fezza

When did railway logos as intellectual property become a thing? Did Triang Hornby really pay BR to use their crest or Shell to use their image on tanker wagons in the 1960s? I suspect this was all quite recent. 1990s maybe?

A better 08 is done by Bachmann and the HST, 153 and 67 are crude by modern standards. The 91 is slightly better but fairly basic. All could easily be picked off by other manufacturers who wanted to produce a modern spec model, just as they have with the 31, 37, 47, 50 etc.

The core problem is that at the premium end of the market others do it better. The only active modern image Hornby locos I have are a 31 and a 50 - and these have now been superceded by better models from other manufacturers. At the train set end their products are often little more than expensive rehashes of 1980s editions - and as there are so many of those originals on the second hand market, why would you bother? (especially as the 1980s versions are often better made and more robust). Hornby stagger on and will continue to stagger on because of their name and brand recognition. But they need some serious new thinking to rescue their railway offer.

It is odd how there's not been more commentary and publicity for this show. I was intending to go but am seriously wondering if £38 (ticket and parking) is worth it for a show half the size of Warley and with only a third of the railway content. Perhaps they'll be a bit more of a "buzz" to it over the next week?

I've read a bit about pooling but am not 100 per cent clear about the implications. Was this an entirely national process so a coal private owner wagon from Somerset could end up in Norfolk? Or would wagons still broadly stay in the same geographical region? For example, should a model of a Norfolk branch line mainly have former Eastern coal private owners or were they completely mixed up by 1950? I'm struggling to find detailed reference photos of rakes where the original PO identity can be discerned.

I've always assumed BR repainted private owner wagons very quickly as few photographs post 1948 seem to show large numbers in private owner liveries. Were some repainted plain grey when they were pooled and repaired during the war? There seems to be little data/photographs of wagons during the war - but that's not surprising I suppose!

No I didn't say that at all. Try reading carefully.

Maybe Hornby should have thought of that and got a properly thought out and logical range of good quality products ready before launch? If the answer is they don't have sufficient capacity for a viable TT range, why launch a TT range? The fact they have driven other potential TT suppliers out of the market without being able to offer products of their own is crazy and does nothing to encourage growth of the scale.

We are desperate for a J50 said noone ever. Yet we still have no DMUs (either first or second generation), no Standard 5s, Standard tanks or 4Fs - you know stuff that would actually be useful to a wide range of people who want to run a railway realistic and appropriate stock. There was an April Fools joke on the internet stating that Hornby had abandoned TT. Perhaps the bigger joke is that is continuing with an utterly random range of models. If I was a shareholder I would be very worried.

Yes, I was wondering about that. I guess my J72 is going to remain in service for the Summer timetable (well, it was good enough for Iain Rice...) I'm running a Gaugemaster Combi (non feedback) which should be ok for coreless?

Actually that does seem to have improved running. Thanks! It's not perfect, but certainly better. I suppose that's the problem with assessing running issues - there are sometimes several issues that you have to diagnose. It makes me a bit more comfortable with buying locos with coreless motors though.

Both mine were skirted BR versions. I sold one as I got frustrated with fiddling with it! The other runs better but after lots of running in it is a bit sticky at a crawl in one direction and occasionally stalls on gradients or with heavyish loads. Compared to my ancient but sweet running Mainline J72, the J70 doesn't seem to represent 40 years of progress. Of course, that's not to say the Buckjumper will be the same, bit it is a worry given some review comments on coreless issues.

Well it's Q2 so we can count down the days... greatly looking forward to what looks like being a GE masterpiece! My only slight worry is the coreless motor. My only other loco with a coreless motor is my Rapido J70 which was disappointing when slow running on conventional DC (and being coreless couldn't of course be helped by my usual tactic of a feedback controller). Coreless motors have also been noted as a problem in other loco reviews. What is the reason for using a coreless motor and if It isn't great are there easy ways of fitting an alternative? (Genuine technical question - not criticising that choice if it works!) I don't want to get obsessive about this but when you are running light railways you need something that can really crawl. Why 00 gauge shunting locos and light railway engines are sometimes geared for a scale 80mph is beyond me...

Around 1988/9 Barnstaple had Speedlink services, loco hauled substitute services (50s and 47s on two coach trains!) and just about any DMU the Western region could get hold of. And Barnstaple wasn't a seaside location... There is no reason why you can't invent a plausible modern image scenario around a major holiday resort. In 2024 cross country services to Padstow wouldn't be impossible. Minehead has seen through HSTs in the preserved era, so Castles or 67 excursions wouldn't be unreasonable either.

Iain's article in MRJ 9 shows a crossing gate across the 'main' line. It looks to be of a Great Eastern pattern, although the picture isn't very clear. There is also a gate contained in the plan of the same issue so it was definitely there. There was also a short fence or a gate at the end of the path that leads down from the old chapel to the track. That seems to have been removed too. I'd be interested to know what stock you use. Iain used a modified Mainline J72 and a 4F at one stage. That stuck in my mind as I had both as a youngster and loved them both. My ancient Mainline J72 is still running on my (under construction) GE light railway - like Iain, I found you could get a great crawl out of this loco on a good controller. They did get to East Anglia, but were mainly to be found in Ipswich I believe? Later a kitbuilt Buckjumper seemed to be the mainstay on Butley Mills. Today we are so lucky with high-quality RTR J15s, J70s and, soon, an RTR Buckjumper. Are there any new plans to attend exhibitions? I'd love to see this legendary layout in the flesh.