Oakydoke

Ugly Betty ends up Morphing into a glamourous career woman. Class 70's ????????

Here's a clear photo of 099 in its new livery.... Railway Centre photo of 60099

I agree , by 1996 the closures had mainly been completed, but it appears that in the mid 80's BR were planning for a future that was already not going to happen. Rather reminiscent of the 1950's I guess? Meanwhile, back to the future...

I didn't say there wasn't enough freight, but I suggested there wasn't enough work for them. It's true that EWS (now DBS) lost a large chunk of the market to new competitors, including coal and other heavy haul work; but the market has also changed. The 60's were planned around the time when the UK coal industry was undergoing radical change, including the closure of most of the coal mines. By the time of their introduction there was far less work available for them and the 56's and 58's. Todays requirements for heavy haul are quite different (including many new flows) and as you say, there are other companies vying for the work too.

They also have the benefit of being more reliable, less complex and requiring much less maintenance. A simple analogy would be a car that had to be serviced and pulled apart every couple of thousand miles, compared with one that only required a service every 18,000 miles or once a year. Make that a commercial vehicle, a delivery truck for example, and that difference has serious financial consequencies. No company would want its trucks in the workshop all the time, costing money and losing revenue. Think of freight locos as delivery trucks and you can see why a loco that costs more time and money to keep running is a liability.

Funnily enough, only two or three minutes ago I was reading about the cutbacks on the Chase line between Walsall and Rugeley. Apparently each passenger is subsidised to the tune of £7.18 for every trip on top of the fare. The cheapest ticket is £3.60 single, the dearest £5.40 single !!!! Clearly that sort of thing can't carry on. Service frequency is being cut in December, but how long will the various authorities be able to subsidise the route?

That picture of the Mainline Blue 60 (60044) with just three wagons, demonstrates exactly why there is no need for so many of these mighty machines. Using one on a trip like that is such a waste for a machine designed to haul several thousand tons.

Most of those on the list have had serious mechanical failures, many with broken crankcases, broken cylinder blocks and legs out of bed. I don't know how reliable the information is here... Tug Tracker - list of class 60's up for sale ...but it gives more than a hint that this bunch are on the scrap list.

AFAIK these Tugs are being sold for scrap only, "sold as seen", with a commitment to disposal "in a manner which is fair and non-discriminatory and which complies with safety and environmental considerations". Parent company DB have a reputation for disposing of redundant locos on the basis that they're not to be put back in traffic. All the ones listed are badly broken and must be beyond economic repair.

An early example from Hornby. Did they produce too many, some of which are still on the shelves and as a result have made smaller numbers of subsequent issues?

Production will have stopped soon after it started (the same week or even the same day, depending on how long it takes to run a single batch and how many are being made). I would imagine that for something like a class 60, there will only be one batch run of each running number/identity. Available supplies will depend on how many were made and how soon they are bought up by customers. Your best bet is to look around the smaller retailers to see if they have any left in stock, otherwise it's wait and see if another batch is produced (highly unlikely in this case), or eBay.

Would these particular PowerHaul series locos be different as they have an Austrian designed Jenbacher engine as opposed to the American GE engines more commonly used in US locos?

NSE ? Good effort there Paul, however that scheme looks absolutely gross. Yuk!

I was once told that it was a myth that Relco's and other similar devices cleaned the track. It was suggested that I should think of these so called track cleaners as an electronic hand from the sky, which helped push the trains along when the current was affected by dirty sections of track. Bertiedog seems to be confirming that view.

I'll second what SRman says. The Hornby decoder doesn't allow much adjustment, has a very low power rating and is limited for consisting (no advanced consisting). Simon mentioned the Bachmann decoder, by which I think he means the 3 function model. These have more adjustable CV's and a higher power rating for both the motor and function outputs. They do lack one function compared to the Hornby, but are more robust all round. Same limitation on consisting though. Expect to pay ??9.00 for these. If tempted by the Hornby, make sure it's the latest R8249 and don't be palmed off with the older R8215 which was a pile of rubbish and has been withdrawn by Hornby. Some model shops may still carry stock of the old one.

Do you mean "...have any locos for the UK ever been built and designed by a european manufacturer?" ? There's a very strong loco building industry in mainland Europe of course.

Norbert-Dentressangle have over 7000 lorries (tractor units) and more than 8300 trailer units. Willy Betz 4500 tractor units.

New Bachmann packaging for box set of 4 x Class 70's http://www.therailwaycentre.com/NewSite%20POD%202009/POD04-12-09.jpg ...I'm the chosen one (from Toy Story).

I wonder if there's a paper bag in there...... ?????? (...as in putting it over one's head)

What would the old Freightliner livery (as on the 66's ) look like, rather than the new "swirly" version. Try that one please!