47164

Colin, thank you for sharing a brilliant time capsule, great modelling inspiration I was never aware of the 123/124 combinations until now, and interesting to see the harwich Manchester trains in their twilight years before I believe the service ran via the north London line and wcml to Edinburgh and Glasgow, and then died thanks to budget airlines and the expansion of stanstead airport.

The class 90 pantograph looks good, would be nice to see it extended,and assuming it is what will go into production,I would say Hornby take note!

The power units for the initial batch of class 56's that were built in Romania were all trucked out there, some in mid winter...and no motorways in parts of Eastern Europe then !

Not strictly class 47., but the mk2 brake behind 47457 looks to have the br grey carried around to the end on the coach, unless there is a trick of the light!.., any clues on that ?

Grateful update from Richard, I have ordered many items over time for next day delivery and never been let down, my last two orders recently both were Royal Mail and appeared by 8.30 the following morning.I do always phone in my orders pre 2.00pm the day before. In defence of pricing especially on pre owned , I personally find them better than rails who seem way over priced on a lot of items....which might explain the vast bible of their eBay pages.!

Hi Clive, out of curiosity which coach will you locate the power unit ? I imagine an old Hornby or ringfield unit will sit quite high, and ideally the brake car with the pantograph would be best , but then black beetle units are like gold dust. Hornby 4vep power units look good, if not a fraction short.

What a great sight...and a maybe nieve question why the generator coach? Is it for back up ? Or to take eth/ aircon load off the deltic ?

I wonder if consideration was even given to issuing the blue 87 with a choice of pantographs with each model, via clip in fittings on the roof ? . The pantograph offering on the intercity model seems to be a cop-out by Hornby , given that the Eurostar model does have a panto that can be set at a number of positions, surely this could have been used as a template for an improvement....as no doubt the blue corner will come up trumps in thus arena.

Hopefully the front curve is a trick of the light through the glass , also the shawplan etchings look very good when compared ....(in the process of converting a Hornby 86 into an 87.)

Lack of 4mm power bogies such as the black beetle type for loco and emu kits.

Mmm where have all the pre- owned locos disappeared to ?. Or is the post stock take web site still catching up or had a hiccup...which is unusual for hattons ! Interesting that 00 gauge weathered westerns are still in the pre order stage...which I suspect is nearer the truth than another well known box shifter who lists them as an available bargain...but all sold out but could be ordered.!

My cunning plan worked, nicely received yesterday ...order+cheque+sae....many thanks Brian if you monitor this site.

Hi , trying a new tactic as the answer phone politely asks for emails , I have sent an order with payment and and sae..will let you know how it goes.

Hi , is Brian ok ? I Have always been able to contact him easily in the past, but have really struggled over the past 2 months to be able to place an order by either phone or email.

Darius, I look. forward your next episode....any give aways as to what livery you might use ?.... and is this a kit you have had sometime ? or the one recently on e-bay ? I have an MTK one 80pc complete and used Hornby mk2 bogies made life so much easier than the white metal offering.

Mmmm sounds like a specific Friday pm batch, my local retailers complete allocation was minus a buffer on each loco...very poor Qc at a number of points in the chain.

Darius great work again, and very instructive a good few takeaways for my MTK projects, I look forward to your next offering!, and the emu offerings that have come out as a result of your thread.

Very inspiring as ever, is the ac electric one of our MTK friends?

Hi Chris thank for the note, I will probably end up with the single powered option but it will be interesting to assess the comparison. Although it was with magenesion with my first layout in the early 70's my class31 would fly around with 9 plus coaches with the single power uni The Swindon unit was stroke of luck, as the trader at the toy fair listed it a vep ,which might be why a number of people ignored it, but also I guess that built MTK kits are rather marmite.The silver fox model looks very nice and on a lot of wish lists , it's also a great shame that Phoenix precision who now have the MTK/nnk range haven't released a collection of cabs/ kits for dmu/ emu as they do hold the key to so many missing gaps. I ran the unit in its 4 car glory and all went well, the decals I guess may have been original with the kit , as the numbers are on the large size as is the br arrow,so something to tweak, the realignment of the power bogie could be a challenge, but all the carriages have interiors and the Hornby bogies have good close coupling, for better running I could replace them with Bachmann or Hornby but I would end up then spending more on those than the model cost me.

And this is the second, a Swindon 123 nicely built, and bravely using the MTK bogie sides, with a Lima power unit which needs repositioning. I am looking to tidy up some of the numbers and add the odd ohle flashes.

A couple of Little projects A peak recently picked up in a semi built stage. Powered by two triang units which look to have been filed down prior to the new sides being added.one runs very smoothly, the other a bit hit and miss, so I might either disable that or try a spare that I have.i need to lower the bogies / body height and offer up the glazing to repair the cab beading.

Amazing how the scene around Boreham has changed so much, and how it used to have the 100mph sign visible from the a12 on the north bound track....and is potentially the site of a new station.....but my town planning wife says maybe not in my lifetime the way things are going at present!!

Thank you all for a lively and informative debate.... the prize goes to Thaddeus with the 3 second rule in turning around the magnet in the top of the tower!! ...

Many thanks, I will follow your suggestions.

I have picked up a kit with 2 triang power bogies, both of which run well now after a good clean, the only problem is that the run in opposite directions when put on the track, and I can't recall how they can be set-up to run in cinque, as in my youth I didn't have this type of issue when running double headed. Any suggestions appreciated!