Simon Bendall

When the original 47/7s came south from Scotland in 1990, 47703/04/06/12/17 initially went to Parcels, of which 47703/12/17 got the red/grey livery in the first half of 1991. July 1991 saw these five loaned to NSE for use on the Waterloo-Exeter route. 47704 had a generator failure soon after and was sent back to what had by then become RES, it was put through Doncaster and emerged in RES colours that December. The other four stayed with NSE until the 159s arrived in 1993 and then transferred to RES but were never repainted. As for the later batch of 47/7s, as Chris suggests, the majority of these had already been repainted in RES colours as 47/4s before modification and renumbering. Some were repainted at the same time as they were renumbered, particularly those dragged off various scrap lines to expand the fleet. Apart from the Royal pair, the only second batch 47/7 to operate in a non RES livery was 47783, which stayed in Intercity Swallow for a short time after renumbering from 47809.

Do you mean the first batch of 47/7s, ex push pull 47701-17, or the later ones modified by RES? 58049 was the last in Railfreight Red Stripe, emerged from Doncaster in Coal in January 1992.

Metal cab doors were introduced from D3872 (08705). The main limiting factor of the Dapol 08 is the strap hinged bodyside doors, which are good for D3000-D3336 and D3454-D3472 only.

08754 is a RMS Locotec hire loco, it visited Tyseley for around a week for tyre turning in September 2012 but that's it. It's currently at Dereham on the Mid Norfolk Railway following the end of its hire at Norwich.

There is a pic in an issue of Rail circa 1990 of a 91 on a parcels train, possibly at York, can't remember the circumstances without digging out the issue though. Certainly wasn't a regular thing.

ADB975325, later 6310, was converted when in blue/grey, later repainted in Intercity. It was noticeably different than the other three, the exhaust pipes on the roof for example. It was purely for HSTs in your period so can be ignored. 6311-13 were in Intercity when converted.

Paint dates were 37414 - 03.93 37418 - 04.94 37420 - 04.96 37421 - 11.93 37422 - 04.93 37425 - 10.95 37427 - 05.93 37429 - 05.93

Two more Janus liveries announced this morning, Allied Steel & Wire and ICI maroon. Still £99.95 for DCC ready with DCC fitted and sound also available. http://www.goldenvalleyhobbies.com/index.php?page=search_results&string=GV2016+GV2020+GV6016+GV6020

Could be BQWs ex Bogie Bolster C. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brbcv/h1c634d6f#h1c634d6f Have the stanchion pockets and ratchets on the sides as per the train shot.

Email from GVH this morning states British Steel version going through customs today with dispatch to retailers beginning later in the week.

It went to the Swanage Railway.

Last update from them was its due in November.

Thanks everyone for your comments. As the writer of all the Retrospectrum features, the main reason they ceased was lack of time. They take a long time to research and after taking over as editor of the modelling section, there just weren't enough hours in the week. They may come back one day as I would certainly like to do some more. As for the Modellers Guides, these are by no means dead - there are a couple on file that will run next year along with others in development. They are again time consuming to put together and need a suitable space to be available. We've done MoD formations previously so that's partly why they were missing from the recent MoD Speedlink article. There have been discussions about reissuing the older ones in some form but they would all need updating and most of the formation graphics redoing to the current standard. I'm open to suggestions as to what readers would like to see covered by future Modellers Guides, keeping in mind that a lot of the most obvious subjects have bee done. Simon

Hi David General was in No. 137 Oct 2007 with the introduction piece. Distribution was No. 138 Nov 2007. Railfreight original grey was No. 97 June 2004 and Red Stripe was No. 101 Oct 2004. Simon

Class 318s have been visiting Wabtec at Doncaster for refurbishment, this was two sets returning north to Shields after completion of work.

Saw some in the container park at Bicester a few weeks back repainted in a dark-ish blue.

This was the Tibbett & Britten warehouse http://www.flickr.com/photos/railway_images/16106732707 http://www.flickr.com/photos/railway_images/15672766153 Quite an interesting and cramped site sandwiched between the two Chiltern routes. Enough traffic to justify an industrial shunter as well. http://www.flickr.com/photos/73789322@N04/23474938486

There is a slight tooling variation as some of the Bachmann releases have been in as built condition so don't have the angled plates on the ribs that were added to stop scrap accumulating, 33-431 for example. From memory this is how the model first appeared with the angled plates coming on later releases. There may have been a subsequent release without the plates I think.

There's a photo a short way down this page http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/features-page-july-to-december-2015.html showing such an OCA loaded with wheelsets from CDAs.

That shows 20t coke hoppers (the late build with solid sides) and 24.5t coal hoppers. These were used along with 21t coal hoppers. As it was a seasonal movement, BR used whatever hoppers were available at the time.

To do the Class 350/4 properly would require another new PTS car to be tooled - the sub-class has got an extra toilet so there's another window missing on this vehicle.

Only if you count HSTs as DMUs

Allerton Ardwick Aylesbury Cardiff Canton Central Rivers Corkerhill Chester Derby Etches Park Exeter Haymarket Heaton Inverness Neville Hill Newton Heath Norwich Crown Point Nottingham Eastcroft Old Oak Common Reading Salisbury Selhurst St. Philip’s Marsh Tyseley Willesden

You can also use the underframe from the Bachmann VAA to do a SAA, main thing is adding a new planked deck. I've done a RRA this way.

No, that's a production model in the picture so staying as three piece.