The Pilotman

1 hour ago, arran said:

HI All

 

These came to me in kit form basically so dont worry about assembly , they have plastic tops and metal under frames all the way to the ends  so they cant do what dapols did 

 

Regards Arran

Thanks for clearing that up so quickly, Arran. Based on how things are going, do you think the production wagons will be along sometime in 2024?

Thanks for posting those Arran. Very much looking forward to having something to plonk your excellent containers onto. I know these are only decorated samples but it looks to me like the wagon top in the first picture has a bit of distortion whereas all the others look absolutely spot on and flat as a pancake. Is that perhaps a trick of the light or an optical illusion? If not, is that one of the tooling improvements to which you referred in your post? Thanks!
 

17 hours ago, nickb4141 said:

Let me just ask you this, if you were investing your money in a project, how many 2mm models do you realistically think would outsell a direct 4mm equivalent? If you’re being honest, I think the answer would be very few or none.

Not many, I suspect. Perhaps only the sort of wagons that make up long block trains for which 2mm modellers have the space, that 4mm modellers don’t. 

17 hours ago, nickb4141 said:

how can the FNW version be viable in 2mm, but not in 4mm?

The answer to that is probably as simple as there were sufficient expressions of interest for the 2mm version to convince Revolution Trains that it was viable. For the 4mm version there weren’t enough, apparently. Why that was the case, I’ve no idea. 

Revolution Trains have been around long enough and have a track record that shows they have a very good idea of the current market. I would accept their judgement on the viability of this, or any other, project. 
Anyway, time to go and do some modelling as this is starting to sound like the Carmine and Cream Class 314 discussion all over again. 
 

16 hours ago, nickb4141 said:

If you’ve been following this thread from the beginning, you’ll see quite a number of people stating they were going to purchase 4mm First North Western 175’s, so I’m certainly not the only one who wanted this livery before it was pulled - take a look, you might be surprised just how many there are!

Fair enough, I hadn’t been following this thread from the beginning so I did take a look and found the number of people stating that they would purchase a 4mm First North Western 175 was fewer than ten. Of those, I think at least one of those expressing an interest has an N gauge layout. As this model is out of my area and era of interest, I don’t know whether I’m surprised or not. But it’s hardly a glowing endorsement, so I’m not surprised that the version isn’t going ahead, based on that figure, and the apparent lack of expressions of interest directly to Revolution Trains earlier this year. 

6 hours ago, XChris said:

Does this mean that second parts of payments will start to be taken in the coming days or an email will be sent in the coming days to pay?

From the Revolution Trains website, FAQ section:

10 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

Chislehurst caves - well worth a visit too 👍

29 minutes ago, ColinK said:

Chislehurst caves are well worth a visit.

Does anyone know if Chislehurst caves are worth a visit?

12 hours ago, nickb4141 said:

the fact that you had little response would suggest the message didn’t get out there to the intended audience

Or, more likely, the fact they had little response would suggest that not many people want one? Clearly there was enough interest in the ones they are doing otherwise Revolution Trains wouldn’t be doing the model at all. If you’re so sure the version you want is viable, perhaps you could approach a suitable retailer in the target area for the livery in question and see if they’re interested in commissioning one. So far, on here at least, you seem to be the only voice in favour of the version you want. 

I was a huge fan of the Pogues. I shall never forget seeing them at the Reading Hexagon in the late eighties; a wild, riotous performance like I’d never seen before, or since. I wonder if Shane will be dancing now to the Turkish Song of the Damned.

On 30/07/2023 at 22:47, Alfster said:

Hello. Was browsing through Colour Rail and came across a picture of 56050 passing through Totnes with the return polybulk wagons.

Was this likely a traction trial at the time or just a Class 47 failure with a replacement Class 56 working through.

 

Ref   285790

Class   56

Loco   56050

Location   Totnes

Date   31/12/1987

Photographer   SIV

 

 

 

I’ve only ever seen one picture of a Class 56 on the Dover - St. Blazey Polybulks. It was a Railfreight Construction livery loco approaching Cowley Bridge Junction at Exeter. Couldn’t be the same train as in the slide to which you refer as 56050 was still in Railfreight grey at that time. I don’t recall any talk of trials of Class 56s on these trains so maybe these are just isolated examples. I only ever saw this train with a 33, 37, 47 or 50 on the front. Class 56s were, at that time, rarely seen in Devon but here’s one from Flickr at Dawlish Warren in 1983:

2 hours ago, Hibelroad said:

I’m puzzled, this started as a request for advice on the most suitable N gauge track but seems to have morphed into a 00 vs N discussion. What advice is the op actually seeking? 

The op has decided against N now. 

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

the Linsdsey Langley was I'm fairly sure the heaviest oil train we ran although I'm not sure hw frequently it ran with a load that big and it would have n been difficult to deal with at Langley.

 

In the early 1990s it was usually a Class 60 with 30 bogie wagons, Mike. Sometimes one or two fewer, never more, but usually 30. I’m guessing by then Langley must have been able to deal with such a load on a daily basis. 

C4419 55011 THE ROYAL NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS

C3399 55016 GORDON HIGHLANDER

C3400 47415

J2507 I’ll pass on that one….

In the early 1990s I regularly witnessed the class 60 hauled Lindsey to Langley tanks loaded to 30 bogie tank wagons, certainly one of the heaviest “oil” trains on the network at the time. I was wondering if there was a similarly heavy train of TTA tanks running somewhere on the network around that time. The longest train of two axle tank wagons I’ve found so far was a train in Scotland loaded to 32 TTAs. Any advance on that?

1 hour ago, gedlee said:

Hi All,

Several Class 158s and 47s have disappeared from the Bachmann website.

is this just a problem with their website or have they realised they cannot deliver this year?

Tis a mystery!

cheers,

Ged.

 

How about asking them directly?

customer.services@Bachmann-europe.co.uk

20 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

Routing information at junctions is provided simply so that drivers can control their speed - it is not designed to providing routing information in terms of where a train service may be routed geographically speaking.

 

In recent decades there have been attempts to improve this on a case by case basis* but these tend to be installed to solve specific issues and are not widespread because a competent signaller and train describer systems should make them unnecessary.

Competence is not really the issue. Humans will always make mistakes, whether it’s the signaller or the person programming the automatic route setting software. Every signaller I ever worked with was competent, but that doesn’t make them immune to errors. 

9 hours ago, burgundy said:

Locally, people talk about aircraft "dumping" fuel on approach, which strikes me as highly unlikely.

And it is highly unlikely. Fuel is expensive and pretty much the only reason an aircraft would dump fuel would be to get the weight down to below maximum landing weight if an immediate, or earlier than planned, landing was required. Doing so routinely on approach just doesn’t happen. 

10 hours ago, DaveF said:

Essendine Class 55 up Saturday Yorkshire Pullman Dec 74 C1840

55022 ROYAL SCOTS GREY

10 hours ago, DaveF said:

Dry Doddington Class 55 up Dec 76 C3119

55012 CREPELLO

Hi @Adam1701D 

With regard to the InterCity Executive and InterCity Swallow Mk3 sleepers, will these new versions have pale (I don’t know whether it’s white, silver or just light grey) window surrounds as in the images on the Rails of Sheffield website, and on the real thing below? Dapol’s original Swallow version did not have this feature so I’d like to know if it’s being done this time around. Thanks.
 

On 07/11/2023 at 17:12, Vanfit said:

I think Robbie Bowden may have been the signalman on duty at Hungerford when an up stone train derailed and demolished the box.

Yes, he was. He was one of the supervisors in Reading Panel when he retired.

On 04/11/2023 at 15:22, The Stationmaster said:

Stan (can't remember hs surname) I think became a Supervisor in Reading panel,

That’ll be Stan Thompson you’re thinking of, Mike. And yes, he did.

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Back around the turn of the century when I was living in Canton, not the most salubrious area of Cardiff, there was a 'Hypervalue' shop in Cowbridge Road, what you'd now call a pound shop.  It got hold of a shipment of Muchen Gladbach t shirts and was knocking them out at 99p a shout, and it was not long before Cowbridge Road was a sea of green most days, we all had them and some of us had two... 

 

I wore mine unthinkingly on warm summer daytrip to Bristol, where the local football fans were most gracious, offering advice and directions to the 'Bavarian' visitor, and buying him beer.  I took great care to say as little as possible beyond the odd 'ja' or 'nein', and got away with it!  Stood my round when it was my turn, and all was well...

Point of order if I may…. I think the team you’re referring to there is Borussia Mönchengladbach who play in the city of Mönchengladbach in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. It is nowhere near München (Munich) or Bavaria. In fact, they’re as far from each other as Cardiff is from Glasgow. Back to the Whacky signs…

On the whole these are very nice wagons indeed and they filled one of the biggest gaps I had on my wagon wish-list. Aside from the minor issues already mentioned above, I’m surprised there’s been no comment yet about the weathered versions. I ordered enough weathered wagons to recreate the St.Blazey to Cliffe Vale train of the 1980s based on the subtle weathering I saw in the pre-release pictures, which looked very convincing. I have ended up returning most of them because the weathering was much darker than in any picture I’d seen. I may have just been very unlucky but the weathering on some of the wagons would have been more suited to a very grubby coal wagon. In some cases, the wagon ends where the walkways and handrails are were completely black. I’ve therefore replaced them with the unweathered versions. To give credit where it’s due, the weathering varies from wagon to wagon so no two look exactly the same (as in the real world), it’s just a shame that the colour and density of the weathering (on the wagons I received at least) isn’t right. Otherwise, these are excellent models. 

On 01/11/2023 at 15:54, Stuart A said:

could I please have 47475 in provincial

 
The loco got around a bit in that livery, Penzance and Inverness for example, so it would appeal to people modelling way beyond its Trans-Pennine stamping ground. 

6 hours ago, s7r4nge said:

And Rails of Sheffield have an exclusive Fairsh 47/6 on the way,  47628 Sir Daniel Gooch in GWR green.

Excellent news. A GWR150 green duff has been on my wish list for ages. 

I’m presuming there is no indication to the driver of which way the junction is set until sighting the junction signal (E193) approaching the over bridge at Charlton. The line speed on the up approaching and through Cogload on the Bristol line is 100mph and it’s 90mph through the junction towards Castle Cary (for which the junction signal shows a position 4 junction indicator). Throw in a bit of poor visibility and it’s no wonder this could happen if there’s no prior indication of which way the route is set.