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I've noticed there is now another new addition to the range - SECR R1 (full height and cut down versions) to fit the Hornby 0-6-0 chassis. Michael

The top ones look like the bodies are based on the Ratio LMS medium goods, chopped about to varying degrees. I love a good wagon bash - looking forward to seeing how these turn out. Mike

The orange loco is JF3900002, also resident at the Middleton Railway. Mike

RM328 is the Railmatch one which I used for my solitary blue van, although it doesn’t appear to be currently available. Mike

No not at all - the not being convinced was purely a reflection on my lack of detailed knowledge of the subject. I was allowing for the possibility an expert might come along and rubbish my suggestion! Mike

Is it GWR 679 (ex-ADR)? Not convinced I’m right but it seems a reasonable fit. Whatever it is it’s looking good! Mike

Paul, I feel your pain! Yellow lettering for pre-nationalisation departmental wagon stock is a big gap in most transfer ranges (numbers are no issue if you are prepared to chop up transfers, but there is a lack of DM, DW, etc prefixes and letters for making up less common type names). If anyone does know of a supply I would be pleased to find out about them. That said, black loco coal wagons generally didn’t have a D prefix and in most pictures the lettering looks white (albeit given the photos are generally black and white it’s impossible to say for certain!) Mike

There is one picture in Russell Pictorial Recird of GW Wagons of 100015 at Hook Norton in 1945. It is a front three quarter shot with good end detail and a reasonable view of the side without the brakes. This one retains the large lettering. The same photo is in Cheona GWR Wagons before 1948 volume 1, along with another of the opposite side of the very same wagon in BR livery. Mike

The conflat body is actually a reasonably accurate representation of late GWR/early BR production. Can be improved with a Morton 4 shoe under frame. The Bachmann RTR version and the Parkside kit both represent the later BR production which has the extra rings and the lowered curb rail. I love this layout by the way: it is genuinely inspirational. Mike

I have noticed the MR 2441 class and the GWR 97xx condensing panniers are now available as resin prints and at a very reasonable price! Both to fit the Hornby railroad chassis...which of course is perfectly in line with the ethos to keep this relatively cheap and easy. However, I would be looking to use a Bachmann chassis so my questions are: 1. will it fit (I would expect to have to do some modification but is there anything that would fundamentally means it won't fit)? 2. are there any compromises in dimensions for either model to fit this chassis, and if so am I better going for the shapeways version (or waiting for a resin version to fit the Bachmann chassis)? Thanks in anticipation, Michael

I still have a feeling, although it may be old hat now, that anything that can be dressed as 'mainline', or can share tooling with a mainline prototype, has a better than average chance. This, plus in the case of the first one listed their general ubiquity, would lead me to suggest the following diesel types: - Ruston 88DS (BR had at least one in departmental service) - YEC 0-4-0 (very similar to BR class 02) - Ruston LSSH 0-6-0 (very similar to BR class 07) Before reading this, I would have said a Ruston of some shape (presumably 48DS, 88DS, or 165DS/DH?) was perhaps the most likely industrial diesel to next appear RTR. Steam wise I would include a Barclay 0-4-0F on the basis of the high number built. There's some nice liveries possible on these as well. Mike

There are not many GWR wagons with 11ft wheelbase. The obvious ones are: Serpents to diagrams G9 and G21 Sleeper wagons to diagram T2 Tool vans to diagrams CC1 and CC2 Both style of grain wagons are 10ft 6in wheelbase, so close, but a better starting point for V20 is probably the Parkside LNER grain hopper and for V25 the old K's kit. Mike

From Dave Marden's excellent 'London Dock Railways Part 1', P489 (PLA No. 74) worked at Millwall Docks exclusively. It arrived second hand in December 1943 and was scrapped in March 1958.

There is an evening peak working which is covered with an ex-Grand Central set instead - I think it is the 1650 from St Pancras and return.

Hi Dave, Not done it myself, but could you cut out the smokebox door from the Hornby model and replace with the smokebox door from the airfix kit, which is not quite the right profile but at least doesn't have the numberplate moulded on and would perhaps be easier to work with off the loco? Mike

Hornby Dublo BR Banana Van is well over 40 years old but still stands up (if you bin the chassis). The Dublo BR Horsebox does not look out of place alongside the Bachmann/TMC model either. Pretty much every wagon Airfix/GMR did (bar the stretched PO 7-plank) was really good as well. Personal favourites are the Stanier brake van and the 12'' wheelbase tank wagon, but they're all pretty good and accurate. Mike

I cannot answer definitively but I can share a few observations: The latest published photo I can find of one in regular service is in the series BR Parcels and Passenger Rated Stock by Larkin. Volume 1 has no pictures but says all 4-wheel GWR CCTs were extinct by 1971: I suspect it was much earlier than this for P19. Volume 3 has a picture of P19 number 563 in Crimson with BR lettering. It is marked condemned and although the picture is undated, helpfully it is parked up next to Siphon C 1518 (diagram O8) which was withdrawn in November 1956 (listed in Slinn/Clarke GW Siphons). I suspect therefore that you would get away with one in your timeframe. If you did want a departmental one, DW314 (which is the earlier P14 diagram) is pictured in departmental service as a Cell Truck as late as 1963 in Cheona Railways in Profile volume 8. Mike

This made me think - I had always assumed that they were. A quick check of prototype photos (The 4mm Coal Wagon has a number of good ones) confirms that any unpainted replacements are generally of the whole continuous plank. In fact they seem to have been replaced fairly commonly, presumably as they were most prone to damage during loading. Mike

Of the previously announced/mooted kits, the ones I have the most enthusiasm for are the LSWR 'new' brake van and the BR(S) 5-plank dropside - I know the later is a tad esoteric but also highly distinctive. I would also echo support for the LMS Sole/Haddock family. Most useful plastic kit of the last few years by far though is the one piece open underframe - I've bought dozens for upgrading RTR tanks and scratchbuild/kitbash efforts and they seem to have been well received. Any chance of developing further variations of this (wooden frames, 12' wheelbase, 9' 6'' wheelbase, preferably with independent brakes)? Best of luck with the new venture. Mike

I understand that the plan is for the new car park to go on the up side. Mike

Hi Nick, Not sure how important this will be to you, but by my admittedly amateur reading of the class history, I think 6400 should have the earlier style of footsteps on the front of the tanks, unless it received replacements at some stage. There is a picture in the pannier papers taken in 1964 but unfortunately taken from the rear. This confirms that at this stage it had a boiler with top feed (as per the model) but the original style lubricators on the running plate (different to the model). Hope this is helpful, Mike

The Shell BP livery is the post-war version, it appears repaints in this livery started from 1947 onwards so you might just get away with it if you leave it in near ex-works condition. Esso 2672 appears in Tourret and is quoted as built in 1948, although photographed ex-works as per the Bachmann model around 1955. I haven't found a picture of this version of the Esso livery before 1950 but I suspect this may also have been introduced or reintroduced soon after the war. Incidentally, from the photo the wheelbase does indeed appear to be 10ft but the real 2672 appears to have a significantly larger diameter tank barrel than the Bachmann model. Benzene 852 also appears in Tourret and is quoted as having been built and registered in 1951. The real 852 is a much better match to the Bachmann model in this case. Mike

I've had a quick look and I've not found anything absolutely definitive - I found a few colour pictures but most of the locos in lined green are so dirty you can't tell. About the best I can do in the case for black ends is a shot of 6430 at Colyton in 'Western Steam in Devon and Cornwall (Welch)'. I must admit I thought black ends was the norm and there is plenty of black and white evidence that seems to support this...but then I found the shot of 6416 at Abernant in 'The Heyday of Steam in South Wales (Huntriss)' which seems to show this loco with green ends to the panniers. It could be a trick of the light or down to picture quality or the reproduction, but I'm almost convinced. If it was green, I suspect this was an oddity rather than the norm though. Mike

Hi SRman, I really like what you have done with these vans, especially the PW mess van conversion. Note the position of the horizontal handrail seems to vary - there must be a pattern to this but I've not worked it out yet! The location of the numbering/lettering can vary quite a bit, but the number positions you have gone for are bot pretty typical. A grey van would normally be numbered on black patches, and a black van would normally be numbered in yellow, but there is evidence to the contrary on other wagons so what you have done is plausible. There are quite a few published pictures in BR livery if you include the diagram 1559 version, although most are in departmental service. The ones I could find easily are (source and date of photo in brackets): - S55456 as built, grey(?), number on bottom plank on black background (Southern Wagons vol 3 - Bixley, etc - 1953). - S55460 as built, grey, number on bottom plank on black background (Southern Wagons Pictorial - King - 1963). - DS55466 as built, olive, number boxed on bottom plank (Southern Wagons in Colour - King - 1969). - DS55472 as built, black, number on bottom plank (Pictorial Guide to Southern Wagons - Gough - 1965). - DS55476 PW conv, olive, number boxed on bottom plank (Pictorial Guide to Southern Wagons - Gough - 1965). - DS55478 as built, black, number on bottom plank (Southern Wagons vol 3 - Bixley, etc - 1962). - DS55482 PW conv, olive, number boxed on bottom plank (Southern Wagons in Colour - King - 1967). - DS55488 as built, olive, number boxed on bottom plank (Southern Wagons in Colour - King - 1967). - DS55489 PW conv, black or olive, number unboxed on second plank from bottom (Railways in Profile No. 5 Cattle & Brake Vans - Gamble - 1976). - DS55490 as built, black, number on bottom plank but on panel next to the door (Southern Wagons vol 4 - Bixley, etc - 1967). - DS55491 as built, black, number on bottom plank (Civil Engineers Wagons vol 1 - Larkin - 1969). - DS55496 as built, olive(?) could be black, number unboxed on bottom plank (Pictorial Guide to Southern Wagons - Gough - 1968). - DS55502 PW conv, olive, number boxed on third plank from bottom (Southern Wagons vol 4 - Bixley, etc - 1967). - DS55508 PW conv, black, number on bottom plank (Southern Wagons vol 3 - Bixley, etc - 1954). - DS55513 as built, grey and , number unboxed on third plank from bottom, coded ZTO (Railways in Profile No. 5 Cattle & Brake Vans - Gamble - 1988).

Most of the obvious standard gauge steam options have been mentioned - to me at least one from the Barclay/Bagnall/HL/Peckett/RSH 0-4-0ST does seem like the best choice. I'd go for the RSH personally - with Foxfield looking at Eustace Forth, could even be an NRM tie in? I really love the idea of a contractor's MW 0-6-0ST as well. If the pattern for mainline types is followed, there does seem to be a better chance for preserved locos to get made (which of course applies to most of the suggestions made already), especially well known and high profile ones, so I wonder what chance a Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T (NVR Thomas), Kitson 0-6-2T (LHJC Number 29), or even a Haydock Foundary 0-6-0WT? No where near as 'useful' in a prototypical sense as the suggestions made previously, but all attractive and well known. . The OP also asked for what we would want - I'd buy most of the above anyway, and they're only really suitable in a colliery setting so probably not first in line, but my favourite industrial class is the Hunslet S100 0-6-0T. Mike