Star-rider

As my model is a fictitious location somewhere on the edge of the West Midlands I have chosen Wolverhampton as a datum point in deciding what formations to acquire or build. The book “Train Formations And Carriage Workings Of The Great Western Railway” is my one and only reference point I’m afraid ,but this suggests that the 06:30 from Birkenhead would have come in comprised of five 70’ coaches; BTK/TK/CK/BTK/BC – other vehicles were added at Wolverhampton and Banbury for the remainder of the Journey to Paddington. It therefore seems that a realistic train can be formed using five 70’ coaches, not a great deal of difference to a train of six 57’ bow ends. I have built three from Comet kits; the fourth will be purchased in due course but the Brake Composite remains a challenge as it does not seem to be commercially available from anyone at the moment.

Hmm, I withdraw my assertion - how about "there must be room for a least a couple on most GWR layouts".

Great Western N32 loco coal / mineral for me please; I believe that 5000 of these were built in the mid thirties so there must be room for a least a couple on every GWR layout. There have been a lot of nice locos recently produced (and forthcoming) and I would like to see them pulling trains of similar quality. A smaller "Toad" brake van would not go amiss either, the two big manufacturers seem to think one size fits all. Pete.

I’ve been in the shadows of this forum casually observing the excitement over the forthcoming kings and the speculative Hornby vs. Hattons debate, safely in the knowledge I would buy …. Neither. For the Great Western enthusiast there is a lot on the (distant?) horizon and I personally have a wish list of about £800.00 worth of product – now nearer £1000.00 including the Bow End coaches – that does not feature in my roster. I have two of the existing Hornby Kings; to me they look like Kings and run well and I am content with them, I was confident that spending £160.00 on another was not going to happen. The 47XX, streamlined railcar, Earl and others were a greater pull on my disposable income. However, for me those RM pictures suggest a game changer, a real flagship model. Nothing that I am waiting for looks as if it is going to come to market very soon (except perhaps my Earl) and it could yet be the case that the King comes to Stourbridge if it arrives in the shops at a time when there is nothing else to buy. But which one?

I had the call last week from Modellers Mecca to say my pre-order for KGC had arrived and collected it yesterday. A “Star” has been long desired and in truth if it had come from the Railroad range with a three pole motor in the tender I would probably have bought it. For many years a large framed photo hung from the wall of my grandparent’s house depicting the Stafford Road firemen and drivers posed in front of “Tintern Abbey”. My grandfather is among them but unfortunately which of the gentlemen he is is now lost to me. The photograph is now in my loft, it was the reason for my choice of a great Western based a layout and I was always going to have this locomotive on my layout one day. The plates were ordered from CGW at the same time that pre-ordered the model. A copy of that picture is here: http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB149_P_4408/ I had been considering the Finecast kit for some years, which is indented to run on an old type Tri-ang chassis. Knowing my own skill level it would never have looked or run well. Despite a lot of negative comments on this tread, I am really please with what I have got. OK some deficiencies have been pointed out here, we know what they are, but sat among Manors and Moguls on my layout I believe the Star to be a “modern” standard locomotive. It runs well and has been fitted with my preferred decoder (Bachman 36-355). A couple more tweaks to the CVs and it will be perfect. What surprised me most when unpacking the model was the instruction sheet, which also covers a sound fitted model. The rumour of this had not reached me and (provided it is eventually issued is a pre-war Great Western livery) will be purchased to become 4067. This is no “dog” Star and I for one am grateful that Hornby have produced it.