BernardTPM

As far as I know there was never a plastic Princess by Lone Star. The red 'Impy' version was still diecast with plastic wheels but it never had a tender to match. The different gauge of the early all-metal Lone Star Locos and altered rear coupling on the Impy Princess made it difficult to use the old tender with the late model.

The N Gauge ones are mainly plastic, so not that heavy.

The odd thing there is that Triang Hornby at first used a bright shade of blue* rather than a 'proper' Rail Blue for the Corporate Image. That changed around 1968/69 when they began to use a darker shade of blue plastic. I don't think the Mk.2 coaches were ever sold in the lighter blue plastic (perhaps test mouldings might have been), but the diesels and electrics plus the Mk.1s were. * used as 'Electric Blue' for the AL1 and EM2.

That will nicely fill a late '70s/early '80s Ford Cartic-4.

Extra doors would need to be added to the corridor side to suit those later windows, as per the following 'Porthole' stock. Could make an interesting project for the spare body I have.

That would still make the T-H Hymek under £90, but it's true it's nowhere near as good as the Heljan/EFE Rail one either in terms of detail, accuracy or performance. I have to admit to being a wage under performer though.

Also a large range of drawings were published, in the 1960s in particular. If only the old Model Railway News and Model Railway Constructors were available in the same way.

They can be relatively more expensive now. As an example the Triang Hornby Hymek was £2/19/3 when new in late 1967. Using the BoE rate of inflation index that's about £44 now. An EFE Rail (Heljan) one at RRP is now £159.95, not far off four times the price, though you'd have to spend a lot of time and money on new parts to bring the T-H one to anywhere near the level of detail and accuracy. If you had to pay someone to do the upgrade it would be a no-brainer to buy the better model, but it does seem reasonable to expect the more expensive model not to have a serious flaw. As to what constitutes a serious flaw that's for the individual to decide. On the other hand if you like chopping, changing, scratchbuilding new parts and detailing then you could have hours of fun from a second hand old Hymek.

Very true. The bright lights look very toy like. Until after the end of steam actually having oil lamps lit was not required by the rules during the hours of daylight (unless in fog or falling snow).

Yes, same as the pre-'56 coaches, as was mentioned in April 1963 Modern Railways when the replacement yellow livery arrived.

The ochre colour, as used on D1015, was chosen in part because brake dust contamination didn't show much on it. Having said that, there was no lower off-white line on D1015 to obscure.

The AM10s had two styles of smaller yellow panels, the first within the recessed areas (but including the framing between) and the lower half below the front handrail (used as a Model Railway News cover).

I have that article. Brian Haresnape was on the B.R. Design Panel so did have some input to what was going on. Tri-ang did two blue Brush type 2s, but not the ochre one, though later Lima did. Neither of Tri-ang's were quite accurate, though the first version was close. First version: correct number, but the real one didn't have the light window surrounds. Second version: same number as first but seems a close relative of the above 'Trains Illustrated' drawing.

I remember taking one of these to Southend Victoria back in about 1989; it still had a 'new train' smell to it.

Technically the XP64 wasn't the final scheme, the shade of blue lighter and the grey areas on the coaches without the white lining or round corners. There was also the temporary-only use of the double arrow on a red background. In the background it must have been almost settled by then though as the corporate image proper was launched in January 1965. Full yellow ends were not part of the original scheme but became standard from 1967. There were various moves towards a new scheme on the freight side from 1963 and around that time there was the "New Design for British Railways" exhibition at The Design Centre, London where various new ideas were shown, including models in possible new colour schemes and a mock-up 'coach of the future' which became XP64. The mock-up coach was in an ochre and grey scheme rather than blue grey. There's a lot about this in the book "British Rail Designed 1948-97" by David Lawrence.

Ever been to Minffordd, FR?

I have a set of the white ones (M1709 as mentioned in the Model Land section), but they are literally the same figures moulded in white. Why a pit crew would need a man with a shovel I don't know! I'll dig them out and photograph them and add them to the bottom of my older post. - Done! I think those last two might be Mainline (Palitoy) figures, the one on the right possibly a diesel driver so there may be a steam loco driver (and secondman?) too. I don't think they were ever sold separately. I've also got some similar pale blue figures, though I think they're nearer H0 than 00. as shown below, a Triang porter for comparison. The baseless figure I have twice, both without bases. The porter looks to be based on the Tri-ang (styrene) figure, just slightly smaller while the one with the raised arm has a lamp (like Merit/Slaters/Mastermodels) but looks more like the Tri-ang one with a flag otherwise. Both bases have HONG KONG underneath and all three are in a slightly flexible plastic rather than styrene. I wonder if they might have been sold under the Bluebird name in the '60s. I suspect most of those Matchbox figures are overscale for 4mm; the Shand-Mason fire engine was listed as 1:63 scale so about S scale, while that ice cream salesman is very big for the van he is in. Some quite nice sculpting though as were the later 1980s Lledo figures, though again scale varied a lot!

Both LNER, the top one the post-war plywood variety.

Nice Monaro! All very good. Nice job on the designs there. You've captured them well.

They did run a Trix A2 on the layout (532 Blue Peter, of course).

The simple way to scale 4mm is to use the prototype's length* in inches and divide by 3 to give the correct model mm. Most of the Minix range are pretty accurate. * You do have to watch out for differences cause by over-riders, etc. on some designs.

The Fiat 124 is just a little bigger than an HA Viva, though smaller than an HB, so that does look about right.

The metal drawbar is 5mm wide by 19mm long and 1/16th inch thick. At the tender end the pivot end is burred over, so permanently attached. At the loco end there's a shouldered brass screw. Pivot centres are 14mm.

1159cc in the HB, the '90' rated at almost 69hp (gross). Love the shape of the HB estate, enough to model it. Shame I dodn't even get one for myself!

I wonder if they might be from old 00 CCW kits (1950s/'60s). One of the coaches appears to be a Bullied, so probably and 'odd man out'. The other five look like they could form a 6-PUL with the Pullman car missing.