Halvarras

I have a 4mm Heljan AC Cars railbus which I haven't run for a while - this had me rushing upstairs to give it a test! Seems OK, if a little noisy in one direction. I also have a Park Royal railbus - much the same. But no obviously split gears. Phew! (So far....)

My 1958 Observer's Book was 10 years too late then 😁!

Didn't the Class 40 cover have 40106 on the right? In which case author Russell Saxton may have come to the same conclusion - I can't recall now if he explained his thinking on the cover image change during our frequent email exchanges........if he did I may still have it........

No, I'm sure there was only ever one print run. The cover image was changed from two Class 40s (IIRC) to the two withdrawn D600 Warships at Barry at a very late stage, the earlier image crept into the initial publicity and updating this took a while.....

I noticed that one - I hope the contents weren't created by the same 'modeller' responsible for this (but I have my suspicions.....): https://www.hattons.co.uk/1465071/bachmann_branchline_32_129_po21_class_45xx_2_6_2_prairie_tank_69089_in_br_lined_black_with_early_emblem_pre_own/stockdetaild I've consulted my treasured 1958 Observer's Book and the following number series (69090-on) belonged to an NER 'N10' 0-6-2T, so heaven knows what 'squinted-at lookalike' the perpetrator was seeking to recreate with this. Maybe the other one was left in its box for a reason 😲!

Ah yes, now I come to think of it I seem to recall finding evidence of glue having been used to secure these gears, as well as a friction fit. No evidence of knurling on the axles though, always smooth. The cracked gears are beyond salvation so break these away with pliers if you have to, and clean off any residue. As for removing the wheels, the traction tyred ones have plastic insulation sleeves and so are the ones which you should be able to twist off. Most seem to come off OK - I did have one particularly stubborn example, however it was second-hand and maybe the previous owner had used a spot of superglue. If all else fails, the decoration on these is so good that a 'dead' Mainline Warship looks perfectly at home double-heading with a later centre-drive Bachmann version, which is so powerful it wouldn't know it's there! I have one Mainline Warship which I restored with its original motor fitted with gears from a Mainline Peak*, however the chance find of a Bachmann chassis at a show was too good to pass up. I had resprayed the blue model plain green (as D830 'Majestic'.......and yes, I did alter the exhaust ports to match the Paxman power units!) The new chassis came with a green underframe but this was glossy (ex-D823) and a darker shade than my respray so rather than get the airbrush out again and respray the Bachmann underframe I decided to swap the underframes - of course the Bachmann central drive shafts mean that the Mainline central body securing screws can't be used, so the stems inside the body must be removed and in my case body and chassis were joined via screws behind the bufferbeams into thick plasticard ledges inside the noses backfilled with Miliput. This prevents the headcode lighting being retained but that wasn't an issue for a model which runs alongside a pair of Silver Fox D600 and D6300 locos. *This motor unit initially ran fine but after a period in storage the Peak gears had seized, almost as if they had expanded slightly. Very odd.

Getting at the wheelsets is easy and can be done from below without taking the top off - turn the model over, insert a flat-bladed screwdriver into the slot at the inner end of the bogie frame moulding and gently pull it towards the cab end to unclip it from that end of the bogie. Remove screwdriver and wiggle the frame about a bit until it disengages from the outer end [also works on the Bachmann version]. The gear train is then visible - note that the gear on the axle has a redundant smaller gear moulded onto the side of the bigger one which plays no part in driving the wheels, it's important to reinsert the axles this way around or the gears will bind (Mainline clearly used an existing gear wheel here - perhaps if they'd provided a single large gear with a plain boss moulded on each side (as I believe the Peak had) most of these Warships would still be serviceable. Grasp the wheelsets between finger and thumb and unclip them. The gears can then be closely examined for cracking - if only one is affected it'll be the one which revolves freely on the axle!

Sounds like classic Mainline Warship split drive gear syndrome (the one on the axle). The problem appears to have been created by the factory attempting to keep the moulding pip out of the way by recessing it into a dimple on the face of the gear. The gear was then force-fitted onto the axle which put it under stress, and it tended to crack at the weakest point - the dimple. The crack spread the teeth, which is what causes the clicking sound as it's not meshing correctly with its neighbour, and there's no fixing this. Some gears were made which didn't include the dimple and they are generally OK, but finding a Warship fitted with two of these isn't easy and normally a matter of luck! Ultrascale make replacement gears in brass and they are apparently excellent (not used them myself) but expensive with a possible (probable?) long wait. Or there's these: https://asis3d.co.uk/product/3d-printed-replacement-final-drive-gears-for-mainline-warship/ I've tried these and they seem to work OK. If you reckon they're worth a punt I can explain how to fit them........

Another new train without any yellow on the ends.......I know the bright LED lights render it unnecessary these days, but........it's just not very.........British 😲😜!!

As I found out last year, after a deer strike wrote off my 63-reg 66K miles Citroen C5 Tourer, which I bought in 2019. Collision happened on April Fool's Day (go figure), 4 hours after I got it back from an MOT repair with a £638 bill (new front Hydractive shock absorber, could only get one from Citroen.....) It was perfectly drivable with all lights etc working but needed a new bonnet, new front bumper (looked OK but wasn't in close-up) and when it eventually went in for repair in July and the bonnet was prised open (as the catch had been smashed) they found a headlamp with damaged mountings, so the overall parts and labour cost made it uneconomic to repair. Trouble was, previous incidents had got me wondering whether this otherwise utterly brilliant car was jinxed, and this was confirmation on steroids so buying it back wasn't an option for me, I was relieved to take the money (which I considered fair) and run. However I really hope that it was repaired and is still being utterly brilliant in someone else's hands because it deserved to live on, but I couldn't live with it as I wondered what would happen to it next.......and how badly. I suppose I could check, but I don't want to. But the jinx sort of lives on as my insurance premium doubled, despite the replacement vehicle being in a much lower insurance group. Don't you just love insurance companies.....?

When Hornby released their National Wagon Preservation Group triple pack (R6963 - HAA, HMA & prototype CDA) it occurred to me that I could create my own 1986/7 china clay triple pack based off this - involving an older CDA wagon I already had (R6106). I also have four later weathered versions (R6648/9) so I was able to compare new with old with a view to a transplant - it was possible with a little carving and filing in out-of-sight locations (it's obvious that the canopy itself was (alas!) carried over from the earlier model, and I think the tub and cradle likewise but with detail tooling changes). I sat on the idea until the price of the triple pack dropped, then got stuck in - this was a couple of years ago. Although there might have been a simpler way to do it - buy a 'blue' one, 353224 (R6708) and an HAA - this would probably have involved some waiting, 3 separate orders with 3 lots of P&P so would have cost more, plus unweathered blue ones were hard to find at the time; and wouldn't have saved all of the work as a different set of issues would have arisen. So here's the set: And what I did: A photo of HAA 351297 in St Blazey Yard appears in John Vaughan's book 'An Illustrated History of West Country China Clay Trains', which says that it was specially cleaned to test the discharge of china clay from this hopper design (I've seen reference to a different pair of HAAs involved in this trial but this is the one with photographic evidence). The model uses the HMA wagon renumbered and relettered as these markings were 'boxed' unlike the HAA. That was the easy one! The HAA test must have been successful because it quickly led to this. The prototype CDA 353224 uses this body on the underframe of the HAA (I made sure to get this the correct way round!) - this 'removed' the above-frame brake distributor and added the correct pattern rounded solebar gear casings. Its unique and short-lived end frame- mounted ventilators were fashioned from 10thou plasticard referring to the image published earlier in this thread, which disappeared shortly after completing the model - a close thing since this is the only photo I've ever seen of the wagon with this feature. The ladders are cut from Ratio plastic signal ladders. The canopy required painting from red to blue, and the odd grey-printed number panels changed to black with Railtec transfers and Fox white coaching stock numbers (also used on the HAA above). And 353224 must have been successful because it led the this one and 137 others! The CDA underframe from that one was combined with the body and cradle of the earlier model to create the first production wagon, in the condition I found it in St Blazey yard nearly 36 years ago. Some 'excavation' of the top side of the underframe was required to get the older cradle to fit, and body and cradle are fixed to the underframe via two self-tapping screws, diagonally offset because the near full-length steel bar ballast weight is located in a central 'well'. Markings were replaced with Railtec transfers. The silver on this older body is duller than the other two, and I noticed the canopy frame was grey, so I finally found a purpose for Humbrol's currently dull No 11 silver! Although these models were 'completed' two years ago I knew they weren't properly finished. The HAA was, but the other two required canopy winding gear (did 353224 actually have this in its original configuration or was it just a 'proof of concept'? Is that why the ladders were there?) which, after a lot of head-scratching, were fashioned from square-section rod, Hornby track pin, wire and bits of insulation) and 375000 also a brake distributor shield (scrap nameplate etch and brass wire), neighbouring air tank (plastic sprue, scrap etch and wire) and that small air vent swapping sides at this end, unique to 375000. Also gaps cut and filed into the cradle's lower framework. CDAs being a 'hot topic' I got the models out last week and sorted these features, which were very fiddly - now I remember why I stopped short of these first time around! And a good job I screwed not glued 375000's body in place.....perhaps I knew...... However I've stopped short of those drain holes, 353224's HAA buffers (which I noticed in that photo) and no doubt a few other details apparent to a 1980s wagon expert, which I am not (most of what I know I've learned on RMweb!) I hadn't even intended to model the 1980s until 29th March 2019........ This all left me with a new HAA body on the early 'pivoting' underframe for disposal at some point. I fully understand that the Hornby model has shortcomings but I don't demand 100% fidelity so they're good enough for me. However those four other weathered CDAs, which have nostalgia value for me, will NOT be getting the canopy winding gear/shield/air tank upgrade as I value my sanity too much!

Seems to have been a Scottish thing - most if not all of their Met-Cam Class 101 DMUs had blue-painted window frames too. Do we know whether D8048 carried a reversed double-arrow logo on both sides? And whether D8049 was the same? I looked into this some time ago because I suspected these two were possibly repainted to show off the then new blue livery as a pair, but in typical Sod's Law fashion could only find photos of one side of D8048, and the opposite side of D8049 which had the correct logo. The reason I ask is because Scottish Class 24 D5068 had reversed logos on the driver's doors and correct logos on the secondman's (above Law didn't apply to this one!) meaning the loco displayed right and wrong logos on each side. Did D8048 + D8049 display the same when coupled nose-to-nose due to a similar misunderstanding? (Wandering a little off-topic, unless Mr Bachmann goes "Hmmm...!" - although the conversation with factory could be interesting..... "You want us to deliberately print the logos back-to-front?!")

Quite so, and even the livery on the '66' is obsolete 😉!

It's truly something to behold with all those windows - and........has the shape of the nearest cab windscreen been amended to have more rounded corners?

Spotted this on the way home after 46115's departure yesterday - Par's down starter and its replacement ready to be swung into position (it's hinged at its base). Bloke walking his dog said it wasn't there on Friday..... It's getting closer.....the up IET pegged in the distance (something we won't be able to tell from this side soon, d'oh!) took too long to arrive to add interest, I had to get home for my dinner......

37412 arrived at St Blazey in August 1989 still with its 'Loch Lomond' plates attached (photo on shed in the relevant section of the Cornwall Railway Society's website) - I have Bachmann 37207, 37671 and 37696 (renumbered from 37693, eBay body on an older chassis but I still got the lights to work!) and that was supposed to be all but when I found a Bachmann 37408 on sale on a local market stall, in need of a little TLC for just £40 recently 37412 was inevitable as I like Large Logo Blue! That photo of a blue Class 47 on CDAs is in John Vaughan's landscape colour album 'Cornish Railways' and was 47476 on 20th October 1988. I've also seen a photo of very clean Railfreight Red Stripe 4733x (can't find it at the moment to check which one) on the CDAs at Golant and the caption days it hung about on these workings for several days - perhaps a lot of 37s were out of action at the time. It's true of course that any air-braked loco could work CDAs......

I bought one too when they first appeared, must have been 1980/81. I think it cost £4.35! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the time, but in December 1982 I had an opportunity to exhibit some of my detailed Scottish locos at a local exhibition so built a 5' x 1' three-point layout depot layout in six weeks (foam underlay helped) with this kit as the centrepiece. I wanted to fit a full floor so ordered another floor section from Hornby but it didn't arrive in time so I used balsa wood topped with plasticard instead, and clad the brick-printed side walls with embossed brick plasticard. Although the plastic floor section was pinned down (it had to be as it goes under the track) I retained the ability to dismantle the building (lift off the roof, pull out the lights, lift out the glazed end panels, fold in the sides to disengage from the floor) for storage. I went easy on the side wall clips, filing them slightly so they engaged without stress, although later on they were showing signs. I also built an office for it, basically an Airfix bungalow kit with a flat roof (Perspex covered with coarse 'wet-and-dry' abrasive paper) which blocked off one rear exit road. When I dismantled the layout the building parts (including the unused new floor section) went into a box for many years, until I decided to build another depot layout some time back using Bachmann's rather lovely resin diesel servicing depot, and needed a single road shed for the shunters. So out came the old kit, saws, files, plasticard and an idea of what I wanted it to look like and......well, I had some fun with it! For one reason and another I still haven't built the layout it'll sit on yet - I live in eternal hope - but this (and much else besides) is ready for the glorious day.......I'll try to dig it out and post a couple of pics as I'm quite proud of it 😊!

PS as you can probably tell from the above St Blazey's unrefurbished Class 37s, including celebrities 37175, 37196 & 37207, were replaced by the refurbished examples around mid-1987, so these never got to work the CDAs as they hadn't yet been delivered. I have a clear memory of approaching the outskirts of Plymouth on the A38 en route to a holiday near Looe in early September 1987 and just as we crossed the mainline I spotted a named blue Class 47 heading east towing a standard blue 37 and one in large logo blue. Judging by the nameplate size and position the 47 must have been either 47625 City of Truro or 47613 North Star, but I reckon that by pure coincidence I had just caught large logo 37175 being towed away from the South West (since it now belongs to Colas it has since reappeared a number of times on Network Rail test trains, even getting to travel down Cornish branch lines!)

Well done for catching this, it ran 4 hours early (which at least made it visible in daylight!) The final outward loaded train had run 3 hours early, very nearly catching me out, so I had expected the empties to do likewise but by the time I found out it was moving it was already in St Blazey Yard! I'm not used to chasing erratic modern freight workings, I remember just turning up and not having to wait long for something to pass by, usually headed by a diesel-hydraulic...........those were the days 😁! As if to illustrate my frustration at the current scene, yesterday morning I noticed a 6Z73 Exeter - St Blazey special freight working, labelled 'aggregates' and due to arrive at 17.18 - Saturday freights are not common and having just read that two extra JIAs and some JGAs (a new type to Cornwall) are expected shortly from store at Long Marston I wondered if this could be them - so I went down to Par station to see, and hopefully photograph. The train seemed to be making good progress, even running a little early, but the time came, and went - nothing. Checked RTT and "This service has been partially cancelled between Lostwithiel and Par at the request of the operator". So having been on the move for a few hours it was presumably caped 10 minutes away in Lostwithiel Down Loop, and that was that. I took it personally and went home in disgust! I still have no idea what it was or where it is today. Oh well.

Do you mean original without the red stripe? I believe 37696 was the first refurbished 37 seen in Cornwall in mid-1986 (followed by at least 37690 - don't forget, these locos were outshopped in reverse numerical order). However I don't think these were officially allocated to Laira and had departed the area before the CDAs went into full service in February 1988 (I've never seen a photo of one of these on CDAs), by which time the 'home fleet' 37670-5 had been delivered. 37673 was the first 37 into Railfreight Triple-Grey livery (for the freight sector launch at Ripple Lane in October 1987) so arrived at St Blazey already in that livery. The rest were in Railfreight Grey Red Stripe, however shortly after delivery 37670/1 were involved in a serious incident at Tavistock Junction in November 1987 which saw them sent to Doncaster for repair - they were out of action for around a year I think (37669 and 50149 stepped in to fill the void) and of course when they eventually returned they were both in the Triple-Grey livery (671 oddly carrying Metals logos). As a result only 37669/72/74/75 got to work the CDAs in Railfreight Grey Red Stripe. They were of course progressively repainted into the Triple-Grey livery, and by 1992 I think only 37672 was still in the old livery, looking shabby but with shiny new St Blazey depot plaques, unusual on the Grey Red Stripe loco. It didn't last long like this.....

That would have been during the 7 months it ran in blue livery then (8/3/71 - 3/10/71) - 3 weeks less than D600 managed!

Oh.....OK - presumably D6337 had a tail lamp too then! On reflection it would have made sense for the twin-engined loco to be powered up for this transfer move of brand new machines, as teething trouble on the single-engined one could have immobilized the ensemble (possibly in an embarrassingly awkward location causing much disruption!)

Same at The Range......

Many thanks for sharing such great memories. Considering the camera, film and conditions as you describe, the fact that the number is legible on D6337, which judging by the tail lamp on D862 is in charge, makes this a total success 😊! This was also the first Type 2 to be released with yellow warning panels (the first Warship, D859, had already passed by then). It also illustrates how NBL had problems dealing with the Warship's unfamiliar 'stressed skin' construction method, the new paint exaggerating the rippling compared to the Type 2 which was built using conventional methods. An interesting point of livery detail between the two is that the Type 2's underframe water tank (not fuel tank, that was higher up in the roof space) was originally painted green to (sort of) match the Warship's green valances. It was usually, if not always, repainted black during first overhaul.

D6334-6 were turned out without yellow panels and the second loco's number doesn't appear to end in a '7' so this is probably D6338 + D6339 (??) Not D834, which went maroon in June 1966, i.e. before the Class 50s had appeared. The 'blob' above the loco's number is almost certainly a data panel, and the only green Warship to have this applied in such a position was D854 'Tiger', which happened to be one of the last green survivors (I had it for haulage Paignton - Exeter on 5th July 1969). Data panels only started appearing en masse from spring 1969 and D854 went blue in December that year, so this photo was taken during that year........plenty of time for the '50' to get into that state!