Halvarras

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 of those withdrawn in this livery were in a truly appalling condition at the end - much worse than any of the green ones.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 🙄!

Very nice job! Having experienced these locomotives yourself I can understand the drive to create the model when a way to do it presented itself (if it had to be a scratchbuild it would probably have been at the bottom of your To Do List, never to make it anywhere near the top 🤔?!) What looks like a crew access door partway down the bodyside reminds me of the Metro-Vick Class 28 Co-Bo arrangement...... It looks like one consequence of this project is a large supply of sandboxes for any future job which requires them..........two per wheel?! I thought I was seeing things! I wasn't aware the railways in Spain had such horrendous railhead adhesion problems. I hope they didn't have a large number of these locos otherwise they may have had an adverse effect on the level of sand on Spanish beaches 😁! And those tiny rectangular buffers look comical on a loco of that size - much better in Indian guise. IMHO!

PS actually my pic looks better on my tablet than it does on my laptop's screen, where I posted it from - perhaps I was being a little harsh on myself (and the camera I had at the time!) Comparing the two sides, there are variations in the positioning of the top front OHLE flash and a couple of the grabrails, note two are out of alignment in my photo, and those doors are also missing the horizontal rails seen on the opposite side. Off another loco?

I didn't take that one - it was taken by Jim Freebury and posted by @Rugd1022! If only I'd had a camera that good back then (but the film and processing costs would have meant fewer models being bought of course.....) - here's my somewhat cr@ppier attempt at Stafford on 11th November 1973......but at least it shows the other side, which may be useful to a potential modeller out there (in contravention of Sod's Law which says that one will usually find six views of the same side before a view of the other side emerges........and that will have been taken in the dark 🤪!!) Note, only one vacuum exhauster box on this one, as well as those early external side hinges.......

Some of my........actually all of my photos of the prototype HST 252001 in service on the Western Region in the summer of 1975..... First up, not long having passed Wootton Bassett Junction and approaching the top of Dauntsey Bank on 9th May 1975 (apologies for the poor quality of this one, I had to crop it quite a bit but the composition looks reasonable?) I'd passed my driving test the previous day......irrelevant piece of information but thought I'd just drop that in 🙂! However the wheels which got me to this bridge were still pedal-powered as I hadn't yet purchased my first car, a Hillman Super Minx Mark IV, from a colleague at work (yeah, SUPER Minx, not yer average Minx y'know......😎!!): Two views of leading PC W43000 at Bristol Temple Meads on 10th May 1975: And later the same day passing Bedminster Park on approach to BTM, passing 45039 'The Manchester Regiment' (phew, that was close!) - W43001 with its silver/unpainted radiator grille now leading: (Sorry, I don't think the air was green/toxic that day, just my ageing negatives!) Three weeks later on 31st May 1975, 252001 departing Swindon........ .........and passing through Swindon again on 25th July 1975: I paid my one and only visit to Sydney Gardens in Bath on 28th June, hoping to catch the train passing through that scenic setting, but it didn't appear. Never mind, D1034 and D1059 did.......

I saw that this one was towed away from Laira a few days ago with 3 trailers by 37510, "for storage".........

The only photo I ever managed to take of one of the boiler-fitted quintet - 25087 at Cardiff General on 14th September 1974 after having "rescued a 3 + 1 DMU set" (according to my scribbles - 120 + 121 presumably but not logged) somewhere along the Central Wales line - not the best photo as the negative didn't age well stored in the loft for years, but..........hopefully worth posting?: I'd catch up with it again at Perth in the early hours of Saturday 7th May 1977, in ex-works condition with Scottish-style bodyside numbers.

I photographed this one parked in the bay at Stafford in November that year - close examination of the cabside revealed its original large number 13291 still discernible under the paint (a photo of it as 13291 appears in one of my Bradford Barton albums). The following year it was renumbered to 08221, its third identity in the same green livery with early BR emblems (presumably @08221 already knows this 😊!)

The same appeared in the back pages of the RCTS Coaching Stock book, 1976 edition (correct to 31/12/75). It has proved useful over the years and a close look reveals some interesting combinations, for example set L440 comprised W50083 + 59543 + 51399 (116 + 101 + 117). Of the other two '101' trailers from 1968, W59538 was between '118' PCs W51311 & 51326 in set P469, and W59528 was spare (this one at least had originally arrived still in green livery, the other two unknown). Curiously Reading's two Class 128 DPUs, W55991/2, are listed but without set numbers (L1xx would have been expected......L191/2?) whereas the four Class 116 vehicles stripped of seats for parcels use alongside the DPUs, W50819/62/72/915, are identified as L340-3 respectively.

Many thanks for this, as it throws up more questions! If W55029 displayed '129' in 1969 - a set number it went on to keep - then at some point during 1971 it must have been realised that the set numbers for Class 122 SPCs 55011-4 were already carried by Class 103s, so renumbering of the latter was inevitable, and the '2xx' series was vacant. It could be argued that the Class 121/2s were '1xx' being single vehicles, Class 103 being 2-car became '2xx' and the Class 121/2 DTS vehicles' set numbers being 280-99, corresponding to their running numbers, sort of worked since in normal use they had to run with an SPC as a twin-set - or maybe that was just a happy coincidence! This 'logic' appeared to hold for the 3-car Class 116 units but fell apart after that! Interestingly the WR was a short-frame-DMU-free zone until 1968 when three Class 101 centre trailers turned up to replace the three MU-through-wired Hawksworth coaches - the four Class 103s were next in, then five Class 101 triples from Scotland in 1974 (P800-4), which became the first of their type in blue/grey livery.

I've found a photo of Class 121 W55029 in green with set number '129' on its yellow panel, at Okehampton on 3rd April 1969 - 'Western Region in the 1960s' by Chris Heaps (Ian Allan, 1981), Plate 133 on Page 83. I'm sure there's another picture in another book but it's proving elusive, no doubt I'll find it while looking for something else! I've also remembered the two Park Royal Class 103 2-car units which came down from Reading to work the Paignton - Kingswear branch January - December 1972, its final year under BR ownership. W50413/56168 and W50414/56169 carried set numbers P200 and P201 respectively, and AFAIK arrived for duty already so numbered. According to Railcar.co.uk these were the only '103s' to have set numbers applied, inferring that the two sets which remained at Reading did not receive them - perhaps not surprising as, having vehicles sequentially numbered ahead of the Paignton pair, those would have been L200/1 and the Devon units P202/3. So W55029 remains something of a conundrum - it confirms that a DMU set numbering system* was coming as early as April 1969 but perhaps somebody 'jumped the gun' and got started prior to authorisation! Just goes to show that on the railways there's an exception to every rule (I have a Lima conversion which I numbered W55029 but it's set in 1967/8 so sourcing black set numbers in a bespoke font back in 1991 was neatly avoided 😁!) *I'm referring to painted numbers on vehicle ends, which was the OP's question.

I would say definitely early 1970s, and all DMUs in the far South West had set numbers by 1974. However somewhere in my books there's a photo of green Class 121 'bubble car' W55029 with set number '129' (no prefix) top right corner of its yellow panel, which rather confuses the picture! I'll see if I can find it for a possible date. I do recall this one, W55024 and Class 120 W51576/59582/51590 surviving into 1968, possibly even 1969, but don't recall seeing this set number on '29 at the time. Sadly like many spotters back then I didn't pay much attention to DMUs once I'd scored all the 'locals' (by 1969) and this seems to be reflected in books on First Generation DMUs - for example I have Brian Morrison's 'British Rail DMUs & Diesel Railcars' here for a thumb-through and there is a dearth of photos of at least the WR types between roughly 1965 and 1975 - the problem with photographic evidence is that photos have to exist to provide evidence, although I can hardly complain since I was also guilty of ignoring them at the time.......

Wow! Mint boxed it may be, but - no Class 43-matching lights/DCC socket/see-through etched fan grilles or other separately-fitted details (except nose-end handrails), slightly tired tooling and the most inaccurate version of them all (wrong boiler details and no Zulu-specific roof horns), in an unpopular livery: https://www.hattons.co.uk/1337732/bachmann_branchline_32_057_po15_class_42_warship_d870_zulu_in_br_blue_pre_owned_fair_box/stockdetail These old Class 42s are really holding their value compared to the Class 43s. Good job I bought my two 870s 'back in the day' when they could still be had for forty quid each brand new over the counter.......£226 would be a no-go 🙂

Yesterday I noticed that £173 could buy you either (a) a pre-owned Hornby 'James the Red Engine' 2-6-0, or (b) a brand new Dapol O gauge 14xx 0-4-2T. Gosh, that's a hard one.......🥴

One Christmas many moons go a seasonal cracker deposited a pack of three tiny flat-bladed screwdrivers into my lap (or dinner.......can't recall now). The clear handles appeared to have been moulded from sugar and disintegrated as soon as I tried to put them to use - I was about to bin them when the idea of sharpening the metal bits into chisels for use in the pin vice occurred to me - and as a result something of lasting usefulness was actually procured from a Christmas cracker for once, as I still have them and occasionally use them for this purpose as they proved ideally suited to the task, as well as digging stuff out of awkward corners. Probably not useful information in June but just in case these things still go into the crackers - you can chuck the red foldy fish, spinning top and jumping frog but be sure to save any sugar-handled mini-screwdrivers which may fall into your gravy 😜!

Nobody seems to want this one but presumably still not very cheap enough with p&p included: https://howesmodels.co.uk/product/Hornby-r202-reconafork-van-boxed/

True of course that they only lasted around 4 years longer, they were tough times for loco builders and with the switch from large numbers of steam locos to a far smaller requirement for replacement diesels a shake-out was inevitable. And of course the problem with the rapid replacement of one form of traction with another (and especially on a shrinking network) is that once the programme was complete no new builds would be required for a long time (unless a product proved to be so catastrophically bad that 100 replacements for those to a design harking back nearly 10 years became necessary, which must have only added to the embarrassment!) All new British diesel designs had their teething troubles, some more than others but B-P's products seemed to be very well-regarded. The Hymeks looked like a quality product and may have fared better in their early days if they hadn't been thrashed from new on workings formerly in the care of 'King' class 4-6-0s, and I've read that the B-P Class 25s D7624-59 were generally better finished than the BR works output. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same were true of their batch of Clayton Class 17s D8588-616 but the power unit choice doomed them along with the rest. Ultimately it came down to circumstances - BRCW also built sound locomotives, even showing Derby in 1958 that scattering ventilation louvres all over the sides of their Type 2s design wasn't necessary or desirable (they eventually took the hint) but BRCW didn't survive either.

The D600s were 'seriously overweight' compared to the D800s and didn't fulfil the WR's ambitions for their diesel-hydraulic fleet, but these were constructed along conventional lines with the bodywork assembled on a heavy steel underframe, coming in at a diesel-electric-like 117 tons. NBL had to learn how to build load-bearing 'stress-skinned' monocoque bodies for their D800s and thus went through the same learning curve as Swindon - since both D800 types came in below 80 tons this aspect at least was accomplished. But I agree with your 'step-change' comment - it would appear that NBL failed to cope as well as Beyer-Peacock, who had also been a very active steam locomotive builder. From the title I suspect your download may shed some light on the reasons......

Until about 20 minutes ago I had no idea Tri-ang produced its TT BR Mark 1 coaches in blue/grey livery......... https://elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?pg=new .......and something (££) tells me there were not many made! Odd that the restaurant car got a red cantrail stripe but the composite had its yellow stripe applied at waist level........and from end to end! Edit - it's not actually a corridor composite (CK) - looks like an FO, in which case the full yellow stripe would be correct, just in the wrong position.

Both this one and 37207 look superb, and if I was into DCC sound and this era in a big way then count me in - however both are outside my modelling budget, especially for an era I hadn't intended to model, until I found a mint original KMRC 37207 six years ago. I had considered modifying and repainting one I already had into 37196 to go with it but eventually sourced a Railfreight Grey 37693 body, renumbered it to 37696 (the first refurb to work the clays) and put that on the chassis instead. However the launch of these two new high-spec models forces me to question once again whether it's time for a new model of the appropriate 'clayhood' wagon, which has been so popular that it has, I believe, been in Bachmann's catalogue every year since introduction around 25 years ago; but even when it first appeared some of the tooling was quite crude, the hood itself not entirely successful and the roller bearings a strange choice as they were relatively uncommon on these wagons (and many of the first release (B743267) also leaned to one side as the axle bearing holes were misaligned). I realise a convincing representation of the hood would be a challenge, but IMHO the new 37196 and 37207 deserve better than this now. Not for me then, even if I can't help admiring them every day, but I have no doubt that, with china clay traffic remaining enduringly popular with modellers, these models will be a success for Kernow. Next up, 37175 in Large Logo Blue with yellow warning stripe? 😉

I'm not hopeful about the gearing either, especially since the effect can be overcome by DCC users, which I am not. This is causing me to rethink which of my Warships I will end up keeping for my BLT and planned diesel depot layout, which both require good slow running ability, but I need to choose a new controller and see how the '43s' perform with it first. I use etched EE Class 37/40/50 horn grilles as NBL exhaust ports on '42' to '43' conversions. 827 in its final guise was perhaps not the best choice by Mainline as it only ran in that condition from 23/4/71 until withdrawal 1/1/72 - just over 7 months. I agree, all of the other blue possibilities and 'Kelly' has been done twice! D813, D814, D819, D821, D822, D826 & D828 have never been produced in any livery so far, all bar D822 and D828 carried two versions of blue and all are correct for the tooling. In fact, after Mainline selected four correct subjects Bachmann seemed so intent on selecting wrong ones (D800/1/4/6/8/9/10*/12/67/70) that I had to wonder whether they were saving the right ones for an eventual full retool...... *810 not produced, as we know, but it was selected

Quite right, weathered blue 810 never appeared - I believe it was canned when the Class 43 was announced instead. I wonder if weathered Class 43s will ever appear? (And if so will the awful gearing be amended?)

Shows what I know about the capabilities of 3D printing - pretty much zilch. Still, hardly matters if the cost would be stratospheric (I thought I was overcooking it at £500 🥴!)