scots region

Ah well, more time to save, less chance of missing out. So I can't complain. 

(Also time to finish the layout... now how many times have you heard that old tune?) 

On 16/11/2023 at 09:39, whart57 said:

The scope for imaginary railways can be increased if you are prepared to imagine alternative histories. For example, what if the Act of Union in 1707 had never been passed, or that it was repealed, as it nearly was, a few years later. The result might have been a Scotland united with England under the same monarch but with its own Parliament in Edinburgh. Not dissimilar to what we have today. Then railways north of the border would not have been part of the LMS or LNER but an entirely independent Scottish network. As a smaller country Scotland might also have followed the Belgian or Dutch examples of a state railway (still privately owned in the latter case but operating the state owned lines). Say it followed the Dutch example, then private companies would build the lines from Glasgow and Edinburgh south to England and probably some of the more profitable connections in the Central belt, but the Scottish government would end up having to build the lines north or across the Borders and then set up a company - Scottish Railways - to operate them. What would that company look like, what sort of loco policy would it have? Going further would it be an early adopter of electric traction using hydro-electric power from the Highlands? Would it fall into the trap of thinking narrow gauge was the answer and build a network of metre gauge lines in the Highlands. A dual gauge station in Stirling or Perth might be an interesting project.

 

Metre gauge wouldn't necessarily mean small tank engines though. This picture shows a metre gauge loco actually built in Scotland by the North British company but used in Thailand

 

In my own personal alternate history, the Brits win the American Revolutionary War, but fall into a revolution of their own, leaving the Royal family to set up shop in newly loyalist America. The Bourbons make less of a hash of the period and manage to figuratively and literally keep their heads through the reformation of the Kingdom of France, helps that a certain famous admiral of the period spots the crown George left behind and begins making designs on Portugal... and Normandy. Things get hairy for a while, but eventually the dust... and blood settles. 

You then have a royalist American, a republican Britain, and an constitutionalist France, lead by an, extremely relieved, Louis the sixteenth. The rest... is history I'm told. 

5 hours ago, toby_tl10 said:

I wonder if there is a demand for class members other than No.1, and to include some detail variations.

I would think not, making one model of a famous preserved prototype that you still have access to is not a commitment to producing a class of locomotives. I've even been wondering about scratch building a Stirling single, its questionable if it would cost that much more.  

I love how the 08 look embarrassed. 

Honestly I think the Sturrock tender (sorry Graham) looks nicer than the original, it gives the engine a much sleeker and fast profile. The large one is a bit over powering. That said, I have stumped up for the original. 

9 minutes ago, micklner said:

Offered and withdrawn as not enough people wanted to buy the museum only version .

Oh... that'll explain it. 

I'm a wee bit confused, didn't Rapido produce a small tender version in the original run? Or am I misremembering something? (Safe bet)  

I’ve finally finished an Airfix 1/72 Tiger I. The new tool. One of the worst kits I’ve put to together, the quality was abysmal as you can see by the state of the sprues. Anyway it’s 98.5% done, a few pieces were still unusable, but I’ve already had Airfix send me out new side sponsons and a new gun mantlet. I’ve opted to simply finish it as the diorama I want it for is to be Star Wars themed, so I’ll just glue on some Lucas art gubins to make up for any gaps. 
 

I’m honestly a little surprised in myself that I didn’t make the connection between the ‘powering Britain’ range and the 16 tonners. A fantastic announcement! These will be a license to print money for Accurascale, now to check the wallet trap.

ScR.

LMR blue’s gotta be a slam dunk.

1 hour ago, Corbs said:

Something… red.

 

Whats the AU behind this one, I wonder.

On 13/08/2023 at 23:58, Corbs said:

 

 

 

 

Like liquid gold. I just hope he wasn’t making the cider out of beans.

1 hour ago, No Decorum said:

Aha! You too see the slope which I remarked on in my post at the top of this page.

 

If you’re thinking of painting Wolf into Brunswick green, then I think the shape of the boiler hardly matters much. What about BR express blue with black and white lining?

 

Also very fetching. Mind you there was never a machine that looked bad in lined black.

I've also had a swize in the green book, was the firebox slope less obtuse on 2006 than on the others? 2002's seems to come down to the footplate at a far sharper angle in comparison. 

The idea that I'd had, was a 'What if', i.e if 2006 hadn't been rebuilt and made it into BR service as a P2, Lined Green would look lovely on a P2 after all. 

ScR

How well would I get on using 2003 ‘Lord President’ as a base for 2006 ‘Wolf Of Badenoch’? I can’t see any obvious differences between the two. 

1 hour ago, E100 said:

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah - it often does look worse in photos. I think if this was a normal model I'd have no hesitation in ordering and returning. It's just I'd need to join the club and doubt that would get refunded. 

 

Completely agree around no one else doing a P2 anytime soon and then there's the question of if they'd do any better.

For me they’re about a 99.8% model. There are tiny flaws, the seam, the lack of guard irons and the nameplates. It’s nearly perfect and definitely a lot better than some of Hornby’s latest efforts, just let down by a few unnecessary oversights. Like the guard irons are just annoying because it requires me to order them in from Hornby.

Still I was planning on just ordering etched nameplates separately so it’s doesn’t matter too much to me if they’re not perfect. 
 

ScR

2 minutes ago, E100 said:

I'm really on the fence about 2005 and this noticeable difference in diameter that appears near the smokebox. It'd be a rule 1 purchase and I'd need to join the collectors club so by all accounts £230 DCC ready. Any further photos of this area are very welcome. What concerns me is that it does appear to be the incorrect diameter rather than misaligned (i.e. off to one side / too high or low) and therefore this appears to be something that would be challenging for Hornby to correct in future versions without a partial retool, since it doesn't appear to be solely an assembly issue but this only going off a couple of examples.

 

I've checked some images of 2005 in service and I honestly cannot see any kind of ridge in this area and it looks very smooth in that area as one would expect. https://www.a1steam.com/educational-resources/prince-of-wales/no-2005-thane-of-fife

 

It does make me wonder if there's a tool for 2007 that is different to 2002 dimensionally and has somehow been used instead as they were keen to emphasis that even minor dimensional differences were to be accommodated in 2007. That being said the correct wash outs/rivets etc all appear present so probably not.

Obviously your money, is your money, but for me personally the join isn’t noticeable unless you are with a few centimetres of viewing. Seems to be about the thickness of a human hair on my example. I can live with it as a compromise as it’s unlikely any other manufacturer is going to attempt a P2.

ScR

4 hours ago, Rshakes3 said:

Hi team, I`ve been reading Andrew Hardy's P2 book over the last few weeks and the team behind PoW have done a significant amount of work redesigning/improving the P2. Things like re designing the Pony truck, updating axles to meet BR BAS 504 principles & roller bearings all round. They have also computer modeled their CAD design with VAMPIRE s/w to ensure that issues with possible derailments have been address. They also expect to have over 70% of parts interchangeability with Tornado, things like the boiler, roller bearings, injectors,  Cartizzi assembly, braking system, electrics & even the tenders - note that they plan to have 3 identical boilers at the end of the day. So all in all 2007 should be a far better P2  - looking forward to seeing it on the mail line in the next few years.

That would make her a P2/1 then? Or perhaps a P2/4 if you include the valve gear modification on 2002 and 2003’s streamlining.

1 hour ago, Hilux5972 said:

Doesn’t look warped to me. 

maybe the angle of the cylinders threw me

32 minutes ago, G-BOAF said:

Both sections look straight to me. Which bit are you concerned about?

Note that the majority of the running plate above the wheels is metal, while the forward section is plastic. The join on the straight running plate versions looks a little disappointing to me in its finish

It did look like there was a bit of a ski-jump effect, the join though has much improved from the engineering samples to my eyes. Hopefully I'm overreacting.

22 hours ago, scots region said:

Ahh, I did worry about this possibility.

 

 

I apologise, I should've expanded on this, does the running plate look like its warped to you? 

Ahh, I did worry about this possibility.

1 hour ago, Johan DC said:

It's not 2007, the running plate of 2002 is different than 2007, and they have different running gear too. There are other differences too, quite a lot, but apart from the tender, I don't know the correct terms in English. Mea culpa!

Yes, it slipped my mind that 2007 is tracking closer to Cock o’ The North. Also 2007 appears to have a significantly different tender from 2002/3

Well despite the fact that you would be forgiven for forgetting that Hornby has an ongoing new Black 5 project, we finally have physical evidence of it. 
 

https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/view-p2

Sarcasm aside do actually look very good, though whether they’ll be good enough to warrant any fleet replacements is going to be a matter of personal preference and economy measures. I suspect we’ll need to see how they look painted up

ScR

This months Engine Shed includes decorated samples of 2002/3/7. 
 

https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/view-p2

Curiously Earl Marischal seems to be missing the smoke deflectors that were included in the engineering CADs, either they’ve been deleted or this is just and ‘07’ painted up as ‘02’. I personally lean towards the latter. Still these look very nice indeed.