Karhedron

I do not think any of the Peco stuff is NEM compatible yet (although I could be wrong). With Farish, it depends on the age of the coaches. Most of the modern ones have NEM pockets while the older ones do not. Once you know what NEM pockets look like, it is quite easy tell but it is a lot easier to show than to explain verbally.

Just waiting for Italy to join the network so I can take a jaunt to the old family home. London to Rome would be great but I suspect Naples would be too much to hope for.

It certainly is. Very worn engineering olive (although as someone of Italian decent I would not trust any olives that colour ).

Hello, I had a look at the picture of W195 and decided to discount that one as it is in a hybrid GWR/BR livery. It is in choclate and cream but it was repainted in 1948 and so is missing details such as the GWR crest. I opted for 147 on the basis that it was in "authentic" GWR livery and so would probably prove more popular. Perhaps I am over-estimating the importance of that though.

Mostly a shortage of photos of these vehicles in early BR days. For the Crimson and Cream livery, we only had 2 identifiable photos to allow us to accurately choose a livery. One was Paddington/Carmarthen and the other was the Penzance to Kensington milk train. Whilst interesting, we decided that the milk train branded one might be a bit too specific for some people's tastes. I am not averse to changing any of the running numbers as long as we can find a photo or an accurate description of the vehicle in question. Early BR liveries are a bit of a minefield as Swindon tended to mix GWR and BR painting guidelines for a while. You can see this on the crimson and cream coach as the running number is on the left, rather than the right. If we picked a different running number without a photo or description, we might miss details like this or even produce one in a livery that was wrong for the chosen vehicle (i.e. it might have been plain crimson or gone straight from choc/cream to maroon). Route branding was rather like rostered locos, it represented the normal operating pattern. This could be changed for any number of reasons on a given day so one might see a different vehicle on a working or see a vehicle "off its beaten track". A good analgy would be auto-tank 1470 which was the engine for the Ashburton branch for many years. It was the normally rostered engine but other engines could be seen on the branch from time to time and 1470 was sometimes elsewhere. Branded vehicles seem to be a bit more interesting provided the brandings are not overly restrictive. I did try and look for more generic brandings such as "Return to Paddington" but the problem was always finding suitable photos.

Does anyone have the tare weight of the K41s handy?

Hello, I agree, rummaging through some of the earlier photos on this thread shows the step on the K41 cantrail interface is quite prominent. I think that 111 at Didcot is quite representative.

There is a nice shot of of one of these Hawksworth SKs here. http://freepages.nostalgia.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cyberheritage/oldy2.jpg

It would be nice but I am not holding my breath. There are plenty of locos to haul china clay wagons, you don't have to get a D600 to do the job (in fact, I am not sure if the D600s did work china clay much). Having said that, an N gauge D600 would be very welcome as it would "complete the set" of diesel-hydraulics. Even though it would probably result in my kit-built Active being consigned to the shelf.

There are several new builds in progress with a Grange at Langollen and a 4700 coming along at Didcot. I suspect such things will always be a "labour of love" rather than a commercial proposition though.

Old films are notorious for their poor red sensitivity. Black has even amounts of blue, yellow and red. If the red layer of the emulsion has poor sensitivity, then it will give the photos a greenish tinge

No, almost the entire class were painted in plain black. 2 examples were accidentally painted in lined MT black. I am not 100% sure but I think that they were 6809 and 6819. Yes some did, both lined and unlined. Some remained black until the end though.

I agree, gorgeous livery. I have the N Gauge D1000 on order already. If anyone produces Champion in golden ochre in N gauge, I would just have to bite the bullet and get one of those too. Plus getting a regular maroon one. At this rate I am going to need a bigger layout

Ah but all is not as it appears! Frilsham Manor is not really in gwr livery. The loco is in normal lined be green, as can be seen in other photos from the period. The tender is in fact from mogul 6324 which was scrapped in 1962. By this point the tender itself had become something of a pet for retaining its GWR lettering. Whether the BR paint had flaked off or it had escaped repainting, I do not know.

Hello, sorry for causing confusion. As far as I have been able to determine, the Manors were painted as follows. 7800 - 7803 and 7805-7819. These were painted in unlined black with early crest after nationalisation. 7804 Baydon Manor received unlined green with no emblem on the tender in 1948 for pilot duties over the south Devon banks. Between 1952 and 1954 it received unlined black with early crest (probably at the same time as the blastpipe modifications). 7820 - 7829 The BR-built Manors were painted in lined MT black with the early crest when new. Between 1952 and 1954 they received unlined black with early crest (probably at the same time as the blastpipe modifications). So by the end of 1954, the entire class seems to have been in unlined black with the early crest. From 1957 onwards all the Manors started to receive lined green with the late crest. It is not clear how and why the WR deviated from the official policy on lining. As far as I can tell, the WR painted locos plain black that would have been plain green under the GWR. Hence many mixed-traffic classes like Granges receiving unlined livery. You are right, I had forgotten about the Saints. I am pretty sure they received lined MT livery. I have certainly seen photos of Saint David in lined black.

Just goes to show there is an exception to every rule. I have just thought of another. 7804 "Baydon Manor" was painted unlined green in 1948 for piloting expresses over the south Devon banks. It had no emblem at all on its tender. It kept this livery for some time although it appears to have received plain black by the mid 50s when it was transferred to south Wales. My guess is that it received plain black livery along with the BR built Manors between 1952 and 1954 when they went through Swindon for blastpipe modifications.

The Counties were (I think) classified as 6MT under BR and hence lined black was the designated livery. At that time, green was only for class 7 locos. I think that the majority of Halls received lined MT black. Photos from the early 50s are much thinner on the ground than those from 1960 onwards (by which time the Halls had turned green again). However all the photos I have seen from the "early crest" period show halls in lined MT black. I am pretty sure the entire class was black although someone may have evidence to prove me wrong. The only exceptions may have been engines that were repainted between the reintroduction of green and the appearence of the "late" crest.

Hello, A good summary. I have an addition to suggest. The GWR painted relatively few classes of tender locos in mixed traffic livery. Only the Counties, Halls and the 10 BR built Manors received lined black livery en-mass. Everything from the Granges on downwards were painted plain black in general (although there were a few exceptions for most classes that got lined by accident).

Some WTTs are available on the BRCS Yahoo group. An invaluable resource and well worth joining if you want to make proper prototypical formations from the days before cheap photography.

B-sets were designed primarily with rural usage in mind so were commonly seen on branch lines. I can't think of examples of their use in urban areas but it may have happened. The GWR's urban commuter services normally needed more capacity than a B-set could provide. The London, Birmingham and Bristol areas had 4-coach rakes that were sometimes doubled up to give 8-coach trains in the rush hour. Although some of these were a similar design and vintage to B-set coaches, they were different diagrams. I have seen them reffered to as D-sets in some places but I am not sure if this was a consistent term. The Cardiff and Plymouth areas favoured auto-trains for their local services with 6400 and/or 4575 auto-tanks working with sets of up to 4 auto-coaches. B-sets could be seen on the mainline however. The Swindon to Didcot service was often a B-set. It was also a service often used to "run-in" locos after overhaul meaning there are photos of freshly outshopped Kings hauling B-sets on the mainline. Here is a Castle with a B-set on this service in 1961. http://album.atomic-systems.com/showPic.php/45092/0478.jpg/6

You forgot to ask which scale. If you are asking about 00 then my answers to the above will be 0. Now if you are talking about N gauge then suddenly things become a lot more interesting.

117 for the Paddington suburban services I think. By a staggering co-incidence, these Pressed Steel DMUs were basically 3-car versions of the 121 bubble car. OK, I admit it, I am fishing. That would be nice, albeit a bit frustrating as I just finished buliding a kit of one.

Look forward to seeing this one develop.

I have not been able to fin much information about the Marshfield milk. The only other shot I have seen is a mid-60s photo of a class 14 tripping 3 empty tankers to Marshfield. This would have been well after the end of churn traffic so no siphons by that date.

Have a look at the larger version of the photo, it is definitely lined. The lining is easier to see on the cab-sides but present on the tanks too.