31A

Thanks for the confirmation, BV - I suspect my wallet is about to take a dent, too!

Are the forthcoming Heljan catalogue numbers 2320-2323 Baby Deltics the original (disc headcode) versions, then? sorry but Hatton's (and other) adverts don't make it clear!

Thanks for the suggestion Mick, I will check the back-to-back of the bogie wheels; I did find one of my L1s had a slightly wide to gauge bogie wheel which caused its bogie to go the wrong way on slips occasionally. With the B1, at first I thought it was the drain cocks and I cropped them a bit (they looked a tad long anyway?!) but to no avail. The NEM pocket on the bogie is certainly a bit obtrusive but I haven't done anything about it yet as I'm in two minds - I do sometimes run light engines coupled on my layout, when the front coupling is needed. I don't think it's a cause of derailments though, but I will check.

I've been thinking of 'grotting up' mine too but haven't got round to it yet, but I was wondering whether it might be a mistake to make it too 'grotty', bearing in mind that they were used for a fairly 'prestigious' type of traffic, and possibly also didn't put in the kind of mileage that other types of NPCCS would have done?

Looking good there, Mick! I'm currently trying to work up the courage to weather mine, but in the meantime I was disappointed having fitted the front steps to find that they caused the bogie to derail - not a problem I've had on any other locos including L1s and various Pacifics. The sharpest curves on my layout are in the Peco double slips, about 2' 6" radius I think, and I wondered whether you (or anyone else) had experienced similar problems? One solution might be to glue them slightly further outboard than the locations moulded for them; alternatively I might try some kind of side control spring on the bogie, but haven't got my head round that yet.

Hinges painted body colour I think Bernard, to judge by a couple of clear pictures in 'Steam in East Anglia-a colour portfolio' (R. C. Riley, Ian Allan, 2002 pages 19 and 25).

As an early Christmas present to myself, 61138 rolled into Finsbury Square this afternoon - wow! IMHO knocks the old Replica / Bachmann version WAY into touch. Full of the usual subtleties (I wonder whether I can really bring myself to remove the AWS 'sunflower' from inside the cab?) but does anyone know whether mine's missing a sliding cab roof ventilator, or is it just moulded in the 'open' position? If the latter, I shan't be too sorry to see the passing of this feature as the sliding shutters on the L1 (in particular) seem far too thick, and I'd been thinking of replacing them with new ones made from thin metal. To be honest, having compared the model with several photos of the real things (mainly in 'Locomotives Illustrated' no. 30) I can't see what all the fuss is about with the chimney, and hope this issue doesn't become one of these 'urban myths' which sometimes come to haunt certain models. The B1 seems to run OK on my layout with the drawbar on the closer 'display' setting, after just trimming back the front tender buffers very slightly to allow the loco to go round the curved sides of Peco slips without sometimes jamming.

Thanks for those pictures Mike, isn't the teak finish wonderful! Not sure whether the Brake 3rds are in short supply or not but I was able topick up a BR liveried one from Monk Bar Models in York easily enough this lunchtime, although they hadn't made it to their display cases yet. I agree, in some ways the nicest (or maybe 'most interesting') of the range and full of subtle touches like the hand brake wheel in the brake compartment, and the electric lighting controls applied as separate mouldings to span the end windows. I wondered about the colours of the door handles on the double doors; in LNER days it appears such things were painted with 'teak' paint (as per the Guard's door handrails in Mike's pictures above) and on the BR version these handrails are black which seems right from photographs, but I wondered whether the double door handles should be black as well? But after all, that's a VERY slight quibble and much more a query than a moan about what are, when all's said and done, some really lovely models.

Many thanks for the confirmations and good news, everyone - I may cancel my order for D5902 now, it's really just a tad TOO modern! , especially as I hadn't realised it was going to be gloss finish.

Hope this isn't a daft question, but I was wondering whether anybody's found out if they're going to produce the disc headcode version? I was at Warley yesterday, but realised on the way home I'd forgotten to visit the Heljan stand.....

I've got a few of these now and none have shown any signs of derailing their pony trucks, although the wheels do run at a strange angle to the rails sometimes! But a friend bought one recently and said he'd had derailing problems, so I thought I'd revisit the problem and at least aim to make mine look better in running. I looked back up to Wilk's post earlier in this thread, but couldn't find a suitable coil spring in my armoury; also bearing in mind Darwinian's suggestion in the 28xx thread, I hit upon an alternative solution which turned out to be very simple so I thought it might be useful to others: A piece of phospher bronze (or other suitable) spring wire, with a loop in one end, a vertical joggle to pass through the hole in the pony truck swing arm, and tucked between the tails of the tension lock coupling. The leading keeper plate retaining screw passes through the loop in the end of the wire and clamps it tightly to the keeper plate (yes, I did manage to break the end off the brake yolk ). Two locos in similar positions. 67772 (left) is unmodified, 67757 (as she now is) modified. They were both driven forwards and stopped when they reached the equivalent positions on the slip points - you can see how 67772's coupling has swung right over, while 67757's remains resonably central. The pony now seems to 'lead' the loco smoothly into curves, and the wheels no longer give an alarming gymnastic display through the pointwork. Hope this might help!

Interesting picture of the two 'rungenwagen' there Jonathan, which confirms the impression I got when I tried a Liliput one on my layout. Will you be able to make any use of yours as a 'Christmas tree' for fittings for the scratch built version, or do you think the whole thing is just too small?

"This is for Steve Pearce; I found a drawing in the Edwards Collection and used my two trips to London to make a start. They're on the back burner for the moment but I have finally started!" Thanks Jonathan - looks like the start of another magnum opus, will be interesting to see how you get on with these!

Must admit I didn't realise the 100A boiler was shorter than the boliers which B17s normally carried; I think one of the many sub classes of B17 also had these boilers? I was 'gifted' the Crownline conversion kit years ago and intended to use it on a tender drive B17 but would also have wanted a decent loco mechanism with the motor in the loco, which the new Hornby one promises to give us. From what I recall, the only B2 which towed a Group Standard 4200 gall tender was 1671 'Royal Sovereign'; the others had modified ex NE tenders or ex P1 tenders I believe One of these days I'll get round to it, hopefully when I come across a 'bargain' from Hattons, but what'll probably be the stumbling block will be the need to repaint the finished article in BR lined green!

Sorry, perhaps there's been some OT drift here; I was thinking of chopping a B17 rather than a B1 to make a B2; of course for cheapness I could always go for a tender drive B17 as originally intended!!

Luckily I've got this Crownline B17-B2 conversion kit stashed away from years ago so I was planning to make use of that for the cab and running plate conversion, but thought the cylinders and valve gear bits etc from an expired Replica B1 might come in handy if I can bring myself to chop up £100+ of Hornby loco! Tenders for B2s are a bit of a minefield though...

Sorry, I didn't know whether you realised a B17 with a dia 100a B1 boiler was a B17/6; somewhat different from a B2.

I'm afraid there's quite a bit more to a B2 than just a B17 with a B1 boiler. I've got a Crownline conversion kit stashed away for this very purpose...!

Bought one of the weathered ones from Monk Bar, York this morning - in fact they sold me the one from their display case, and said it was their last in stock. Have to say (like the other two I've got) it currently lives up to its 'Concrete Mixer' nickname, but expect it'll settle down after some running in - the others have. The 'bag of bits' includes an object that looks suspiciously like an AWS battery box; I don't think the others had this, and the service sheet doesn't show it. Neither can I see one on any pictures I've so far found of the real things, so does anyone know where it's supposed to go, please?

Thanks, that sounds encouraging - I feel another purchase coming on! Have to be careful with renumbering them though, with the plethora of detail permutations.

Thanks for the review, 34B/D! From the pictures on Hattons web site it appears they've covered another variation not previously offered - split running plate, but full height cab doors. Given the weathered finish, how easy do you think it would be to renumber? It's a nice model and I wouldn't mind another one, but a Thornaby example doesn't suit me too well. Perhaps you'd end up with a semblance of a slightly dirty loco with a clean patch where the number's pinted on?

Thanks for the information, Paul and Ian. I've worked out that I can concoct a suitable number for a van from this batch (953128) by combining elements from two Modelmasters sheets, and won't worry too much that it's brown when it potentially could have been grey! Thanks also for the coupling modification suggestion, 34B/D, I might give it a try-it sounds simpler than what I've been doing.

You're welcome, Downer - it worked very well on the BY, and also the Horsebox. I can't claim any originality as I read it on here (although I may have invented the wire peg - I think glue was suggested) - in fact I think it may have had something to do with Ian (Pennine). I aim to get the corners of the 'loop' part of the coupling level with the buffers, but you may need to experiment a bit depending on how sharp your curves are. I'm not sure it'll be possible to get the couplings that short on this brake van, though!

Thanks Ian, interesting to know about the roller bearing / buffer juxtapositions. I've been trying to piece together the story from Gent's book, also Don Rowlands 'The first half million' and May 1983 'Constructor' - it appears Lot 2868 (Faverdale 1956) could have had the combination modelled, although there is a contradiction between the sources as to whether 'fitted' or 'un'. Re. the long couplings, most Hornby vehicles seem to suffer from this affliction, and this one seems more afflicted than some. I've cured it on some other vehicles by cutting about 3mm from the outer end of the pocket, a similar amount from the coupling tails, and drilling a hole through pocket and coupling to insert a wire peg through both, to retain the coupling in place. Also, use a Bachmann coupling in place of the Hornby one, as they seem to be a bit shorter. Bachmann pockets don't always seem to fit properly into the Hornby chassis mouldings, though! It certainly seems a lot lighter than the 'Shark' - presumably why 'Chard finds it unstable at the head of a train? Like a lot of Hornby tooling these days, the more you look the more you see, and I like the way the concrete ballast weights have a subtle texture to the surface. Sorry this is a bit 'wordy' - the 'quote' function doesn't seem to work on my computer now, either!

Came away from Monk Bar Models with a brown one this morning. Have to say, the handrails are nice and straight on mine, and were on the two in their display cabinet - perhaps Pennine's supplier got a duff batch? Must say I'm quite impressed with the whole thing, detailing nicely rendered and subtle where necessary. The lamp irons on the corner uprights are nicely done (they appear to be separate parts), and I particularly like the end glazing. Not noted previously (I think) is the presence of an internal hand brake wheel! A bit surprising (after the horsebox) there's no representation of brake rodding etc., but I don't tend to look underneath my models when they're running! Not sure whether the buffers are searate items or not (no holes visible on the insides of the headstocks), but may investigate replacement with Oleos which I think would be more suitable for a roller bearing fitted van, following which re-numbering would be appropriate. On the subject of numbers, whilst clearly inspired by the picture of B951410 on page 18 of Gent, the disposition of the characters is somewhat different.