Lochnagar

Thanks! Always good to hear positive feedback, It's surprisingly fun to operate too. All the laws say it shouldn't be that much fun but it just is.. greatly aided by DCC sound of course. Makes all the difference but of course that doesn't give the atmosphere to pictures..

EMT, strathclyde red/black, provincial 'sprinter', and Reggie rail for me Although the livery choice potential with a 156 is MASSIVE so you're onto a winner, amazed nobody has done it before to be honest. The most popular modern unit. Samples look awesome Charlie and Arran, top job

Thanks John, definitely! Some nice pics there too.

Right, another very successful show under the Meadow Lane belt. Attended the DEFine show today in Risley, Derbyshire. Fantastic atmosphere, all like minded folks and friends and I'm certainly going to be up for any more events, great show with great people. A few unedited pics taken on the phone during the day.. hope you like and as always thanks for the positive comments it really is surprising how much attention a little layout can generate. Alex Bachmann 47706 in battered ex scotrail, and 47238 'Bescot Yard' in RFD triple grey 60001 'Steadfast' and 45140 'Mercury' 09014 shunting norsk hydro fertiliser bags 20010 and 20057 arrive on shed

Havant had chance to read the whole thread but heres my two penneth. The 373s were built for one purpose, and cannot be used on any other UK services due to their design. And more critically, the air in the tunnel is salty.. so these things have suffered from corrosion at a far higher rate then other stock (possibly due to cheap materials or bad prep at the time but lets ignore that as we don't know). Some parts of a set that I saw a few years ago you could (if you wished with some strong gloves) put your fist through the rust in parts of the underfloor structure. In my opinion at the time, some vehicles should have been deemed 'unfit to travel' as structural rigidity had in some cases been lost, but apparently not. Im assuming the worst affected sets are getting scrapped first. So I'm my opinion although it's unusual for relatively 'young' units to go for scrap, this may be an underlying reason. The cost of a mid life rebuild, plus fixing the above corrosion issue, means it's not cost effective and possibly not viable anyway. I noticed the wheel flats too, must have had a heavy brake application en route!

At least they're easier to mask in O gauge! I want to do one for myself now. .

Currently doing up an EWS loco for a customer, I'll add some pics when I've finished it. Basically, painting the grilles, lights, internal wiring black, also the gold band as Heljan seem to have used the larger font EW&S lettering to make an EWS logo, so the Fox EWS transfers don't match up in size or colour. Also Heljan's own transfer sheet doesn't match up either as the numbers are quite a bit smaller than the ones on the loco! Surprising error there. The EWS maroon cab front numbers are missing from the Heljan sheet too. Noticed theres some 60s on eBay 'ready done' but have had the black TOPS numbers on the cab front/sides applied in the reverse order, the smaller numbers should be on the cab fronts, and vice versa. . D'oh! . Anyway, I'll stop moaning and show you when I'm done. If anyone wants any 60s numbering up etc feel free to get in touch, I really like working on these. Alex

I'll go with that, had a look at my books last night. Alex

I think only the first few were built without it. The rest had it from new.

First 60 was 1989, so yes you can! NSE 50s lasted until 1991 I think.

Just had an EWS one with a cracked lower cab front, the amount of returns they'll be getting back surely makes a case for a small re-run of bodies. This is repairable, but why. Disappointing. Also to confirm the bodyside grilles are exec dark grey instead of black, and the bodyside numbers are way too small compared to the printed EWS letters (which I think are too big anyway). However this isn't an issue as I was using Fox transfers anyway, and repainting the gold band to sort it which is easily done.

I would like to think that it had been corrected, and the model in question on display at Warley was a pre production sample. But I'm 95% sure it was a production model as they're either on the boat or here by now. Almost certainly they've been made anyway. Maybe someone at Dapol or who knows for defo can confirm? It's a shame as I was going to bag one of those myself, I'll wait for a second release I think instead of correcting it. Looking at pics of Gaugemaster's 73102 'Airtour Suisse' in executive it's hard to tell weather this is affected aswell. So if anyone could clear that up too it'd be useful Alex

Apologies if anyones mentioned this previously, but after photographing these at Warley I noticed that the Intercity executive one has quite a fundamental livery error. . the executive dark grey has been mistakenly done in black. D'oh! Other than that, very very impressed. Top loco.

I'm in the process of getting the RAL code for the later shade for 60074.

Wow. I'm not confessing to being a class 24 expert but... that looks awesome. I want a blue 24081!

Also my triple grey loco is fine, fault free. Apart from a generous coating of black gunk on the cab fronts. .I'd better find some new end packaging! (and some white spirit) lol Also as I suspected, the supplied transfers aren't much cop, wrong sizes/colours etc, so I'll be using my usual stash of Fox stuff. Very happy. Great potential for making it look awesome when finished.

Yeah, Same. Shawplan arrows are the only ones which are the correct size. And yes Heljan are too big. Same method of removal as 4mm

Looks like all the load haul ones will be going to respray merchants such as myself for different liveries. It won't be the easiest job to correct though I have to say, for those that want a Loadhaul one. Even though Heljan's response isn't actually 'helpful', it's good that they've admitted it and hopefully look out to avoid future livery errors. Most 4mm mistakes just go without any mention at all. Shame they can't do what they did with the 'OO' 47s and issue replacement bodies though, more realistically even for a price. Folks would get their money back selling the incorrect bodies for respray. Heljan 7mm bodies usually fetch £150 minimum.

As far as I know, it never carried a depot plaque. Lima modelled it with a Toton plaque but I'm sure it was an error.

Interesting, I think you're right you know! Very hard to find an ex works shot that shows it up clearly but from what I've seen the above statement is correct. But i think the grills themselves are in dire need of some Shawplan etches. .when Brian does them.

Eager to get my hands on two this week, EWS and triple grey. Only other thing I've noticed so far from the pics on Hattons site are the bodyside grills on the triple grey loco are the wrong colour. They should be black not executive dark grey the same as the roof. Easy fix though. I'm planning on doing some in DBS and Colas, and have a joint venture with a well known retailer who will be taking orders for custom jobs very shortly. . mainly numbering and weathering them, but if anyone really wants a respray I'd be willing to do it. From what I've seen of the Heljan numbers they look too small. Will have to wait and see on the quality of the rest of the transfers. I've a shedload of Fox ones which I'll be using on mine I think. I'll report back on this thread anyway! My biggest issue atm is which one to make with my grey one, I think it may have to be 60004 Lochnagar in coal sector. Alex

D'OH!!!! Permission to say 'Oh Cock'.

Thanks gents! Really appreciate the comments. I was hoping it'd go down ok but that's exceeded my expectations. I really like these myself, even though I'm a diesel man. It looks awesome in natural sunlight i must say (trying not to sound smug here!) A clean Crosti just doesn't look right, one word. . FILTH!! Alex Carpenter

Just a few photos to show a weathered model. . this one has been done for a friend although I've done about 7 now including renumbering. Apologies about the quality, for some reason my camera really doesn't like focusing on really mucky steam locos! It's usually pin sharp. I didn't have the time to mess with the settings but when I get decent pics I'll put those up too. So here we are for now. . What the photos don't show are the windows, these have been cleaned. Also the model is factory standard, unmodified. Alex

Thanks chaps! I need to add the white bogie pipework but it's genuinely difficult. . one for a rainy day lol Alex