brushman47544

Those images have a very Peter Gray look to them.

I got in touch a week or so ago and was told that the EU-destined banana vans had been delayed due to customs issues.

Speaking of 50008, have you noticed that the right hand marker light in the headcode panel is non-standard (less opaque) and allows the light bulb behind to shine through more (at No 2 end only)? 50008 was like that from the early 80s and looking at the photos posted elsewhere today in the new HH livery it still is. Accurascale modelling that oddity in the Run 1 model would be a nice touch.

Hi David. J5920 is 47011

No..... without the radio pod on the roof please, and preferably with the original round crest too. I like it but already have the Hornby Laira Blue version (R3050) so couldn't justify that.

I wouldn't be so sure. Older tooling seems to last much longer in general then newer tooling. Look at how much use Hornby has made of some of the ex-Lima tooling - they may be more primitive in terms of detail but the models are still crisp. The same goes for the last run of Mk2Ds. No a reason not to retool though.

In my case being taken as a child to see both steam and diesel trains, it’s not a preference for BR liveries per say, rather a preference for authenticity - a preserved loco should only be painted in a livery consistent with its current state. So rebuilt Bullied Pacifics should only be in BR liveries etc.

Very interesting, Kevin. Until now I hadn't realised there no run round loop at Little Muddle, or have you missed a bit of track?

That looks like the previous Heljan model, not the new one.

My announcement email from Bachmann with a link to the video arrived in my inbox at 08.59 this (Monday) morning! Also includes an announcement about the newly updated Routemaster tooling - four RMs at this stage, three London Red and one Leicester Confidence Bus.

Accurascale have said on several occasions that they use more than one factory, so a delay to one model does not necessarily impact delivery of another. Have they said the 66 and 31 are being manufactured in the same factory?

I have long suspected that Heljan has a policy of going through a maximum number of iterations in making tooling changes at which point - presumably on cost grounds - no further substantive changes are made. So the accuracy of the final CAD and the ability of the toolmaker to turn that into an actual model is critical. As you say, some models are absolute crackers and other leave something to be desired. The will and the knowledge, with Ben, to get it right is clearly there, so there must be something we don’t know about that has a negative impact on the final versions of some models.

J7213 is 55021 Argyll & Sutherland Highlander and C3874 is 55012 Crepello

Love is a minestrone - 10CC

J2945 is interesting. Other than the fact the passengers would have had to put up with a DMU all the way from Reading to Birmingham (I'd simply wait for the next loco hauled train), it's the first time I've seen a Reading based Pressed Steel Class 117 unit with a fourth coach added - and a Met-Cam with non-suburban seating to boot.

J3702 is 55019 Royal Highland Fusilier

The line from Dieppe used to pass close to my aunt and uncle’s house near Gueures. In the late 60s there was still a goods train most days from Dieppe that went at least as far as Luneray. One day my cousin and I were offered a cab ride in what I suspect was a 63000 but we turned it down. We were only about 7 or 8 though.

The translucent grey discs (TGD) were fitted to both cabs initially, then the small marker lights started to be fitted (from around 1983) at the No 2 end, retaining the TGDs at the No 1 end. I would be surprised if any 47s still had TGDs at the No 2 end after the headlight was fitted.

Do you really mean dominoes with headlight, i.e. the back headcode panel? Or with yellow panel? I can't think there were many 47s with dominoes and headlight - wouldn't dominoes have been replaced with the yellow panel when the headlight was fitted? Either way, I think the opportunity for further BR blue locos has been lost for the time being. We've had 47012 and 47435 in BR blue with dominoes but without the headlight with the new tooling, plus 47001 with yellow panel without headlight and 47625 with yellow panel and headlight with the old tooling all relatively recently. What are "missing" are green with SYP and Sercks and green with FYE and Sercks, which liveries I would expect to sell better than some of the later ones we have already seen on the new tooling. But Bachmann seems to want to produce more liveries at a time at present and choosing winning later liveries to go with those two seems more difficult. Not for me but perhaps in NSE blue that would have been seen on Anglia, Thames & Chiltern and West of England (W-E) services?

The first eleven FKs 13476-13486 went new to the ER, but that’s all. No TSOs.

Bachmann does seem to like celebrities, which I presume it sees as something different that reflects the popularity of the actual loco. Whilst that probably still works for limited editions (around 500) I’m not convinced it’s the right approach for standard runs. You want people to buy multiples, so they need to be easily renumbered in standard versions of liveries without names etc., giving the most flexibility. There have been lots of calls for an original WR namer in green or blue, which I would buy, but when Bachmann produced D1677 THOR in green with FYE, it had red-backed nameplates and modelled its short stay at SF. Why??? Guess what…it hung around (though it was DCC fitted).

But Bachmann produced another celebrity rather than a standard version and wasn't 47365 Diamond Jubilee a late production with the previous tooling and that hung around? So I wasn't particularly surprised.

Based on responses so far, plus allowing for a few ditherers, a limited edition of about 20 models would sell out :-) As for darker NSE, you're never going to be able to please everyone so i would go for the common livery application with a shorter nameplate and no crest, making it easier for people to change identities without leaving visible marks. Me... I'll pass on any livery later than 1980s Large Logo and/or with an orange cantrail stripe.

The last two Mk2b BFKs in service were 17109 and 17107, both being converted to Royal Train coaches - 2920 and 2921 respectively - in 1986/87. I don’t think the Mk2b BFKs were ever formally allocated to the Waterloo - Exeter sets; in the early 80s the WR had a few mostly Mk2b sets made up of First Class coaches only that were downgraded to Second Class and used on Paddington - West of England trains such as the Class 50 hauled 10.27 Paddington to Penzance and 10.50 Penzance to Paddington and related workings.

Don’t think I’ve seen SF grey roof 47s with ploughs. Presumably too warm in East Anglia to bother with them.