The Pilotman

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. For me, it boils down to this: Whilst this is not a 100% accurate scale model of the real thing, I think the painted samples (nobody will be buying the EP after all) look very convincing to me, especially at “normal viewing distances”. I don’t know about anyone else, but if I look at an N gauge train running on a layout, I do not put my head right up to it and fixate on one small detail, but appreciate the train as a whole. If you want something that stands up to close scrutiny, larger scales are available. It’s not perfect, but it’s far from being a “right old mess”. If you don’t think it’s good enough, don’t buy it! It'll be a long wait for the next one to come along. PS. It’s fine for people to point out errors on here but if you care enough about it, why not make those comments directly to Dapol as well? Several people, myself included, already have. These days it couldn’t be easier!

There may be more but 16 and 46 are definite candidates.

James, if you haven’t already discovered it, Martin Loader's excellent website (www.hondawanderer.com) has lots of photos from the area and era you are interested in. You might be able to pick up some useful information from the captions. I admire your diligence in being as accurate as possible with the coach diagrams, even though it will cost you a fair bit of money just in order to have the carriage sidings properly stocked for the start of the morning service. I can help with something that you asked about last night. I am fairly sure there was a late morning ECS from Old Oak to Oxford; I seem to recall one passing through Reading (where I worked) just before midday. I wish I had kept all of the working timetables and station working books that I had from that time but sadly they all went a long time ago.

A big one, 1980s, Western Region. So a few 50s are rather essential.

Since these pictures appeared, a number of people have posted comments relating to issues raised in this thread on the Dapol Digest part of their website. Some of these have already been gratefully acknowledged by Dapol. Overall I think this is an excellent model; I have eight on order, but if it can be further improved by passing on some constructive criticism, then that's good, isn’t it?

That was probably the intention on the real thing and the majority of the NSE examples were like that. However, on 50037 (the subject of this model) as Davexoc pointed out yesterday, the orange stripe was indeed on the plated-over headcode box and so the model is correct, albeit non-standard. A more extreme example was 50048 which had the orange stripe even higher and had some white on the bottom of the plated-over headcode box too.

And the second coach in the second photo seems to be a Mk2C (?) composite. I never knew there was such a thing.

That'll be 36 in the Reading shot.

I got to unpack my eagerly anticipated IZAs today! These are my first Revolution Trains wagons and I am very impressed. The wagons really are superb and I think the packaging is great too. A fantastic job by all concerned. Thank you.

Re. C7666. I had no idea there were all-blue DMUs still running around as late as 1986. You learn something every day.

No Deltics to identify today so can anyone hazard a guess as to what breed of dog that is in J6560?

“Soon” according to the press release in post #1 above

No.

Well, all I can say is, thank goodness you did!

The sidings at the back of Reading station (before the remodelling) were still known as “high level” long after any low level ceased to exist.

In Cornwall they were used in small numbers in the formation of speedlink trains, not block trains. There’s also a photo on Flickr taken in 1992 of 37672 picking up a couple of IZAs from the exchange sidings at Bodmin Parkway, so they were used for the Fitzgerald Lighting traffic as well.

That looks very nice indeed. Looking forward to the four that I’ve ordered.

I don’t suppose anyone's got a diagram of the new track layout, have they? It would be interesting to see how it looks now.

Quite right. Now, I’m just going to telephone a friend on the GPO phone and then I’m going to put the wireless on and listen to the hit parade.

In my firm it’s known (unofficially) as a HIPPO day. Hand In Pass + **** Off.

Reminds me of the Danish Railways InterCity EMUs that I sometimes see at Hamburg Hbf. They're ugly too.

Yep, them's the two I was thinking of.

I couldn’t tell you what it was called but there’s a YouTube video of the silver bullets going up the bank to Exeter Central. Two 37s at the front and another giving a helpful shove at the back. There’s another that features, if I remember correctly, a train of HEAs going up the bank with a 37 on the front and two 31s banking. Haven’t seen any with a speedlink though.

Very interesting! So that's three limited editions already; 7 in GW150 Green (Dapol Club), 15 in Dutch (DCC Supplies) and now this one. Surely it’s only a matter of time before someone commissions a limited run of 149 in Railfreight triple grey. Please.

And on the same branch, Coombe Junction halt and Moorswater siding sort of fits the bill.