Coppercap

I was a member from the very early days in 1976 until it all started to fall apart. Lived in Heston, not far from Bob G. We must have met there at some point!

Ordered mine soon after seeing finished samples at Warley 2022, and have just had advice that it's on its way...

I've got loads of photos of 4110's journey from Barry to Southall along the A40, and then the unloading. Were you a GWRPG member back then? I was.

That scene has changed considerably since then - it's now virtually unrecognisable! The 'arches' one the right has since gone, and huge tower blocks just beyond. Oh, and a brand new footbridge. May 2021 Google image:

Well, whichever, I remember I got mine new, soon after it appeared in the shops...and I do remember having to wait a while for it.

Well, I did have (and still have) both! Actually, mine was a new early Hornby Evening Star, just post-Tri-ang, made before they started cheapening the tender drive. When the Ivatt 2MT appeared in the catalogue, I saved up for it and got one soon after it was released. It was something of a let-down after the fantastic Evening Star!

Erm, the Tri-ang Hornby Evening Star, with the new tender drive Ringfield motor, was introduced in 1971. Hornby Railways introduced the Ivatt 2MT in1974....

Correct, and if anything like mine (the first type with wide-tread wheels and no flanges on the centre drivers), unable to pull much when not on steel track - it slipped terribly. A very disappointing model IMO.

I've ordered one and paid in full too (but mine's non-sound). We'll just have to wait the short while until they arrive...

Have you ordered one?

Thanks, I'd not come across those Henry Booth sketches. As certain features appear more than once in different images (such as the strange curved-bottomed doors) they seem to have genuinely existed, and it does indeed appear that Hornby have used these as the basis for their model. They do look somewhat more convincing than the images depicted on the stamps. So did Hornby mention these last year? I never saw that back then. Edit: Ah yes, they did - just found train pack R30090...

Within the Era 1 range, we know the existing 1st and 3rd class coaches are accurate models of the existing 1930s replicas at the NRM, and both the previously-announced 'Queen Adelaide's Saloon' and Royal Mail Coach seem to be accurate renditions of the real things. But the newly-announced 2nd class coach looks like it is yet another of Hornby's fictitious Era 1 vehicles, just like the 'flatbed wagon', 'coal wagon', horse wagon' and 'sheep wagon' were (though in fairness, the last two did seem to take their inspiration from one of the fairly crude early images of a Liverpool and Manchester Railway goods train). The only image I can find of anything looking like the Hornby 2nd class coach is this rather fanciful one on a commemorative postage stamp from 1980 (and which was probably commissioned especially for the stamps): which was from this series of stamps:

Of course, the male plebs kept their caps on while eating their bread and cheese back in 3rd class. No frequenting of the dining car for them! (Not even for posed photographs at Wolverton carriage works!)

When 'out' (ie. not at home), the ladies certainly would have kept their hats on all the time. The men would no doubt have politely doffed their hats or caps at the ladies on the platform, and then put them back on again, repeating it once again when greeting another lady who arrives on the scene. Some men would have kept their headgear on once on the train, others removed theirs - but I think they generally removed them if sat next to or opposite ladies. (My observations from old archive film or movies).

These are currently on the boat from China, according to the chap I spoke to on the Kernow stand at the Warley show. Arrival early next year.

I well remember 1959 stock on Heathrow services - my station was Hounslow West. I used to go on training courses up in town in the late 1970s, and when a 1959 stock train clattered into Hounslow West in the morning or King's Cross St Pancras in the evening, I knew I'd enjoy my journey in the knowledge that it could well be my last on that stock on the Piccadilly, despite them getting rather 'tired' inside. They were by then few and far between on the Piccadilly, but there were always several sat in Northfields depot. I liked the 1973 stock - quieter, comfortable and obviously still very clean and new, but the 1959 was entertaining at speed between Acton Town and Hammersmith, along with all the rattles and bangs etc (but the 1938 stock was even livelier!). Then one day, they were gone...

The Model Rail review of the early GWR crimson livery ones is in the shops now.

Only reviewers of samples, eg. Model Rail. Nobody has them in stock yet, at least, not where I have ordered mine from, or anywhere else I've looked.

Read that one - straight on the fire with it when he's gone! 😉

My mother told me that on their interwar trips between Paddington and Gloucester to see family (3rd Class, obviously), her father used to tip the enginemen maybe 1/- each, much to her mother's despair - she said it was their job, and nobody ever tipped him for his work! While my grandfather was also very much working class and struggling (council house, second evening job to make ends meet, and all that), the enginemen were almost certainly much better paid than he was, and he could ill afford to tip. Those 2/- were much needed in the family housekeeping...

Raglan, wasn't it? I know the road well. Bike was a courtesy bike while his was in for service, as far away as Bristol. Bike had a tracker on it, unbeknownst to the rider - had he known it, quite likely he wouldn't have been riding like he was.

I'm pretty sure crimson and cream would only have been applied to corridor stock - these toplights are non-corridor. No doubt the proposed corridor toplights would be released in crimson and cream.

16th April 1995

D601 Conquest. From the railwaymoviedatabase website mentioned earlier.

I like that: "some Youtuber" 😄 (I saw it too) - but I agree with you, nice model, and I do like mine, but it does need updating to keep up with the best of the pack.