Southwich

15 hours ago, James Makin said:

There’s a very feint texture ghosting of the logo but based on past experience I’d be more than comfortable just varnishing over that and having as an unbranded loco! 

 

It was a real struggle to angle the loco under direct light to see it (you can just see a bit of the diagonal chevron on the lower grey) but even without varnishing it’s so hard to see, and once the other varnish layers go on, that’ll fully disappear!
 

Over time I’m planning a few unbranded and of course some lovely Transrail ones, pleased how smoothly the de-brand went, and the thinners was not even getting close to attacking the rail grey & flint grey - magic stuff!

Thanks for your experiments James! Funnily enough I had a spare hour for the first time in quite a while so also did a bit of tinkering - first testing a triple grey shell:

I used cotton buds and white spirit on both the tests.
 

And then moving onto a 120 which is a donor for ‘078 in 2003 condition - removing all of the OHLE stickers and numbers:

Ready for new numbers and OHLE stickers before weathering.
 

I think it goes without saying that I’ve now invalidated my warranty though  🤣
 

Kind regards,

Will

After a long week delivering Class 56s up and down the country we are pleased that all of our retailers have now received their models.
 

Please get in contact with us or your retailer if you have any questions or issues with your Class 56s. 

Thanks to @P.C.M in Australia for sharing the below photos of his weathered model of 56008 on his excellent layout Llanbourne. We’re looking forward to seeing photos of 56s on layouts in the next few weeks!

Kind regards,

Will

7 hours ago, BritishRail60062 said:

Get one mate. You won't regret it! They are nice models. Although from my observations from the performance when I reviewed mine tonight. I feel that all wheel drive would have been a better option to have gone for. Not moaning, just some constructive feedback. 

Thanks for the feedback Peter. Can you please send us an email with your observations and we’ll look into it further?
 

We felt that the all round performance benefits from going AIA-AIA on uneven track far outweighs the minimal impact of not having the centre axle driven. Hope that helps to explain our thinking behind the decisions?

Kind regards,

Will

2 hours ago, Mark said:

Mine has been despatched from Rails. I queried the p4 wheels and they said they were waiting confirmation for these so I don’t know what is going on there. They are still shown on my pre order list.

 

Mark

Best course of action would be to call Rails to sort as they do have both EM/P4 wheelsets in stock. Although please bear with them if you can’t get through immediately as from Facebook comments they’ve been quite busy with the 56 dispatch! 
 

Kind regards,

Will

6 minutes ago, Mark Forrest said:

These do look (and sound) very nice; I could be tempted.  Is there an ETA on the drop in P4 wheels?

They’re in stock with retailers already Mark!

Kind regards,

Will

55 minutes ago, Ray M said:

So is my 56 a one off.

With upside down 8s at both ends & no blue cab handrails.

just asking, you not getting it back.

Very pleased.

Glad you’re pleased with 008! 
 

We changed the handrails on the final models to have a longer timespan for modellers. Should have blue handrails on the front of the loco and white handrails on the side.
 

A quick Flickr search looks like bodyside handrails being white post ‘77 hence the choice to change from blue to white. 

Hope that helps! 

Kind regards,

Will

3 hours ago, 97406 said:

Very nice. Do I win a prize? 😁

Disappointed you haven’t weathered it already Tim if I’m honest  😉

In all seriousness thanks for your support - looks great on your layout.

Kind regards,

Will

11 minutes ago, taliesin said:

Will the sound chip and speakers be available to upgrade a dcc ready version to the full monty version. I ask because I’ve purchased one sound equipped one and not sure I can quite stretch to another before next payday.

We’re looking at sorting this asap but will be a few weeks or so till we can confirm (as you can imagine have quite a few models to get out!), but the intention is to absolutely supply DCC sound upgrade kits if we can!

Kind regards,

Will

14 minutes ago, E100 said:

Any idea if Colletts have got their batch in yet? Can't wait to marvel at 56008 and it's accurate upside down 8!

Should do by the end of the weekend latest. C&M Models and Rainbow Railways competed today.

Kind regards,

Will

5 minutes ago, The Meerkat said:

 

probs silly question but will they be painted? 

I don’t know if I’m completely honest, I imagine not but I know @Modelu Chris was looking at colour prints so I’ll let him confirm! 
 

Will

50 minutes ago, The Meerkat said:

will there be modern crew to go with 70s and 90s drivers?

The 90s one is also a modern one - we were scanned in high vis jackets per uniforms of the current day.

Kind regards,

Will

4 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

Has anyone got a 56019?

 

The render images had it with the small Railfreight logo on the cabside, but just seen a retailer photo and it does not have the RF logo on it. Can anyone confirm if it has the RF logo - I am keen on RF liveries with the logo.

 

Thanks.

Hi Tony - 56019 never carried the railfreight logos so the model doesn’t have them either. Depending on demand we’ll look at a loco in the second run with RF logos.

Kind regards,

Will

10 hours ago, Triumph1050 said:

To Cavalex in here. Will be wanting to fit a driver as soon as mine comes. Can you tell me if it's straightforward to get to the drivers seat? Thanks

It’s very easy to drop the cab interiors out, they’re just clipped into the bodyshell. Driver fitting will be easy enough, but we have been scanned by ModelU (and @Revolution Mike In the modern crew with me!) for easy fitting into the cabs - simply pop out the factory fitted seats, and install the new seat with driver fitted.

See link below to both crew packs:

https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/product/10226/

https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/product/10225/
 

Kind regards,

Will

16 minutes ago, Garry D100 said:

Just looking at the new photos on Rails.

Im curious why the 8 on 56008 looks upside down/different and is positioned differently to the preprod sample and prototype photos I can find.

 

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/cavalex-models-cm-56008-brb-sound-class-56-008-br-blue-livery-diesel-locomotive-dcc-sound

 

 

 

Edit.

 

Although im looking at different sides of the loco so maybe its positioned differently on each side.

Hi Garry - pic from Flickr below of the upside down 8:

A few more on Flickr as well with the search being “56008 197X” depending on the year you’re modelling.

Kind regards,

Will

37 looks cracking as always sir!

Kind regards,

Will

Thanks for the hospitality as always Pete! A few more shots of the grid in miniature North Wales - looks right at home. A very enjoyable day playing trains and spotting Kangaroos! 

Kind regards,

Will

40 minutes ago, JR_P said:

Yep, me too - mine was Redland large…. no wheels is a bit of impediment for a train 😂 !

 

No big deal - RoS had a replacement pair with me the following day.

 

A really top class wagon…. been trying to justify the all-white to run with my DB HKAs - there was a fairly short cross-over of them running together, but could be hard to resist….!

I’ll leave this pic from Flickr here for you:

Kind regards,

Will

Great work as usual Tim. Your work has got me thinking about a small plank out here in Aus!

Kind regards,

Will

Looking great Tim - the finish you’ve achieved on 40139 is excellent!

Kind regards,

Will

3 hours ago, Revolution Mike B said:

G’day possum….hope all is well in Straya? 
 

Having had a play around with one on the buffering up challenge, I’m looking forward to it too. It sounds great and runs like a dream.

All good thank you sir - busy with work but some occasional modelling is happening. 
 

The man that hated grids has changed his tune eh! 😉

Will

Hope the show goes well Mike - enjoy! Look forward to seeing the grid running again on your layout

Kind regards,

Will

3 hours ago, Daddyman said:

Interesting, Will. I don't know anything about sound (though am not averse to it)  but your solution looks very well thought-out.

 

I'm more interested in you having been able to separate out the tops of the fuel tanks from their bodies. That never occurred to me! But I think by separating them out like that, you might find that the smoothing you have done makes no difference to how they sit when re-attached to the underframe - it looks like you've smoothed the top separately, without the upper parts of the body? (I could be wrong.) In my experience, it's necessary to do quite a bit to the actual body of the fuel tank too - to those two pipes at the front of the right-hand tank in your last photo, and to the bulge at the back (same tank, same photo) as well as to the fixing brackets. 

I drilled out the pillars that join the bottom of the tanks to the top of the tanks and the plastic underframe, which once removed separates the three pieces nicely.
 

I’ve been gluing the tops of the tanks back on this afternoon after fitting the speakers, so will sand back the super glue marks to get it all level before fitting. I’ve taken off the parts of the body of the tank so hoping it should sit nice and flush straight away but will see how it works!

Looking forward to more of your progress. 
 

Kind regards,

Will