Halvarras

I made up one of these myself last year, for a worked-up Hornby Class 25 (lowered on chassis, fitted with Lima motor bogie and trailing bogie wheelsets of 14mm). The fan is also multi-layered. When I saw all the bits I wondered what I'd let myself in for, but discovered it's so well designed it went together without problem. Fiddly yes, as the parts are small, but the jig is genius. To assemble the fan I pulled one wheel off a spare Jackson wheelset and stacked the parts (all of which have a central hole except the top cap) in the numbered order on the axle - simple, but I had to be careful to use the minimum of superglue to avoid gluing the assembly to the axle. I was very impressed too with the quality of the etchings!

St Blazey's 2-8-0Ts will be the reason why the Par - Fowey route was coded red, as mentioned by @The Stationmaster. Heavy beasties required to get loaded clay trains up the hill through Pinnock tunnel. They were used almost exclusively on that route although I'm sure one of my books shows one piloting a 4-6-0 on a holiday train over Goss Moor so they must have enjoyed the odd weekend visit to Newquay. I didn't think the 28xx locos worked into Cornwall at all but another thread last year pointed out that they did occasionally show up and photo evidence appears in a Bradford Barton book I (ahem) happen to possess! In my defence I hadn't looked at it in years....... So maybe on a main line freight turn which included some china clay wagons but unlikely beyond that.

I think that's a serious understatement Bernard!! 🤭

The first releases of the original Class 47 had plastic cab door handrails, and came in a rigid polystyrene foam tray - I mail ordered a pre-owned blue 1932 some years back and when it arrived the model's movement in the tray had wrecked the handrails on one side. I replaced them with nickel-silver wire all round and it looked all the better for it. I still have it and will renumber it as 1662 Isambard Kingdom Brunel in due course, the only other 47 the bodyshell/livery is suitable for (1589 had a different boiler port, the other early blue ones didn't have Serck shutters). I'll be interested to see what 15106 looks like with number plates in green with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' in Egyptian Serif style - if that is how it will be finished as it's absolutely filthy in the supplied image and that seems to have been their standard condition! Also when these six locos lost their number plates - I've tried to find out but nothing so far. It may have been during overhaul when the lettering also gave way to the later BR emblem (I don't think the early crest was ever seen on these but it seems there simply aren't enough photos to be certain!)

Umm, let's think......£16.50 for an unboxed Hornby Pacer in Provincial blue livery at a Chippenham show around late '90s (noisy runner, one worm gear was catching, a card spacer under the motor mounting screw sorted that); an unboxed Hornby Dublo ICI bogie tanker for a tenner at a Swindon show around the same time; a boxed green Bachmann Class 37 D6826 for £32.50 at another Swindon show only a couple of years or so after the model had been released (previous owner had painted the buffer heads silver and managed to flick silver paint onto the nose ends - I got it off); a pair of brand new Hornby Mark 2e SO coaches for £15 each (Swindon again!) - they even had metal wheels and were a near-perfect match colour-wise for the Bachmann Mark 2a BFK I'd picked up from a local shop for £16 originally to go with a newer pair of B Mark 2a TSOs from Kernow which it didn't match (so I had to buy another newer one which did at over twice the price grrr 🤬!) Heljan Class 47 D1733 in XP64 blue and at a later event a Hornby Railroad Helmingham Hall in BR green, both for £49.95 from the Kernow stand at (guess!) To date the Class 47 is the only model to give me Mazak Rot grief, but with Howes' help I got it fixed - as a diesel livery nutter it's one of my favourite models, so I've forgiven it, but if it had been a goner I could have bought another one off a show stand for £45 shortly after. I have never been to Warley but when an acquaintance who was going offered to see if he could source a decoder-removed D1677 Thor for me off the Bachmann stand he came back with the very thing for £60 (this was effectively half-price at the time - as this model rarely dipped below £110 I began to wonder if the decoders in this DCC-fitted model were gold-plated or something 🥴!)

I have a pair of Bachmann Bulleid coaches in the much-debated very dark BR(SR) green, which I didn't particularly like, but the compact layout I want to run them on (not finished yet) would be better served by shorter coaches. When the price of the Hornby 'shorties' tumbled and I learned that some of the real ones had survived as 'loose' coaches into the mid-late 1960s alongside the longer coaches - and my layout's stock is set in 1967/8 - I took the plunge and ordered BSK S2852S and CK S5713S from Kernow - total cost amounted to BOGOF compared to RRP! The CK was their last one so I had to move fast - and then did some more research. The 'bloodandcustard.com' website proved to be a goldmine of information on these vehicles, including individual withdrawal dates, and I was very pleased to discover that S2852S, which I had chosen at random, was the penultimate withdrawal in December 1967. The last one of all to go was CK S5722S in January 1968, so I've renumbered mine. The only issue is that the website states that all loose CKs were reclassified SKs in their final years, and adjusting the model is not simply a case of removing the '1s' from the First Class doors and maybe repainting the seats (although it's highly unlikely these were re-upholstered). There are also the First Class 'lozenges' on the windows and on the corridor side these are printed in reverse on the inside face of the glazing and the horizontal handrails are printed on top of these - so both would have to go (can be done with T-Cut, I did it to a Hawksworth) and the handrails then replaced - but these would then look different to those in the BSK so they would have to be replaced as well! And all done inside the bodyshells without getting glue on the glazing? I don't think so, so I bent reality and last week S5722S gained yellow cantrail stripes, as I found a 1963 photo of S5718S so adorned. I'm very pleased with them - and the much-preferred shade of green - but I'll have to keep them away from my blue Heljan Class 33/0 😉!

Interestingly if you add the 5 NBL D600s to the 33 NBL D800s you get 38 NBL Warships in total, the same number of Warships as turned out by Swindon. Was this by accident or design? It's almost as if D866-70 were added to Swindon's build to counter the five D600s and ensure Swindon didn't play second fiddle to Glasgow in the Warship stakes - supported by the scramble to come up with five additional names beginning with 'Z'! (Did it matter? After all the first three weren't in alphabetical order......) The Ian Allan ABC 1960/61 edition, issued during Warship construction and before D866-70 had been announced, had D864 as 'Zealous' and D865 as 'Zephyr'. I have the same problem now Phil - saw them every day I went lineside but can't remember now. However I'm sure they did sound different.......I think the 43s had a softer, more pulsing sound than the 42s which had that typical Maybach hard-edged roar. Reminds me that in early 1973, when I could still remember what the NBLs sounded Iike but hadn't heard one for well over a year, I was sitting in a train in Reading station with the window open when I heard that still familiar NBL sound rapidly approaching.......what on earth?........and a London-bound Blue Pullman swept past! Oh yes of course, I'd forgotten all about those😀!

Yes, it does seem to have found lots of use as fence posts and sometimes nowhere near the railway! While out walking yesterday I remembered to take some photos of four pieces I'd noticed previously in passing - these have been used to make an entrance onto the Carlyon Bay Golf Course (I don't think a gate was ever hung on them, but the lane curves across the green further down with open access so this gap is just a short cut to the tee for those who can get their kit through it and down the steps!) Beyond this view from the 'inside' is the lane up to the Merthen Farm overbridge with the Cornish Main Line just the other side of the newly-erected fence (I should photograph some doomed 'Castle' HST sets from here before rampant fern growth blocks the view again........) : A look at the other side with the green beyond: And a close up of the ivy-less side, with rust getting a grip now - the sea isn't far away.......(bending rails like this must be fun!): I suppose these qualify as 'Abandoned Rails....Elsewhere', but since I'm at this location, here's a view taken from the bridge towards St Austell with the main Golf Course visible in the distance (the above rail posts are just out of sight to the right), taken on 7th January this year. This is how rusty the sea air turned the Cornish Main Line's railheads when 'abandoned' for 5 days due to strike action!

IIRC Hornby's Western arrived just before Lima's - it was perhaps a pity that both manufacturers launched their models two years or so after the real locos had bowed out instead of two years before and capitalised on their popularity (probably an insufficient word!) - I knew I wanted four but some aspects of the Hornby model were unsatisfactory in my eyes so I waited for Lima's effort to turn up so allow a comparison....... Considering the Warship and Western were 'brothers' I was disappointed that Lima had not repeated the Warship's reasonably flush glazing with chrome-printed frames on the Western, so the family resemblance was muddied. Nonetheless it won the Battle of the Westerns. I really didn't like the Hornby model's printed cab window frames, which weren't always printed centrally on the windscreens, and I couldn't see an easy fix for this. I preferred the Lima model's one-piece bodyshell and larger wheels with brake rodding. The ridiculous moulded-on oil lamps were no more an issue than the moulded handrails, since they'd all go for full repainting. I may have cut flush glazing if I only had the one, but I wasn't doing it for four - instead I used black paint to disguise the thickness of the frames. I came up with a solution to Lima's usual giant couplings too, involving Hornby metal coupling bars and bits of N gauge rail..... I'm planning to refurbish them (some have shed traction tyres and etched plates since their last exhibition appearance in late 2005) and at some point I'll post some pics of these and their 'supporting cast', in the hope that somebody may find them of interest after all these years.....! I still have a Hornby Western (in Inter City livery!) and - as was often the case with Hornby - its basic shape and details are very good; it was let down by some aspects of its execution - the untidy joint between body and chassis, that glazing, those small wheels, the raised name and number plates (not a good idea)........I'll forgive the swinging front valances as there was no easy solution when big couplings and trainset curves had to be catered for.

Around 12-15 years ago Swindon's Spot-On Models was still selling (or trying to) mint boxed Lima 'D1023' Western Enterprise models for an eye-watering £89.99 - I had to look twice as I thought I was seeing things! My four Lima Westerns (two maroon and two blue) cost me a total of £28 in 1981 - I've done a lot of work to them and can't part with them either!

If the first Farish Peak releases reflected the first OO range (D67 / D163 / 45114 / 46053), I got the impression that there was a desire to differentiate the models on the shop shelves - D67 green with off-white stripes and side grille frames, D163 plain green, 45114 blue with off-white stripes and light grey roof, 46053 plain blue. Modellers wanting a blue Class 45 were not best served by this, especially as I can find no evidence that the real 45114 was ever painted that way - I think 45110/121 got the stripes and a different 45 got a grey roof (?)

When I first heard about the '2+4' proposal I assumed only the leading power car would be powered up, since surely 2,200hp would be more than enough to shift four coaches and a 'dead' PC on the rear - 4,400hp seemed total overkill (and then the operator complains of running costs!) It was certainly enough for a D800 Warship to haul heavy holiday trains over the Devon banks and along Cornwall's twisty and hilly main line. However I'm expecting somebody to post a technical explanation of the necessity to keep both PCs running anytime now......😉 It's incredible to think how long these trains have been around - I was 23 when I photographed the prototype HST on the WR in 1975, 24 when the production trains arrived ("wow look at that - a train with no buffers!") - next month I'll turn 70 and they're still here! Just!! I should take some photos here in Cornwall this year of these trains passing the similarly doomed semaphore signalling at Lostwithiel, Par and Truro. I'm already seeing more 5-car IETs, a reminder of the encroaching take-over.......

TTBOMK the buffer with short shaft and large round head with a domed face was not a Lima product - possibly Lima's last Class 73 output had them although an image search suggests not. Therefore if Hornby tooled them for the Class 73 I'm not sure why they bothered, and if they hadn't a batch of Class 47s wouldn't have been defaced by them 🙄 I think the reasoning behind the original buffers with small round heads was to clear raised coupling hooks on curves, which clearly wasn't necessary. These small-headed buffers reappeared on Hornby's first Class 20 releases and I replaced them on my blue 20035 with large brass items. At a show a few years ago I picked up a Hornby shorty clerestory brake coach in BR crimson and cream livery, partly out of surprise as I had no idea such a thing existed and it was neatly painted. However it had buffer heads fitted rather than proper buffers so I swapped them for those off the 20, then later on decided I really had no purpose for it so traded it in with Hattons........and a search for 'Hornby R1089 coach images' will still bring up a picture of it, with its ex-20 buffers and missing door hinge!

My recollection from the increasingly distant past was that the Peak had an additional constant whirring sound, which may have been the traction motor blowers? (The last time I heard a Peak running was immaculate 45149 at the Glos-Warks Rly, 26/7/14, and it sounded much the same as I remember.)

I've discovered my bank now doesn't like me making transactions past midnight or thereabouts - purchases or even transfer of funds to immediate family members - so now I check the time before doing anything. At least it stops the odd possibly ill-considered 'small hours' purchase of a suddenly-discovered "bargain" just before going to bed - you know, the kind which next morning in the cold light of day you have second thoughts about..........🤔! I always have debit and credit cards in my wallet, plus some cash (yes, I was once a Boy Scout.....!), and during these uncertain times make sure I have enough of the latter to cover the weekly grocery shop/car refuel.

At the risk of wandering off-topic, I seem to recall a trial on a Class 37 - I even have a number, Cardiff Canton's blue D6992, because I'm either inexplicably nerdy about this kind of thing........or have (had) vivid dreams 🤪! - where one position of the headcode display - second (alphabetic) I think - had a red blind inserted for use instead of a tail lamp - this would have been around the time of the black-on-white headcode blind experiment trialled on Class 47s D1930/65/75*, so around 1969/70. IIRC it was reported in a railway magazine of the time but I've never seen any other reference to it, let alone a photo. Maybe the trial was canned before it took to the rails.......or I really did dream it.......it was so long ago I can't be sure now! *Note that these 47s were WR, LMR and ScR allocated respectively, presumably to spread the visibility trial around the regions - I'm not aware of an ER loco so fitted but I did see D1975 with white headcode at Kings Cross in July 1970 and it must have traversed the length of the ER to get there......

I wasn't aware of that window issue but I'd live with it too - even though I now know about it! I always make a judgment call on whether correcting things like this is worth the extra work, and weigh up the chances of getting it so perfect the correction isn't noticeable (a good example would be converting a Bachmann Class 42 to headcode discs, something I've contemplated but never attempted - I reckon I could cope with the multitude of differences except changing the vertical struts in the side grilles from double to single - attempting it would no doubt gather some kudos from some quarters for recognising the detail but I couldn't live with the inevitably messed-up grilles - all eight of them!) On the two DMBS conversions I've done I elected to retain the whole roof and inner end and replace the guard's compartment sections with window parts from a donor, two per side. Because I planned to retain the Lima glazing, initially at least (the bodies were prepared for SEF flushglazing but 25 years later I still haven't got a round tuit!) these sections were 'butt-welded' in place as any internal bracing would have interfered with the Lima glazing, and it was all rigid enough when re-assembled. So, having sprayed the 3-car set BR blue I forgot the need to support the DMS shell by inserting the chassis when applying Replica run-down numbers, as I'd done with the DTS in 1991, and promptly caved in these sections! Luckily I was able to re-glue these without any external evidence of my oversight!

Many thanks for all this info @The Johnster, I have previously tackled a Class 118 conversion, and a Class 121 DTS, so I know deletion of the redundant guard's compartment requires two new sections of bodyside per side from a donor (the DTS on a centre trailer underframe required all of the floorboards except the driving cab replacing so that they lined up with the doors - bit of a pita! At one point years ago I did gather powered and unpowered DMBS's and two trailers to create a 116, but chickened out and flogged them all. Then later on found a cheap mint power car at a show which.....sort of......followed me home, and I eventually ended up with another blue 3-car set, as yet untouched! I also have some spare body sections to sort the second guard's compartment (again)....... however a 116 centre car would probably require another purchase....... well, it's not at the top of my To Do List so let's see how things transpire 🥴!

I've been considering the lined green early crest 4585 body from the Bachmann Spares site, more appropriate for Cornwall than the lined black 4557 I currently have, great price and even comes with a spare handrail knob......😃!

'Pizza cutters' = Lima wheels with deep flanges! I also find Lima motors much easier to service - I don't like Hornby's clip-on motor bogie face plate (I've broken these in the past, Lima's screws much better) and external small brass spur gear which makes removal of the armature difficult. Oh, and the small wheels - I have a Hornby 29, two 25s and two Hymeks fitted with Lima motors and trailing wheels of 14mm diameter which makes a big visual difference, but requires adjusted ride heights, i.e. bodies lowered which means it's quite a lot of work. The 29 and 25s (actually one is now a 24) use a Lima motor with 34mm wheelbase and 14mm wheels, a type used by Lima in continental models but not UK OO (Elaine's Trains* have a few in stock right now, and axle pick-ups to suit, but they require armature, carbon brushes/springs and face plate swapping in from another motor). Not that you'll want to go that far I'm sure 😁! *No connection, just a happy customer.

Are these the older Margate models (green D6103/6110 / blue 6124/6142) or the later Chinese-made versions (green D6119/6130 / blue D6129/6137)? The Chinese models had improved electrical pick-up all round. When you say they run with the battery placed on them do you mean battery against the motor brush spring retainers? If so then the motors are clearly fine and it's a pick-up issue. This is far more likely on the early Margate models as the current collection arrangement was, er, rudimentary and their age will probably have something to do with it too by now (Hornby diesels of this vintage didn't have pick-up strips, @Robert Shrives was probably thinking Lima😉!) Current is collected directly by axle/cast bogie block contact (with the two bogies connected by a single wire) so these contact areas needs to be kept clean. The trailing bogie is easiest to deal with as it can be readily dismantled to clean the axles and the bearing grooves in the cast block (use a small round file or folded abrasive paper and rub gently until shiny). If this alone doesn't cure the problem the motor bogie will need to be tackled, as there may be too much non-conductive oil and/or crud in the brass sleeves the axles run in. This one is trickier to clean as it will be necessary to remove the axles by levering the geared wheels off - I use a pair of study tweezers between wheel and block to lever the wheel off evenly, it can be done with a screwdriver but apply a little pressure at a time all round to avoid inducing a wobble when reassembled (this works well with these Hornby diesel wheels as they come off quite easily - Lima wheels just won't budge!) Once they're off clean the axles and run a few wooden cocktail sticks through the brass axle bearings in the motor block (soaking the first one in white spirit or thinners may help) until they come out clean. Reassemble the axles in the block by pressing the wheels back on between finger and thumb, checking the back-to-backs and that the gears have re-engaged correctly. If the electrical path from railhead to motor is clear and the motor runs this should cure the issue. Just remember that the geared wheels on one bogie need to be diagonally opposite those on the other! If your Class 29s don't do 'high mileages' axle lubrication probably isn't necessary, otherwise use an electrically-conductive oil such as Peco Electro-Lube (do they still make that? I haven't looked lately as I've had mine a loooooooong time....!🙂)

I have to agree - I found this thread quite late on and ploughed through it - it answered a few of my questions! Chris's knowledge of this relatively humble but wide-ranging DMU class was phenomenal. I plan to post a pic or two of my parcels conversion when(ever) I get it sprayed up, and I may one day convert the Lima 117 stored in the loft into W50865/50921 as running in Cornwall in unlined green livery in 1967 (the centre trailer W59372 looks like too much work but never say never.......😉!) And who knows, maybe we'll get to discuss an RTR Class 116 model on here...........one day............🤔

Yes, I've noticed that. I have a pair of Lima bodies on Hornby chassis (I bought them that way), and the buffers were not the expected Class 47 items but appeared to be a new moulding, not one I've ever seen on Lima products, and they also have overly-domed buffer heads. The '47' buffers are long enough to put the heads in front of the gangway rubbing plate, the new ones are shorter positioning the heads behind the rubbing plate - having the latter as the leading buffing surface looks wrong for the use most of us will put these models to. I have two sets of turned brass buffers to replace these shorties and will 'retract' the rubbing plates if necessary. The trouble with having two items serving the same purpose is that greater care needs to be taken not to get them mixed up - remember Hornby's GWR 'B-Set' coaches on B4 bogies?! Recent releases of the Limby Class 47s (I think they were the first 'Railroad Plus' models) had these shorter buffers fitted instead of the correct, er, Class 47 buffers, and looked a bit ridiculous as a result - not to mention making the tension lock couplings look even longer!

I assume you are referring to the RailAir Express Parcels W51137/50, as converted at Newton Abbot in 1969 - according to the 1969 Ian Allan Combined Volume they were not gangwayed, and this hadn't changed a year later (interestingly the 1969 book shows them as being the only Class 116 vehicles in Scotland in January that year, so the ScR must have relinquished them for this conversion). Most Class 116s had not been gangwayed at that time, and any that had been would have been required for passenger service. In any case newly-fitted gangway connections would have been redundant in the RailAir Express Parcels set as the two GUVs (W86174/572) were not gangwayed either. After this set had been disbanded these two GUVs moved to the London Division and during the early to mid 1970s were used to strengthen Paddington-Reading DMU parcels sets involving Class 128 DPUs W55991/2 and Class 130 (ex-Class 116) DMBS W50819/62 and DMS W50872/915 - none of these four had been gangwayed before their seating was stripped out for parcels use - they acquired the connections and had their seating restored when returned to passenger use in the late 1970s. I have assembled a 3-car set in OO formed from a Heljan Class 128, a rebogied Lima GUV and a Lima DMU vehicle modified to represent W50862, which had oval buffers (the other three had round ones). I just need to get the airbrush out - hopefully this summer.......🙂

I remember seeing one of these on sale in a model shop in Falmouth, Cornwall, in the late 1960s - Barham's, just around the corner from the pier used by the St Mawes ferry. Not sure I've seen one since! Interesting that at least one body securing screw is located in an engine exhaust - which would have been OK-ish if they hadn't selected the only Swindon-built Warship which didn't have central exhaust ports! However such a detail hardly matters when looking at the rest of it..........🤨! Let's be kind to it on one point though - to date it would appear to be the only OO/HO D800 Warship model fitted with wire cab door handrails. There, it wasn't so bad after all, was it?! 😜