7013

I remember seeing two of these hooked up at Didcot station brand spanking new all green no yellow warning panels, very noisy and rattling I can still smell the exhaust. Shortly after their introduction I believe they did a publicity run on a passenger train from Bristol to Paddington. The Castle hauled express following them had to be held up for 15mins as it was catching them at a rate of knots! I suppose with a 75 mph top speed they would have struggled to stay ahead of a Castle which was capable of far higher speeds.

OK so we have established that some people do not give a hoot what coaches they put in a rake, others are more meticulous, I suppose I like many fall somehwere in between. So I am going to purchase a rake of the maroon Hawksworths and would like to run them in some semblance of order. If I start with R4411, then R4410, then R4412, then R4413. and R 4409 at one end. Would that be acceptable or would anyone arrange them differently?

Be nice when I can get my hands on a rake rather than just the one at present, odd really most carriage types have tended to appear together allowing a rake to be formed immediately (Pullmans, Gresleys) however all we have at present is one Hwaksworth coach, which can be slipped into a formation of other coaches,lets hope the others follow soon.

Optimistic wern't they 75mph!

Curtains look a bit dull on that one stationmaster

As I came up the stairs at Swindon on Saturday a Class 60 was charging through west bound with a huge train of Murco tankers, did not see the loco properly but it was named 'Robert.........' and was I believe in Railfreight ? livery, at least some tugs are giving us pleasure rather than the endless runs of 66's which are everywhere.

It probably has got nothing that cannot be found on other Castles. There are a lot of variations in the Castle class, some are subtle others are more obvious, things like position and type of lubricators, single (tall or short) and double chimneys, inside cylinder cover shape, steam pipe shape, the list goes on. Most people who love Castles have a favouirte and 'Swindon' will appeal to some more than others, my personal favourite 'Bristol Castle' came in many guises and two locos during its lifetime. I have just purchased 7007 'Great Western' which looks stunning with its single chimney and Hawksworth tender. My next Castle will be a single chimney with Collet tender. I still have two of the Airfix tooling locos the Bristol Castle (last of old tooling) with 5 pole motor now as 'Spitfire', and Nunney Castle in the Cambrian Coast Express pack with the old Ringfield motor which has never run I should change it for a new tooling loco but I cant bring myself to get rid of it.

Picked up 7007 'Great Western' at GWR 175 today for £95.99 a real bargain for a Ltd. Edition when you consider most stands were selling at £104.99-£109.99 (I do not know why they put this 99p thing on). One stall was offering it at a 'show special' £135! and the museum were selling at £129.99. I wonder why Cheletenham Model Rail Centre had cleared all theirs by 12.15. (I had the last one). The 'Sound' Castle was actually better live than on the Youtube clip, and according to Hornby magazine review can be 'tuned' to make it better, however that said listen to the ESU sound chips from South West Digital, there was one in an O gauge King which was absolutely superb, I presume one can buy OO versions. I have a three part question if anyone can help. A) Is 7037 new tooling? B.What 'R' number is it? C) Was it announced in 2009 or 2010? Thanks in anticipation.

I also saw the two examples at Swindon (cracking day out) GWR 175. The L1's are real beauties with a wealth of fine detail.I itried photographing them and can usually get round the reflection on the glass but could not get a decent image so well done for getting that photo. They really are a lovely proportioned loco, cannot wait to see some black grimey examples.

Down Down Status Quo

Steam sounds have improved but I would not pay money for sound in steam until the 'tinny' sound is got rid of, probably needs a better bass speaker. It would be interesting to hear this rendering alongside the Castle sound chip avaiable from Howes model shop. The Hornby chip sadly does not sound like any prototypical Castle I have ever heard.

You are right of course Stationmaster, I recall as a youth seeing Castles on a daily basis the usual was around 9-10 coaches. But yes during the summer excursion trains to the south west were often much longer, I went on many of them. Just to compare the newest with the oldest 00 Castles I have enclosed these shots

Funny you should mention that Coachman I still have my original Hornby Dublo 3Rail 'Bristol Castle' and comparing it to the latest model its not that bad, OK it does not have the fine detail, wheels and valvegear, but it looks OK. I still run my old loco from time to time and it runs beautifully, as does my two rail HD 8F. I will photograph my old and new Castles together to compare

However prototypically a Castle would rarely if ever have a load of 15 coaches on would it? except during WW2.

Yes the Davies Metcalffe lubricator and reservoir were added May 1958.

I agree Stuart the Metcalfe & Davis lubricator reservoir did nothing for the appearance of the Castle but I wanted to capture Bristol castle in her final guise.

Regarding paint, I had to do a bit of retouching on my Castle conversion, I tried the Humbrol 'Rail Colour' BR/WR green which is a pretty good match. It dries a bit matt compared with the sheen of the Hornby paint but a fine coat of Johnson Klear has brought up the sheen. I have only used the retouches on v.small areas though so I do not know how the paint would look on a larger area.

Converting Ince to Bristol in her final state with Metcalfe Davis lubricator reservoir

Thanks Stationmaster, to quote that oft used phrase 'Oh Sam what a beauty' I wonder if they will be available at GWR 175 at the Steam Museum Swindon on the 11th? One can only hope.

I was just looking at the Hornby ad. for GWR 175. Have they announced anywhere they are going to produce 7007 'Great Western'? The model shown although paint shopped would be wrong for7007. Firstly it has cutaway inside cylinder covers whereas the prototype were squared from built, also the GWR emblem is missing on the splasher and the nameplate is wrong as it should have the small subplate which reads 'castle class.' It is probably just an advertising picture, albeit a misleading one. Edit. I see that it is coming out as a Ltd. Edn. I hope Hornby correct all these faults as they are pretty glaring.

Just two days ago I found a fine picture of an LNER ex-GN large atlantic standing on Swindon shed in 1936. I will let Hornby know that there's the loco to quiet all the GWRistas clamour for something to commemorate GWR175: not only 'Gresley Was Right', but 'Ivatt Knew Best'. Poor thing was probably lost and Gods Wonderful Railway took it in and felt sorry for it . Being such nice people at Swindon they cared for it until it was better, and when it went home they all agreed that the person who designed it must have been ill at the time, what other explanation could there be for such an ugly duckling compared to those beautiful locomotives all around it!!!!

Some modellers need an excuse to buy a loco, one being that it would appear in the area they are modelling. To some people this is without compromise and they would never buy a loco that would be out of region on their layout. I am not one of those people but I rarely purchase anything that would be way out of region. My philosphy is that I normally purchase anything that could be seen between Didcot and Banbury at any time in the last 50+ years. Imagine my delight when thumbing through one of my books to see a photo of an L1 at Banbury at the haed of a train to Woodford Halse, In fact there were at least three L1's that regularly did the run, bring 'em on Hornby!

What an absolutley stunning model though, IM (not so)HO the best looking steam model there is, superb detail, beautiful reproduction of a beautiful prototype, excellent motor, well worth the wait. My 'Ince' is well on the way to being converted to 'Bristol' with the Metcalfe Davis lubricating reservoir etc.

Difficult to compare the Hornby and Bachmann offerings as they are of different prototype structures, however the Bachmann looks to be much finer detail than Hornby's. It is a case of could you purchase extra detailing parts for the Hornby tower to bring it up to the Bachmann's quality and still come in cheaper?

If Car 96 and Sunbeam had the same bodies as prototypes and were reclassified as was pointed out Hornby are spot on, if they were not the same then Hornby have just been very lazy and will only serve to alienate modellers. With prices rising to all time highs one would expect the companies to strive to continue to develop models not rehash carriages (assuming they are not prototypically the same).