Halvarras

Prepare to be very surprised, if the thickness of the wheel rims in Kernow's pictures are a guide to the motor bogie installed, as they definitely look Ringfield to me and definitely not the same as on the Class 121s shown nearby. Why? Think about it - the motor bogie frame is used throughout the train, the trailing bogies being essentially 'pivotless' unlike the ex-Lima DMUs; if the '110' were to be converted to use the Limby power and trailing bogies a wholesale retool of all three '110' underframes would be necessary. Last year I bought a mint 2004 upgraded Hornby Hymek with the Chinese Ringfield motor bogie and I'm very impressed with the way it runs - way better that the 1970s/80s original. I bought it for nostalgia's sake but I've had to find a functional purpose for it! So use of the Ringfield type in the '110' won't be a bad thing in my view.

The next one from Hornby I'm keen to get a good look at is the two-tone green Class 47 D1683, "due Spring 2024". I don't need another Brush Type 4 but I get all emotional about two-tone green ones - yeah I know, sad innit 🤪 ?! Obviously it's the ex-Lima model so I know exactly what to expect, but it's the quality of the livery application and whether they have used the version of the tooling without headlights which I'm keen to assess (the illustration shows headlights but this doesn't mean the actual model will; I certainly hope not). The later underframe detail remains incorrect for early versions (I've grafted Hornby's own '47' boxes on to fix this, including 47484 just last year) but a bigger issue for D1683 is that it wasn't dual-braked from new so shouldn't have the Serck roof shutters - basically Hornby has selected the wrong running number for this model. D1666-81 or D1807-on would have circumvented this; better still would be to then narrow it down further to one fitted with the ( 'Universal'?) train heating boiler compartment grille depicted on the model, although most of the models ever produced from this tooling have been wrong in that regard. Thing is, I still have a pair of A1 Models etched original 3-part fixed roof grilles looking for a purpose, so, y'know, maybe.....

Oh...........not stopping for Christmas then Darius?! OK, you keep building 'em and we'll keep looking on in astonishment 🙂! Your photo of the contents seems very light on underframe components.......? The ol' scribing tool is going to have its work cut out on this one - all those doors! Good luck!!

I was tempted by TMC's Class 108 as it's a WR set IIRC. But so far I've held out cuz funds went elsewhere....! I've just discovered that these are not the first Chinese-produced Class 110s so the neat decoration and 5-pole motor aren't new. Which makes the VFM conundrum even more acute...... I also picked up on a running issue with these models, apparently related to the bogie pivot arrangement. I'm sure many will have encountered 'sticky bogie syndrome' on Hornby's 'pancake'........er, ringfield motored diesels* - at both ends, as the trailing bogie is pivoted in the same manner. These sometimes require attention with a curved or round file around the curved bearing surfaces either end of the chassis openings to enable the bogie frame to swivel freely, up and down as well as side to side. On these DMUs all bogies pivot this way so there is a much higher chance of a sticky bogie - especially those under the lighter unpowered vehicles - derailing on points or not coping with track imperfections. I suspect it will be something to watch for on these new releases too, as this arrangement seems to have persisted - unfortunately. *Lima likewise

Thought that was worth a quick search to see if the crest made it past TOPS on this one, but no - two shots found as E3080 with cast arrows just weeks, or even days, before it gained its new ID (85025). Oh well.....

Kernow have just posted pics (not there Friday) of the revamped Hornby Class 110 DMU - 2-car only so far, although both this and the 3-car are showing as in stock now: https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/74227/R30171-Hornby-Railroad-Plus-Class-110-2-Car-DMU-Train-Pack Perhaps 'revamped' is overstating it as, apart from the now customary neat decoration and, no doubt, 5-pole version of the 'pancake' motor bogie, I can detect no changes over previous releases - those odd bodyside crease lines remain, as do the large couplings. I'm sure I won't be the only one not surprised by this...... Also it's labelled 'Railroad Plus' but I can't see the 'Plus' aspect here, unless........no, VFM is a touchy and frowned-upon subject so best not go there 🤐! IIRC this model first appeared in 1980, and at the time was an impressive effort by Hornby - the tooling of three different bodyshells with a decent attempt at flush glazing certainly showed up the inadequacies of Lima's Class 117. The Class 110 was one of the better-looking 1st Gen DMU types without a doubt, but unfortunately its narrow area of operation restricted the appeal of the model for many, including me - as a WR modeller I had much more fun with the Lima 117 (plus razor saw, files, scalpel, filler and plasticard!) So 43 years later, with no other model of the type available, is this a welcome return, worthy of dusting off those detailing skills for? A pity that getting rid of those crease lines would lead to a full repaint, of the sides at least, rendering that neat decoration null and void......

I said you could do eeeet! (well, not my Mexican-tinged words of encouragement, I borrowed Rob Schneider's!) Officially not laughing now, you met the challenge in fine style - I trust you'll be leaving it on display to impress Santa when he calls shortly 😁! Another brilliant job Sir! Catching your breath now between Christmas and New Year, or is that Class 505 kit box already open......?!

Have you seen how much those oval buffers go for these days?! Back in the 1970s I bought a load as spares to improve the appearance of my Tri-ang Mark 1 coaches - luckily I didn't glue them in...... Later on Lima Warship and Western diesel upgrades generated a pile of their plastic oval bufferheads so these went on the coaches instead and the Tri-ang buffers reclaimed for more deserving causes, as they're actually rather nice! So far three Bachmann 37s and a Deltic all with knackered sprung buffers have benefited, and the project I'm working on at the moment will claim another set, after which I think I'll have two sets left........ ..........wandering a bit OT with that, sorry!🙂

E3056 was renumbered 85001 in June 1974. I have the 1974 Ian Allan combined volume, the first one published with TOPS numbers, and all of the AC electric locos shown in it have TOPS numbers and double arrow logos. The first loco type to gain TOPS numbers was Class 76, commencing with 26050/76050 on 14th November 1971. Next were Classes 83/84 during 1972 with a few stragglers into 1973 - these two designs had suffered persistent and serious technical faults and the delivery of 100 Class 86s had allowed these 25 locos to be placed in long-term storage at Bury during 1967/8; however when the WCML electrification extension between Weaver Junction and Glasgow was authorised but new locomotives limited to just 35 Class 87s, the 83s & 84s were dragged out of storage and refurbished for further use on the extended electrified railway, this work including the application of TOPS identities ahead of the rest - the bulk of Classes 81, 82 & 85 were renumbered during 1974, with a handful in the years either side - much like the diesel fleet. If your enquiry involves Class 85s displaying a combination of new TOPS numbers and old L&W crests my guess would be, unlikely by 1974 - but the subject of BR locomotive liveries is sprinkled with oddball survivors so I wouldn't rule it out, unless somebody out there knows for certain (and ideally has a photo to prove it 😉!)

The yellow panel shape is poor along its top edge and corners too. And........old red/white OHLE flashes??

I don't think I'd want to pay over the odds for incorrect buffers, regardless of how rare they are! Other than that, and ignoring the erroneous livery, the set itself is unusually complete so it'll appeal to somebody I'm sure......

I'm in no doubt that the Class 37 was released in bright blue, I remember seeing them about at the time the switch from green was made. The model was released a year before the Hymek so unless production of the 37 was suspended for a while it's logical that some were moulded in that colour.

Agreed, the nearest is definitely a Composite Corridor (CK) - four First Class compartments nearest (with the '1' visible on the nearest door), and the middle window of the Second Class end has the inward-opening window for stretcher loading. The middle coach is all Second Class and the number of roof vents indicates a Second Corridor (SK). The spacing of the four windows of the furthest vehicle makes it a Brake Second Corridor (BSK). So all compartment stock on this working then - ah, those were the days............fondly remembered (sigh).🥴

I wonder if the confusion over the modified exhausts for the last few Class 33/0s partly stems from the Class 33/2 build following closely behind the 33/0 but these retained the original exhaust, which on the face of it seems illogical. One explanation might be that the 'Slim Jim' redesign caused BRCW so much trouble (to put it mildly - some sources say these 12 locos were partly responsible for the demise of the company) that they just couldn't accept another complication being thrown in on top as the redesign work must have been done and dusted by then. Of course they were modified later, along with the rest. Conjecture on my part though. PS I have Kernow's D6583 as well.

27th November and clear skies - yep, I'm sure the heaters would have been on!

And Peter's Spares. I've recently obtained a pair of geared wheelsets (£9 the pair, for a Lima 4-wheel motor bogie) and the flanges were finer than I was expecting.

It doesn't appear to be well-known (I certainly had no idea until I saw a close-up cab photo in a book some years ago) that when new what became the Class 123 Inter-City DMU sets had regular diagrams from Cardiff to Penzance (much like the 'Castle' HSTs until last week) - a photo of one of these units passing Dawlish Warren with headcode 1C41 in my first Ian Allan combo (1967 edition) always intrigued me, but for all I knew it went to Paignton, or at least no further than Plymouth. Not so it seems. I believe that a member of the Cornwall Railway Society has claimed that he saw every vehicle of this type in the Penzance area at the time - 1963-4. This superb photo of a unit entering Truro came my way but I don't know its origin so if there's an issue with copyright I will of course remove it - 'twould be a pity though: I had relatives living on the Malabar Estate visible beyond but my railway affliction set in around three years later so I paid no attention to scenes like these on family visits - alas! I used to see the 123s from time to time in the 1970s but only took this one photo, of unit C708 (W52088/59819/52099) at Swindon on 27th November 1976 - it was departing the station so I'm trying to figure out where all the ground-level exhaust was coming from......:

D601/2/4 went to South Wales August-November 1967, D600/3 remained at Laira on their usual mainly Cornish workings (including 1V33 down 'Cornishman'). The three escapees all returned to Laira and went back into traffic alongside the other two for their final month or so. This explains how 'remainer' D600 and 'leaver' D601 (poor choice of words...?!) ended up together at Woodham's with the other three going to Cashmore's. I think the Hymek you saw may have been D7055 but I'm not sure where to look to confirm that at the moment..... Withdrawn at Laira and still displaying 'that' headcode, here's D601 with clear evidence of its short-lived allocation to 87E Landore:

Astonishingly swift and neat work once again Darius! I was having a laugh when I challenged you to get it done by Christmas, I mean, after all it's an MTK kit.......but I'm not laughing now 😲!! Seriously, this and your other recent builds must be the most rapidly-constructed MTK kits in the history of MTK kits - even with scratchbuilt chassis and interiors, and they don't even look rushed. I've built the Class 119 DMU kit so I know what a challenge they are, my assembly was measured in months not weeks (in fairness to meself I was only 22 at the time!) Only stumbling across a Class 103 kit would entice me to have another go now though....... Respect!! 👍

I agree with this view. When you take a timeline look at it BR diesel liveries went through an evolution between the late 1950s and 1962/3. Until the end of 1960 the pale grey accents were in vogue, applied however the body design was judged to best take them. In 1961 the production Deltics and Hymeks appeared with yellow-green lower valances and off-white cab window surrounds (the Hymek's design was better suited to this but the Deltic got there first - I wonder what discussions were held within EE to come up with the rationale for this treatment, but these flagship locos would certainly have looked dull without it); no other loco designs received this livery scheme, probably because it just wouldn't work on them. Then came 1962's Brush Type 4, and a broad band of Sherwood Green found favour instead - so much so that Derby outshopped its revised Class 25 so adorned from late 1963 - but the first NBL Class 29 conversion, D6123, had acquired it a few months earlier. From 1965 more Class 29s (not all, the blue ones never received it), a handful of Class 24s and two Class 27s had confirmed approval. It was perhaps telling that DP2's 1965 repaint into 'Deltic livery' employed Sherwood Green, not the yellow-green applied to the Deltics. I believe this two-tone green livery would have become more widespread if the arrival of BR blue in 1966 hadn't curtailed it, and the Class 50s could indeed have all looked like D444 did for a while. Swindon made a rather late decision to begin repainting the Warships into Western-matching maroon in September 1965, but by the time they outshopped D864 'Zambesi' in blue 14 months later they had overhauled and repainted 32 of them - nearly half of the class.

I suppose it is, back then the Falmouth branch trains used Platform 3 as up trains went via Platform 4, the other side of this one. Up parcels and perishable trains also used P3 while the branch train was away. Platform 1, the bay, was only occasionally used for stabling locos (including the odd Hymek in the autumn of 1967). The 1971 remodelling blocked off P4 at the east end, up trains then using P3. The Falmouth trains reverted to using the bay platform, as they had in steam days, as the remodelling had included a rationalisation of Penwithers Junction allowing two-way running for the branch trains on the down main for the short distance through Highertown Tunnel, a situation which still exists today. The 1971 changes did away with Truro West Signal Box (and that at Penwithers Junction) and Truro East Box is expected to be taken out of use within the next 3 months, along with Truro's semaphore signals. As if losing the HSTs and CDA china clay wagons wasn't enough......☹️

Interesting - it does appear to be standing on track beyond the up main. Can't see much of the vehicle behind the 46 but it might be a Diag O62 Syphon G (the sliding vent variety). I wrote 'Parcels' ('PCLS' to be exact) in my notebook but it may not have been......not much chance of recalling more detail 48 years later, sadly........!

Derby Class 116 W50848/59356/50901 in blue small yellow livery waits at Truro to return to Falmouth on 4th June 1968 (one of my very first railway photos and it shows! - this camera was very cheap, I was so disappointed with it that I only ever put one film in it and asked 'Santa' for a Kodak Instamatic six months later - he duly obliged! D6315 + D6307 on 2-coach schoolchildren's train to points west stored in down siding beyond, almost certainly with their end gangways connected - such assets sitting idle most of the day was a regular occurrence back then - sometimes even tying up a Warship!) W55016 + W50666/59357/50712 having passed Penwithers Junction in the distance (overlooked by New County Hall) head for Falmouth on 26th August 1974. This Class 120 pair had not long arrived in the area and made a change from the usual centre-headcode sets. W59357 belonged to W51128/51141, a Class 116 which hung around the far west much longer than other 116s which came and went. The power cars tended to run around as a pair and only occasionally collected their centre car, which became somewhat nomadic as a result, as seen here. I once saw it marshalled behind D846 'Steadfast' in an up parcels train! I think my interest in the real railway pretty much started on this bridge - if you looked to the left you could see the Cornish main line curving around the opposite hillside): Three views of W51590/59582/51576 + W55026 at Penryn and Falmouth Docks on 21st June 1977. This Class 120 set had managed to survive into 1969 still in green livery when all of the others were in blue small yellow or blue/grey (in fact I think at least one all-blue set had been repainted into blue/grey before this set even lost its green livery!) Like the Class 116 mentioned above other Class 121 bubble cars came and went but W55026 just couldn't stay away - over 12 years earlier it had worked the last day's services on the Lostwithiel - Fowey branch, had moved on at least twice in that time but kept coming back! It must have liked it in Cornwall (so did W55016 above which I don't think ever left the area). The wall topped by a fence in the second view once supported the headshunt for Penryn goods yard: Mention of the Golden Valley line prompts me to add this shot - on 9th August 1975 and being aware of the impending closure of Gloucester Eastgate station I travelled up from Swindon to take some photos. Green-liveried 47267 took me there, passing 46023 on a parcels working at Stroud:

John Vaughan's album 'An Illustrated History of West Country China Clay Trains' contains a photo of 56013 in R/F Coal Sector livery being trialled on 11 CDA wagons from Tavistock Junction (CDAs in Devon.......almost forgot that happened!) at Lostwithiel at 07.05 on 27th February 1990. The caption says it was a one-day clearance trial with a view to possible use on Speedlink services in lieu of pairs of 37s. It was not to be of course (thankfully, as the 37s scored more highly on the scale of awesomeness) even though the trial went OK - and Speedlink folded less than 18 months later anyway. It was almost inevitable that the Class 47 working the overnight sleepers would choose that day to fail in the area, requiring 56013 to rescue the train and tow it all the way through to Penzance! Following this it ran clearance tests light-engine over the clay branches, but that one day was the beginning and end of the prospect of regular Class 56 activity on South West freight. Well, not quite! On 9th September 1994 an exhibition at St Blazey depot to publicise the launch of Transrail provided 56044 'Cardiff Canton' in Transrail triple-grey livery, parked next to the turntable. Whether it arrived and/or departed light-engine or working trains is not stated. Photo in 'Cornish China Clay Trains in Colour' by Maurice Dart. Although these comments concern Cornwall the locos could only get there via Devon, so still relevant!😉

The real PCVs (Propelling Control Vehicles) were not powered. RES operations are not my field of expertise but IIRC 4-car rakes were formed PCV/modified GUV*/modified GUV*/PCV with driving cabs outermost, and this arrangement allowed the trains to be backed into mail hubs controlled from the PCV's driving cab, avoiding the locomotive having to change ends. But this ability was only used for this manoeuvre, not main line running. As far as I know! *Sorry, don't know the TOPS code(s)!