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Just zooming in on my own photo, and looking carefully at the 7mm ones - the model does have the correct number of slats on the serck shutters - 7 - but on the model the top slat hasn’t really been interpreted correctly- and is almost flush with the rest of the roof so , yes, it sort of appears not to be there - (you can just see the very feint panel line describing it’s upper edge top right of my cropped image below) not helped by the roof profile being ‘off’ which throws off the all the surrounding features. I think the Bachmann one is well in the lead at the moment. Jon

Another couple of shots from Wakefield - concentrating on the cabs: Jon

Here here ! - plus my own particular irk is the diaphragm gangway, correct for, I think, a single GNER power and wrong for everything else! The air tanks sit too high up as well - I Imagine they were “pushed up” to allow the first design of bogie mounted coupling to swing underneath them . The chunky overscale radiator slats wouldn’t be on my Rolls Royce power car I’m afraid either - I’d rather have the right number of slats at the expense of them being see-through. Some acknowledgement of the aerials fitted in the early 90s would be nice too - the Intercity models look a bit bald without them! Replace the silver coloured plastic brake disc insets with some nice etched ones while we’re at and then I’d be interested! Jon

Ah that’s a brilliant shot - it also shows to good effect how the ‘brows’ above and below the windscreen frames come into being - and again , by flattening this area they arent formed correctly on the Heljan model. Agreed , I think the 50 has the same issue but to a lesser degree. What’s interesting is the forthcoming 56 appears to suffer the same issue with windscreens and cab roof profile - almost as if it was “copied and pasted” Jon

Good point, I’m not sure, but the profile of the roof looks like it’s curving too severely around the cantrail grilles and then too flat above them - the supports for the radiator shutters give you a good indication of the arc of the roof either side of them , and they look a bit ‘bottom heavy’ if that makes sense. Then JLTRT/MM1 models kit has the best “Brush” shape all round in 7mm: Jon

The 'face' of the model is wrong - the error is not the easiest thing to describe but hopefully a photo will help - (sorry if this image is someones - I've had it saved for ages as a great reference shot but don't know who to credit) basically the windcreens on a real 47 don't sit on the same 'plane' - if you stood on the cab roof and looked down at them, the two panes of glass form a very shallow 'V' shape relative to each other - so the central pillar between the two panes of glass sits further forward than the outer 'pillars - Heljan appear to have 'flattened' this area - pushing the central pillar back - I think this is in turn making the much discussed 'ledge' below the screens look too big . Don't forget that in turn the windscreen error will then also throw out the shape of the cab roof; the leading edge - again when viewed above , will be too flat , and that in turn will throw out the profile of the roof. If i was going to be a total nerd - I'd say the early twin arm wipers. as Heljan have modelled them, wont work - both arms need to be the same length or the wiper will do some very strange things! Jon

Hi Blobrick - the mystery part that's fallen off your model looks like its from the brake linkage - it sits on top of the bogie sideframes - there's one on each 'corner' of the bogie. From the looks of your photos the outer ones all seem present and correct - it may be from the inner end. tfn Jon

Interesting - I wonder how they work then if not magnetic - they certainly look nice and discreet. The side on images do look rather as though they’re ‘jacked up’ standing up on ‘tip toes’ . I’m guessing that to negotiate sharp curves they’ve had to add some clearance in order to get the bogie to swing fully without the flanges to hitting the bottom of the coach. It does beg the question therefore, are they too high overall ? I’m sure there’s an argument for P4 in there somewhere ! tfn jon

Hi Shane , did you have to do some cutting/grinding/filing or did it already metal shavings around the bogie pivots - hope that's not from something binding? Jon

what about the version with the cast class 50 bogies (and the class 50 body)

Wow! - My mum remembers travelling on these - She really liked them - often telling me that in winter they were really popular because if you got an 'upper' seat - you stayed nice and warm, not sitting in a draught every three minutes when the train stopped again and the doors were opened. Although I imagine in summer it was quite the opposite... Jon

Hi Will, Your little spacing washers are pretty much where the brake discs are on the real things .. can you get those washers with a larger O/D by any chance? Just a thought It's a shame Bachmann didn't choose to model the inboard discs themselves - They did so on the MPV and it looked rather nice. BTW The resin class 50 grilles mentioned earlier were made by me - many many years ago - I still have a mould left - although its been stored in a very hot loft for years it may have changed shape - I'd have to do a test cast to see if its still useable if anyone would like some more... Jon

Aaaah brilliant! I've been waiting to see how this looked with the new wheels fitted. They give it just the right 'stance', that's quite distinctive on the real locos, Given the rest of of the Hornby 67 is great, the weird steamroller wheels they chose to fit always stood out like a sore thumb, and it always bugged me that the brake discs weren't really done properly when they're so visible on the real things. That 'Skip' will look lovely with the Bristol - Penzance TPO behind it ! Jon

I agree - Vitrains moulded the setps on , they looked neat enough , and not overscale . Separately fitted parts for the sake of it , aren't always necessarily better/more accurate. Jon

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Crikey. I hope tomstaf isn’t reading…

Because it’s true? The windscreens and the cab side windows both have issues - this is perhaps disguised to a degree by being painted black on the large logo models, unlike the rail blue models where they’re bright yellow. Jon

Gosh - its hard to know where to start - as I'd say there's lots of small cumulative errors going on there - the cab roof profile looks wrong - particularly the leading edge/out extemities/corners - The look of the cantrail grilles suggests overall that the roof is a wee bit too flat , the relationship between the windscreens and the cabside windows looks 'off' as well. On the BREL locos the cab roof doesn't have the same shape 'footprint' as the bodywork it sits on so they have a distinctive overhang from the gutters - its a feature that is sometimes not always apparent depending on how the loco has been painted, but its most obvious on the cabsides- and looks like Heljan have picked that up - nice . Its not present on the Romanian built ones which are totally different - I always thought, aesthetically , the Romanian cabs had the nicest cleanest 'lines' - The track /low level shots look far better and make the cab errors less obvious i think - Jon

It's a world away from the crisp delicate tooling of the Kato 800 - and the trencherman appears not to have 'dug' the cabside windows out quite deep enough either. Saying that however, wow, I never thought I'd see a RTR Class 319 and always thought it was a no brainer to model - do we think Bachmann can tackle the lovely, but complex First Capital Connect livery, or Connex/Brighton Express 319/2 Jon

Oddly enough Heljan's O gauge Defiance has exactly the same error.... weird. Don't think I've ever seen an ex works shot of 149 with silver buffers , but that's a super easy fix. Jon

I’ll throw in my usual w*shl*st request: Class 442! jon

Those Power cars are fab James. Its about time that livery made it onto the new power car tooling! I remember at the time when the real things started to re-repainted into 'Merlin' , the thought of an HST not being in Swallow livery didn't sit well with me - couldn't get my head around it - but actually, now , its pure class and aged really well. I love how the application of the green on the power cars mirrors Intercity livery , around the bodyside grilles and van area - the stripe extending the light clusters being a nice touch too - I'd like to think that someone obviously had great respect for the architecture of the power cars when they came up with it. Far from being the beginning of the end , Merlin became Fag Packet , then 'Barbie' etc etc , all really nice and interesting in their own way. I'd love to see someone tackle the prototype 'Neon' set done for the new FGW franchise. Jon

I always thought The Cure were railway fans - after they done that song about Western Champion ... 1015 Saturday Night

On a similar sort of vein I came across this at the bottom of a YouTube rabbit-hole Wonderfully evil looking old thing , along the same lines as the old Gaz Chaika. Love it. jon

I had to hunt for a set of used ones but it wasn't that difficult, they'll be more commonly listed/ described as 1750 or Bertone saloon wheels.- there was a run of modern production ones about 10 years ago, but I was told the machinery/tooling for them broke I got my set refurbished by Lepsons and they make them look better than new. The hub caps themselves are still produced 'new' sporadically and are quite reasonably priced. Jon