Downendian

Excellent news re 21/29 thanks for confirming this Dave. The last BR diesel class falls- I'll have to offload my dated Hornby 29 which was awaiting a rebuild best online photos of the 29 (and some 21s) are Brushveterans of this parish http://grahame910.fotopic.net/

Ha so Mr Chard- is Carnfroth the home depot for all wishlisted locomotive classes? ?

Class 28 Metro Vick Masterclass, Model rail 97 November 2006 is a pretty comprehensive coverage of the lives of the locos.

Wow that IS impressive- attention to detail Heljan. There was a Model Rail masterclass a few years ago on the Metrovics, I'm sure Heljan know about that

Great - one of the last diesel types to fall to Heljan then - 21/29 anyone? I have a fleet of Heljan's finest, and despite issues with the 47, Clayton, 33/0, Western and 14 the rest are about as good as it gets in 4mm. Despite owning all of the problems none have dissuaded me to place a preorder for the Metrovic.

A day late- but a day of dental trauma yesterday intervened. Saturday 12th April 1975 - Merrymaker trip to York Bristol Parkway 46 001/015. Gloucester 25 145/205, 37 192, 47 447. Saltley 25 106/130/204, 47 138. Burton on Trent 20 005/038/131/136/138/160/194/199. Derby 08 455/590, 20 176, 45 047. York Station 45 016, 46 010, 47 550. York Depot 03 075/172/371, 08 062/245, 31 144/228, 37 015/031/111/114/221, 40 028/051/057/067/070/078/080/083/173, 46 035, 47 134/432/520/544 with 47 373, 55 006/010/015/022 passing. York station 08 540/559/769, 31 176/211, 37 005/071/094/107/305, 40 112/122, 45 019/063/133/143, 46 045/055, 47 365/418/459/460/523/551, 55 001-004/015/019. Derby 08 899 Burton on Trent 20 186, 47 381. Saltley 25 100/276/277, 47 214. Bristol Parkway 47 491. Rather simplistic day to York and back which included the first time to recently opened NRM. We also managed to get a guided tour around York depot which included an engine room walk through and trip back down the yard in 40 070. Now THAT was impressive and very memorable, a cab ride in a whistler. We also saw ten Deltics in traffic in one afternoon, so really the golden age of diesel traction back in 1975. I must have lost some numbers as there are some mysterious omissions (for example where were the electrics at Birmingham?). Occasionally these tours would bypass BNS, perhaps that was one such day, but just can't remember. Neil

A couple of days from 1976. It was Easter holiday and I spent most of my time at Bristol Parkway (see the same thread in RMweb3). Tuesday 6th April 1976 37 075/224/297, 45 022/029/047/053/059/110, 47 111/236/241/475/478/479/483/497/499/510/540, 50 041 Class 120 W50668-W59275-W50721 Wednesday 7th April 1976 20 031/051, 25 052, 37 117, 45 025/027/066, 46 013/038, 47 013/077/101/110/151/190/493/499/504/509/512, 50 042, D1022 Western Sentinel, D1065 Western Consort Notes - The HSTs were to arrive later that year and the South Wales-London expresses were still firmly in the hands of Landore 47/4s. Treated to some rarities on these two days - the pair of 20s were on an Avonmouth bound freight and these were incredibly rare in the Bristol area, even more so the fact that they were Immingham based. 50 041 was one of the last LMR based 50s to arrive on the WR (normally recognisable by the fact that they had two BR arrows at cab ends rather than the WR norm of positioning them amidships). They normally worked a 1VXX express from Birmingham to Plymouth on their first WR duty. It must have arrived on the 6th as it was a cop for the "round Parkway" collection. Split-box 37s were also uncommon in the 1970s around Bristol and the appearance of two on consectutive days was good news. The Westerns were thinning out a bit, but still pleasing to see, but still in 1976 thought that they would be around for a long time- alas we were wrong. D1065 in particular refused to die and was in a very tired state when she was retired later that year. It's interesting also to note the lack of named locos- only 45 022/059 and 47 077 at this time (plus the Westerns).

Good history here: http://www.daveh.org...205history.html 1123-1133 were introduced as 3H (thus were not 2H on delivery), most 2Hs were upgraded to 3 car in 1959/60 a couple of years after introduction. Some 3Hs were downgraded to 2H due to the lack of power of the initial engines used which were later uprated. Hence the point that 3H were more numerous and should be the Bachy model. I saw many 3Hs (in fact most of them) at Temple Meads in the 1970s but never a 2H, which I think had more restricted movements.

I agree completely with the sentiments regarding the 3H, it was more numerous and widespread (some made it to Birmingham Allegedly - I witnessed them at Bristol Parkway in 1975). The 4CEP is a stunning model and really looking forward to see what Bachmann can do for one of my favourite multiple unit types. Of course CEP pricing would be welcome too. I assume that Kernows preorders will still be honoured, I will await details of my two.

According to my records BSYP class 22s : D6300, D6303, D6314, D6327. I'd be up for one in this livery too. D6312 and D6331 were GFYE which is of course the other livery variant. Nidge mentions the BSYPs earlier in the thread Thanks for the update DapolDave I was beginning to wonder........

Thanks - It now says on the Hattons website that no Bachmann decoders fit this loco. I have tried Bachmann, a Hornby sapphire and a Lenz gold of which are roughly the same size and shape but with no luck Hattons recommend a Hornby R8249, got a couple on order

An excellent thread As an academic, careful and meticulous referencing to previous work is critical, and huge databases of abstracts linked to journals and books are the mainstay of medical research. Take a look at large reference databases (e.g. Pubmed, web of knowledge, web of science) to get a feel for how the academic community operates. It has transformed our ability to do research in the past 20 years, and has accelerated our progress as a result. In terms of railway research it would be good if we adopted at least some of those principles. A good, electronically searchable database of Railway and model railway articles in journals (Model Rail, RM etc) would be very important - perhaps with even links to pdfs of the original articles with payment for access. Many academic journals make a tidy sum of collecting fees for each download of these pdfs. RMweb is of course very powerful in that it has google search engines to find topics that have been discussed over the years (most crucial pieces of information I've come across have been from RMweb users who are a huge resource!). I have hundreds of railway books- and I rely almost totally on memory to be able to find THAT picture of the diesel I'm converting. Not a particularly efficient method, and effective referencing would help considerably. Perhaps the big publication houses should think this one through. Another major aid for us modellers is the development of fotopic websites (Fotopic Flickr), and the careful and altruistic release of private photo collections (e.g. on here Brushveteran, owentherail and Robert Carroll) on the web and RMweb. These are not readily accessible by traditional search engines which is a shame (except RMweb), but searching of the Flickr and fotopic sites is for me routine. I shudder in horror of the lost negatives that I took in the 1970s, there must have been thousands if not millions of precious records of our railway heritage which have gone the same way. Perhaps its time in an electronic age that we as a community look at this.

I have two of these little beauties. Tried fitting a decoder to one last night - Bachmann 36553, fitted under the PCB, just, but the bonnet then wouldn't fit flush. Will have to have a go with a smaller decoder. What decoder has everyone else fitted? Have little memory of the prototype (except seeing them in Industrial service in the 1970s), but my grandfather used to cadge a lift occassionally with a "Teddy bear" home from work (Bath road) and was dropped off close to his home near Mangotsfield. I think they were common locos on the Midland branch to Bath in the 1960s

Saturday 7th December 1974 In 1974 the norm was to go spotting once a week on a Saturday morning, except in school holidays and the summer evenings. Today 35 years ago the novelty of the TOPS renumberings that had taken place over the past 12 months was beginning to wear off slightly, although our beloved hydraulics were never to receive this treatment thankfully. Today I noted the following at Bristol Parkway 25 052, 31 154, 37 290, 45 020, non-TOPS peaks 42 and 57, 46 012, 47 093/110/244/250/472/475/505/510/513, Westerns D1025 Western Guardsman, D1035 Western Yeoman and D1065 Western Consort. Some recalls from these numbers. 25 052, which was a Bath road engine at the time had been coupled to sister engine 25 220 during the summer of '74 and was engaged in a variety of duties but I do remember them shunting ballast at Stoke Gifford dump. The Westerns on Saturdays were still going strong despite the withdrawals of the past 18 months. D1035 was one of the last I copped of the working engines, and remember we had to turn back on departure to get her number as we could see the freight from South Wales approaching. Most wessies by this time were hauling freight, although some were on the Fishguard boat trains and sometimes on Swansea/Cardiff-Paddington runs. Bristol Parkway had a slightly different mix of motive power seen on a daily basis compared to say Temple Meads. We had the South Wales traffic and freight to Avonmouth which always brought a mix of LMR and ER based machines including split box 37s, foreign 25s and 31s and the occasional pair of class 20s.

What a great Blog My grandfather used to work at Barrow road from the war till he moved to Bath road in 1960. I have a few pics of the old place somewhere, really looking forward to seeing the model, although it was long gone when I was a kid.

well missed this one for a few days due to work commitments. Excellent news. This finally gives me the chance to ditch my "scratch built" 23 based on the Monty Wells 1983 RM which has been ongoing for nigh on 20 years. I will be definately getting two of the first batch D5909 and D5901 the Derby RCD machine that lasted till 1976.

Nice to see this thread make the quantum leap to the new RMweb. I'm very interested in the TOPS renumbering period 1973-1975, and note that the early 45/1s here were among the first to go due to the ETH fitting programme, it was rather bizarre that the 45s were also last to be renumbered some lasting until late 1975 Neil

Writing first post in this new version of RMweb. Lovely model, but my feel is that the headcode characters are too small - something in common with the class 27s and Claytons. No evidence in terms of dimensions, just an "eyeball" thing. Anyone looked at changing the headcodes?