coachmann

Having lightened the image posted above, it occurs to me the footplate angle is black. None of the other images on this thread are clear enough to show whether this is the case or not. Can anyone amplify? In BR green livery, the footplate angle should be green.

If I might just offer a response, BR painted far more areas green than did the LNER. This included the sandbox fillers and caps. I have taken the liberty of altering your picture slightly.....

The black panel at the top of the tender on 60537 is wrong for BR liveries. Tender without beading had the green taken to the coal space. Gresley tenders with beading often looked black above that beading, but whether they were painted black or whether the cleaners couldnt be bothered cleaning above the beading I don't know.

Aside from the drooping running plate under the cab, the lining is far too thick and bright judging by photos.

Going solely of images posted on here and on various store websites, the running plate is all over the place. The front section is not parallel to the middle section and the rear section droops towards the tender. One would thing that affixing plastic bits to a mazak running plate would be straightforward, but if the mazak is distored, then there isn't much hope for this mass-produced item. Re lining on cylinders, it was not always applied to LNE Pacifics after the war and I dont think the Peppercorns got it at all. It was never applied with BR green livery either. Of course the A2 Pacifics were neat looking engines and for the price the model is a bargain despite faults.

Even though I prided myself in using the camera all year long when many people put them away during winter months, I have been hard put to find many pictures taken in November. Even the sight of Class 24s and 40s was not enough to draw me lineside if the weather was dull and wet. Oh yes, I saw plenty of the railway in the 1950s but I never took numbers and rarely took photos until 1976.

When Hornby discovers the sales of its A3s and A4s are levelling out no matter what new liveries and names are applied, they will turn their attention to something shiny and new.....Thompson Pacifics. Safest bet yet. The famed P2 might never come to pass, but who could resist the A2/2 'Cock 'O the North'....

The split footplate BR lined black version will be avalable sometime in November. Something to haul, like Suburbans, would be welcome too Mr. Hornby.

Hattons £98.00. TMC £150.00.....B)

I'm suprised Peco or someone hasn't produced mounded point rodding before now. It would be great in 1ft long packs like plastic or nylon fencing. If it was 6 rods wide it could be cut down to any number of rods required and strung alongside the track.....dead easy.

You have answered your own post Hugh and not left much for others to add. I don't understand what you mean about your layout having less worth if you modelled this instead of that. What has 'worth' got to do with it? I think where people fall down is when they get defensive even before they have even started building and show they have even less of an open mind than the people they are accusing. Personally I would prefer to see pictures of a model preserved line rather than words, as there is no earthly reason why it cannot be done if one is based on a preserved line. It goes without saying you can do whatever you wish but if people do not take it seriously, that is their choice. Why should you worry?

Good use of a panoramic camera there. The old place just isnt the same without the railway, although it is interesting to speculate exactly what the motive power would look like today if the line were still in use.

The weathering on that Class 06 is spot on. These 7mm scale locomotives are really impressive with all the fine detail.

Concrete slab walling and corrugated fencing was everywere in the 1970s, and so for me you have captured the era to a tee. Televisions 'The Sweeney' wouldnt be the same without corrugated fencing lining pavements...B)

I've just done the dirty deed and made my Hornby Thompson L1 suitable for circa 1953 when it had been in traffic for a few years. Moved the smokebox lamp bracket up 2mm and made a smokebox numberplate. Then weathered it. Adding a mono shot seems to be popular....

Isn't the cob to be widened to allow for a cross-platform inter change between the WHR and FR and to allow for run-round facilities? Whatever, it will be a super rail system in due course and another brownie point for the little trains of NWales. Not sure if toilet facilies are adequate at present......B)

Seeing as they are being rapidly withdrawn, I can't wait for Goodbye livery, See you Around livery and Auf Wiedersehen Pet livery, but Ta ta is a start.

You want 46's for freight workings in North Wales. After a while they could not be used on passenger workings so freight was all they were fit for towards the end. The Maentwrog Road working was a one-off for a 'Peak'. I remember Merfyn phoning me to say I had missed it.....! I friend has loaned me one of my own videos that I made for him yonks ago. Looking at it now, I had forgotten I'd filmed most of the stuff. I started a year too late to catch the 'Peaks', but maybe Merf got them on his 10-ton shoulder mounted machine...

All locos in prewar livery would have to have a Collet tender. 'Tintagel Castle' has a scalloped inside cylinder cover, which is the one I'm waiting for, so thanks for the news. It had a Collet tender up to 1952 and maybe to withdrawal.

In Hornby's defence, not that it needs it, it makes commercial sense to produce models of a similar type before making adjustments in moulds and moving onto another variant. Hawksworth tenders were probably moulded in their thousands and need to be sold with locomotives. No doubt the Collet Tender on the special edition presages the production of Castles with scalloped inside cylinder covers or something.

Now I'm really intrigued. What has the Swindon version got that previous Castles haven't?

Classic innit......Appears to be from a turning with no allowance made for the tapered boiler. I've seen similar on Korean brass turnings years ago. If Hornby produced a safety valve cover with tapered base, it is odds on the assemblers would get it the wrong way round accasionally with even more drastic results.....

If modellers knew how a real steam locomotives functions, they might be a bit more choosy when it comes to DCC sound.

The lack of cut-off is the most noticeable, which is probably why someone once described the puffs as sounding no better than a peice of cardboard being flipped by the spokes of a bicycle wheel. A starting sequence is roughly as follows : Wind reverser into full forward gear, open drain cocks to dispense with condenced steam, blow whistle to warn of impending movement, open regulator to fill steam passages then slam shut. Reopen and tickle until loco begins to move, then open fully. Loud exhaust beat as loco begins to move and takes up weight of the train, draincocks are partially shut then reverser is wound back a touch to use expansive nature of superheated steam resulting in quieter exhaust. As winding back reverser continues the exhaust gets quieter. A pal of mine has set his "sound" so that the loco automatically increases its 'bark' when it senses an incline. I'm not sure if it automatically goes into clanking rods mode downhill or if he sets this by pressing a button on the hand control. From what he has achieved, I think a decent steam sound is possible with todays equipment, but it must depend on where the sound chips are obtained as well as the size of the speaker. His locos are American narrow gauge 7mm scale running on ¾" gauge track.

Aye, true enough, but definitely not by the same people. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I had no time for diesels in the 1950s and still haven't today. They were merely camera-fodder and swelled my income from reproduction fees.