Halvarras

My pair of ECCI blue ones were ordered Tuesday at 12.20pm and delivered this morning at 10.20am - exactly 46 hours for the order to be processed and shifted from pretty much one end of the country to the other - now that's impressive! And so are the wagons - no issues, both perfect and very nice! Many thanks to all involved in creating and delivering these super models. I wonder if I can resist a 'blanked logo' clay slurry version........?🤔

Laira had a few allocated in 1964/5 and they seem to have been a semi-regular sight through to Penzance during those years, but must have retrenched to points east in 1966, the year I got interested, as I saw none at Truro. That changed when D601/2/4 were sent to South Wales in the autumn of 1967 as Laira gained D7029 and D7088 as stand-ins (and D7017 turned up once as well) - they departed when the Warships returned, and after that they became rare sights again, which did indeed cause much excitement when they appeared! Their only regular diagramming into Cornwall was on the Kensington Olympia to St Austell Motorail during the high summer months of 1970 and 1971 (I was one station too far down the line but did make an effort to go and see all-over blue D7051 stabled at St Blazey on 4/7/70), however awkward timing seems to have ensured very few photos were taken - I only know of one, D7064 in the roundhouse. D7009 was one of those which caught me by surprise by passing through Par down light engine on 6/9/68 - it was definitely still GSYP at the time Phil so I assume your Adex was dated later than that? I didn't mind them at all in GFYE livery, it still suited the styling. I was disappointed not to have seen D7000 in any style of green, it was nearly ex-works blue when I first saw it at Chippenham in late July 1970. It was reported to have been at Plymouth North Road in GFYE in May 1969 (having emerged from Swindon with full ends 22/9/68) and piloted 1594 away from there on the up 'Cornishman'. AFAIK D7000 never crossed the Tamar, but many didn't of course. Next month will mark the 50th anniversary of its withdrawal, on the 30th - had it survived a little longer we may well have enjoyed the first two Hymeks at the head of the 'Hymek Swansong' tour of 22/9/73, and no doubt Old Oak Common would have given it a repaint like D7001 too. Oh well........

If you mean blue syp then no, the nearest cabside would have had a BR logo on it instead of a number, the white stripe is visible across the top of the yellow panel and small areas of white are just discernible around the windows.......it really is a green one 'resprayed' matt brown by Mother Nature 😃!!

Well, I did see all of them in service between 1966 and the end in 1972, in Cornwall they were hard to avoid, but TBH I preferred the more modern appearance of the Westerns and Hymeks (and Brush Type 4s........sorry!) But I did miss them when they went and appreciate them all the more now, as the technical aspects - especially 2,200hp in less than 80 tons - was impressive. There are bigger Warship fanatics than me out there......😉! I wonder that too but I really must avoid any more time-consuming projects like this one (lesson learned) - I was working on a pair of Dapol Class 22s when this Warship intervened, they've had their side valances glued on but now I have to find a new way of attaching the bodies, to avoid a 'Lima Warship' situation (anyone who has tried to remove the body of one of these without damage will know what I mean!) By the time I retired four years ago I had purchased a lot of models, most of which require some work, even if just renumbering to specific locos, but after a good start I got distracted onto so many other things, such as my blinged-up Tri-ang 'Nellie' and Dock Authority shunter plus two mates, that this 'grand plan' is now way behind where it should be (and RMweb prompted some of this side-tracking, but ultimately I didn't have to do these things - they just appealed, so I can only blame myself!) But, hey, who knows......watch this space 😎!?

The first-built '26' was an astonishing survivor - note its original unique higher number with no serifs on the D prefix, suggesting no repaint during the 13 years since construction. Even more remarkable was that during that time it was dual-braked but still emerged with its original paint finish intact - BRCW must have given their first BR diesel some serious coats of varnish! D5301 also lasted a similar time in green syp livery so perhaps that one was similarly shiny in 1958.

Can't resist anything with an 'ECC International' logo on it so had to have a blue one........except I didn't want it to be lonely so I've just ordered two! 😁

That is truly D828 (Magnificent) and a very neat job! If there were ever to be a competition for Most Imaginative Use of Dead Mainline Warships you've already won first prize 😆!!

@BrushVeteran's photos above appear to confirm that you are correct, I can't see one on the far cab door. You did better than me, I missed out on D7071 and D7079, and I can think of six others I only saw just the once. I did well considering I lived in Cornwall, hardly a hotbed of Hymek activity, and it was expensive to get from there into their home turf!

Guess what - I've managed to nail it together so I'll mention it again! This purchased-on-a-whim Mazak Rot victim Bachmann Warship (D800) had a casting with broken ends, one broken bogie frame, wheels and frame missing at one end and a motor which seemed to have its own built-in variable speed control. I should have admitted defeat there and then but a challenge is a challenge, I had that spare Class 25 motor/flywheels and some Mainline Warship wheels and knew where I could get some cheap Bachmann Class 42 bogie frames, and once the imagination got to work on how to (possibly) rescue the situation imposed by my too-hasty purchase all of my other projects got sidetracked.......again. Ladies and Gentlemen........or is it now "Hello Everyone!".........I present.......um.......this contraption: This required some serious opening up of the Mainline underframe - I used the green D800 frame upside-down as a template. Spot the Triang-Hornby parts - the brass bosses are epoxied (is that a real word?) to the tops of the cast Bachmann gear towers, possible future weak spots but so far so good. The central casting seems to be sound enough, even if the remaining end extensions broke off with finger pressure, and so hard I gave up trying to drill holes in it (with a Bosch drill!) to take self-tapping screws through the underside, to secure the underframe. Instead I used a pair of T-H long brass bolts down through the diagonally opposite holes previously used by the Bachmann body securing screws in the opposite direction. The plasticard/Plastruct top assembly is self-evident. Although I strengthened this as much as internal clearances would allow it still bows slightly as the weight of the casting, motor, remaining flywheel and plastic underframe is supported on the T-H bogie pivots - the best I could do but next time I find a KS Metals stand I'll see if I can get some brass right-angle strip to bolster it. Because I didn't trust the casting not to fracture if I tried to force self-tappers into it I reused the two crosshead screws from the small circuit board at one end but had to find a close match from my screws box for the other two - and only had a pair of 'normals', so I marked which end takes which screw type - just being cautious. In retrospect the two plasticard rectangles at either end, drilled to take four body securing screws, were not necessary, but never mind. The Class 25 motor was a straight fit into the Class 42 bracket but the flywheels were closer to the motor, so the remaining driveshaft had to be stretched by 4.5mm - after pondering where I could find a suitable tube to effect the extension (cotton buds having paper stems these days) I found the answer located about 9 inches from my right ear, which is where the pen shown was lurking on a shelf! A tight push-fit, no glue or pins required - perfick! The second flywheel was not essential and added to the weight, so was quickly removed with a slitting disc in the Dremel. At this point the motor ran quietly one way but even more rattly in the other - I reckoned if I could stop the shaft moving longitudinally I might improve it.........so I tried cutting a pair of Peco 1/16th" fibre washers (R-8) into 'clip-on' C-shapes and pushed them into place between motor bearing and flywheel with tweezers and small screwdriver - result!! Quiet in both directions. Well that worked out better than I'd dared hope for. The right-hand bogie has no gearing in it so, being two-axle drive now, I fitted Mainline traction-tyred wheels to opposite corners of the driven end. This side of the chassis shows how I had to glue a piece of brass tube into the broken corner of the casting to take the T-H brass screw into the underframe. The two Bachmann bogie frames obtained as spares (from ekmexhibitions.co.uk) should have simply clicked onto the Bachmann bogie castings, but no way - and no sign of the dreaded Rot expansion either (perhaps that's why they were only a quid each). Much filing of both parts (and cussing) later I was nearly there.......and broke the inner end vertical piece off one of the frames trying to get it off. Darn it! A-ha - no gears in the trailing end meant that I could drill and tap this to take a screw through the underside - problem solved. But I then had to be careful not to break the other one as well. More filing, and once it was on the driven bogie I decided this one would have to stay on, which is why a central body securing screw at each end wouldn't work, hence the four screws in the corners. The inside of the body shows the drilled body securing 'ledge' supported by Miliput epoxy filler forced into the nose space, the more inset 'shelf' supporting the cab interior (control panel and seats) and upper part of the cab rear bulkhead glued to and ahead of the pins this would normally be located onto. This was the third attempt at getting the cab interiors in and the only way I could get the chassis to fit with sufficient clearance for bogie swing. And the finished article, looking just like any other Mainline D823 but running considerably more quietly - just like a Bachmann one in fact. Externally I've fitted etched plates (name and works plates from Modelmaster - yes, yes, I know, but they did come through.......eventually - and cabside crests origin uncertain as they're not included in the Modelmaster pack, but I've had these for years, they just required some spots of blue paint), scribed the cab side glazing internally to emphasize the vertical central frame, painted the windscreen centre pillars maroon and the wipers black. So, having described the work and being satisfied with the end result myself, would I recommend this to anyone with a Mazak Rot Warship sitting around in bits? Er...............no, I'm not convinced this amount of work and frequent exasperation was worth it, I certainly wouldn't bother again but I hope it at least made for an entertaining read!

They almost certainly started out from just around the corner, at Newton Abbot. I'm not aware of any Motorail services to/from Newquay, St Austell was the main Cornish terminal and AFAIK these vehicles were never used to that location.

Possibly fire damage, although Hymeks didn't seem prone to that. News to me and something to look for in photos of the time if it ran like that for a number of years, although some were better at avoiding cameras than others - but that's true of most classes. Maybe not Deltics. Or Class 50s. Some Westerns were elusive though!

Looks like you've had a go at wee 'Robbie Burns' as well since we saw him last.....🙂!

Which is what I have done, five times. The Mainline body fits a treat over the Lima chassis, down as far as the 'ledge' which supports the Lima body - this needs to be (laboriously) carved, scraped and filed away, to lower the Mainline body so that the tumblehomes line up. They're in need of some restoration at the moment, I'll show more when I get a round tuit (or five!) Of course, this means that the Hornby Railroad Warship chassis can also be used, although finding one cheap enough can be a problem. And no, there's no chance of fitting a CD motor into the Mainline housing, it it far smaller than Lima's.

Remove 7042, add 7057/9. D7004/7/51 were in all-over blue. D7004/12/27/48/64 later gained full yellow ends (on 7012/27/64 the higher BR logo position was a clue, although a few early Bfye Hymeks had this anyway). D7004 was plain blue Dec 1966, with added off-white (let's just call it that!) surrounds by March 1967 (assumed to be the test subject) and had received a full repaint into Bfye by July 1967 - very unusual for blue Hymeks to get another coat of blue, especially so quickly (1973/4 Old Oak Common repaints to 7001/17/22/28 excepted). In 1969 D7048 got very close to being written off with collision damage, but was repaired with an inevitable full repaint into Bfye - I hope the huge expense was worth it for two further years' service......

By the time we learned of Heljan's model it was already at the decorated sample stage - I suspect that, as we were saying, "Wow, these look great!" , the air above Barwell turned a shade of blue........ I was talked into buying a Cambrian GWR shunter's truck kit in a shop just months before not one but two RTR models appeared - some time later I bought a Hornby model for just £6.99, this was some years ago now but it got me thinking about how duplication of subjects with increasingly limited appeal cannot be a good thing for manufacturer profitability, but I can't see an easy answer to it - competition laws may work well for TVs but not for model railways, or many other smaller industries. Under present circumstances it looks like something we (and the manufacturers) are going to have to accept will happen from time to time. But we can all see it's an accelerating trend at a time when the pool of popular subjects not yet modelled gets ever smaller*, exacerbating the problem - I model the era these car carriers fall into but they are unsuitable for my layout, so I will simply have to admire them........alongside everything else I can't excuse 🥴! Hornby's diversion into TT120 makes more sense with every OO duplication, even if they weren't involved this time....... *I don't agree that there are still plenty of viable subjects available never produced RTR - the post-steam era is close to saturation (we're down to specialist wagon types now), and although the steam era itself is vast, it's telling that many excellent and only recently-released pre-nationalisation and pre-Grouping wagon models are already circling bargain bins. And I still haven't built that Cambrian kit.......

Yep - no internet back then, and railway magazine reports, including the all-important reallocation and withdrawal listings in the back pages (latest IA Locoshed book, sharpened pencil and eraser at the ready every month......those were the days!) were at least two months behind - 3rd October 1971 was particularly brutal as there was a mass culling of Warships in particular, including all of the remaining NBL Class 43s - you'd have noticed their sudden absence at Worcester but not seen anything on it in print until late November when the December mags came out, maybe even a month later. Mind you, there were some articles which I should have paid much closer attention to, as they hinted at what was to come - one such I recall in 'The Railway Magazine' in 1969/70 regarding the National Traction Plan gave an insight into the forthcoming traction shake-out, although by then I already knew that a few Warships and many NBL Type 2s had gone for scrap, as I'd seen some at Laira, so things were already heading in a certain direction (another reason I remember this article is because its heading photo showed D7003 piloting D1058 on an up train through Devon or Somerset and I nearly choked when I saw it as I'd actually seen that combination at Exeter St David's on one of my infrequent visits there from further west!)

That would have surprised a few clued-up spotters between Swindon and Worcester - much like 821's self-propelled move from Laira into preservation at Didcot in May 1973. 844 was the only Warship I never saw in blue livery (Hymek 7039 likewise, ignoring the pair I never saw at all) - this last-minute opportunity was lost on me as I was around 200 miles south west of its route!

Now you have me confused! I acknowledge that the window surrounds in reality were not white and the colour photo of brand new D7000 parked in that familiar location outside Swindon Works in May 1961 confirms that. My Tri-ang Hornby Hymek was pre-ordered 19/4/67 and delivered 8/9/67 with an instruction leaflet date-stamped 30/8/67 - so certainly an original one - and the moulded window frames were definitely white (still are if I look inside it) - last year on a nostalgia binge I purchased a pair of near-mint original green TH Hymeks with both 'pre-blue' and 'blue-ready' tooling and again, the moulded window frames are definitely white. So......correct in what way?! News to me but considering the exploits of D6122, D5705, 24054 and 24142 I wouldn't rule it out! I believe there was a Hymek and a Western earmarked for carriage heating duties (memory dust-off says D7089 and D1034?) but I have no idea if this actually happened, let alone a proposal to send them 'off-region'.

Agreed, but it's more complicated than that because the lower edges of the cab fronts need cutting away to clear them. This isn't impossible to do without damaging the yellow ends but considerable care would need to be exercised - Ian, if you're happy with it as it is, I'd leave it - after all, all those out there running Heljan's green D6580 have the opposite problem - the model (all three versions!) have Pullman rubbing plates which the real one only acquired on repaint into blue!

Yes, it was the last green one in active service, until December 1972 having outlived D7005 by about 6 months and thus became something of a celebrity that autumn. After withdrawal it was parked at Bristol St Philips Marsh with 824 and 7097 for company, where I paid it a few visits in 1973. When it was eventually moved on it didn't go straight to Swindon for scrap but instead went in the opposite direction, to Laira with two others - 7068 and 7074 OTOH - for several months, reason unknown. It was one of only five which were cut up without a change of livery since new, the others being D7021/4/5/60.

There's a Class 08 back shunting the Cornish china clay! 08752 (ex-D3920), looking in superb condition and a credit to RSS, was delivered by road to Rocks Dryers, Goonbarrow, on 6th June and has just been trialled - scroll down to beyond Bristol, love the view from the cab! : http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc If you scroll down a little further there's a couple of photos of Imerys P405D 'Alex' going the other way, plans for this one (and P406D 'Isaac' still at Rocks AFAIK) unclear at the moment - overhaul, or......?

I believe D7002/54/60 were the only Hymeks to be withdrawn (in green) without having collected the lower cab door grabhandles. All blue ones got them. D7052 compared to the two green ones above illustrates my point about the poor durability of the blue small yellow panel with pale 'duck egg' grey window surrounds livery............nope, that's not going to catch on now, too much water has gone under the bridge!😀

I am aware of this (and repainted my Tri-ang model from white to grey c1970......actually BR coaching stock grey which was a bit dark), I'm sure most Hymek fans are, however white has generally been used as 'shorthand' during Hymek livery discussions down the years because "blue small yellow panel with pale 'duck egg' grey window surrounds" is too long-winded! 'Grey' instead of 'white' would also be inadequate, it would have to be 'light grey'..........which is still longer than 'white'! I think it's probably too late now to insist on making the change, we know what we mean, even if Hornby and Heljan don't 😎!

Me too - after the attractive green livery the all-over blue applied to D7004/7/51 was dull beyond words (not forgetting that D7033 had been correctly turned out in blue full yellow livery before these) and the reinstatement of the white window surrounds - a rare case of an element of green livery being carried over to corporate blue, I'm surprised they got away with it at the time TBH - created an instant transformation. AFAIK D7004 had the white added first, to its boring all-over blue (so photos of it like this are extremely rare) and in fact this loco managed to carry five of the six Hymek liveries, a remarkable achievement - it only missed out on green full yellow but there was no possibility of it ever carrying that one as it went blue long before Gfy appeared. Interestingly by April 1967 Swindon had begun turning out other hydraulics in blue full yellow but there seemed to be a lag in the Hymeks doing likewise, so somebody in the paint shop must have been reluctant to let go of the blue small yellow white window livery! Unfortunately the early blue paint didn't wear well and many (most/all?) of those withdrawn in this livery were in a truly appalling condition at the end - much worse than any of the green ones. Some blue full yellow examples, e.g. 7068, weren't much better. Much as I liked Hymeks I felt withdrawal at least put them out of their misery. It was a sad and premature end for my favourite class, although Old Oak Common's repainting of a few survivors during their final couple of years was welcome. Which reminds me, the 50th anniversary of the 'Hymek Swansong' special, which I was on and was itself premature, now looms large (22nd September 1973) - there I go again, reminiscing and making myself feel old....... 😕!!

As a general comment........if they'd made those pizza-cutter flanges smaller they could have fitted bigger wheels 🙄!