of a manufacturer issuing a new model in a less popular livery, so that we get carried away by the excitement of a new release and buy models in a livery we didn't really want, and later buy a second lot in the livery we did want, thus doubling sales figures. Clever business psychology, but I'm sure no manufacturer would admit to it.