Halvarras

And there's something rather 'Hymek' about the yellow application too.....

I always thought this chassis first appeared under the R668 Bowaters china clay slurry tank wagon in 1969, but the grain wagon Trix connection muddies the waters (the Trix chassis was moulded in graphite-filled nylon and had 'proper' axleboxes, not those weird hollow things). Anyway, wagon bodies of this type which fitted the full length of the chassis had inset lugs on the underside to clip into the similarly inset holes in the chassis. This van had no floor to mould these inset clips on to, so they were simply added as extensions to the vehicle's ends, which is a blatantly cheapskate solution resulting in the 'end platforms'! It seems to me that the side detail was deliberately kept clear of handles, hinges, strapping etc to make printing of.........whatever was flavour of the month/year as straightforward as possible. (Possibly the most ridiculous use of this chassis* was under the plate wagon, AFAIK only ever sold as a green 'Winkle' engineer's wagon with a bit of folded metal as a load - I had one once, cut off the totally redundant discharge pipe 'handwheels' (on a plate wagon??!!) and added small rectangles of black plasticard to turn the roller bearings into 'oil axleboxes' but it was still a bit rubbish! Anyway, off-topic that!!) *The bright orange 'wheel carrier' frame thingy might give it a run for its money though 😜! Also less useful even than the van in question (unless........OO9 mini-girder bridge?!)

Agreed, although I often find it necessary to very lightly scratch each individual character once with the tip of a scalpel blade so the cocktail stick can 'get a grip' on it, thus avoiding excessive rubbing trying to get the process started.

Now that's a detail I wasn't aware of! (Almost as obscure as green D811's right-facing BR emblem 😊!)

I see you've managed to fit bufferbeam corner steps to D804 - without breaking off those notoriously fragile sprung buffers they're hung from? Well done Sir 😀!

It's not uncommon to be able to see very obvious damage in the photos which is not mentioned in the description, which lists less serious defects. There was an instance recently where two apparently identical items were presented, exactly the same description but significantly different prices. I agree, I think this is the reason, a victim of their own success? I have to assume that the latest innovation - 360-degree photography for locomotives (unless mint/boxed) - is an automated process which is faster than the previous photography, but when most items were only shot twice - front 3/4 one side and broadside of the other - plus a box view, one has to wonder whether this admittedly very helpful feature has piled further pressure on the staff dealing with the pre-owned throughput. Some days an astonishing amount of stuff goes up.......

I see what you mean about the crazing - not what you what to see. The gear tower castings on mine seem to be OK. However the model came without wheelsets or bogie frame at one end so the intention is to arrange drive to one end with Mainline wheelsets at the other (actually I've swapped the insulated wheels over so the driven end has traction tyres). The supplied bogie frame was damaged but Ekmexhibitions have these for a quid each (plus I need some equally cheap Class 37 frames too, order going in this week). Main problem is that only the middle bit of the main casting remains, thankfully it seems sound but the fun part will be building new bogie pivots cantilevered off this out of plasticard - designed in my head, manufacturing commenced and I have a cunning plan involving some Tri-ang Hornby parts........ General note to all with Mainline and Bachmann Class 42s - if the boiler compartment vent above the nameplate is not on the same side as the central fuel filler opening on the underframe you have the body on the wrong way round 😉!

I entirely agree. Isn't it strange that, despite its fame as the first BR diesel to be preserved by a private individual, both Mainline and Bachmann managed to dodge D821 'Greyhound' even though it matches the tooling. On the other hand, as soon as the centre-drive chassis was ready Bachmann wasted no time producing a model of the other preserved example, D832 'Onslaught'. 'Greyhound' has been produced in model form, but by Fleischmann in HO scale. Strictly speaking the Mainline/Bachmann Class 42 tooling represents just one locomotive, D818 'Glory', whose unique Spanner Mark III train heating boiler gave it a bespoke centre roof panel, as described in my topic 'D818 Glory - Misfit with a Legacy' a couple of years ago. The Fleischmann model was the same, and my assumption is that both manufacturers used D818 on static display at Swindon Works for research purposes. On D813-7/9-32 the train heating boiler roof detail was the same as Class 43. I currently have a Mainline maroon D823 'Hermes' on the workbench into which I am attempting to fit the remnants of a D800 Mazak Rot victim which I foolishly added to a Hattons order on a whim cos it was cheap........and now wonder exactly what I've got myself into, as the chassis block is, er, somewhat shorter than it used to be and the motor is defunct, requiring replacement by a slightly rattly Class 25 unit I happen to have spare (phew!) The project has just reached the Point Of No Return as far as D823's body/underframe is concerned, if this works perhaps I'll post more - if it doesn't I won't mention it again 🤐!

You may well have read it somewhere but it was probably no more than one person's opinion. The Class 121's improved roof headcode box, roof ribs 'inwards' instead of 'outwards' and sharper corners to the window openings to me indicate new tooling. However the 117 powered chassis tooling appears to have been adjusted to fit the single unit at the brake end so presumably no longer entirely suitable for the DMBS of a possible upgraded 117. For many of us the Lima Class 117 was arguably one of their most important ever releases as, with various levels of butchery, it enabled the modelling of all manner of suburban DMUs at minimum cost (in money if not in time!) Yes, a DMS would have made the 117 considerably better and saved much razor saw activity over the years, but until Heljan introduced its Class 128 DPU the Lima 117 and Lima then Hornby 121 were the only OO long-frame DMU models available until Bachmann's versions appeared. IMHO there is too much wrong with the Lima 117 to make a simply remotored reintroduction of the original viable - reworked headcode box shape, a new DMS (and interior) tooled to match the four-decades-old DMBS & TC tooling and flush-glazing all round is a lot to ask for a model of something already made by another manufacturer. Also anyone who has put a Hornby 121 up against Lima 117 vehicles will have noticed that the ride height is different - more tooling changes required to the unpowered vehicles. Looking at the RRP of the soon-to-be-resurrected Class 110 the recovery of such extra tooling costs would negate any hope of bargain pricing. Nope, can't see it myself!

Does the motor behave this way if you apply power directly to it (via the brush retainers)? If so then power collection can't be the problem, although it's unlikely that aspect would cause such an issue. How many pieces have you had it in?! Were you able to access the motor's commutator to give this a thorough (careful) clean, including clearing the grooves between segments of carbon brush residue with a wooden cocktail stick? Also while they're out clean the brushes themselves in a piece of tissue, and polish up the insides of the brush holders with the same cocktail stick. And make sure the gear train is free of old grease and sparingly re-lubed with plastic-friendly oil or grease. If you've done all that and nothing has changed then.......er........um......🤔

Ah, the famous D3052 - I saw this one myself on a visit to Willesden in 1973, got a broadside photo but it didn't come out as well as this one, sadly. It would have become 08039 if it had lasted a while longer. That year one of the railway magazines reported Stratford's D3248 as still being in black - I found it in the shed on my next visit but it turned out to be green with a liberal coating of oil and dirt! It carried the standard block serif style numbers. Russell Saxton once shared a b&w photo of a green Class 08 still without wasp stripes as late as December 1969. I may still have it but from memory it was D3583 at Chester. It could have been mis-dated, except the Class 24 in the shot was carrying data panels which only proliferated that year. This was certainly very late for a stripeless 08, or any shunter, but my lingering doubt about it is that some years back b&w photos were published in consecutive issues of magazines by Adrian Curtis showing maroon D1033 and green D7030 devoid of yellow warning panels, which wasn't possible (the Hymek's light green stripe had also virtually disappeared). I think a late-build Class 22 (D6341?) was similarly affected. I can't recall all of the details now (although they'll be somewhere in the mags as I still have them) but the images were from one collection and I think the consensus was that a particular brand of film didn't age well. That said, it seems unlikely that the sharper contrast between alternating stripes of yellow and black would age out of existence on any old film. Perhaps one day confirmation (or denial) of D3583's remarkable survival will be forthcoming. BTW both of the acquaintances mentioned above passed away in late 2021. Sobering thought, since I'm older than either of them.......

Where the engines are - perfick! 👍

In the early 1960s there was a Perranporth - Paddington service, surprising as Perranporth lost its railway in February 1963. The front cover of 'Modern Locomotives Illustrated' on the Warships features the train on the Berks & Hants line hauled by a D6xx. (Not long before closure I remember sitting on a sand dune and seeing the steam rising from a train making its way from Beach Halt around the curve to the main station, I must have been 8 or 9 - one of my few memories of steam. I visited Perranporth just last Monday and still love the place as unlike so many locations it still looks and feels much the same as it did 60 years ago - rail service excepted!)

Or the previous owner of @Holby Railway's model renumbered it from 08800 to 08880.........in which case........did 08880 ever carry Inter City Swallow livery?! (Rapid exit, stage left 🤐!)

With Bachmann's 'Bill' & 'Ben' ("with moving eyes") 😜! Only kidding...... As someone with an enduring interest in china clay trains (I can recall them being hauled by Class 22s and Warships) and now living 10 minutes' walk from the docks entrance I have to like this layout - it does look kind of familiar!!

Yep, same 'ere - I was offered a PSA check alongside my annual blood test in November 2018 - said yes just to be sure nothing was going on in the nether regions. "OK, but just be advised that if the result is above 4 it could get intrusive....." It was 5. Uh-oh. After more tests the prostate diagnosis was received mid January 2019 ruining the run-up to my retirement at the end of March. Lots of reading material about the various treatments 😕 and plans up in the air for a month until an oncologist told me that 80-90% of men in my position go on 'Active Surveillance' and no, this wasn't kicking the can down the road. After a spell on 4-monthly PSA checks I'm now on 6-monthly and the last result was slightly less than the 5 which started it all. Obviously I'm going to say, long may it continue, but with my next check imminent I'm touching the wooden table I'm sitting next to here, just in case......

Er............🤔.........I do believe you are correct!

You're probably correct, the way things are going, but it depends on whether one relishes the modelling challenge! I stuffed a spare Bachmann pannier tank chassis under a Lima 94xx in full knowledge of Bachmann's impending model (which turned out to be not so impending....) because the challenge appealed - the result was good enough for me, the overall cost was considerably less than the RTR model and there's the satisfaction of 'I made that'. I suppose the decision revolves around, how soon do you want a Saint/how cheap can you find a Star donor (so that when Murphy's Law kicks in......well, see above), or are you happy to get on with other projects while waiting for a manufacturer to produce the required cutting-edge Saint.......which of course could be a long wait as this course of action will fail to prod Mr Murphy to initiate his Law! We never had to face such dilemmas in the past - D I Y was usually the only way 😃!

I've noticed that too - as you say, hard to spot but in standard front 3/4 views it manifests as 'lumps' in the roofline above the windscreens. The Swindon designers must have decided the 'lumps' looked somewhat inelegant and smoothed them away on the production locos! D800 carried only green livery; D801 carried green and maroon; D802 carried green, maroon and blue. D801 was withdrawn first, in August 1968, followed by D800/2 two months later. I can still remember seeing a maroon D802 passing Carn Brea near Redruth on an up parcels in late August 1967, and the next down train being the 'Cornish Riviera' headed by Hymek D7029! I also recall 'copping' D800 at a foot crossing on an up train between Chacewater and Truro and thinking it was D880, quickly realising that was impossible and a missing chunk of paint had altered its identity on the leading corner! (Missing chunks of paint were nothing new on Warships in the late 1960s, some were really bad, e.g. there was nothing 'Magnificent' about D828 by the end of 1968!)

According to 'The Book of the Warships' (Irwell Press), regarded by many as the 'bible' on these locomotives, page 101 states that only the first three were built without raised walkways. Generally speaking the Swindon locos had the fan grilles themselves nearly flush with the roof with the walkways standing proud and NBL machines had the grilles raised to be flush with the walkways, but inevitably there were exceptions - D832/66/67 had the NBL raised type (D832 still has them) from new while D833 - the first of the NBL build - had the Swindon flush pattern. At withdrawal D861 had a pair of Swindon grilles and D834 had one of each, both probably having run like this since works attention in 1963.

Strange coincidence - I was unaware of the existence of this vehicle until a few days ago. I've just obtained Hornby's 6-wheel blue/grey 'Generator Unit' DE320104E, did some digging and discovered it was employed to power 'Cinema Coach' DM395017M (a former LNWR 12-wheel sleeping car, now preserved) until around 1967/8 - when (extreme) old age caught up with the 6-wheeler it was replaced by DB975056 - BR horse box S96300 turned 'Generator Van'- this one! I assume it was painted BR blue to better match the blue/grey Cinema Coach but the only photo I could find of this combination was black & white. This pairing lasted until 1973, not sure what happened to the generating horse box after that but its usefulness must have contributed to its survival 50 years on. I'm having trouble visualising how this incident could have happened but won't speculate as I wasn't there. I hope the car driver makes a full recovery.

Agreed - I've obtained some good-quality items from S & J over the years.

"....GT3 locomotive model in BR Black Early Crest and BR Green Late Crest colours -- expertly crafted to capture the spirit and charm of the original." Wow, I had no idea GT3 actually ran in BR black and green liveries. Every day's a school day 😜!

Nice to know the ol' grey matter still works regarding the number sold, if not the number dumped. I suppose the latter are still close to the Mersey if not actually in it, assuming the manner of their disposal is correct. I had never clapped eyes on one either until Hattons took one in a couple of years ago, I was really surprised to see it. I can't recall now how they had valued it, other than it being WAY above yer average mineral wagon! I remember 'Thawpit'! A clear liquid in a glass bottle with a gauze-faced pad on top. We used the stuff a lot in the late 1960s to remove tar stains from beachwear caused by residue from the 'Torrey Canyon' tanker disaster which hung about for years afterwards. Not much fun removing it from between toes, but 'Thawpit' wasn't really suitable for that task - probably just as well.....

Green D800 'Sir Brian Robertson' or blue D804 'Avenger' by any chance?