Pufferazzi

I saw them and even rode on behind a few in their working days and I think this model is just superb and for what is really a modest price...it captures the dainty character of these dainty machines...all 00 models are a compromise due to the narrow gauge anomaly of 00 gauge track and this can visually impair the overall balanced look of the prototype. We have to live with that or go for EM or S4 and then you have to build or pay somebody to do it for you....that will cost far more than the Dapol modeI. If we are pedantic about every measurement then we have consider the prototype measurements based on the engineers drawing when was built the loco was cold. When its running on a layout it will be emulating the prototype which  will have expanded due being hot. Stick that up your chimney and enjoy what I think is one of the finest rtr models ever made ...just look at that fine detail. We are living in lucky times with what is available.

The images certainly suggest that it has proper frames rather than a block...with the amount of daylight under the boiler that detail would be very telling. Looks smashing ...it would nice to have a smoke feature something like this...a pic I took in february 1967 at Chinley South Junction...we could hear it for ages as the fireman threw tons on coal in to keep her going. It was like thunder and had bad steam leaks as is evident. It would be nice if our models could come alive like this...come on Hornby give us some clagg too.

Great News ....the most exciting bit of 00 for quite  a while ....I had an inkling which will be replaced by one of these, maybe two.....rode over Talerdigg behind 7812 Erlestoke Manor on the Cambrian Coast Express in the last year of the Manor....it was a great memory for a fledgling train spotter..... the moguls look fantastic and these will be too.....all we need now is a 2251....anyone listening!

Devil's Advocate....

For locos working under the wires between 1960 and 1968 model manufacturers should provide an optional smokebox for the post electricification period and it would then be very easy to install a working lamp....!!!!

Agreed..... but modellers' license allows  for most things.....I presume that practice of lowering brackets started in 1966 when the electrification of the North Western to Euston was completed....must look at my Willesden Junction MPD  loco pictures....Cricklewood also still had steam then....it all seemed like yesterday....now no EE Type 4s, Peaks or AL6s in sight. I wonder when or if an 8F will return to this city......they are very handsome considering they were ostensibly a freight loco. This new Farish model certainly captures their gravitas.... what can we look forward to next?

Another shot,

Loco 48212 at  Newton Heath depot with sunlight  ( a rare phenomina here in the UK ! )  The words COLK have been stencilled where the shed plate should have been.. I've just checked through a number of 1967 images and all 8Fs, 5MTs, Brits and 9Fs have had their lamp brakets fixed to the smokebox....you learn something every day !

Well done,

That seems to make a lot of sense.....I suppose that till the early 1960s 8Fs wouldn't go under any wires....The Woodhead line being run by the Eastern would have had GCR 04s....electrification of the North Western would change that ....all the Farish locos are thus correct not to feature these lamp brackets but those guys are pretty hot on their research.....just found another 8F shot...the loco was unidentified as I was paying more attention in my picture composition and in those days I took little interest in the numbers....this 8F also has smokebox lamp brackets....you can see it from quite a long way off....I suppose all locos would have been modified thus.

I hope to build this scene as a 2mm model diorama....painting the back-scene will be fun!

Back to 8Fs......

Just found another pic taken back in early 1967 at Buxton yards with two 8Fs in the shot. I noticed that there was a lamp on the the smoke boxof the departing train and then discovered that the preserved loco 48151 also has the same lamp bracket.....was this rare or common with the 8Fs?

Yes we desperately need a reworked 9F ....Farish have a few of the parts needed in their  BR standard class 5MT....various tender options, the cab sides and the pony truck from the Standard 4 mogul and cylinders and valve gear I think...but will they invest ?  ......Could the old Dapol model be converted to DCC with sound easily.....I think not.....9Fs could be seen anywhere  but rarely north of the border...they  were inter regional...They were allocated to the old Midland, North Western, Great Central and Eastern and to a lesser amount to the Western. Several  were allocated to the Somerset and Dorset and thus ended in Southern Territory and 9F were also seen on the Fawley oil trains. So there we have it, a handsome prototype that was seen on express trains as well as  freight, and over a large geographical area.....they also lasted right through the transition period till the end of steam so fit in comfortably with modellers who like diseasels ...so its a no brainer!  The only other loco with such diversity were of course the Britannias....they regularly worked over the border with the Northern Irishman. Heavy freight locos are of course a winner in model manufacturing terms because then you need to buy a long string of freight wagons to go with.  What we need is a new modern spec model and

it would also be nice to have firebox flicker in our scale too.   it just adds that bit extra.  Lets get bleating now.....altogether now! .....I attach a picture I took in February 1967 .....we also want smoke units that work like this!

What a beaut.......now how about a Crab.....or a revamped 'Black Five'

Hi Guys,

Finally a decorated sample in BR livdery and wow nice it is too.....Don't think any got down to Wadebridge in Cornwall but we will find an excuse for one on my future layout....diverted whilst on an excursion!....Great News Hornby....a perfect partner for an H class on some of the Sussex Branchlines!

If you mean the silvery coach at 26secs then I don't think so. Playing it forwards on freeze frame as far as is possible, it looks to me like a square-windowed Thompson suburban, then (also at 26secs) we see another one end-on (next to a Grange?) but this time with rounded windows IMHO

Yes, you could be right on second thoughts....but it would be so nice if it was a B set....they were to be seen across the GW system but also i nto other territories such as North Wales near the Wirral, around Yeovil, I think Chard Junction and of course on the Withered Arm on the Bodmin Road to Padstow locals, which is the area I'm interested in....but because I can't help myself I know I will have to have an H because..... I'm worth it!

Here we go....the proverbial livery topic....As a hard core train spotter, shed basher, and route cruncher in the early sixties I witnessed the end of an era and like many of us oldies I never saw any locos in their Big Four liveries, let alone the pregrouping colours, so many of us hark back to what we remember as opposed to what looked better....after all, if you put money into preservation then its because we want recreat the age we were fond of...in that sense I'm happy to see locos looking a bit grubby and in the BR livery just as I remembered them. However I do like many of the older liveries and always enjoy seeing heritage steam, but they are not nostagia jerkers....there was nothing quite trudging down an ash path down into a unvisited depot to see something like a grubby Q simmering outside waiting for its next job. For many of us its these magic moments that we are trying to encapsulate...There are very few people left who actually remember the glory days of the pre war era....but yes in pure aesthetic terms the Q looks best in Southern Black...

Obviously my mention of a Q has started a train of thought...I only remember them in grubby BR days based at just a few southern depots....I must agree that they do look particulary handsome in Southern unlined black. A Hornby model could ride on the R &D of the Black Motor. They were mixed traffic machines as they also worked passenger trains out of Bournemouth on the Ringwood Line through West Moors. The Hornby team have obviously been spending some time at the Bluebell railway during the rearch for the

Adams Radial, the H and possibly for the S15, so the guys must have been infected by the charms of 30541....and of course there are two U classes there if I remember rightly so who knows what we may see next!

Looks like another Southern winner....Do I spot a test shot for a GWR B set coach in the background ?.....a much needed replacement for that old Airfix offering from way back when...I'm amazed its taken so long.

Hands up for a new range of Bullied Coaches and maybe with lighting in them and a working tail lamp....these are features are found in American N scale coaches so it would be easy in 00. A few more Southern locos would be nice...a Q 0-6-0 like 30541 preserved on the Bluebell Railway ....I saw a few of these on Guildford to Horsham services, then of course there is the U class, a Urie S15 would be magic and a Z tank too.....Whatever we are living in lucky times with such fine models as are already available at such modest prices....Full marks Hornby the H is coming on nicely.

Hi Guys,

Whilst this is exciting news I must point out that the chimney on the CAD and EP seems wrong...it should taper gently inwards from its seating position on the smokebox and not be parallel all the way up...check the against the images of the prototype on the Hornby site.....someone mentioned the buffers also needed a closer look...these are all details that can be easily rectified now.

I would like to see one of those Midland Railway Johnson 0-4-4T to follow. A couple of these used to work on the Somerset & Dorset and anyone else up for a Q class....those Hornby researchers must have been enticed by the charm of 30541 whilst they were on the Bluebell....

Full marks to Hornby....the H will be a winner with all those livery options....

I don't have a website or blog that focuses on my SP efforts. Too many very good SP modelers around here (SF Bay Area) to display my mistakes.  At present as seen in some of the photos on this thread, my HO equipment is sometimes seen on Lend-Lease to the Southern Railway in Padstow, 

 

Small SP steam are a big problem these days for me. Most of the brass moguls (M-6) Consolidations (C-9) and ten wheelers (T-28) that used to be numerous on the used market are locked up in collections that are not being sold. When they do show up they are too high priced for me and would be a pain to fit DCC on the old chassis wired electrical systems. Newer Sunset Models or similar are in the $600-700 range when you can find them.  I have the Athearn Mountain but it is for shelf display as it would not fit my San Ramon branch at all. I have a foobie (no known real prototype) bashed from an altered Bachmann heavy 2-8-0 and numbered 2870 as a class C-13 (neither existed) with the fiction that it was purchased used from a dieselized Oregon lumber line about 1950 and has slight SP alterations. I am looking for an SP medium Vanderbilt tender for this locomotive or another future foobie sister. I have a pair of MDC Harriman 4-6-0's that were re-detailed in the 1980's but are a problem for DCC and still in deep deep storage. 

 

On the good news side, Golden Gate Depot which is a part of brass importer Sunset Models has announced it will manufacture (import from China) a series of 68 and 70 foot SP Harriman passenger and baggage cars probably available next year. See http://www.goldengatedepot.com/reservationHO.html. They have already made these cars in O (US 1:48) scale so have all the research done along with feedback on all their O scale version mistakes which they promise to fix in HO. There always is a lot of confusion about the length of SP passenger cars as the class designation is based on the interior bulkhead to bulkhead measurement.  Thus a 60-C-6 chair car is actually 68.5 feet long at the buffer plate (not UK buffers) rather than 60 feet long. MDC Roundhouse unfortunately made this error in the early 1980's with their Harriman cars. 

Hi,

Just found your blog and wow....I'm modelling Wadebridge SR ( 1961 ) in Scalefour.....and I know Walnut Creek...a friend by the name of Tom Howard who lives in Homestead Avenue is a member of the Walnut Creek model rail club  and I've been there on my many visits....I also know that there is a closed route very near to his home.....I also love American Railroads having bought much stuff from Joan at Just Trains in Concorde, also Chan Trains and all the local stores...I'm into N scale of the Western Roads SPAC12 I love them and GS4s and Santa Fe 4-8-4s and 2-10-4s are nice!

If you know Tom Howard and his wife Patti say Hi from me ( Chris in London )