97406

Tis 97201, the new Bachmann version. Consider it bagged 37501 next, then 97405 and 97408, and a class 50 cab job after that according to the current schedule

I avoided the queues for fuel thanks to a bout of insomnia at 3am this morning. I was lying there worrying about finally getting low on fuel after leaving it since this all started. I nipped out and found a garage just outside town, £35 cap, and managed to get some fuel with no queue or fuss. So if you’re getting low on fuel, this is an option. I should be fine for a couple of weeks or more, now.

Eeh, it's grand to have the forum back. Here's the latest 4 completed locos together.

I'm thinking the plastic bit at the top of the tower as well. I'll try it on Teesside Steelmaster, which is waiting to go into the paint shop...

I’ve been umming and aahing about lowering them. The 40 retools are easy as there’s a plastic piece at the top of the bogie tower that you can sand down very easily, using verniers to measure. I removed about 0.8mm off them. The 37 looks a bit more fiddly. Looks like either grinding down the 2 raised portions on the Mazac chassis block, or perhaps removing 1mm or so off the plastic piece on the top of the bogie tower. The latter looks easier. Will have a look on here when I don’t have to go back to work. Have you documented it on one of your threads?

The Shawplan screens are done over 3 or 4 days, and the locos are just patch painted around the screen area, with any weathering touched up afterwards. 37501 will be a full respray from a red stripe railfreight example, and will take longer. The 2 new 40s will need lowering, and chassis details adding. I really should add the lifting points to my existing 2 retooled 40s and these as well, but I’m after some brass section as the Plastruct I’ve used on my Bachmann/Lima hybrids is a little too flimsy and needs a lot of cleaning up, so these could run into November. I have a Hornby 50 that I quite fancy doing the windscreen and nose job after that, with a repaint into large logo, which will be quite a challenge after the 37s and 40s. The masking around the black window surrounds will be fiddly, but I’ll do the ends first, so I can strip it down and start again (there’s a song in there somewhere!) if need be. That’s the plan at the moment.

Why thank you! I am finding it all very therapeutic. I make a fair few mistakes, but if something isn’t right, then I’ll go back and revisit it. Also taking photos of newly-completed locos on the layout highlights any areas that need fettling, that you just wouldn’t notice with the naked eye. There’s a lot of minor detailing jobs left to do. The MW jumpers are overscale on the 37s and I need lifting points on the newer 40s, for instance. But the capture the essence of the originals a little better now than straight out the box.

I do like the sun visors, they add a realistic edge. May have to do the same on some of mine. Have just got the loco that will become 118 on its way along with the green central headcode one I got the other day. That should keep me out of trouble for a month or two! Teeside Steelmaster is next

They are very close on the latest Bachmann retool, but just a fraction of a mm too wide for my OCD. I’m looking forward to the Accurascale 37 as the prototypes look like the best rendition yet! The 40s do look good from that angle. Here’s 2 of mine from before their screen jobs.

A refurbished 37 outshopped from Crewe Works complete with the Shawplan windscreen conversion. The moral to this one’s story is ‘Make the glazing fit, rather than pressing it firmly into place when it doesn’t fit or the etch breaks free’. Still, the yellow acrylic paint filled in the gap and makes for a strong bond when it dries.

I’m not a fan of Load Haul. If they got rid of the slanty lines and made it a bit more like Large Logo or GBRF, then yes, but not the way it was. It’s a shame the AC Loco Group’s Fictitious Liveries page seems to have disappeared, as there was a Dutch livery picture of 40135 on it. Looked great too.

What happened with the window surrounds? Was it the black paint reacting with the yellow, in which case, you know what to look out for next time. Generally aerosol car touch ups will react with enamels, as I found out once whilst respraying a van! A shame as the blue, yellow and grey are excellent, and the masking crisp. I’d have a go at redoing the ends if it were one of mine. My fleet is full of revisited locos where things didn’t quite go to plan the first time round.

I was going to say Black Tack which you can get from Ebay or Amazon, and is more discreet.

Or maybe….. https://flic.kr/p/9qn4mD

I was lucky enough to manage to properly grab the end of the 40s, and their reprieve from 84 on. They used to scare the hell out of me at first when I was a kid, but I became more accustomed to the sound they made in the following years. They did make an impression.

The Bachmann cabs are the right shape, whereas the bonnets are a little too high on the Lima ones. I spliced Bachmann Class 37 cabs into my Lima 135 recently. It's been somewhat of a testbed for several modelling experiments over the years! I've managed to get the glazing sitting a little flusher on the more recent conversions, so may revisit it on this.

There was talk about electrifying the North Wales coast, so you could do a ‘what might have been’. In my world the 40s and 25s made it just until the 90s.

Here's mine, 'ex works', though that is hard to believe. It's a retooled Bachmann with Shawplan windscreens. All my 37s and 40s are getting them. Edited to add, I’ve really got to replace the 7mm scale jumpers on the bogies! I have used a bit of fuse wire and some of the insulation off an old mains electrical cable on 135.

I’ve just treated myself to a green central headcode retooled 40 that will become 060. I’m also after a disc headcode one for 118, although I may make that out of a load of spare Lima and Bachmann parts like my model of 135.

I love the North Wales coast, and the railway was great in the 80s at the end of the BR blue period, with new liveries bursting onto the scene. Still plenty of Banger Blue locos and interesting diesel and electric classes about too. So great stuff there, and I can see a distant retirement project happening to do a WCML layout from the same time.

Here's mine during its test run, pictured with a couple of friends. Proper pleased with it. Now to fit the details.

Both Bachmann retooled 40s have had the Shawplan windscreen treatment

My ‘Experiment’ has just been shipped from Kernow

Or else…

Fusion may be around the corner, and my tongue may be planted firmly in my cheek.