Islesy

Well, that was a warm weekend! Having survived the 'Quorn sauna', as one member put it, it was good to talk to regular show visitors, as well as some new faces from the forum. There was the usual mix of healthy debate, requests and general feedback items and for all those people that raised issues or made suggestions, I will take them up with the relevant people here, or answer you as soon as I can. We look forward to seeing you all again at GETS, at the beginning of October. Best wishes, Paul.

Oops, bit of brain fade on my part with the copy for the Standard 4 on the web, no drink involved unfortunately, which is where I probably went wrong! I'll make sure it's rewritten on Monday and amended on the web page as soon as possible. Have a good weekend all, Paul

A Preservation modeller? That's an area that intrigues me a lot and one which I hope we, as enthusiasts, can explore in conversations at the remaining shows that Hornby will be attending this year. By Preservation, do you mean as per the locomotive's last running in service, or post-restoration? Does this mean that you would run the locomotive with a mish-mash of rolling stock, in different liveries? Look forward to some responses on this aspect of modelling.... Paul.

The differences go much deeper than that. George Jennings is a late type W4, if you look, the cab sits further back and is deeper than the early versions. The buffer beams form an L shape because of this, as opposed to the T shape of the early versions. The running plate sits higher and the cylinders are angled down further to compensate for this, all of which means that the boiler sits higher (and is a slightly different profile from memory). From a manufacturing point of view you have a second engine; with changes to the chassis, cab and boiler...

We haven't actually mentioned the 'GWR' nameplates yet, so to head off any misplaced rumours, we will be producing etched GWR nameplates to be included in the pack. The printed GWR plates are just under scale, so that the etch can be placed over them. I'll happily answer any further questions on this via the PM facility.

Yeah, yeah..... :-)

In my defence, I do come from further up north than you

Did someone mention a Huntley & Palmer 6 plank wagon?

These three shows are for us to introduce the trade and press to the 2017 Hornby, Airfix, Scalextric, Corgi and Humbrol ranges. As well as the usual Sales and Marketing presence, Development will be on hand to chat to as well. It'll be great to have a chat about the hobby and the challenges that we all face in attracting new blood to it, so please come and introduce yourselves. See you there? Paul

I do not have any PMs from you to respond to Thane, am I missing something?

R Numbers are not released to the public until the range is announced etc.

When the Reading turntable was under repair in July 1935, Nos.1239, 1322 and 1553 were temporarily transferred there, if that's of any help? A bit after first introduction mind...

And why not...?

To mark the centenary of the opening, in 1835, of the Great Western main line between Paddington and Bristol, the GWR’s management decided to create a new express service linking London and Bristol. The non-stop service was normally comprised of seven coaches, initially being Collet Bow-Ended stock, comprising two third class brakes, three composites, a third and, in the centre, a buffet car. The first months of the service saw it being hauled by a ‘King’ class locomotive but it soon became apparent that a ‘Castle’ class was more than capable of the task, it was to be 1954 before the ‘Kings’ returned to the service. Departure from Paddington was at 10:00am, with Bristol being reached at 11:45am and the return leg commenced at 4:30pm, arriving back at Paddington for 6:15pm, the average speed being just over 67mph for the two legs of the journey. Whilst ‘Bristolian’ roof boards were fitted from the outset, a headboard did not feature until 1953.

Not on this occasion - It was a combination of picking Mike King's brains and the hard yards going through the Southern C&W drawings at the NRM for the Cattle Vans. I'm lucky that I can count on the support and knowledge of a number of specialised experts.

We'd still like to hear from anyone with colour material of Peckett W4s in service or with first hand accounts of livery details. There's a wealth of employment for these little locos, but a distinct lack of coverage, especially from their time in Swansea Docks. If you have material that you don't want to share with the world at large, then use the message facility and we can chat out of the glare of the internet. Thanks all for the input so far...

To clear up one slight misconception, Drax are not the sole IP owner here, which complicated matters slightly - the bogies are of a new design by Axiom and were subject to a seperate licence agreement.

The interaction between East Kent Railway and the Southern regarding EKR No.5 is an interesting exercise in economics - the EKR Directors' Minutes from February 28, 1946 state that the Southern agreed to pay £120.00 for the Locomotive (£3,115.00 today). It left Shepherdswell on March 14th, arriving at Ashford on the 15th, before finally arriving at Eastleigh on April 24th. On arrival at Eastleigh, No.5 was renumbered as 3488 and underwent a complete overhaul costing £1.638.00 (£42,500 today) - this included fitting a Drummond boiler in place of the Adams boiler, but whilst it is mentioned that "it has been discovered that the frames have been crudely, but effectively, strengthened with patches around the coupled wheel boxes". 3488 left Eastleigh for Exmouth Junction during December 1946. The last noted livery at Shepherdswell was on August 10, 1937, when it was stated No.5 was painted green with yellow lettering and red coupling rods. It is known that in 1936, No.5 was completely repainted in the second shade of Southern Green, edged in black, the edging lined on the inside with a thin white line. The Cab front and rear were plain green, with the toolbox having a horizontal black edge top and bottom, with a white line on the inside edges. Further details of livery can be found in Oakwood Press' "The East Kent Railway Volume II" As an aside to this, whilst No.5 was stored, awaiting disposal, one side was deep in shade with the other open to the elements. This led to extreme fading on one side, which is why reports on No.5's livery vary so much - it obviously depended on which side correspondents viewed the loco from during its last journey as to how they reported its condition.