Jenny Emily

Is there any indication as to how well the class 85s have sold? It would be interesting to know whether there may be a chance for other 8x xxx classes if they have.

Re Bachmann Collector club items on e-bay

 

I have bought items from a model shop which were marked "Bachmann Collectors Club Exclusive 20xx" (or similar)

There were more than one available, brand new, but were only being sold at the typical price of a non exclusive item.

 

Questions: How did they get there in the first place? Do Bachmann sell off surplus club items?

 

Keith

I've seen this in a couple of shops too. I can only assume that after a while Bachmann dispose of slow-selling stock in this way. 

Did the Manchester ship canal company have any of this version? I've had a good search online and can only find photos of the 0-6-0 versions. 

The little spring that self centres the couplings has disappeared/broken/come loose on one end of my maroon one. Has anyone dismantled one of these models yet to see how an errant spring could be repaired and/or how it all should fit together?

It still runs fine as long as it is only pulled and not pushed.

Thanks for the replies. Silverton mill is a little further south from Hele.

The suggestion that the sidings were shunted by a tractor makes the paved track make much more sense. As for the mill at Hele, I went in there too. There is a three way point embedded in the concrete just over the access bridge that is a perfect match to the Peco code 100 one.

Thanks for that. My google-fu managed to turn up a few (post-closure) pictures that confirm that the local farmer has incorporated part of the trackbed as the floor of outbuildings it appears. Nothing explains why a need was felt for encasing the whole branch in concrete like a tramway, or why it is afforded listed status.

On my travels I came across this near Hele, not far from Cullompton. It's a small branch that went into Silverton mill. What's interesting is that it appears that for its full length the track is inset in concrete, thus ensuring almost all of the branch back to the main line survives intact. My work took me into the mill, which because of bridge repairs was using this gate as the temporary entrance.

The bridge that was being repaired carried some of the tracks internal to the mill and I was quite surprised to see that it was being repaired with special attention to the rails being reinstated. Quite a lot of effort for tracks that haven't seen a train in a long time and may well never see them again. When I enquired I was told that the mill was Grade 2 listed, and the listing includes all the inset track - so it had to be reinstated when the bridge was repaired.

It seems quite an unusual little branch. Does anyone know anything of its working life and history and why the whole branch is encased in concrete? (despite running parallel to a perfectly serviceable road for much of its length)

Unfortunately that is less likey to happen when you make a more "historical" model, as fewer people will be aware of it's accuracy/realism (or otherwise). Even those things that we remember from our younger days are often distorted, especially with colours. How often have we returned to a place after many years to find that it isn't quite how we remembered it?

 

Jol

My Father builds 4" working steam traction engines. He got so sick of 'armchair critics' telling him that he had X wrong or Y wrong on his model Garrett (no two of the real ones were ever the same anyway) that he has built an Alfred Dodman, none of which survived, none of which were ever known to have been photographed and that only the plans survive. He still gets armchair critics at shows trying to tell him that his model is inaccurate in some way.

One modeller has been heard to say of his model when it was criticised "It's like that because this one wasn't built at the Foster works but was built in my shed at the bottom of my garden"

My personal experience has been that despite its other shortcomings, the Hornby one wins simply because its chassis can have writing applied (I believe that the type of plastic Dapol use for their chassis precludes this). This was far more noticeable to me than the brake shoes not lining up.

I actually really enjoy ballasting and find it very relaxing. It also very quickly makes the model look like a real railway and less like a toy train.

Years ago I saw a class 52 secondhand at a shop in Farnworth that had been repainted in First great western green. It really suited it too. I didn't buy it though so do not know what became of it.

My 85 lives almost permanently coupled to a class 45/1 with its pantograph down on 'diversions away from the wires'. Looks fine to me. The only difficulty was getting the pantograph to stay down.

If the bridges were built by the canal company, then how come the canal company didn't have to pay for the upkeep of Latchford and Cadishead viaducts and do the necessary repairs? Unless BR was looking for an excuse to close the routes anyway perhaps?

I unhooked the springs, but then it sits tail up in the air. After unhooking the little rod too, it sits down, but I cannot get the little rod to go back in (it keeps flicking out). It seems odd that there is no way out of the box to fasten the pantograph in the down position.

Without being imobilised, the 85 managed to take out a footbridge then derail itself on entry to a tunnel because the pantograph springs up to maximum height without any wires to hold it down.

Bah! The day I finally buy one in BR blue is the day the limited edition in railfreight grey that I really wanted is announced! It is a lovely model though. I'll get around to running it in later today. My one concern though is that the pantograph on mine insists on springing up to its full height ready to snag on the underside of bridges and signal gantries. Is there a way of readily locking it down without making it permanently down? My 85 will mostly find use double headed on diversions away from the wires.

I've used Durham trains a lot at shows and they've always been good on price for secondhand stuff. I actually managed to visit the shop in Stanley for the first time a week or two ago, as the residents across the road were all out in their cars for a change so I was able to park a tractor and 40 foot trailer to pop inside (every other time I've been going past I've been thwarted by nowhere to park the rig!). It's a well presented shop with good service.

I was always under the impression that cattle wagons lasted long enough in service to get a TOPS classification (VCV IIRC) though I've never seen any evidence of any vans getting the code painted on them.

Did any vans survive later in use with other traffic flows like broccoli or even as barrier wagons?

Having finished my last Ratio signal kit last night, I now understand what modellers mean when they say "start the kit, and the RTR version will come". These signals looks extremely impressive. As a child I had a Hornby Dublo layout and loved the electric signals. They've been sadly missed in my opinion from the hobby since Meccano's demise, and these Dapol versions finally look like more than worthy successors. Given what you get for the price, I'd say that they are pretty reasonable.

I only ever managed to mechanise maybe a quarter of the Ratio kits I built, so to be able to get reliable and robust out of the box ones is great. I'm almost tempted to start the process of slowly uprooting Ratio signals and replacing them with Dapol ones as money permits. However for now the more complex gantries and junction signals will most likely stay. I do look forward to seeing what more complex signals appear in the range.

As so many have said, BR blue was the period I grew up in. I'm not old enough to remember steam other than at preserved railways, and a few fleeting glimpses of the very last industrial steam. My childhood involved seeing trains passing Lostock junction from my nursery school (the sandpit offered excellent training watching opportunities!), being taken to see vans being shunted at Metal Box in Westhoughton (my Father was a manager there), watching trains go by from the gate of the foot crossing at the end of Snuff Mill lane in Cottingham (the lane ran behind my Grandmother's house) and seeing class 03 shunters trundling along the long gone bit of line that connected Onllwyn around to Banwen.

Childhood memories are very powerful, and I believe that that's why when I came back to railway modelling after University, it was the obvious choice to try and recreate some of the things that I remembered.

Llanbourne is my North Wales inspired terminus, set in 1985-7 so plenty of blue diesels. other liverys were about by then but Blue locos are most common.

 

Excellent model. Can I ask where you got the DAF truck from, as I've been struggling to find lorries suitable for a similar period (other than the Bedford TK, the only others I can find are either 50s/60s or 90s+ models).

'Grove street yard' usually runs as BR blue (late 70s/early 80s) though it is designed to be easily run in other periods and often features industrial liveried locos rather than BR blue. (Link in sig file)

My new layout, Bolton Trinity Road, is being built to fit in the late 70s/early 80s bracket too. However that doesn't mean that in the privacy of my own layout shed I don't run occasional well out of period loose-coupled freight trains behind some of my steam loco collection.

My partner recently filmed some good shots of trains passing through the station area of the still incomplete model:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywq_2fi1y7Q

Many years ago I built Airfix/Tamiya warship, tank and aeroplane kits. I found then that the joy was in the painting and detailing. A few of those kits that survived at my parents' house ended up as the scrap piles in 'Grove street yard'. I also did Warhammer back before they became silly priced. I have no survivors from my Warhammer stuff because I sold them on whilst at University.

My partner has just got into Warhammer 40k and I'm finding that my collection of Humbrol enamels is gravitating away from the shed towards her office.

When spending many hours of spotting at South moreton near didcot, RAD 10 ofter drove past, not sure what they had anything to do with radio tho!

My Father tells me that certainly in the late 60s/early 70s that number belonged to a famous Radio 1 DJ.

My parents' neighbours years ago were moved out by a removal lorry that carried the number M10 VED.

My friend from Cambridge spotted (and photographed to prove it) a motorbike with the number B16 NOB

Somewhere out there is J3 NNY, J33 NNY and J333 NNY because I searched the DVLA database for them some years ago. No way would I be able to afford them.

I remember there being a fuss when the K prefix numbers appeared about the possibility of K1 NKY being issued and I recall the DVLA refused to issue it.

I see a lot of personalised numbers on my travels; they're getting a bit passe these days as so many have them it seems. A lot of them seem to have little significance unless you know why the owner picked them.

Has anyone had chance to see weathered versus unweathered in the flesh yet? I'm torn between a weathered or clean one but have no experience of a Heljan weathering job.

I hate "hit the ground running". It'll still hurt from most falls, regardless as to whether you flail your legs on impact or not. It makes me want to throw the user out of a moving car and see how well they really do hit the ground running.