Invicta

I'd missed this until I saw it mentioned in this month's Railway Modeller! Its been quite a while since they did anything LMS/LMR (IIRC the last were the Midland 2Fs about 10 years ago!), so I'll definitely be having one of these.

Given the trend over the last year or so for pre-48 and pre-grouping wagon releases from Rapido etc., might we get something to follow on from the recent EFE LSWR vans?

Ah, yes- I'd forgotten that Bachmann's 4F was the of the RHD Midland variety!

Although to be honest, I'd rather see them add a 2F -or maybe an L&Y 0-6-0. I know the 3F has been around for a few years now, and I don't recall whether it has any accuracy issues or not. but is there much wrong with the Bachmann 4F? I certainly wouldn't be rushing out to replace my existing ones with an all-new Bachmann 3F or 4F, though I might add an extra one to the collection.

Mainline did a Composite and Brake 3rd, (plus a Stanier Full Brake). They reappeared in an improved form in the Bachmann range but haven't been released in a while- IIRC the last time they appeared was in the WW1 Ambulance train pack Bachmann did a few years back. A re-tool to modern standards (to say nothing of a wider range) would be very welcome.

It would be certainly interesting to see how typical the performance ST appears to have experienced is compared to a wider sample- I can't add much to the debate as mine has so far only had a run on the model shop's test track, and 10 minutes on my rolling road, but video clips were posted on Facebook last week of one handling a 12-coach set (looked like a mixture of Hornby Staniers and Bachmann LMS Period 1s) on the Manchester MRS 'Dewsbury Midland' layout - Has Sam just got a duff example, or one in need of a bit of running in?

I can see the appeal of offering it in a couple of generic liveries for those modelling a fictitious light railway or industrial location to re-name/number, similar to how Planet released the Victory in plain colours as well as the ROD/IWDD versions, but personally, I don't see the appeal of a fictitious livery as specific as the Longmoor one

Bachmann limited edition release (early/mid-90's IIRC?) of the ex-Mainline Jubilee tooling as 5552 'Silver Jubilee' in the black with silver trim livery for George V's Jubilee in 1935. I've never owned one so don't recall what Bachmann used to represent the chrome-plated cast numbers, LMS lettering and other trim on the prototype, but IIRC the model is prone to the lettering etc. falling off, which seems to be what's going on with the silver boiler bands on the one Hattons are offering.

One I don't think anyone has mentioned is the Lima LMS 42' GUV (Diagram 1870 or something like that?), one of the bits of ex-Lima tooling that I don't think has ever reappeared in a Hornby box. IIRC the body is pretty spot-on dimensionally, and the underframe is pretty ropey (in particular it's on BR1 bogies rather than anything LMS), but I'm told it scrubs up quite nicely with a change of bogies and a bit of work Although it certainly has it's faults, I've always quite liked the Airfix 4F (I currently have two, plus a Hornby version, and have bought and sold a couple more over the years). As you say, that Airfix tender drive was awful, although my oldest one in particular (one of the early blue-boxed releases, bought new when I was about 12/13) has always been quite a nice slow runner, much like you describe - and at least I've established my credentials to own a Lickey Banker or Turbo! 😄

Haven't looked in at the live stream yet, but images of a Sept '23-Jan '24 new releases brochure are on Oxford's Facebook No mention of anything rail in that, just diecasts, but new tooling seems to be: 1:76 Volvo F88 tipper- first livery is "Russell's of Bathgate" Ford County tractor Mazda MX5 Mk1 Bond Bug Ford Transit Mk2 Ford Transit Mk4- first releases for both Transits are in plain white JCB Hydradig shovel Bedford CF- first livery is "Gunn JCB Parts & Service" 1:120 'TT' Mini VW T2 van Ferguson TEA tractor Routemaster bus

There's always the potential human error factor- I've never exhibited in my own right, but some years ago spent a fair few weekends behind a couple of clubmates' layouts at shows. I think the biggest drama I can recall was doing a fairly local show about 25 miles away, and we were travelling in two cars. We were about half-way there when we got a text from the other car, asking "have you got the station buildings, or have we?" Basically ,the main station building, canopy, goods shed and signal box were all removable from the layout, and travelled in a separate box- which was still in the layout owner's garage.... After he'd made a detour back home to retrieve the buildings box, while we pressed on to start setting up the half of the layout that was in our car, we made it by the skin of our teeth- IIRC we'd just got everything connected up and were still putting stock on the layout when the doors opened to let the punters in....

That really is a beautiful loco - I'll bet Swanage are already getting enquiries from other heritage lines about 563's potential availability to hire for steam gala weekends next year and beyond!

Yes, Bachmann did 'regional' packs labelled 'Coal Traders Classics', from memory there were packs for East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and Wales amongst others - think this was back in the late 90's/early 2000's and as you say, some of the choices were a bit widespread. One of the better ones (both in terms of geography and using Bachmann's 'Blue Riband' RCH 1923 7-plank tooling, rather than the old ex-Palitoy? version) was a Modelzone commission of 3 Leicestershire wagons- South Leicester and Snibston collieries (only a couple of miles apart), plus a 5-plank for a Leicester coal merchant, Wood & Co.. I'd suspect anything too-narrowly focussed in terms of location might be better left for local model shops to commission, but I can definitely see the attraction of a themed set including three of the bigger colliery or coal merchant fleets in a region.

I lived in Herne Bay for a number of years and there are a number of similar MacFarlane stench pipes surviving around the town- there were a couple in my road, although lacking the weathervanes seen on the Sutton example- though this listed one in Grand Drive Herne Bay still has both crown and vane.

..or a university- Tyler Hill Tunnel on the old Canterbury & Whitstable line which passes under the University of Kent site- with predictable results in 1974 when part of the tunnel collapsed, and a part of the university's Cornwallis Building had to be demolished after it subsided by about a metre....

It looks as if Bachmann were still offering these figures in the accessory packs for some of their locos into the early 2000's- I've just had a dig in my stock boxes for a circa 2001/2 Bachmann Royal Scot (6155, 'The Lancer', catalogue no. 31-281, which is of course the ex-Mainline tooling) which includes driver, fireman and a little black plastic seat moulding for the driver. I think they also appeared in their early releases of the Ivatt 2-6-2T, amongst others.

IIRC, Tilmanstone was a bit of an odd one- I've read suggestions (think it's in the John Arkell South-East PO Wagons book?) that they were almost certainly internal user wagons, or at best used on the EKLR. The one that immediately caught my eye was South Leicester - pretty much every release I've seen in the past took the livery from a late 30's RCH 1923 7-plank, so it's good to see an earlier version.

At risk of dragging the thread into discussing the NRM, although the National Collection includes a Brit ("Oliver Cromwell"), I don't think it's ever been seen in the NRM? Think it went straight from BR service to Bressingham, and then after a spell on the main line in the early 2000's, to the GCR at Loughborough?

IIRC the panelled sides are based on CR 65' "Grampian" coaches, which ran on 6-wheel bogies, so as you say, not within a country mile of the BR Mk1 Tri-ang put them on

IIRC they've got previous form for this one- I'm sure there was an LMS 3-plank in the catalogue a couple of years back where they'd taken the livery details from a pic of a D.1927 and put them on their little 3-plank, which looks a bit like a Midland D.305

That's a real curve ball, I'd be impressed if anyone had predicted that one!

I'd be frankly amazed not to see an LMS van in the next year or two, but suspect that in the light of the fairly recent D1666 open announcement, it will come from Rapido rather than Hornby- it seems like a totally logical follow-up to the open for Rapido, given the way they've approached their SECR and GWR wagon releases recently -and I can see Stationmaster's point about Hornby being preoccupied with TT120 etc. rather than re/new-tooled 'traditional' wagons. Having said that, I've probably guaranteed an LMS van announcement from Margate next week, it'll just be a re-tool of the Palethorpes Sausage van!

I'm maybe playing devils' advocate a bit, because I have no idea of the numbers, but is it just the "grey pound" , and will the market for OO steam die out to the degree you're suggesting? As you say, the number who remember main line steam are dwindling, but how many of those who don't remember BR steam (I certainly don't) have visited a heritage line or two and see steam there, and in some cases maybe even more often than they travel on the D&E 'big railway'.- that was very much my experience growing up in a town where passenger services ended in 1964, several years before I was born, and the 1970's/80's local railway scene consisted of freight trains rolling across a couple of local level crossings, unless you travelled 10 miles or so to neighbouring towns which still had a functioning station- until I went away to uni, train travel was basically occasional trips to London or further afield

Indeed - I can remember a near-neighbour having a 60's Rambler estate when I was a kid in the early 70's - they were in the market garden/garden centre business, so the amount of boot space in a big US estate car probably outweighed the fuel mileage etc.