Halvarras

I recall the first air-braked stock arriving in Cornwall in 1971, the Mark 2a/b formations were short (so probably the tightly-timed 'Cornish Riviera') but two things stick in the memory - there were always two brake vehicles coupled 'back-to-back' and the luggage van was not the expected Mark 1 BG, but a GUV (numbered either W86665 or W86669 - I rarely wrote coach numbers down so I can't explain how I remember that over 50 years later, I just do 😜!) Penzance received Cornwall's first dual-braked shunter, newly-overhauled 4181, in Spring 1971, just in time to handle the new stock at the end of the line.

Many thanks for that - sometimes I can manage it and sometimes I can't....! Maybe Scotland didn't need them, or maybe there weren't any spare ones as the Western had grabbed them all (for some reason.....!) A couple of instances of Bulleid brake vehicle use on the WR in 1965 I know where to find in my book collection: 'Diesel Hydraulics in the West Country' page 19 - excellent colour view of a rather battered-looking D1010 crossing a viaduct in the Fowey valley with a rake of BR Mark 1s except the second vehicle which is a green Bulleid brake coach - its remarkably clean light grey roof also stands out in the otherwise all-maroon train. Dated 4/9/65. 'Western Region in the 1960s' - 0-6-2T 6643 working a 4-coach enthusiasts' special near Cwm Bargoed - two Mark 1s, a Hawksworth and Bulleid brake on the rear - again its roof looks cleaner than the other three (could be the same vehicle?) - the caption points it out as one of the transfers from the SR which were "subsequently painted in maroon livery" but in this b&w photo and its position at the far end of the train its livery cannot be determined. Some Bulleid stock transferred to the WR and ScR clearly were repainted maroon but whether eventually they all were is uncertain, to me anyway. Those which went far north were followed by a few green Mark 1s and I believe these became the last green Mark 1s in service.

The RW Carroll collection includes a photo of maroon Bulleid Second Open Sc1500S at Leeds in 1967, can't seen to post a link but searching 'Bulleid Sc1500S Leeds 1967' should bring it up......

Wow, what a view! And then immediately noticed the loco's data panel is missing. Funny how its absence smacks one in the face on banger blue locos in particular. Or maybe it's just me......🤪!?

If we're going to split hairs..... Original condition 436 with no Ds, numbers centralised above cabside logos (1972) Original condition with TOPS numbers and 4 cabside logos (lots, 1974-77) 50003/28 as above but with driver's corners logos painted out (1974) 50004/50 as above with ALL logos painted out (1974) 50020/46 with central logos next to nameplates (late 1970s) 50008 overhauled and repainted with logos moved to secondman's corners in readiness for naming (1978)* *Naming of the Class 50s coincided with the standardisation on the smaller 2' logo on all classes around 1977, the larger 2' 6" being abandoned. The cabside logos on Hornby's model of D421 measure 9mm, which scale at a middling but non-standard 2' 3", hence their undersized appearance - surprising the different 1mm (a scale 3") can make on an OO model. I'm not certain whether the logos applied to the Class 50s at building were 2' 6" or slightly larger - they do look slightly larger, wish I'd measured one at the time (and ignored the strange looks!)

Blimey! I have a Lima Class 08 with a cast weight, if it ever shows signs of binding I'll have to remember to wear protective eyewear 😉!

This got me thinking - if a TT120 0-4-0 starter loco is indeed on the cards, which would make sense, it seems to me that, in order to avoid the OO 'stretch' situation, from the outset the chassis should be made as compact as possible, with minimal front and rear overhangs - the inclusion of outside cylinders may dictate the front overhang but perhaps a modular approach could get around this, provided there was no big impact on the overall cost of a 'budget' chassis? Any selected body which was longer than the basic chassis could then have the required frame extensions moulded into the bodyshell (this may create an extra paint process, unless all bodies were moulded in black plastic to begin with). And NO motor retaining clips! The chassis would still have a generic wheelbase which obviously wouldn't be accurate for all uses, so many future releases would still not be 100% correct, but at least the proportions wouldn't be as compromised as all those OO stretchies! Just thinking out loud, so to speak.....🙂

TT Railroad.....? (Exit, stage left, pronto....😜!)

Interesting, I didn't know 1369 was one of those 'late survivors' which reached the 1960s still displaying its Great Western origins, albeit obscured by layers of grime (my steam loco collection is set in Cornwall around 1961 and when I discovered a photo of 9635 at Newquay still lettered 'GWR' in July of that year I had to get hold of the Bachmann model of the loco in this livery!) I had assumed that the '1366' was simply a modernised '1361' in terms of superstructure, but were there mechanical improvements to explain why 1361 was considered underpowered? Or perhaps being older 1361 was just more worn out and tired.......

Phew! Good job the 57xx wasn't your all-time favourite class 🤪!! I like these little locos too, not just because they're cute but because of the Cornish connection. 1369 was the last steam loco of GWR design to work in the county, however I left it very late to obtain a Heljan model and had to settle for a green 1370, although the price was certainly right. I have the etched plates for 1369 waiting for its respray into black at some point...... Looking forward to seeing the posed line-up - an entire class is not something we see very often!

Christmas decorations. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind putting them up, and looking at them once they're up - it's finding the ones which my Other Half has instructed me to find amongst all the boxes marked "Christmas Stuff" in the loft which drives me round the bend every year, because nothing is ever where it is supposed to be. Specific labelling of boxes never works. It's like some Loft Gremlin quietly rearranges it all between January and November. It definitely doesn't help that every year she buys more new stuff but thinning out the old stuff is forbidden (they appear to have the same status as historical artefacts). After 40+ years we now have enough decorations to do Christmas three times over. When I return those we have used this year to the loft in January I'll try to keep them separate for finding more easily next year, knowing the Gremlin will have other ideas! Oh, and Cadburys Creme Eggs on sale on Boxing Day - right, that's Christmas done and dusted, next stop Easter........🤨

Nick Job appears to have been well aware of the logo's iconic status and the brilliance of the original design, so has done the bare minimum to cater for reproduction in the digital age, nothing more. As a result the logo has got off lightly compared to some of the abominations seen these days. Since one has to look very hard to see the changes it appears to be one of those "Nothing to see here, move along" events (with apologies to Mr Job!) When one compares its apparent simplicity to the preceding 'Lion and Wheel' heraldic device it must have been a shock revelation to most people, BR employees in particular. Such is the penalty for being way ahead of its time. I became interested in railways at about the same time Swindon Works was outshopping D1030 Western Musketeer with its small hand-painted logos (2/8/66) so I've kind of grown up with it - it was never 'indecisive' or made from barbed wire in my view!😉

Hattons took in a quantity of pre-owned Bachmann Polybulks yesterday, put up at £88 each. That does seem to be the going rate these days......

I don't know about an improvement, but certainly an encouraging sign of 'progress' - when I got this I still had to wait nearly two months for delivery. You should get another advising despatch..........at some point!

I had one of these in the 1960s too - with Synchrosmoke, the ingenuity of which really impressed the teenage me! OTOH the catalogue number was R259S? It was the pride of my loco fleet - until the Hymek turned up (sorry!)

Another one - 'Steam in Devon', Peter Gray, page.......er, not numbered 🤔! - 5536 on the Teign Valley line, 1 March 1958.

That is magnificent - its origins are obvious but it looks SO different! The handrail does disguise the awkwardness and I did contemplate this (having seen it done in another thread) but in the end got the saw out instead! If I had found a spare body I would (probably!) have removed the rear part of the cab on mine up to and including the cab door, then grafted on the rear section of the second one including the cab side window, either retaining two cab side windows or creating one rectangular window, depending on how it all fitted on the extension. Another change I looked at was flattening the bonnet top in front of the cab windscreen in the manner of some US switchers to improve visibility through (desirable!) larger windscreens, but the top of the motor housing inside the bonnet was too close, it would have created a lot of extra work for not much gain and probably have looked rather unconvincing, so the narrow windscreens remain. PS Many thanks for the offer of a spare cab (if you can find it!) but my Dock Shunter butchery aspirations have been fulfilled........unless I find another set of suitable turned brass wheels I never knew I had 😁.....

Interesting that the two locos and brake tender are still in GSYP livery (full yellow ends were around by then) yet by 1967 the entire train is already in blue/grey - including the six Newton Chambers car carriers on the rear. Thanks to Heljan one will shortly be able to recreate this train using RTR products!

Re the Dock Shunter and my lined blue one, I made the comment that, since Tri-ang had to add that awkward-looking rear extension to mount the coupling, it was a shame they didn't tool the body to cover the entire length, splitting that bit of extension say one-third to the bonnet and two-thirds to the cab. I did search for a spare body with the idea of extending the cab over the awkward bit but couldn't find one (typically I've spotted a couple on Ebay since I finished it) but never mind, it had already created enough work! If anyone else has this idea I'd be intrigued to see the result (seed-planting.......😃!)

Duplicate post (for some reason!) - deleted.

Neat. I did something similar on my layout (mid-1980s, so laser cutters N/A!) - I excavated the point motor-sized holes in the baseboard and then plotted 'minimum' holes, much as you have done, in the cork underlay, using a card template. At least that's how I think I did it...............it was a long time ago 🤪!

Many thanks for that Andy - the wonder of RMweb, somebody somewhere always knows! This would certainly explain 4585's almost spotless condition with NA lining and early emblem in mid-1958 - sadly this didn't prevent its withdrawal before the end of the following year 🥴!

A good point, and there didn't appear to be many of the first delivery of Pilchards about - sounds like a plausible explanation, I'll go with that and 🤐!

You're correct, 4585 was lined this way - it is clearly visible in a Peter Gray side-on photo of it at Looe in July 1958 in 'Past and Present No 17 - Cornwall '. Bachmann missed this on their model, ref 32-140. 4585 had the large early emblem so I had wondered whether this form of lining only applied to e/e locos......apparently it wasn't that simple! (Why am I not surprised?!) In this picture 5562 has a right-facing BR crest, these were incorrect so short-lived - this suggests that 5562 was an early recipient of the 'new' crest and it's therefore plausible that 4585 and 5562 were overhauled quite close together, so perhaps this form of lining was 'in vogue' at the time? Or were two different works involved? And how many were like this? Questions, questions! 5562 was a regular on the Truro - Newquay via Chacewater/Perranporth line, I'll have to get the magnifying glass on photos of that one now.....🙂

Whoa, hold on a minute. I missed the first release too and I'd like one of these so the running number doesn't bother me personally. I was making the observation on behalf of those who did buy one of the first releases and choose to buy another to go with it. With any other manufacturer you'd have had two different running numbers. Great! I would like to think that recent posts on this forum prove that I do a lot of practical modelling (I've been at it since 1966). Renumbering wagons is either expensive or a faff - expensive if buying a sheet of ready-made number sets when you only need one or two - a faff if saving that expense means having to assemble these tiny numbers one digit at a time off a sheet I already have (and that gets harder with each passing year.....) I'd rather spend my valuable modelling time doing something less tedious. Having said that, if I buy more than one of a particular release I expect to have to do it, one way or the other. A rake of mineral wagons would make purchasing an entire sheet of numbers more worthwhile, and I have done so. But here we have only 50 Pilchards built which were almost certainly rarely if ever seen in rakes (and I do not expect to see triple packs of them from OR - sorry @Steamport Southport I'm not sure what point you were trying to make) and a pair will probably be enough for many purchasers. I believe my observation was a valid one - basically that it was a strangely missed opportunity by OR. It wasn't asking a lot, surely?