Ollie K

Evening all, Time to out myself as the ‘younger friend’ who had the privilege of visiting Little Bytham for the first time over Christmas. I grew up in the next town over and have watched modern-day expresses speed down Stoke Bank for more afternoons than I care to admit, hence the username. Twenty-eight still counts as young, then? Phew – I’ve a few years for skills to catch up with those found on RMWeb. Tony and Mo’s kind hosting (and homemade soup) more than lived up to the reputation, and as for the railway – what in original praise can I add to a thread already over 1600 pages long? It’s a triumph, and for me has a personal connection in that my grandfather started out as an engine cleaner at New England shed post-school, then moved up to fireman until he left to join the Royal Marines in 1954. He’s often regaled me with tales of firing Pacifics up and down the bank, though maintains V2s and WD Austeritys were his real favourites. I was lucky enough to ‘drive’ all of them and more in through Bytham in the running session, operating the railway as per prototype, and occasionally just watching the trains go by. Enough wistfulness though, here’s a montage. Excuse the far shoddier camera work than you’re all used to in this little corner of the internet, but here’s a few GoPro clips and snaps from the day’s running. The couple of uncannily authentic derailments that TW deliberately staged (and rectified) in order to demonstrate to this novice the value of accurate couplings and back-to-back measurements weren’t captured. I left as inspired as I have been by any exhibition, and brimmed with new factoids. I’d never even picked up a brass OO loco until visiting LB. What a piece of kit. An 8x4 tail-chaser will have to do as my skills workshop for now, but an ECML magnus opus like Bytham is the aspiration. Ironically enough, that’s been much the topic of discussion on here in the past few days. Bonus feature: a textbook demonstration of Bytham’s cassette mechanism. From choosing a train off the shelf to seeing it run into the station itself, a mere 1min 58 seconds. Thanks again Tony, and to everyone who contributes so much knowledge and experience here. The very best of new years to you all. What a tremendous hobby this is. Ollie

I’m ashamed to say I didn’t notice the missing ducket when I bought my Full Brake last month in a model shop. Perhaps it was ‘ducket-side-down’. Checked it after reading this thread and sure enough, it was absent. Rattled off an email to Hornby, received a swift and polite reply, and had the part sent out first class for free. Snapped right into place. I agree it’s an unfortunate oversight but credit where credit’s due, I’m impressed with Hornby’s service rectifying it.

Thanks all, very helpful contributions and a very atmospheric photo. Jamie, that's an incredible resource, thanks for the link. Also saved me a facepalm moment as I'd been considering ID-swapping my wartime black Hornby A4 4901 from Sir Charles Newton to Capercaillie, but vaguely remembered reading on RMweb ages ago that the loco's repaint from blue to black and valance removal coincided with its first renaming - and that site confirms it. So 4901 was always blue when named after a bird. Clanger averted. I'd be delighted to see this picture if anyone has a link. Still new here and feeling my way around the various searches and subforums (and going off on tangents finding other interesting threads).

Very new here but just wanted to say thanks to the team who pull this enormous effort together. What a task! Eternally got my fingers crossed for LNER streamlined Silver Jubilee / Coronation stock at a price I wouldn't need a loan shark for...

Afternoon all, I’m considering dabbling with some RTR renaming, renumbering and light weathering – baby steps but we’ve all got to start somewhere. I’d like to model LNER A3 2750 Papyrus (obvious I know but I grew up a few miles from Essendine and Little Bytham have spent happy hours ‘spotting on Stoke Bank, and find the high-speed exploits there over the decades fascinating, so there we are). Anyway, what’s the best candidate for conversion into Papyrus in 1935 condition, in terms of tender, boiler, cab seating, spoked/discs wheels and so on? I believe the O gauge Hattons model has a streamlined corridor tender but I was previously under the impression that Papyrus would have had a 1928 tender at that time. Am I best off looking at a Book Law as a donor loco, or another Hornby A3? Thanks to all who’ve previously contributed to this thread - just the nugget of info about 2750's '50' numerals being larger than the others was news to me. I'll have to treat myself to a Yeadon's Register soon.

Thank you Pete, that worked first time. Much obliged! Ollie

Hello all, Been reading and learning from RMweb for a little while now so about time I jumped in. At Christmas I found this thread and the links to the Germansteam website really interesting. However the site now appears to be down, and the links broken. By any chance did anyone archive the pages or know of another place they’re now homed? I was born and bred a few miles from Little Bytham and I’ll devoir any info or accounts of Mallard’s run. 81 years ago yesterday! Thanks.