97406

Unless you’re looking for a new party piece.

+ I liked the livery on the 86s and 90s when they ditched the slab yellow ends. I never liked it with the yellow ends on the 47s, in a sort of half hearted banger blue style. Whilst I hold a lot of nostalgia for banger blue, there’s much nicer ways of painting the ends of a loco.

Sounds like I might be in for a treat!

Of course, I expect the sound package to include ice cream van chimes, too.

I'm just going with the flow, with 3 on order and I'll wait. One of them is this little beauty from when I got into railways properly in the 80s. "A 99 and a Strawberry Mivvi, please!" Until then I have the second loco that I worked on during the pandemic when I got back into modelling - a Bachmann 25 with Hornby cabs. It's a bit rough at close quarters, but when the new one arrives it will get stripped and resprayed into banger blue. I've improved a lot since then through working on lots of detailings and kitbashes like this and learning all along. Here it is with some friends. The Heljan one at the back isn't too bad at all so may pick up one from the second batch to tide me over. I'll be able to do a similar scene with all banger blue 25s when the others arrive.

They’re not exactly a great selling point compared to other companies’ CADs and renders are they! Hopefully the CFPS will be wielding a pointy stick at KR to get it knocked into shape. I really hope so as it will put other manufacturers off from doing a 40 (some have said as much with other classes), though a blue box retool may happen at some point. The fantasy liveries tend to sell slower and end up in bargain bins, so assuming the detail is correct and the nose ends can be fixed then a little IPA and a respray may be in order. Alternatively, if the first batch end up right I’ll happily wait for the second batch and super detail the Bachmann 40s in the meantime instead. With regards to the shallow bogie detail, a little weathering helps a lot with that.

The basic proportions are right and they capture the stance of the real thing well. They are designed in such a way to make it easy to reduce the ride height and I recall discussing that this is by design. Also, Westfield Wagon Works have just released a chassis detailing kit to add the missing details and replace the comically overscale Bachmann details too which will make a damn good representation of a Whistler if you like to tinker!

I'm genuinely up for a decent modern Class 40 and if the KR one turns out good then I'll get a few. Until then the Bachmann one can be lowered and fettled into something decent.

To agree with 37081LochLong, Same here. I’ve had the odd chain come adrift and a headcode box end needing sticking back in place and that’s about it. Compare that to the fun I’ve had with the other side’s 37, mainly due to poor soldering of the pickups and jumper sockets in addition to chains coming adrift. Any issues have been fixed on both models and I have a decent fleet nevertheless.

No problem at all! I well remember Reddish and recall attempting to drive a 31 there at an open day in the early 70s (with much assistance from a driver and crying from myself! :D ). I've been admiring the High Peak Junction and Bluish threads. Back in the day I remember thinking 3mm scale would be ideal for modelling and in retrospect, much more preferable to the TT:120 stuff being released now.

A telephoto shot.

Thank you. I remember them being built along with the 89. I've always held a fascination with electric locos, growing up in Timperley with copious amounts of 25s and 40, then 20s and 37s over Skelton Junction as well!

Thanks, Rich - glad you're enjoying my tinkerings! Nifkin's Bridge exists in a parallel universe not too far from Crewe, and is seen here somewhere between the late 70s to early 90s (with a lot of blurring of the timeline due to Rule 1 considerations). This allows for all sorts of exotic locos such as Scottish 26s and 37s as well ex-works stuff coming off Crewe Works. It covers the period from my late teens where I managed to get into the railways proper, catching the end of the 25s and 40s, along with the beginnings of sectorisation and all the new liveries involved. It is a modular layout so it will fit into a bigger one in due course. In the meantime, I'm considering a small extension at the diesel depot end to add more stabling and a fuel point, but this will be designed so that it can then be incorporated into later extensions.

That could be blue sky reflecting off the black windscreen surrounds.

The newer section of the layout was designed so I could take shots of lineups of locomotives and here's a couple. Firstly some banger blue electrics... And some InterCity ones.

I feel your pain! There's definitely a few issues with the new Bachmann 37, but a good model results and that looks smashing!

I too will wait this one out, having an Ice Cream Van and the Rainhill one on order from the current batch (I don’t believe these have landed yet), and 25244 from the early body style batch. I will be getting a Bachmann 25060 in the meantime when it’s released to tide me over.

Here's 37043 and 37066 stretching their wheels...

A couple of pictures with the ISO turned down to 100 on the camera and F22 on the lens. Much sharper images as a result.

It's mainly Bachmann Class 85 with a Trix centre bodyshell thrown in. Details from here:

The intention is to eventually have a proper mainline section to run trains on but until then I can make do with some diorama action instead.

37043 Loch Lomond coming off-shed.

Some Buxton 37s

A couple more pics with a more general purpose lens on the camera.