This post covers progress of the two outstanding examples in my "County" collection.

390028 City of London

"London" has appeared far more times than many other locations as part of names given to locos and multiple units. I've gone through far more changes of mind on what to designate for London as part of this collection over the years.

Firstly, I modelled a Hornby/Lima hybrid class 47 47581 London Standard in NSE livery - I sold it as I rarely read the actual newspaper.

I've owned Lima's 87005 City of London at various times in both rail blue and InterCity Executive liveries but realised I hadn't the room to model a decent length WCML express.

I've also owned a Hornby GNER class 91 with Mk4s with a view to changing its identity to City of London but ran into the same problem regarding modelling an ECML express formation.

My fleet also includes two LMS Duchesses named Duchess of Hamilton (streamlined) and City of Leeds (rebuilt) so I didn't want a third example.

Bachmann produced a GWR "City" named City of London but as it was withdrawn in 1929, I would have had to invest in appropriate carriages specifically for this loco.

Due to lack of room I own a shortened 5-car Pendolino named City of Birmingham because it's my place of birth and also the Pendolinos were the last major class of train manufactured and assembled in the city.

For my representative of London, I modelled an extra carriage named City of London by applying etched nameplates on a Hornby Pendolino centre car and can swap over this named carriage with the City of Birmingham carriage if I want to ring the changes. The carriage number will be changed to suit.

The carriage number rubbed off quickly but will be replaced.

East Riding of Yorkshire

Only one loco has been named with its official name of the county so far, a HST power car, initially as 43114 between 2005-06, later renumbered 43314.

I recently won a 4-car Lima HST (two power cars and 2 Mk3s) in GNER livery on a well-known auction site, with a view to changing its identity using Fox Transfers' products once my mum signs up to a new property sometime next year, assuming this goes through.

If she moves as hoped then I'll proceed with the conversion although due to lack of space won't have room for anything more than a 2 + 3 set and GNER at the time had 2 + 9 formations.

However I've seen YouTube videos of solo GNER power cars with barrier vehicle and this may be another option worth exploring.

A photo will be posted once this work is completed.