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oh this is interesting, Are you referring to 37501 (In BS blue) and 502+ ? Steel trains around Manchester weren't overly common, but I saw a few pairs of these heading through Manchester towards Warrington, very rare around our area. I think there was a specific project going on as they only came through for a short period, one summer..37501+502 made it once, and promptly the Lima pair became extinct in our areas model shops, though I missed it. Looking at my Platform 5 I saw 37504,5,6,10,11,17,18,19.. as I never went to their territory its safe to say they came to mine, c1988-90. We used to regularly get Cardiff 37/9’s each week, I think once or twice weekly, as well as very ratty condition 37/0’s on steel from Scotland down the s&c to Blackburn and Bolton to Manchester again once, twice a week. 37037 Gartcosh being a regular and easy to remember.

If he quoted my post of January, then he wasnt. Ive not been in this thread for months (i had to check, and thought it was last year, I didnt realise this thread had gone quiet for 3 months, such a lot has happened in the world in such a short time.

I really think the argument has already been done to death. with hundreds of non-existant prototypes, with limited drawings and each coach being hand built and hand repaired through its life, picking the “right one” to model and getting it accurate would be extremely difficult. If you picked one prototype, it would only represent one of dozens of railways and a very specific time window, in what is a 70 year era... making it inaccurate for everyone else... these arent mk1’s built to standard designs. Dont forget theres not exactly a huge range of locos out there to pull them either. Yes they are accuractly compromised, but so is the price and for modellers of this era, its these rtr, or self build kits or build it yourself. There is nothing stopping you buying them and modelling them into your desired type. If they annoy you so much, carry on doing what you were doing before they were announced.

Another week passed and supermarkets are still struggling in my neck of Surrey. no milk, cheese, deli meats of any kind, very little alcohol and no chocolate, no oranges, strawberries... But as side that they seem to be filled up on other goods supermarket was finally about 3/4 full. Had my first celery in 2 weeks today. Butchers has come up good though.. steaks, pork, lamb etc.. its all there... its been bacon and sausage for a few weeks. In short its getting better, still though I hear the local big supermarkets had 3 hour queues today, so i’m sticking to my philosophy of the smaller stores.. no queues there, though i’m missing Halloumi cheese, olives.. no source for them in a month. I saw the BBC article about milk... I find it odd as the local stores in my area cant seem to get it and are still limiting to 1 bottle per customer visit, occasionally as today, running out... there must be two sides to this story..

I though going via Hounslow loop was a substitute for Wimbledon ?

Kernow model railways have it discounted currently.. http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/64284/32-775NF-Bachmann-Class-37-0-Diesel-Locomotive-number-37-104

Ive been thinking 2020 was already going to be an Apex year. considerable price rises restrictions on discounting Increased duplication of tooling running out of unique prototypes Increase in new entrants With new toolings delayed pipeline due to Brexit starting to emerge all in all, theres a ton of models scheduled for 2020 for OO gauge., Ive thought its too much, especially Hornbys plans, for people to bare. Coronovirus has added.. loss some of its customers sees a long term decline in the £ (its dropped 10%) - affects costs sees longer term pension (share price) decline -affects spend General inflation - affects disposable spend slow economic growth / long term lockdown affects spend increased taxation to cover the costs it could become a lean time for retailers, manufacturers. However it is not all bad, there are seeds in the bag that haven't been explored, which, with attrition of older modellers arguably constraining progress in both technology pull and investment tooling spend to their demographic groups, this leaves some markets unexplored.. there is oppourtunity in this... significant technology enhancements are available to explore by younger entrepreneurs, which could fit a mix of lower cost & bespoke products.. AR/VR Wifi deadrail 3D print technology on larger scale Professional print/paint capability in short batch runs 21st century designed kits modelling prototypes built after 1994 (theres very little rtr comparatively). So theres room for green shoots too. What may cause a problem is in the short term, the £ being down, the economy being down, but then a whole bunch of models arriving on the docks needing to be paid for. if manufacturers dont have deep pockets to pay for it and costs to store it for a while, things might get a bit squeaky. it might be that Some comissioners get to put brakes on Chinese production, or get them to warehouse it for a while.. but their staff need paying and productions slots are scarce and time already lost this year.. no time for idle hands, when the brakes are released we could endup with a flood of new models, more than a recovering economy can handle. Time will out, I was already thinking 2020 was too ambitious as it was, it might be 2020’s range becomes 2021 and 22’s too.

A bit late to the party on this, The railroad hall lacks a bit of printing detail, subtle things like Tender ID / capacity plate, black lining, copper/ brass printing. But overall the green lets them down, its too light. Ultimately I passed mine on in favour of the Bachmann Hall.. I think Hornbys shape is better, as is its performance, but the livery and the wheels (the thin tyres) let it down. I kept 4953 in plain GWR green by Hornby, without the lining the green is less noticeable. If they get the green darker, like the recent Castle or the Brits/Bulleids etc i’d probably be back to it. Still if you pick them up under £80 you've not much to complain about, the railroad ones were around £50 a few years ago.

It is 1:76... here is a Bachmann 85 and a Trix 81.... they are pretty much identical in dimensions. My Trix 81 (bottom) is riding on a Bachmann 85 chassis, its about an hours work to make it fit, but the dimensions are within a 1mm or so.

Its factory finished, I have one too, making the bufferbeam black and adding large buffers (even Hornby class 20/47 buffers) improves its appearance hugely. Cant help with production dates.

I recall plan was to use the Castle’s pod motor in the class 81, in the same way it was used in the Transpenine / class 150 & 155. On off between 93-96 I did occasional work experience at Dapol in Winsford, as research for a university thesis. Whilst there I got to assemble class 124’s/150/155, as well as going up stairs and repackaging ex-Mainline stock into Dapol boxes.. mostly mk2D’s & Unrebuilt Scots, Black jubilees etc, and helping sort the mess of Wrenn toolings and pallettes of part finished wrenn stuff as well as pressing dog bowls and Airfix kits. Handled oodles of 81 bodies during that time, wish I’d kept some !

No the Triang and Trix toolings are different. The Trix / Liliput /Dapol moulding is much finer quality, especially on the front end and roof detail, the bogies, motor and pantograph are also much better The chassis of the Hornby Dublo one is not like a class 81 at all (several say it was a class 82 chassis, but its a dinosaur). The Trix bogies are very finely detailed too, indeed even the wheel centres were detailed. this is my left over Trix motor bogie, the wheel details,dimensions are spot on identical to Bachmann’s class 85 and the Triang one. I have both with me, indeed I have a detailed out a Triang one, as the Trix one was hard to source, now Ive sourced one and fitted the Bachmann chassis. This is my Triang one, obviously it’s moved on a long way from its original BR blue, but you get the idea.. and the Trix one.. bach to the Triang one.. Fitting a Bachmann class 85 chassis is an easier proposition On the Triang model, than the Trix 81 however, no need to grind out the part between the bogies, on the Triang one, I can just lop them and the buffers off, though the Trix lifting lugs are moulded to the body (like Bachmann), on Triang they are moulded into the bogie, so I’d need to make replacements. This models been a long term labour of love, but there’s no getting away from the fact the Trix/Liliput 81 sits nicer along side the 85/86/87 models. I’m in two minds to keep it & finish it, or give it up, (when I started this the Bachmann 85 didn’t exist). One nice aspect of putting the Bachmann chassis under the Trix one, is the lights work exactly as they did on the Liliput one originally, no mods needed at all (unless you want to change it).

How much different is a class 81 to a class 85 anyway ? This is the liliput class 81 next to a Bachmann class 85. i think it stands up very well considering its age (ive refitted it to a Bachmann 85 chassis, as below the body they are the same), above the chassis, theres not much difference either.

pot, kettle..

Sadly we seem to have lost one from the railway enthusiast fold ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-52151530

I too saw slight improvement, local supermarket had mushrooms and cucumbers... no other fruit or veg of any kind. what can you make out of that ?

we live near a really nice bakery... I remeber the days when if it was quiet, I could drop my little one at school, stop off for breakfast check emails, bring home a loaf and have an hour on my layout before the US lot woke up and bombed my inbox...whilst eating a sly scotch egg... and still have hid the evidence before 6pm. Now its like exiting the space shuttle for a supermarket walk, checking for moon dust before returning home and doing a post shop analysis for what you could get from the shopping trip, discover what your still missing, what you might yet still find and adding it to the checklist for the next shopping mission. right now finding eggs and moon rocks in Surrey have equal odds... scotch egg is but a distant memory.

I should add with parcels, I dont let them in the house. Let the courier leave them outside, open then with gloves place content to large Ikea bags and put them in the garage. The outer cardboard goes straight to bin. my Hattons 66’s just came out of quarantine..first impressions they are great, but as Ive got to split cooking/cleaning three times a day, teach my daughter as well as fulltime work, plus with my wife working from home, my spare time has gone out of the window... ive been working from home for nigh on 22 years and right now Ive never had my spare time so consumed by domesticity ! - I cant wait to have this passed so I can export the mrs back to her office, daughter to school and safely go back to having the place to myself during the day and the odd ham and cheese butty... i’m thinking we need a room booking app to reserve bedrooms / my office for meetings during the daytime as every hour were all swapping rooms... even my 9 year old is having online socials with her class mates.

So the model has legs... is that model a final EP or a production sample ?

I wear gloves and a mask, if you have neither, wear winter gloves and scarf.. it might not offer much but it’s better than nowt. I take my own shopping bags. When I enter the store, I leave my wallet and phone behind, taking only the credit card (no accidental touching / handling). Never touch anything with bare hands, place it into the bag myself. I’m lucky in that my car can be unlocked by my foot under the boot (touchlees entry) automatically. Once bags are in the boot, I remove the gloves gel my hands, then remove the mask and bin the lot. At home, I change clothes immediately, including shoes. Then with fresh gloves, I remove each item with a dettol wipe, if its in suitable to remove exterior packaging I remove and bin it. Everything wipes goes to a new bag and 3 days quarantine, fridge stuffs, I have three shelves used in rotation, 2 to use, 1 for quarantine stuff. Am not buying frozen, for obvious reason. Extreme... I thought so in Hong Kong in 2003 until I caught something very similar (suspect SARS) to covid19... thats what my more careful fellow citizens were doing there then. you take your own risks.

I think comments of older Hornby models is valid, afterall the reason the model is poor is lack of investment in that type by that manufacturer. If they don't invest in it, doesn't mean to say everyone has to say its a good model, especially if someone is prepared to put their own money down to make a better one. i should add its bi-directional, some comments by larger manufacturers Reps are somewhat interesting about hobbyists, its just you dont see them in print. i should add Charlies comments in person are one of the highlights at exhibitions, I always leave with a horrified smile, so I always go back for more.

Looking at the headcode, I was guessing it was a turd burner. If its got Deltic horns.. then it has accurate sound effects to confirm it.

Any chance of a picture of it on cement bubbles?

I really hate to say it, but you've cocked up. The real thing in 1959 did not have wipac light clusters. order canceled, however if you issue one in New York Central grey, with central bonnet headlamp i’d be very interested.

Ive been trying to remember which one it was. 47145 was my first thought too, but thinking back it might have been a Euro Railfreight distribution 47 with a blue roof ( 47375 Tinsley Traction depot comes to mind too), or even 31116 or 47803 in that garish yellow. unfortunately my memory's defeated me. I recall the loco was posed just behind the stand selling them, and a number of retailers bought them from the stand same day (which exacerbated its selling out) and a few weeks later swapmeets were offering them at much higher prices.