Covkid

But by the same token, a freshly outshopped glossy WCR vehicle can look quite different to one in service for several years. I notice some images online today of 99318 which I believe has just headed up to Fort William. Nice rich glossy WCR paintjob which I am assuming is quite fresh. Looks like an SK which has had a buffet counter conversion in the last couple of bays. Contrast that vehicle with some of the tired looking air con Mk2s in the fleet.

Yes. The running qualities of the Bachmann type chassis are amazing. My introduction was via a friend's class 25 split from a trainset which had the original DCC PCB type decoder. It didn't perform very well at all and we were persuaded to fit a new PCB and a separate decoder. The results were absolutely amazing and certainly opened my eyes to what a decent decoder can do to an already very good transmission. I have about 8 or 9 stashed away to go under Hornby class 25 bodies, but they may be surplus to requirements now !!

As has been said D5218 never had the underframe valances but also had a much more see through underframe. Bachmann's class 25 was a welcome breath of fresh air back then but still has issues- which Shawplan etches won't resolve. We know the cab shape is wrong and the underframe is wrong, but Bachmann used the class 24 design cast alloy air filters in the bodysides. These were subtly different to the class 25 filters which flush framed and slightly recessed grilles. I suspect that etched hinge straps on the bodyside of the Bachmann 25 would exacerbate the discrepancy

Haha "Fly shunting" by Chargeman Hartley - does have a ring to it !!!

I watched a youtube video of a guy staying in the Corrour station "guest house" this week and he filmed or photographed most of the trains through there. I was surprised because I expected the class 156s to be single units but the majority were pairs. UK's most remote station! Corrour on the West Highland Line offers hiking and dogs. (youtube.com)

I believe Bescot's target 18 was diagrammed a class 45 but often got a 47, as did T64 and T65 when they ran. These trips mostly conveyed coal from Mid Cannock to Lea Hall colliery (adjacent to Rugeley power station. There were some 16 tonners in consists but 21 ton minerals and 21 ton hoppers were more common. My memories are from 1981 but not sure when until.

I think that is the point. The new Hornby black five as cost a lot of budget to develop and I am guessing Hornby will expect it to be paid back. Bachmann's models have become pricey in the last few years - relative to other manufactrurers, and it is noticeable the class 31s from Bachmann are more or less pegged at a similar price to Accurascale.

That is Sam. It is his USP. He has a large following. You either mildly like his output, or you "marmite it". Sam does seem to have a thing about metal bodywork construction being better than plastic. Not sure I totally agree about that, but hey. To be honest, I am not sure whether it has harmed Hornby's product reputation more by running the black five with an LNER tender rather than simply terminating the review and sending it back to Hornby. One think for sure the lamp issue is clearly highlighted by him, but is symptomatic of what manufacturers think of their potential customers in terms of built in tech. It seems to me that many car manufacturers are putting a tablet like screen on the dashboard between the front seat occupants. My eyesight is good enough to drive, but not good enough to obliquely view an electronic display to my left, particularly in the full range of lighting conditions a motorist experiences. I want my driving requirements to be in front of me, because I am the driver of the vehicle, and 97% of the time I don't have anyone else in the car with me. I will reiterate the situation. Steam locos were fitted with lamp irons which stood away from where they were bolted, welded or rivetted. The lamps were generally less than 12 inches square or round so are less than 3mm in OO scale. The lamps had a paraffin wick and a glass lense to enhance the feeblow glow, and fitted onto the lamp brackets - themselves less than a scale millimetre wide. Hornby development team are trying to recreate olde worlde equipment using blinding new state of the art technology which in my view does not work, especially when you consider the role of the lamps. They were used to signal; to ops staff what they were. Technically the fireman would go off shed with the lamps set for the movement, then at each station or yard the lamps would change. I am not from that era so I don't know whether the fireman would hang a tail lamp on the front or back of the loco for movements within the station, but the whole point is that Hornby's moveable lamp offering is not practical and needs nipping in the bud. I was half contemplating replacing one of my black fives with the new version, but have decided I really won't be forking out north of two hundred quid for a model which Hornby are charging extra for impractical gimmicks. If Accurascale, Dapol or Rapido were to bring a black five to the market, without such gimmicks I would be interested.

From memory there is an unusual arrangement above the solebar on the Hornby fish vans, which can produce an unsightly gap and has put me off buying any.

But would enough folk buy full rakes to justify them ? Personally doubt it, but welcome other thoughts.

Oh my Andy and Andy !!! Apart from the Rapido 16", I have the perfect diesels for these in the shape of the Bagnall courtesy of James Hilton, and the Janus from Oxford Rail. Can't wait for my delivery !!

Well I noticed that one of the preproduction models has the large transverse tool box in front of the cab. Is it only Britomart with this feature? As Bachmann already do it in 009, it surely will be in the 7mm range.

Do you think ? I would probably expect to see green algae water sloshing around between the inner and outer skins of the windows

Entirely agree. I first became aware of TOPS from Autumn 1978 when my chargeman got me to ring through the consist of 7G19 to the TOPS guys in Salop. in 1979 I made a visit to Salop TOPS and I was hooked. That was what I wanted to do, and got my job at Bescot in June 1980, right at the end of the punch card era. I pretty soon learnt the basic of TOPS - every single kilo of weight was recorded in freight vehicles - apart from freightliners that is, but that is for another day. So technically, a freight train from say Acton to Severn Tunnel junction could convey all sorts of vehicles which were all recorded in the TOPs computer. When the train list is produced based on the formation of wagons out there on No 4 road, TOPS knows the commodity, product weight, consignee, consignor, destination blah blah blah. The only thing that was needed was for someone / sector to underwrite the cost of each train, on the days it was planned to run. For example, on Tuesday there might be 78 tonnes of Pirelli tyres in 6 vehicles, Wednesday there could be 150 tonnes of chipboard, and on Thursday, 162 tonnes of household coal for Yeovil Junction. Like you I could never understand why TOPS never seemed to be used for this kind of stuff, or was it actually that BR were being forced to abandon domestic freight anyway ?

I was involved in Trainload Coal 1992-1994 and was in TOPS prior to that. I am not doubting the mentions of Discrete Coal Network on here, but I only remember it being titled the Speedlink Coal Network (SCN). Perhaps the Speedlink name was replaced, but it became Trainload Freight West's / Transrail's Enterprise service in the 1990s.