Ollie K

Judging by other third-party images on a well-known online auction platform, the smokebox door as modelled by Bachmann is very light- and angle-sensitive. From dead ahead the door straps have the correct ‘face’ and seem convincingly proud of the door itself. From certain side views, the straps are much more subtle and almost invisible when not picked out in silver. FWIW here’s a couple of phone shots of 4791 I grabbed (through a glass display cabinet) in a model shop a few weeks ago. Looks alright to me.

Always good to check out the ‘pre-loved’ shelves at your local model shop. Never know what you might come across! I’ve only had a quick flick through so far but it looks like a rich tome in Sir’s inimitable style. Haven’t come across this one at exhibition booksellers before. Is this a rare gem? Happy to add it to my ‘TW collection’. Really must get these autographed during the next visit of an obnoxious fast car to Little Bytham…

Useful post thanks Ben. And the front pony wheels don’t foul the drain cocks on 4th radius curves either?

Has @micklner stopped cheering yet? LNER W1 with smokebox cowl and post-war garter-blue British Railways versions both added to the catalogue for 2022! So that's four versions just of the grey 10000: as built, fictional nameplates, double chimney and w/ chimney cowl. Can't be many other single locos besides Flying Scotsman produced in so many small variations.

Delighted to see Hornby follow up the LMS Coronation Scot with its LNER opposite number. Dared hope it would be on the cards when the observation car was revealed in Margate last year, but figured the usual trainset curve clearances / pack cost obstacles could kibosh it. Will be very interested to see what sort of coupling/articulation mechanism they’ll go for (similar to APT but without need for tilt?) Hopefully the silver ‘CORONATION’ lettering and numbering will be raised moulded detail rather than the printed numerals used on the previously released ‘Coronation’ A4s which really lets those models down IMHO. Also Hornby, please factor in easy dismantling of the observation car – if ever there was a model that cried out for a full complement of 1930s-atired passenger figures, this is it. No brittle plastic tabs please…

Dipping my oar in to suggest the GNR C2 / LNER C12 4-4-2T Atlantic tank engine. Ever so elegant, worked everywhere from London to Yorkshire and as many station pilots and branch line shuttles inbetween. And wearing GNR lined green, LNER lined and unlined black and 1948 / early crest BR lined black, plenty of liveries to choose. If only to prove not all ER modellers only crave grand Pacifics!

It’s a miserably drizzly Saturday afternoon where I am, so I’m in the spare room cracking on with new baseboards. Knowing a model like the Deltic is inbound has been a great motivator to get stuck in with a new layout. Well worth all the splinters I’m sure.

My pleasure. For the curious, my job involves borrowing cars from manufacturers. Sometimes the cars are sensible, sometimes they are interesting, and sometimes they have about seven hundred more horsepower than is strictly deployable in the December Lincolnshire countryside. But these cars need to be shared, and props to Tony for being a very good passenger. The debate over the W1 will surely continue. A hugely imposing model of a fascinating prototype - one which I considered a must-have as a strictly LNER fanatic - but the cop-out trailing truck seems inferior to the kit-built offerings which can apparently negotiate second radius curves, and odd that such out of gauge steps are pre-fitted when many previous Hornby Pacifics included them in the detail bag, only to be fitted on appropriate layouts (like the drain cocks). Thanks to Tony and Mo (and Ian) for a very enjoyable day.

At least on the double chimney version it appears the model no longer has the smokebox door cover which the prototype did away with in the latter part of its life. I suppose that’s an easier tooling change than creating the top chimney cowling. Interesting point on wartime and postwar liveries. Not often served, as people prefer the ‘glory days’ perhaps? I’ve got one of the early batch Hornby A4s (Sir Charles Newton I think) in wartime black, definitely a candidate for extreme weathering when (if) I ever get a layout up and running in my current house.

Been to collect mine this afternoon. Luckily opened it up in-store to check all was well inside the box - it wasn't... That seems like a pretty catastrophic failure in packaging design - ironic given how finely rendered the front deflector plates are, really. This was the only such affected model in the retailer's batch. Fortunately they weren't quite sold out, so I went home with an intact 10000. Made some interesting noises while being run-in, but seems to have settled down now. The fine details at the forward end of the running plate are particularly impressive.

Even Hornby’s social media posts acknowledge the first batch of W1s is selling out faster than loo paper in lockdown.

At last, some pictures of the actual revised tooling A1s and A3s: https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/diecast-developments-footplates-and-fire

New TES is live now, deadline was missed due to illness. Focuses mainly on the revised A1/A3 tooling with diecast running plate and firebox glow. https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/diecast-developments-footplates-and-fire

Not quite. He's saying the real loco was unsuccessful in its original 'Hush-Hush' form and was rebuilt as a conventional boiler'd loco with A4 streamlining, which it was. Hornby is therefore producing models of the rebuilt loco (such as R3843, the garter blue W1 EP seen on the TV show) which will use the same chassis as the grey W1, wearing a different body tool, as SK says in the video. Doesn't mean Hornby definitely isn't considering updating or retooling its A4, but there haven't been any clues or hints of such a project.

At a recent exhibition I was chatting with a guy on the Rails stand about the Accurascale Deltics. He mentioned the packaging itself is a marvel. Quote: "They've really gone to town on it" and "It's like they've made the box itself an event, like Apple do." Apparently it's enormous. I'm not really one for unboxing videos or fetishising luxury boxes, but at the very least it sounds like this exceptional model is going to be very well looked-after in the post.

The named LNER and early BR samples were on display again at the weekend. Impossible to photograph. Hopefully not too far away now.

Another day, another cabinet of reflections.

Really useful post Tim , thanks. And a lovely job on the weathering. Did you take any pictures midway through the smokebox door trimming? Just interested in your technique to achieve such a flush-fitting result. Think I’m going to attempt removing the rearmost cabside windows when I get my hands on one, hopefully the adhesive there isn’t overly strong either. Cheers, Ollie

Not in the slightest - great to have a behind-the-scenes explainer and details I'd not spotted pointed out. For the readers' benefit, these photos are just a standard iPhone job shot from behind the spectator barrier, with as little zoom as possible. Previously I've been guilty of enjoying exhibitions 'through a lens' too much, arriving home with lots of photos and shaky video but not having just enjoyed watching a railway operating. Happily there was time last week to watch the whole Grantham sequence almost twice, once for a few keepsake photos, and again to just enjoy the sights. Any videos would've been soundtracked with squeals of delight from younger onlookers spotting the new horse...

I’ve never spent as long enjoying observing one layout at an exhibition as much as Grantham yesterday. Truly a masterclass in ‘watching the trains go by’ mixed with intricate shunting, loco changes and shed movements, against the backdrop of all the exquisite scene-setting detail. I’m LNER-biased, but it’s probably my all-time favourite exhibition layout, and a credit to all involved. Thanks to Graham for taking the time during his hectic MPD-commanding schedule to have a good introductory chat. Cheers all, Ollie

Does anyone have any experience of a Bachmann Sound-Fitted model running on analogue / DC control? Just been reading various reviews of the V2s in the modelling press and several state the sound-fitted model will run on a conventional analogue layout, and play the usual running sounds as well as occasional extras, like a whistle or safety valve lift I suppose. Still undecided over getting one of these, but I'm interested how that feature works on DC and how consistently it plays the looped audio.

It’s hasn’t put me off them, I think I just had one that had suffered in the post. If the brake shoes, smokebox door dart and tender handrail had been present it would have been a weekend fix it job, not a refund. Looking forward to the new batch. The GNR cab is especially elegant to my eyes.

Heartening to see the RoS update lists improvements made to the next batch of models: “It also features several improvements over earlier releases, introduced in response to feedback about the first batch, including a redesigned steel loco/tender coupling with two positions, metal handrail knobs, blackened wire handrails and more robust valve gear/motion.” I picked up one of the existing LNER versions but ended up returning it for a refund due to glue marks and broken/missing detail parts. Hoping for better this time.

Just came across this footage of one review sample running.

Two naff photos of the samples at the GETS this weekend. Sorry, glass cases in awkward positions + phone camera indoors doesn’t make for high quality images. In the metal the valve gear is on the thickset side but not as overly chunky as it looks on the official ‘press’ images, IMHO. Still not a fan of the exposed screwheads though.