John Tomlinson

Many thanks for this. I'd hoped your answer would be along these lines, as it would be a real pain to redo all the lining. I'll give it a whirl! John.

The entire Hornby parts system is a shambles IMHO. There's no pattern to the numbering, no real guide to how parts have evolved, and no guide at all as to what parts are interchangeable between locos. Folk have re-motored some examples with motors stated to be for others, but priced quite differently. Perhaps they aren't really fussed, and assume hardly anyone does repairs anymore. John.

I think there's a lot in this. However, I settled for 27'' minimum radius on my layout, and applied it throughout, as this was the only way I could accomodate my desired track plan in the space available. Personal error in tracklaying means it might be a smidge less in places. The only way to tell really is to find some loco that just goes round a particular radius and test every curve by running. My DJH B16/1 will go round the 27'', although bits were taken off the back of the cylinders. I can't see this when it's batting along, however others might be more discerning. John.

If I may, I'd like to pick your brains on these two. I assume they are the Hornby models, and wonder if you did a complete re-paint and re-line, or if you've managed by weathering in some way to counter Hornby's fictional green? If the latter perhaps you could say how this was achieved. The final result is excellent, and bears no relation at all to the starting point. Many thanks, John.

Thanks to you both for clearing this up. Every day is a school day, as they say! John.

Although I've found this effect on 47's, I can't do so on 73's, this is a February 1998 shot at Redhill of 73206 on the Gatwick Express, I've looked at some other 73 pics as well, all with the locos matching the coaches in the deeper beige. By contrast other 47's are consistently lighter than the coaches. So sadly, it looks, on this basis, as if you may need to do a bit of painting. I'd be very interested to know if anyone else can cast light on this. John.

I was looking at the lower stripe on the Inter City liveried 73 (I think you may have mixed the numbers in the post). I'm not sure it is too pale, although it's always difficult to be sure from a photo. I've a feeling that some locos had a lighter shade of beige than the coaching stock, see here (click on pic for details), It isn't something I've ever really noticed before, and will see if I can find evidence of the same effect on 73's. As ever, happy to be proved wrong! John.

There's no reason you couldn't have an engine shed layout, with possibly a little shunting yard at the side. If you really are planning a larger layout in the future when space allows, this approach would enable you to start collecting locos and seeing them run, rather then be stuck in boxes. Moreover there's nothing like actually doing a bit of joinery, laying some track and then wiring it up, to give you hard experience for what will follow with the later project. John.

Judith Edge kits do pantograph etches/kits for these, if you were wondering what route to take. John.

IIRC the Lima Western bogie was used on most if not all the EM1's on Deepcar, and they seemed to run fine! John.

By coincidence I was looking at his website yesterday, which shows the etched sides for the XP64 coaches as still in stock. He does advise confirming by email that the stock record reflects reality, before commiting to purchase, but if someone is interested it might be worth a whirl now. John.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm totally confident that my brush painting would come nowhere near the quality of finish on modern RTR. Spraying is a different matter, but even then one has also to acquire skills with a lining pen to match a pro finish completely. Each to their own, now in my seventh decade I think I've established a fairly clear idea of where my limits are. John.

If those conditions were satisfied, you may well be correct. Very likely it would also come, if a professional painting and lining job was included, at a price up to 10 times that of something RTR. John.

There were more Black 5's than there are 66's, in the UK anyway. So maybe even more popular, though I doubt it. Being old enough to remember HST's arriving in the 70's, most folk loathed them for supplanting the Deltics, Westerns and 50's to name but three on the E.R. and W.R. Decades later they were much folllowed on their final duties, and indeed still are in Cornwall. Everything in our hobby has its day. John.

Pretty common all over East Anglia, as far as I can work out from photos, although they did range across the country, there are even pics of them on the Cambrian Coast line! IIRC the idea of them was that trains with sections to different locations could be made up with a greater variety of stock, because many Great Eastern section platforms are quite short. So more coaches for a given length, with firsts, seconds, composites mixed as required. Looking back from 2024 this policy of total non standardisation of all LNER coaching stock looks barmy, with small differences in internal arrangements to suit whatever the traffic requirements of specific lines were thought to be. Look through any book on LNER coaches and the range of diagrams, and you'll see what I mean. Fun for us modellers though! John.

I'm glad this has worked! The Hawksworths and the new Pullmans are all assembled in the same way, and I suspect other modern Hornby coaches are too. John.

I've found the photo I was thinking of, in Blenkinsop's "Big Four Cameraman" album by OPC, plate 83. This shows 62666 & 62667 (both lined at the time) passing Aynho on Sunday 11th September 1955 with what is alleged to be a Farnborough Airshow special. I'd guess it's come down the GC to Woodford, then to Banbury and presumably via Oxford and Reading West to Basingstoke, then maybe something else took it to Farnborough after reversal. I can't prove the locos were serviced at Basingstoke, but seems more than likely. John.

I have a feeling that a pair of D11/1's worked a Farnborough Airshow special sometime in the mid 50's from the north, and were also serviced at Basingstoke. Might be wrong, I'll see if I can find a photo. John.

He's called mcsterl on ebay, being the person I bought my Q4 from. His J21 is here, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145478583351?itmmeta=01HWN87ZZM9G6DZG4RVVFBV2GS&hash=item21df330437:g:f3oAAOSwxNllR8G1&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4Jh%2FfNfLp0cDZlB4tOXz10JFdD4aJsUDPgiXaK6fqufiXk5Vm6ms1QeQrLPZuWZ1UY4Ik0Scij%2FQ1cz%2FOr4lBTUExfH%2BjWSqDikpQB7KyZDq1cTG7aCh6enqG%2FwWRpH%2FcQJ59qBmCypUR7ggg1WcfmW0Tn6HPMf2pKQnfnhDo8ZGTJXLaV4d6QQYTjF1KN5RwzCS9o3fzu0v1LdCJKXUgr0%2BaaEMUSuLvOBHYxWJDzQVXYM%2BLY0KprqZYmoUDaF7P36hxAWqk8JDNDibGwFDptK1KBjFu7vVo%2FTiK6ey8vCf|tkp%3ABk9SR_D_ I'm not aware of a separate website. John.

Quite brave of you to have a go with that one, having looked at some of his seconds I wimped out and bought a pristine one! The end result looks excellent, and your various metal embellishments have lifted it to a much higher level. John.

Sadly there aren't any of the Gresley "shorty" 52" 6' vestibuled coaches available in RTR, which would have been around in your time period. So it's kits for these, brass from MJT(?), plastic from Kirk, or 3-D print from Isinglass. Someone has now bought the Kirk range, but these tend to come up on ebay as well. John.

Yes, I do see now you've explained it, many thanks. John.

Thanks, the set of pictures is quite helpful, and there is a shot of 424 in SR days with a Pullman and the cab doors appearing to be open (on the top row). I've basically added everything in the Bachmann bag of goodies, plus the etched plates as I'm quite happy to have "Beachy Head" as my example. For one thing it seems to have been the last in service, and for another we went to Eastbourne on holiday when I was a child, so I've been to the real place! The front wheel guard irons need to be fitted with care, although there is a raised pip in the underside of the running plate to give reference (there's a hole in the top of the irons to match), there's still scope for movement, and they need to be kept forward to avoid hitting the bogie wheels. The rest of the bits seem to fit OK, and with the tender /loco bar on the closest setting it still goes round my 27" radius curves. So I've just the doors to add, and if I ever fathom the headcode discs, those as well. I've been following Basingstoke with interest, and presumably they did get there, on excursions and the like? John. P.S. Looking at the photos again, 32425 in the third row far left approaching Croydon also seems to be moving with the cab doors open, although a bit blurry there is a clear mark where the inside latch is at the top.

Obviously no great thoughts on this one, so I'm probably going to go with doors open. Nice shot here of what I think is an H2 belting along with the doors in that position, you can see the inside latch at the top,

If you do want to take the body off, these are like other modern Hornby coaches. Turn the coach over and place on a soft surface. In each corner of the underframe you'll see a transparent piece of plastic, which needs to be pushed outwards towards the coach side, and this will release the chassis in that area. Repeat on each corner. IIRC there's some body lugs in the centre of the coach side so slide a cocktail stick between chassis and coach side to release these. The securing lugs on the bogies can now be seen clearly above the holder moulding on the inside of the chassis, squeeze these together and the bogies relase. John.