Steadfast

Since almost all Euro locos have that feature, it wouldn't surprise me if it's the only tooling they do. Also the light clusters look to be Euro style, along with the buffer beams, extra roof aerials and some other details. They appear to literally be European shells in UK livery There looks a to be a few typeface issues on the decoration - don't know if that's pretty standard for what's expected with European HO? Jo

Flyash to Appleford is for Forterra building block manufacture, goes to Thatcham by road. Jo

Whether it's a GM regime or not I don't know, but the 59s have always been very well looked after. On return to either Merehead or Whatley they were always booked fuel, sand etc as a minimum before working another train out from the quarry. Sometimes they'd be stopped for an A exam that took a bit longer but they'd still be out the same day. The fact every loco went "home" every day must have done reliability a big help. Fitters were originally contracted in BR staff, then under Mendip Rail was the fitters were employed by MRL (some BR staff jumping ship to MRL I believe so knowledge was maintained) and now they are employed by Freightliner. Jo

Thanks for posting Adam, much clearer. Much appreciated! Jo

Thanks Tom, the plot thickens! I was going off the front view on your site. (Apologies for the cheeky screenshot). The lower edge of the loco is horizontal, but the top of the "shelf" is stepped, but I've enough experience of looking at CADs to know at low res they can appear off at times, especially if exported at low res initially. As for the droopy windows, since the original model came out I have believed this is a result of the overwidth body, thus to fill the horizontal gap the windows where stretched, so reducing the gradient as the slope is over a greater distance. The droopy face of a 56 windscreens is a big part of the character. Jo

It may be the relatively low resolution of the CAD on @TomE's wonderful N Gauge News, but the Doncaster style 56 doesn't appear to feature the "shelf" below the windscreens these fabricated cab machines have. See below for a picture to illustrate. Where the top of the yellow is, the panel is dead flat horizontal. The Romanian and earlier UK cabs made from castings were much more rounded here, as shown by this Flickr link. You can see how the yellow is painted straight but doesn't actually follow the shape of the cab. This side by side shot shows the difference. I once had it described to me that you can put your mug on a fabricated cab, but it'll slide off a cast cab front. Edited to add this Flickr gem. Really shows the two styles, both in yellow so shows up well. Click able for full size If it isn't a CAD artifact, I hope it's not too late to tweak this part of the design, something that really separates the two styles. All the best Jo

Been driving 'The King' again today so a good excuse for some more pics on a 66 theme. All linked from Flickr as usual. These are from April and May Maritime blue 66005 'Maritime Intermodal One' waits time in East Depot with 4C90 from Acton to Tytherington. From there, the train would return to Quainton Railhead, via Acton, with another load of stone for HS2 construction. Blue sky and a blue engine, but surprisingly few photographers out today for this one. Seen shortly after arrival with 6C03 from Northolt, 66115 sits quietly as unloading begins at Severnside. The energy from waste centre here incinerates the refuse to generate electricity. My first solo train. 66107 sits in Tytherington ready for departure with 6M78 for Quainton Railhead, via a reversal at Acton. Nice blue sky as dawn begins to break. It's 66s galore at Stoke Gifford. Freightliner's 66509, 66542, 66547 and 66567 sit in the yard awaiting their next turn of duty, while 66107 sits in the Down Loop at Bristol Parkway with 6A12 Tytherington - Quainton Railhead, a train that runs most Saturdays. Jo

Nice announcement. A question for @Adam1701D Will the width be corrected, or is it using the same chassis block? This extra width is what appears to give the cab front it's squashed look. Jo

What a brilliant announcement, it's impossible to model modern covered steel trains without these, and I've long thought they deserved to be done RTR thanks to their commonality. Ahhh those were the days. I can't believe that's nearly 10 years ago! Definitely firmly my modelling period. In addition to the previously mentioned model types in Ben's post, the Cavalex BLAs can be seen with them too. There's a VTG black hoodless JSA in there too. Although this is a long distance run, mixed covered and open wagons are quite common on the Margam - Llanwern trips. 66019 leads a mix of covered and open steel carriers on 6Z48 Margam - Middlesborough AV Dawson through Cardiff Central. 2020 Some general views, all just mixes of covered coil carriers: Seen from Bishton Crossing, 66171 departs from Llanwern where traffic was attached to 6M41 Margam - Round Oak. 2019 A scene no longer to be repeated, as 6O78 Llanwern - Dollands Moor emerges from the Severn Tunnel. Ex DRS 66409, one of the original five Colas locos as 66844, sold to GBRf, renumbered to 66745 and hired back to Colas is seen climbing away from the Severn Tunnel at Pilning, long before the wires went up. 2011 66125 speeds through Severn Tunnel Junction on the main working 6V05 Round Oak - Margam steel empties. Booked for the relief, I was pleased to see it routed through the station on Open Train Times! 2019. 66116 seen from the bridleway between Coalpit Heath and Westerleigh with 6B50 Swindon - Llanwern, running rather early. 2020, looks like I might have to dust off the graffiti decal artwork I've done for these. Jo

You can still get the mix today. Whilst the long distance flows tend to be slab or coil, the South Wales trips between Margam and Llanwern can have a variety of steel products (and wagon types) on one train, so BBAs with slab and BLAs with coil could run together, or a mix of one type loaded and the other empty. Jo

Hello Adam, Does that include the XC HST that has been discussed previously? Some of the XC Mk3s are ex loco hauled and retain the roof details with the 3 small Roevac vents. It'd be the icing on the cake to have them correctly represented. All the best Jo

Here's some pics of the fuel tank. Should be simple enough to knock up a rough box shape in plasticard. This is the side with cab to the right. And cab to the left Jo

I've not put anything on the thread for a while, so here's a few from this week, I'll dig back further later on. As usual they're linked from Flickr, so click away if you'd like to see them bigger! First up, seems to be a popular one on the last few posts, we call it 'The King'. 66023, carrying a blue version of the DB Cargo livery to celebrate the coronation of King Charles, sits in the spoil tip at Westbury as one of the remaining FGW blue 166s passes by in the background. The Falcon have had spoil unloaded, and fresh ballast loaded ready to go out to site. DB Cargo's 66012 and 66050 flank GB Railfreight's 66791 in Westbury Down Yard. Both the red 66s are recent repaints, but 66791 still carries the Beacon blue livery it carried when operating as T66404 in Sweden. Up close it is looking very scruffy, with tears in the vinyl and lots of patches in both paint and vinyl. Having arrived on 6F12 from South Wales, 66593 sits in the Down Yard at Westbury atop 20 part loaded autoballasters. It would wait here until working a Mendip service that evening. Quite a busy week for locos, as well as all these I've driven 024 and 952, but didn't get photos of them. The joys of a Network Rail yard, we get all sorts of colourful locos to play with! Jo

Called the Virtual Quarry concept. Most Network Rail LDCs (Whitemoor, Eastleigh, Westbury, Bescot, Carlisle etc) have a VQ, and it allows quicker turnround of wagons and thus a smaller wagon fleet. Prime example of this, we had a train come back from site earlier in the week, and within a few hours the wagons were reloaded and on another working back to the site. If they had to go to the quarry, it'd probably be a couple of days to turn round. Come back today, go on the trip to the quarry tomorrow, return later that day or early the following day. The bulk ballast train between quarry and VQ is formed of Mussels, the big yellow boxes. What is frustrating is that if you have wagons (say autoballasters for arguments sake) that need loading but not in a rush, you can't send them direct to the quarry vice some of the Mussel box wagons and reduce double handling. The bulk ballast train of Mussels has to offload onto the local VQ pile, and any wagons for the weekend loaded off that, forcing double handling. It used to happen, and you'd often see maybe 10 Mussels and 10 autoballasters on a bulk ballast trip, but not anymore. Jo

Interesting to see the imported ballast start up, there have been shortages off ballast earlier in the year. I don't know if quarries had issues digging it, turning it into product or what, but there were supply issues. To illustrate an answer for @JeffP, whist I don't know exactly for Whitemoor, each LDC will send ballast out to worksites in their area. The one I am familiar with (Westbury) sends out ballast trains as far west as Cornwall, East to London, up towards Oxford and Gloucestershire and out to South Wales, as well as points in between. Our ballast comes from Stud Farm in Leicestershire. Jo

Only a couple of weeks left for the CDAs if the rumours going round at work are correct. Get you photos while you can! Jo

Weren't the 47s built with a gold film in the screens that worked as the heated windscreen element, which looked purple in certain lights. This is what the tint is meant to represent I believe. I've not noticed 37s give a similar effect. Also over time, replacement windscreens may have different elements in them. Certainly on 66s there's at least 2 or 3 types of demister, and they look different from outside. Jo

A couple of recent 67s from me. Linked from my Flickr. 67010 has just arrived at Cardiff Central with a set of black Mk4s on 1V39 from Manchester Piccadilly. The set was originally overhauled for Grand Central's services to Blackpool, but these never started running and instead TFW purachsed the overhauled stock. DVT 82201 was on the rear. Right place, right time today. Former Colas, and now once again Colas 67027 is seen on the fuel point at Westbury with dead duck 70808. With the pair of Beacon Rail owned 67s being prepared for lease to GBRf, 027 gained the blue and orange colours in readiness for its redeployment. With GB now deciding not to take the 67s on, reapplication of Colas branding is being undertaken. The small cab side GB Railfreight logos have been replaced by the Colas diamonds, but the large bodyside GBRf logo is painted. Expect this to be covered by a Colas logo within a few days, once the vinyl men return to cover it over. 67027 and 70808 were about to head over to the downside, where they were both due some attention at the Elephant House workshop. Jo

Looks like there's a torch on the far lamp bracket, presumably displaying a red. Jo

I'll sit back, relax and await the inevitable then! Jo

I doubt it, the royal 67s have the yellow spot whatever they are working. Mind you, the Res royal 47s didn't do non Royal duties very often Jo

66040 in 2016 was the first one I came across, and if not the very first, it was one of them. Jo

I quite agree. What is really frustrating is the level of "support" / "investment" / the road industry gets from the Government, rail really is the poor relation. If the government sent a bit our way to help keep electric zero emission locos on the rails, it might make a difference. But no, they'll just fire another £100 million or whatever towards lorries. Jo

I'd best be on good behaviour, I've got one less excuse for crashing than you guys 😁 Looking forward to it! Jo

What do I want to see? Simple day to day improvements. TSRs and ESRs that have the fault corrected in a timely manner. Dead AWS magnets that are fixed in a timely manner. I'm convinced there will be an incident caused by people getting used to cancelling the AWS and not having to take action. Over one 40 - 50 mile run, I can think of at least 4 long term dead magnets, repeatedly reported and nothing is done. At least one has been like it for over 2 years. Long term it'd be nice to see everyone pulling together and not fighting to take freight contracts off each other, but to get more freight from road to rail and, selfishly, since the question is what to I want to see, to thus look after the long term future of my career! It's funny how the government see money to roads as investment, but money to railways as subsidy and additional cost. We need more than the occasional poster here and there claiming one train takes 76 lorries off the road. Let's see some action and not just empty words! Jo