railroadbill

Jon020, on 04 Feb 2014 - 20:44, said: Found pics of 47 148, one in 1975 in blue, headcodes, 3 part fixed grills, and 1978 with serck rad grills, and dominoes. So somewhere in those 3 years it got dual brakes and bodywork mods. I shall continue looking at other numbers, this is getting intriguing.

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Jon. I'm on the case, looks an excellent site. Ta

Thanks, Sean! If you'd like headcodes in return it's a good swap. Last time I fitted dominoes to a 47 (2 Heljan ones) I scanned the front of an old Lima 47 and printed the panel out, then cut them out and put them behind the Heljan clear headcode panel. Didn't look too bad really.

I bought a second hand 32-803 47 148 recently. It turned out to be a very good runner so definitely want to keep it - wanted a blue one to try fitting a sound chip - haven't done that yet so it's still on dc. As in your pic above it has 4 figure head codes, round boiler exhaust - and the early 3 part fixed rad grills (which I hadn't noticed when I bought it). I'd like to change the headcodes to dominoes to match the other blue diesels I have but not sure about the rad grills. All I can find out so far is that 47s with the 3 part grill seem to have had the 2 part serck opening ones fitted when they had dual brakes added - but unsure whether they were all done before the domino era. Can't find a pic of one with dominoes and 3 part grill. Can anyone point me in the right direction about this please?

Thanks for that, Mike. Very good point that because locos were nominally allocated to a particular depot they weren't necessarily all in service at the same time, could be stored but still on the books. Think a lot of passenger and goods stock got used the same way, being kept spare then taken out for busy periods. In fact it would be interesting to know what proportion of a depot allocation (as recorded in "spotter" books of the time) was actually available for use at a given time, since some must have been out of service being repaired, overhauled etc.

Got a book on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line which states that Dukedogs were used on it (during the second world war and after) but doesn't have any specific information or photos. Were 90xx locos actually used on this line? Actually, just re-read coachbogie's previous post where "The Didcot engine 9015 (9006 an early 1948 withdrawl) was more likely to be seen next to Bullieds as it continued in use on Southampton trains until the mid 1950's." so -question already answered! Thanks. edited due to myopia

From my Ian Allan "British Railways Locomotives and Locoshed book 1955" reprint, here are the depot allocations for 90xx locos as shown in that book (hopefully correct). 81F Oxford / Fairford 9015 84J Croes Newydd/Bala/Penmaenpool/Trawsfynydd 9028 89A Oswestry/Llanidloes/Moat Lane 9003 9010 9026 9027 89C Machynlleth/Aberayron/Aberystwyth/Portmadoc/Pwllheli 9004 9005 9008 9009 9011 9012 9013 9014 9016 9017 9018 9020 9021 9022 9024 9025 Of course 9017 being preserved could nowadays be running in all sorts of locations using my modeller's licence....... edited for typo

Just got down from loft. Blimey, it's 20 past midnight! OK, Dukedog certainly is a little gem. Could watch those outside cranks going round all night, oh I see I nearly have. Seems to pull 4 coaches ok now, provided they are very free running. Just purrs along. Superb.

9017 has been running round loft with 3 mk1s very well, 4 just ok but 5 a struggle. Weighted tender idea posted earlier may be looked at but actually a 3 coach train probably fine for layout. Found a picture of a Dukedog in BR days near Barmouth with 5 on, but another pic with one on a 2 coach train. This link (if it works!) is to a rather nice sequence of 9017 on the Llangollen railway in 2009 (with 5 coaches) Also found a good film of 2 Dukedogs double heading a railtour in 1960 on "Railway Roundabout 1960" video, but couldn't find a clip on youtube unfortunately. ps when I typed in Dukedog to youtube search, it listed some videos of American racoon traps. (ok, plus a lot of videos of the preserved engine).

Well, postman knocked this morning and there was a package for me - a Dukedog! And what a cracking model. Top marks for the tender pick ups and the adjustable drawbar distance. My one is the 9017 version and imho it looks good in black. Like others , I'm picking the best crew for the superbly detailed cab. Instructions say give it an hour's running in each direction so it must be well and truly run in now Got mine from Rails of Sheffield (pre order) and I was very impressed with their service. Loco very well wrapped as is usual with Rails and it came via Royal Mail (our friendly local postie will leave parcels in a safe place if we're out). So 10 out of 10 for Rails. Really glad I got this loco. Whoo Hoo!

Really good Rob, and really like the crew. Do you start with 00 figures on the footplate and work on them or do you layer them in later? Anyway, great stuff.

What a cracker! Ace weathering. Also, at risk of going back to the headcode debate, your precision labels ones do look the right size. (imho). Tempted to get another one now (if possible!) New Year's greetings to all.

re headcodes. I fitted them internally, think it definitely looks better. I used Heljan characters on mine which are scale height but others use a slightly smaller font which arguably looks better (leaves a slight gap around figures). Jury's out on that one (see many pages earlier on this thread). First time I used Humbrol clearfix to hold codes in place - but they came away at the top so the second time I used Gwiwer's idea of scrap plastic to wedge them in place. That's been fine ever since. Have to say that the loco is a very good runner (having been overhauled by DCC supplies when it was originally faulty when received) and runs very smoothly and slowly on DC. Think the slow running is very good indeed. In fact I didn't chip it in the end and it's part of my "dc fleet". Looks great running round the loft with a rake of maroon mk1s and thoughly satisfying to operate. Actually buying it was a bizarre nightmare but that's another story. edited for typo

Outstandingly innovative and very very creative!

Very nice model, JSpencer. Looks very impressive and selling me even more on the "get a P2" idea. You mention that the loco needs 4' curves to get round. On the BRM video review, it's mentioned that the Hornby P2 has a large gap between tender and loco, presumably to get such a long loco and tender round very tight curves (esp the railroad model?) Could anyone who has examined the Hornby model say how easy it would be to shorten the drawbar to make the tender/loco gap closer to scale?

Totally agree with that. Also, just been looking for another Heljan loco, the Danish litra E pacific (in HO). Available from model shops in Denmark, the price for the DC version is 3195 krone. Current exchange rate, 8.9 DK to the pound. So £150 for a model of a large steam loco versus £360 for a model of a large steam loco (in the manufacturer's home market) isn't looking quite so bad....

Yes, but opium is totally addictive, uses up all the victim's money and takes over their life completely. Whereas railway modelling..... er....

Wow, that weathering and the picture is so good that you've sold me on getting an O1 now, forget the star....:-) really like the carriage and trees just visible behind behind the cab. Top marks.

Perhaps camera angle. There's been a lot posted on this thread about name/number plate mounting. Having printed ones to overlay the etched plates on would have helped. I used drawings in "British Rail mainline diesels", the Ian Allen book, which shows the number plates to be in line with the name plates, so I used a straight edge for that. Took the height from the drawings with a digital micrometer (both name and numbers). Since all that, one of the fan grills came away and had to be stuck back on. Also there's a brake hose somewhere on the track which I can't find.... that's life. :-)

Re Yodel. Just come across this thread. Several months ago my Hatttons order got sent by Yodel, although I'd ticked the Royal Mail option. Hattons took a while dispatching the item and we were away when it finally got sent. Our postman knows where to leave post when we're not there and my neighbour was prepared to take it safely in. When we returned there were 3 "couldn't deliver" cards from Yodel on the mat. Right, their web site only lets you select a date to pick up the parcel from their depot. The nearest one is 35 miles from me so I would have had to make a 70 mile round trip to pick it up and the weekend wasn't an option either. However by using their automated telephone system it was in fact possible to arrange another delivery date and hurrah! Yodel did deliver the package on the day requested. Because it had to be signed for, my wife kindly waited in all day for it. It took over a week to receive the parcel. Yodel might just as well have taken it to the nearest post office. It was very badly packed with very little packing and the item was rattling around in the outer package. Although its nothing to do with Yodel, the model was faulty after all that and went off to be repaired. So the moral of this sorry tale is: if you wern't in when Yodel tried to deliver, DON't use their web site to rearrange, DO use their automated phone service - and you should get a delivery date that suits you. (unless they've changed that since, of course). ps I've bought equipment from Kernow, Rails and Ontracks since then and had superb service from them all - via Royal Mail.

Foyle's payment system used to take forever, seemed even worse when you were on your lunch break. It did call itself the biggest bookshop in the world (is it still or is Amazon etc. really a shop?) According to text on the hoardings outside where the new premises will be, Christina Foyle was known as the Red Queen of Charing Cross road. Easy to shop now, shop looks very bright inside as well. Some years ago think there was a big bookshop on the other side of Charing Cross road, that's gone now.

I was unusually in the area yesterday and thought I'd have a look. Must have been about 4.30 to 5pm, still open and a few people coming and going. Yes there are some German railway books left, and some UK - unfortunately nothing I really wanted. Some aviation, military and car books as well, plus dvds. Then went and had a browse in Foyles, which is moving to larger premises just along Charing Cross Road from their existing shop. They seem to be doing very well. Nostalgic experience from the years when I worked up near there. Also, I think that Hamblings was definitely nearer the Charing Cross road end but didn't recognise which shop it was.

Out with the paint pot then.

H'mm. Thought I'd try photographing stock in daylight rather than loft under fluorescent light. Here are results. To my eye the loco maroon looks slightly more pink and the Bachmann BSK maroon slightly browner compared to each other. The second pic has an ex-LMS coach resprayed in Halfords Vauxhall Burgandy acrylic paint then finished in Testors Dulcote, (a truly wonderful varnish). That looks a little lighter red. Back in the loft the shades look similar again. Just noticed that the loco door handles need painting silver - presumably they would have been chrome on full size?

Really good videos. Locos look the part. Actually the sound of the wheels of blue/grey coach train going past sounded about right. Also - liked the vegetation on the viaduct (going to do that) and the cct on the back of the milk train (now done that on mine). Having seen the vids I'd like to take a stopping train to the station and go for a walk around the area. Hopefully there's a tea shop with a view of the viaduct..... ps Meant to post this on this thread, put it on your layout thread instead.