Fair Oak Junction

Wow, what wonderfully done little wagons! 👌

Grey does seem to have generally been the more common PW/ED stock colour of the grouping era, so it's most likely a safe bet.

Liveries of PW/ED stock can be a minefield at the best of times. Researching the liveries of SR ED stock made me want to tear my hair out 😄

The NRM have got back to me with a list of NER drawings they have of the Gaunless Bridge, so I'll make a trip up there at some point to have a look at them.

Lovely little things! I can see them being popular.

If a layout is well made and interesting to watch, then I couldn't care less where it's set. I love seeing layouts from all over the world because it gives us a window into railways we don't normally see. And I think if they can then shows should have a mix of UK and ROW layouts, but obviously that isn't always going to happen just because of percentages.

Congrats on starting the new venture Graham! Those buildings are all superb.

Definitely looks a bit better under that light, and if these locos were used in the Middle East campaign then that is the sort of shade you'd go with. The polished safety bonnet and chimney still look odd on a camouflaged loco, but I don't know what they were like in ROD service.

Another related one I've always liked: We don't stop playing because we grow old: we grow old because we stop playing. - George Bernard Shaw

Complete with a wrongly painted door? 😉

I second your blind optimism 😉

I'm going to use some of the money I would have used to buy a Kernow railmotor and buy a autocoach in the pre-1909 livery. Yes it's got nothing suitable to go with it, but maybe one day. Let's just hope Dapol manage to get the livery right. Liveries can be a bit of a blindspot with them 😄

Very nice! 👌

A 517 would be an absolute dream to go with the new Dapol autocoach!

Ohhh right, I forgot about the whole Hattons/Bachmann falling out.

Exactly, we don't know. Just because AS have picked up a bunch of Hattons projects doesn't mean they have the 48/14xx. It could be it went elsewhere, or has just been lost to time. EFE might have acquired the tooling back when they got a bunch of other toolings, but they didn't want the bother of having to do basically a whole new version. Only time will tell.

So, Hornby are charging £250 for a 20 year loco but the new tooled Black 5s are £230? Am I missing something here? 🤔

I know this is a fairly common thing for people to say these days, but Hornby missed an opportunity. Back when they tried to steal the Titfield Thunderbolt/Lion spotlight from Rapido, they could have also announced a new tooled 14xx to go along with the Titfield theme. Rapido said at the time they had no intention of doing one so it would have been a good opportunity for Hornby. Now, it's possible they are planning to do one and they will announce it during one of their other announcements this year. Alternatively they might have thought it wasn't economically viable.

Don't get me wrong, the lack of dome seam annoys me on mine. But enough to spend £140 (AS 57xx price) on a new one, or in my case having to replace two of them? Doubtful. Some problems I can live with. Of course if they ran bad then that would be a different story.

At this point a new tooled one probably makes more sense, because I'm not sure all these modifications to the Hattons/DJ one would cost much less to do. Question manufacturers would be asking is how big would the market be for one? Yes, many people would like one. But how many would pay over just keeping their older ones? My two Hattons/DJ ones are perfectly fine, so as nice as a new tooled one would be I wouldn't upgrade. And I'm sure others would be the same. I have no doubt new ones will be done one day, but I'm not sure how high up the priority list they would be. Only the industry can answer that one.

Excellent, thanks chaps! Nice to know they are still around and being used. And yes that is great vid 👌

I've emailed the NRM archive team about drawings of the Gaunless Bridge that are supposedly in their collection. They were done by the NER in 1901 when the bridge was dismantled and moved. Fingers crossed I can get hold of copies 🤞

Ooooh, very nice! I'm trying to not get too excited for this, but that plan isn't working very well 😄 If they can achieve a wood effect like that on the finished one I'll be happy.

Does anyone know roughly how late these wagons were still in use on industrial narrow gauge lines? Or if there were wagons types that replaced them? Thanks!

Was it the tooling or the livery application at fault there?