97406

D200 has just been outshopped making for a late 80s full house.

The Heljan one isn’t all that bad and but for the SLW one and the retooled Bachmann one under development, it would be the best 25 available. There are a couple of small errors around the cabs, but it is far better than the old Bachmann model. I’ll be keeping mine, though I won’t be getting any more as the SLW and new Bachmann 25s are the best yet with SLW in the lead of course.

Longsight Part 2. 2 units which would be great in RTR form, to current standards especially.

Longsight.

Great shots! I remember it without trains and before it became GMex. The blue DMUs make it seem quite ‘modern’!

Absolutely smashing! Here's my fleet covering different times in the 80s with a toe hold in the 90s. Very pleased with them all told.

It was the curve on the cabs being too shallow that put me off the old Bachmann 25. I did get one and after squinting at it for a while, gave it Hornby cabs. I painted it up in Ice Cream Van livery as Tamworth Castle, but it’s a bit rough close up so it will be stripped and resprayed Banger Blue when its replacement arrives from SLW.

I use gloss acrylic varnish diluted with water borne acrylic paint thinners and the tiniest tad of washing up liquid making quite a runny mix. Place the window in its aperture and apply the mixture round the edge with a fine pointy brush letting capilliary action attract the liquid along the join. Let it dry and repeat if required. When it's all done and dry remove any excess off the pane with a cotton bud with a little more thinners or IPA for the more stubborn marks.

It tickled me. I also said what a great video it is.

Great video but “communator”? 🤣

The departmental 40s are done and D200 is underway to complete the five 40s that lasted on in service after all the others had been withdrawn.

There is a good chance that the 81 will use a Bachmann 85 chassis, so an easy way is to chop the cabs and then attach them to the chassis. This then makes it easy to gauge the correct length for the central body section. I did this on a couple of early Bachmann 40s which got Lima mid sections.

I’ve just bought this poor old thing on Ebay for the princely sum of 34 British pounds! Clean it up and mate it with class 85 cabs and that’s the 81 on its way.

I’d also use the cabs from the 85 with the Trix centre section as there is little to differentiate between the 81 and 85 cabs. I missed the boat with the Dapol-produced bodyshells, alas! Nevertheless, here’s a jolly passable 81 from an 85:

Yes, the slapdash treatment around the cab fronts with the droopy orange cantrail stripe gives it away. The livery on the real thing doesn’t follow the lines of the locomotive too closely, but Hornby have done it a lot worse! We seem to be losing the knack of painting horizontal lines on HST power cars these days!

I'm planning the 81 and 82 first as the cabs are the most similar to the 85. The 83 and 84 will be more of a challenge as they differ somewhat. Chassis will be worried about when the body is done.

Another thing is consider is that many now have pretty much made all the locomotive purchases that they want, with a few on back order. I don’t “need” many more 37s, especially with 3 older Bachmann models and a Vitrains one that will get lowered and the screens Shawplanned at some point early next year. Yes, there will still be the odd purchase, but the rapid expansion of the fleet during and immediately after the pandemic has slowed recently. I have sufficient retooled Bachmann retools for now…

My new model of the eponymous 97406 is based on 40141 too and it now has additional wiper pickups on all 6 wheels on each bogie from phosphor bronze wire and a stay alive fitted and now runs like an absolute dream. This one was bought secondhand though. It was a brand new 40142 that had the motor fault.

Agreed regarding the red. Railfreight red was quite a light shade which went well with the grey.

Here’s mine, not really a wish list, more a to-do list. Various Class 25s and Class 56s most of which are due in January courtesy Suttons Loco Works and Cavalex. Classes 81-4 that I’m going to have a go at modelling myself in the new year. Class 304 - a long term project already underway. Class 303 - not worked that one out yet but watch this space……🙂

I’ve had a motor run rough on one of my 40s, but as I’d lowered the height and done other things to infringe the warranty I bought a replacement from the very excellent Bachmann Spares website for around 20 quid! There is also the risk of a screw dropping in and making its way into the motor compartment and jamming the motor. Fortunately no permanent damage resulted in that case, but I had to dismantle the loco to investigate and retrieve said screw. Using up to 8 screws to hold a locomotive body on is perhaps my biggest gripe with Bachmann models. The times I’ve done the ‘final’ reassembly and noticed something that needs the body off again, or when the screws cross thread in the hole! Clips are (or should be) the future! As regards Class 37s, 6 Bachmann retools and 4 Accurascale 37s all run fine, though 2 of the Bachmann models (both bought as 37430 Cwmbran) had one of the pickup wires detached from one of the bogies that I fixed myself. I suspect any issues with Bachmann locos are dealt with by their support less publicly due to them working on stuff more behind closed doors.

Buxton 37s at rest

It scrubs up quite well though! 😁😜🙃

I got mine for £11 off Ebay a while back. The other one was £16 off Amazon Marketplace.

I think the recent prices have made up my mind to wait for my 37069. In the meantime I had a look at Model Railway Solutions’ website (following an earlier post) and there’s plenty of DCC ready for £160, sound fitted for £220 and SFX for £250 without the need for Twitter/X. A shame in a way that I have pretty much all the 37s I wanted from the current production runs, only really waiting for flush-fronted refurbs.