Halvarras

Yes, on reflection I could have described that better! I knew what I meant but....... Apologies for wondering off-topic with that, but there is a connection, apart from the obvious - I've seen the three Mark 1 saloons DB999506/8/9 also described as Diagram Q13. I believe this is confused, these three were 1/552 which perhaps unusually was a diagram in the freight series(?) Not sure why such confusion exists, after all nobody confuses Hawksworth and BR Mark 1 coaches and the number of end windows at least is surely a massive clue....... (Should I own up to the 'lookalike' I carved out of a Hornby Class 110 centre car about 30 years ago, and which I still have? Er.................no 🥴!)

The first JGA wagon went out on the Rocks/Goonbarrow - Fowey clay working on Thursday 20/9/23 - but according to Craig Munday's notes this wagon type may not prove suitable as it wasn't designed for side scoop loading: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc Perhaps it was judged similar to the JIAs in theory but not similar enough in practice. Developments awaited......

Pleasantly surprised to see these on here Nidge! I sent the images to the CRS but they were taken by a school friend, William (Bill) Heggie, who IIRC was a member of the school's photography club, developed the photos there and handed me a spare set of prints. I believe they were taken in March 1971 and he probably caught the first move in the remodelling of Truro yard which progressed over the following 7 months and included demolition of the old steam shed and Truro West Box and closure of the Newham branch. I hung on to these photos because I thought one day I might build a model of DB999508.... This is based on a Triang-Hornby Mark 1 Buffet Car with a spare 'buffet' side, a later-tooled roof and scratch-built ends, and Bill's pictures were close to essential to enable me to do this. There are 6 sections in one side and 4 in the other. The chassis was cleared of all underframe detail, shortened to a scale 57' and the centre part of a Replica Railways Mk1 BG underframe moulding grafted on, which also acts as a 'splint' Why not just use the Replica underframe? Because I decided to build the body in one piece, to resolve the end water filler pipe issue, and retain the T-H 'tongue-in-groove' method of locating the sides into the chassis - I felt this was the best way to keep everything square and rigid. Whether it was less work is debatable - it also means the interior fittings have to be a scale foot away from the walls but I hope the curtains will hide that....) It was also discovered that Replica Mk 1 glazing is a near-perfect fit for this T-H coach with its window raised rimming, so that's standing by. I will have to have another go at the interior as it was educated guesswork and I know I haven't got the end saloon tables right. Sadly it has been in this ghostly state for longer (much longer) than I care to admit to - it seems that these days I prefer the building to the painting - but it's on a long list of other things which need finishing and I've told myself, in no uncertain terms, to get organised for spraying sessions next summer. After all, I finished D6322 in 1998 (that's not to say that DB999508 has been hanging around for 25 years - I'm not THAT bad!!)

That will have been this one. DW80975 at BTM July/August 1984:

Modern Image? Sounds like you could use one of these then 🤭!

These models are definitely screwed together (as is the Syphon G) - two each in the powered and unpowered driving cars and one in the centre car. I've had a rummage and found a couple of spares - PM me if you'd like them.

Oh yes, at least one of them just HAS to be in green! I was going to say you can never have too many Hymeks, but I suppose you can...........if you have 102 of them 😆! Good point, can't argue with that logic 👍!

I wonder if they had any concerns about the MU equipment working properly after years of disuse. The day before might have been a bit risky! Mind you Beyer Peacock tended to do a 'proper job' so perhaps when connected up it just worked first time. I assume the two locos would have had to have been powered up to check this, in which case 'peace and quiet' would be a relative term with a pair of Hymeks, especially if under cover 😉! That glorious engine noise was another reason these were (are) my favourite machines.

There was a spin-off from participating in this tour - I went on the WR's mailing list for future events, and decided to join a few of them: 3/11/73 - Lambourne Valley Farewell - 9-car WR DMU Newbury as far as Welford Park, a few runs up the rickety trackwork on a very dull day. Not many people ever passed under the recently completed M4 motorway near Welford by train.....in fact not many trains went under it! 4/5/74 - London Outer Circle Tour - 10-car WR DMU (one 3-car set included one of the three WR Class 101 trailers), Paddington - Paddington via a variety of stations. The only photo I took was of the train with a couple of EMUs at Fenchurch Street, IIRC the only station the train stopped at - it's a strange railtour photo because there's not another human being in sight! Not being into track mileage accumulation this one proved to be of limited value to me personally (I copped 3 Class 08s, 73106 and 37265 a rare non-WR green TOPS 37) but it served to illustrate how rapidly the loco fleet had been renumbered mainly during March/April - of the c80 locos seen (excluding Westerns) only four 08s had not yet received their TOPS numbers and one of those, black-liveried D3052, was withdrawn. Probably the most unexpected sight of the day was 47401 (ex-D1500) on Willesden DED......must have forgotten where Kings Cross was! 27/9/75 - Paddington to the two South Devon preserved lines, Paignton - Kingswear first, then Totnes - Buckfastleigh (my notes say these were named Torbay Steam Railway and Dart Valley Railway respectively at that time). Advertised as Western-hauled (hooray!) - waiting to board at Reading the approach of D1022 looked encouraging but that veered off and went to Birmingham and we got 50033 instead! Disappointing but it survived the day intact, if you know what I mean. A full rake of BR blue/grey coaches into Buckfastleigh required a bit of forward planning by the railway - pannier 1638 was held at Staverton to haul us back as the train blocked all pointwork at the terminus! 22/5/76 - Paddington to Paignton behind 31416 + 31419, I got on at Newbury (I had a car to get there by then) and off at Teignmouth for what to date has been my one and only walk along the seawall to Langstone Rock, on which I was standing when my last-required Class 50, 50034, passed by heading west - result!! A pity the weather was overcast and Westerns thin on the ground but it was still a memorable day. So one per year, I don't recall that being a deliberate plan but in any case a year later I was no longer in a position to participate in such tours as I was to spend a couple of years off the British mainland, during which time my life changed considerably......!

A postscript - 'Just before they were famous'! On 8th September 1973, two weeks before its starring role leading the 'Hymek Swansong' railtour, I caught D7001 in fuzzy condition (!!) approaching Didcot North bound for Paddington. It looked like it could do with a little TLC: And it certainly received that: [Incidentally according to an old 'Modern Railways' magazine I used to possess - September 1963 issue I think - this Hymek was the first of its type into Cornwall, recorded crossing the Royal Albert Bridge on a freight on 1st May 1963 - over 20 Hymeks were still to be delivered at that date.] D7028 had received a full repaint at Old Oak Common in early August 1973, seen here at Bristol Temple Meads on the 11th: And again same location on 15th September (and probably on the same working), one week before railtour duty called - it must have received an ends-and-sides clean-up for that: And finally, during the stop-over at Didcot I had to take a photo of Warship 821 'Greyhound', by then in failing light. It had arrived there under its own power light-engine on 24th May, no doubt surprising a few spotters along the way: It's interesting to think now that this was the first mainline diesel locomotive preserved by an individual, and around the time I took this pic what was to become the first such loco preserved by a group, D7017, passed by the other side of the fence on the left. In 2009 or 2010 I rode the West Somerset Railway behind these two machines working in tandem and the significance of the event wasn't lost on me. But sometimes I reckon I just overthink things 🤪!!

At the end of July I submitted a post regarding the demise of the first Hymek, D7000 50 years earlier, and commented that it was a shame that it couldn't have lasted another couple of months as the BR(WR) 'Hymek Swansong' tour could have had the two first-built Hymeks at its head - but 7028 landed the gig instead. And so we arrive at another Hymek 50th anniversary..... As you may have gathered I had (and still have) a 'thing' for the Hymeks so when I found out about this special train marking the 'end' of the class on BR (not quite, as we well know) I had to be on it. Back then I was located near Swindon but regularly spent weekends with relatives at Blackwater, about 25 minutes down the Reading - Redhill line, so a visit was planned to coincide with the tour, boarding at Reading. The itinerary took the train from Paddington (dep. 09.10) picking up at Slough and Reading then down the GWML taking the South Wales route from Wootton Bassett Junction, under the Severn to Maindee Junction and on to the Hereford line for stops at Pontypool and Hereford. It then took a route very familiar to Hymeks, round to Worcester and down through Evesham and Oxford, calling in for a visit to GWS Didcot, then back to Paddington (arr. 20.20). The reason for the stops at Pontypool (12.20 - 13.09) and Hereford (14.00 - 14.55) was because the 'Hymek Swansong' was not the only tour running that day - playing second fiddle to the unusual sight of double-headed Hymeks were a couple of minor players on the railtour scene, 4472 'Flying Scotsman' and 6000 'King George V'.........hah, sorry, couldn't resist it 🤣! A pair of Hymeks on a passenger working was rarer though - argue that one! The 'Atlantic Venturers Express' combined two well-known steam icons (I'll give them that) which had crossed the Atlantic in the past and had the bells to prove it, hence the plural in the train's title. This ran from Newport to Shrewsbury, however another special from Plymouth to Newport (1Z73) was run to link into this, and to power it Laira thoughtfully turned out D1005 'Western Venturer' in immaculate condition complete with white wheel rims, an unusual sight on a Western. The three tours would become intertwined during the day. The day dawned bright and sunny (it was not to stay that way, sadly, as the camera I possessed at that time was OK in bright conditions but made dull days look......well, even duller, as you'll see; it had through-the-lens metering but not focusing and I ditched it shortly after this, fed up with its variable output). Things got off to a good start when my train from Blackwater to Reading arrived formed of 6584 plus a few Mark 1 coaches instead of the usual 3R 'Tadpole' unit (this wasn't particularly unusual on the line), with E6039 being passed in the sidings at Earley oil depot. During the short wait at Reading 1C23 passed through behind D1015 'Western Champion', a loco which would go on to write its own history in a way we couldn't have foreseen at the time. Then at 10.00 1Z14, the main event, arrived: "Oi mate, don't use this door, can't you see I'm recordin'?!" Old Oak Common had clearly given D7001 a full repaint for the occasion - D7028 had been repainted earlier the previous month so was still in good condition, although it was a pity it hadn't received one of OOC's speciality roof deep cleans.......mind you they tended to remove chunks of paint as well, so.......anyway, just look at that sky! All aboard! The charge down the GWML behind two Maybach MD870s went without incident to the first halt just past Bristol Parkway, held at Signal 114 as scheduled between 11.26 and 11.33 and within sight of workings on the NE-SW main line. While we sat awaiting developments a remarkable sight came into view - a clean renumbered Peak 45001 (ex-D13) heading west on 1V70 formed entirely of maroon Mark 1 coaches - yes, THAT set! TOPS- numbered loco on all-maroon stock - file under 'Prototype For Everything'! Shortly after, the immaculate D1005 passed in the opposite direction with 1Z73 heading for Newport - the Hymeks then followed it but as mentioned above turned right at Maindee Jc and stopped at Pontypool so we could all disembark and await the passage of the kettles........terribly sorry, I mean the steam icons 4472 & 6000 (watch it H, this irreverence is gonna get you into big trouble 🤐!) Our train reversed into a siding beyond the bridge to get out of the way of the Famous Duo (now you're grovelling 🤭) In retrospect I'm not sure why I failed to take a photo of the Hymeks here - I thought I had but the negatives say otherwise. I also discovered that although I had scanned the diesel images I had not scanned pics of the Prestigious Pair (oh, cut it out now) so those presented are photos of the prints, I hope they'll do for setting the scene, so to speak. 4472 + 6000 pass the Hymeks and then the happy Hymek tourers at Pontypool.........er, where's the sun gone? It certainly hadn't gone to Hereford..... All well-behaved and following the instructions in the supplied literature "YOU ARE WARNED NOT TO TRESPASS ON THE RAILWAY". Once this train had passed the Hymek tour returned to the platform, we all boarded and set off for a damp and dismal Hereford - but at least the rain just about held off. At Hereford the two iconic steam locomotives (reverence restored) reversed positions. It's worth mentioning here that the literature again stated "IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT PASSENGERS USE THE FOOTBRIDGE TO CROSS THE LINE. YOU ARE WARNED NOT TO TRESPASS ON THE RAILWAY". Um...... Oh well, at least nobody got run over so all's well that ends well.....I suppose. (And yes, obviously I was as guilty as everyone else, but since they were there anyway.......) Imagine the size of the sh*tstorm such antics would precipitate these days. I wonder if the lady in the pink headscarf was really a steam engine enthusiast or just a local resident taking a shortcut home with some shopping? She looks sort of out of place...... And then the Hymeks took centre stage: Not something seen very often during the Hymek era - two 'yellow triangles' coupled in multiple. I wonder if this worked first time Old Oak tried pairing them up? All aboard once again and off to Worcester where a weather miracle occurred! The iconic (that word again) photo of this tour that everyone seemed to take - and no wonder: But hang on, what's D7017 up to behind the tour? '1A40' - didn't it get the memo? There's a swansong going on 'ere..... The tour spent 15 minutes at Worcester departing at 15.50 for the Didcot visit, arr. 17.25/dep. 19.07 - and sure enough while we were there D7017 swept past on the avoiding line heading 1A40 to Paddington as if putting two fingers up to the notion of a 'swansong' (indeed five weeks later I was back at Didcot for a visit by 'Flying Scotsman' (again) and photographed D7029 accelerating up the avoiding line with a Worcester service!) Having arrived back at Reading I boarded a 'Tadpole' unit back to Blackwater, and whilst looking out of the window made a note of the last loco sighting of the day - 400. The times they were a-changin' (and the HSTs hadn't arrived yet......) A final comment - the intro in the folder included the following paragraph: "The train is not timed to make a fast run. It was not possible for the Chief Mechanical Engineer to sanction two locomotives of this type to travel at very high speeds around the route. So please don't be too critical if the driver keeps exactly to schedule, and does not run his locomotives in the high 90s!" Whilst checking online for further information regarding this tour I discovered that the driver allegedly disregarded this instruction and did in fact reach the mid 90s at a couple of locations between Reading and Paddington - after I had got off so I missed out on high-speed Hymeks!

The Class 45 Peaks were an interesting case since, like the Class 86s, they were, initially at least, renumbered in random order. I recall boarding a train at Swindon in April 1973 and overhearing two guys talking about seeing a Peak numbered 45101 (of course we were all aware of the electric locos renumbered by then so it was only a matter of time). I saw my first two TOPS locos, 45106/7, outside Derby works while passing through the station the following month. What confused things was the emergence of 45001, at which point the fitting of ETH to those with 45/1 numbers became clear. Derby was taking in whichever Class 45s were due general overhauls and presumably assessing them for those most suitable for ETH conversion, with rejections became 45/0s. Examination of listings/dates (the MLIs, especially 230 'Locomotive Directory', are very useful for this) reveals that by the time Derby had identified the 50 locos required for ETH conversion around the end of 1974 the 45/0 tally had reached 45023 - from that point the remaining Class 45s still carrying their original numbers were allocated 45024-77 in numerical order and could be renumbered at depots. However this still took a while - the last loco I saw with its original number (other than Westerns) was 53 'Royal Tank Regiment' at Birmingham New Street on 19th April 1975 - it was renumbered 45041 the following month. It appears that by July 1975 all 45/0s and 45/1s were in traffic - except one, 125 which, thanks to extended collision damage repairs, didn't emerge as 45071 from Derby Works until December 1975. This meant that Class 45 held the distinction of having both the first and last diesel locomotives to receive TOPS numbers. I saw D5381 inside Derby Works on 4th November 1969, didn't see another until 27010 at Carlisle Kingmoor in May 1974 - that was it until a weekend tour around Scotland in May 1977 which netted a lot of 26s and 27s. When 27040 turned up at Swindon Works in 1984 it wasn't a cop as I'd had it for haulage from Perth 7 years earlier!

Good point!

It certainly was a very strange period and in the past I've asked via the TRACTION magazine letters page whether anyone working on the railway at the time could give us an insight into how it was organised (if that is the right word!) No takers unfortunately. It wasn't so much the green and standard blue liveries loco's which caused the greatest variations during TOPS renumbering (although green 40s and 47s could have their new numbers applied in different places), it was the surviving early blue examples which caused the greatest confusion, as per 47097 above. It was fun while it lasted! Generally speaking as far as the diesel fleet was concerned it kicked off with D96 becoming 45101 at Derby in March 1973 and other works joined the programme that autumn; it wasn't until February/March 1974 that depots started wholesale renumbering. That leaves 31416 as a real oddball, being depot renumbered at such an early stage - perhaps somebody at OOC misunderstood the timing and 'jumped the gun'.

The 101 did cause me some extra work, but then I wanted a model of one of the first ones repainted into blue/grey livery in 1974 still with 2-character headcode panels (P802-4) - I was always going to have to add those myself, but could have done so without having to repaint the entire yellow ends. Were there any blue/grey 101s with four marker lights in reality? Re your second point, perhaps this was why their first 'hi-fi' Class 08 release in green livery sported deleted D prefixes and TOPS data panels (3256) - good for those few modellers who prefer roughly 1969 - 1973 but inappropriate for the hugely popular Transition Era. It's not even as if they left enough space to add your own Ds!

Hauled by D1932 in green - built 1966, blue by mid-1968 (reason unknown) so green photos very rare indeed. Two power cars, lead vehicle will be either W50819 or W50862, the other W50872 or W50915. Still a heavy load though, this must have been close to the limit.....

Umm.....I'm having trouble reconciling the state of this with the price being asked..... https://www.hattons.co.uk/1495618/hornby_r3842_po05_class_w1_hush_hush_4_6_4_10000_in_lner_apple_green_pre_owned_sold_as_seen_non/stockdetail Edit - ah sorry, it comes in a very good box. So that's OK then.....

Interesting - why the number patch? It looks like the original number was painted out and then reapplied, same as before but higher up so it's no longer in alignment with the logo. Here's my photo of the same loco, same corner, taken at Oxford on 17th March 1973: Could it have very briefly carried 47261? There is a precedent for this - 1724 is listed as being allocated 47133 but never carrying it........except that it did! I saw it numbered as such at Reading on 17th May 1974 - I didn't see it again until 21st September 1974 at Didcot where I made a note that it had been renumbered back to 1724 but only on the secondman's corner - with signs of 47133 having been painted out at the other end. No idea what the other side looked like. Why this happened to this one when other 47/4s-in-waiting such as 47153 and 47260 were allowed to briefly display their allocated 47/0 numbers is a mystery.......

Well, somebody had to, especially if said person had a Lima model already repainted and lined but with an awful varnish coat so in need of a couple of coats of Klear anyway, plus the required transfers on a late 1970s MTK sheet: Humbrol BR Maroon (painted way back....), Modelmaster lining, SMS 'CCT', MTK 'buff' (their word) dimensions/weight data and scrawled destination, Replica numbers (the 'W' is white and '94822' straw, as per the prototype, although the difference hardly shows alas) and MTK logo/branding. The latter only just fits around and within the detail, and to achieve this I had to separate the four main parts, trim them as close as possible and apply where they would fit (but still in a straight line!) so not exactly as per the real thing, which I believe was one of those with the ends painted maroon - they're black on mine because my supply of Humbrol maroon paint is long gone, and Railmatch doesn't (match the Humbrol I mean). This Lima model is fitted with Hornby 12.1mm disc wheels. Stock of this vintage on my layout (sadly still packed away after a house move 3.5 years ago - long story) is all single-ended hence the coupling hook at one end only - I use (and one day will use again, he says hopefully......) a magnetic uncoupling pole. I discovered John Turner's remarkable photo on RMweb a few years ago and thought that I must get the model and the MTK transfers together at some point, as this was such an oddball combination (as @Rugd1022 says you'd hardly believe it without photographic evidence) and it finally happened just a few months ago. Anyone with a copy of 'The Book of the Warships' (Irwell press) will find this vehicle lurking behind D819 'Goliath' at Gloucester Central on 9/10/69 (page 159). [Veering off-topic for a moment, flip to page 175 and D827 'Kelly' on a Penzance - Wolverhampton service (1M39) at Plymouth in June 1968 with an ex-LMS 'porthole' BSK in blue/grey livery behind the loco - I've seen a rear 3/4 photo of D827 taken at the time which identifies the coach as M26986M, in case this is of interest to anyone. I wonder if this had just been added at Plymouth or it had made it to Penzance and back? If it did I may well have seen one or two of these blue/grey 'portholes' in Cornwall but never realised the significance - just as with the three Hawksworth b/g SKs which I must have seen, and possibly even ridden in. It took choc/cream Mark 1 BSK W34885 in July 68 to wake me up to coaching stock - bit late by then for the old stuff. But not parcels stock, which veers neatly back on-topic!]

On Friday I mentioned having once bought an MTK kit for Class 121 DMBS + DTS but Lima got in the way! In 1991 I created DMBS W55029 in green and DTS W56280 in blue syp from Lima Class 117 models, the former I used to see in Cornwall in the late 1960s but the latter was never a Cornish unit (AFAIK) and the livery was copied from a photo in the 1969 Ian Allan combined volume. Unfortunately I'd forgotten (if I'd ever noticed) that the bufferbeams on Bsyp units were red, and it would be many years before colour images would come my way showing this, so rather belatedly this still needs correcting. When I get around to it I'm going to use BR crimson rather than signal red or bufferbeam red (too orange in my view) as units in this scheme always seemed to have duller red 'beams that normal green stock, even when clean. The model was built on the TC underframe of course and I found it necessary to replace all of the steps except those on each corner in order to get them lined up with the doors. The TC also had only one central body securing screw so the donor DMBS needed both internal stems removing and one repositioned centrally (I obtained this from another model with a section of roof still attached which was smoothed off for secure glued attachment inside the DTS - the stem then needed shortening slightly). Having finished it I decided this conversion was probably not one I'd want to do again! These two vehicles, and the other five which constitute my Lima DMU fleet (118 3-car, 122 single and another 121 unpowered single) were prepared for SEF Flushglaze but I never got around to that either, or painting the interiors or fitting the windscreen wipers they were drilled to take. I suspect it'll never happen now....... Bit of a story about the nearest cab end on the green 'un - I needed a spare 117 DMS to create a 121 and when I spotted an unpowered boxed one on a stand at a Bristol show - presumably 1990/91 - at a good price I snapped it up, although I couldn't help noticing the rather shifty look I got from the trader. When I got it home I found out why - it had clearly been left in the sun for an extended period, the thing was banana-shaped and the other side a bit 'wavy'. A good job then that I only needed it for the cab end! However the bent bodyshell eventually yielded a good number of door hinges and grabrails too, and the curved chassis gave up its engine detail and bogie pivots for other purposes, so I suppose it got sold to the right person in the end.

And AIUI 65288 & 65345 achieved local celebrity status as the last BR steam locos working off Scottish depots, withdrawn 5th June 1967 - not bad going for an 1888 design. I have a few Scottish diesels set in 1967 and could be tempted by one of these myself (preferably 65345 as a March 1967 photo of it alongside D6850 appears in the colour album 'Heyday of the Scottish Diesels', complete with red-painted coupling rods and bufferbeam-mounted snowplough).

So does my brother, although he has zero interest in railways and the dog passed away a few years ago......🥴

Wot?! An upside-down works plate on a loco designed and built at SWINDON?? How very dare you Sir!! 😲😜

Considering the jaunty angle the powered vehicle is sitting at, not really. What kind of structural defect lurks within?

They'll be aware of it if they're on RMweb! 😁