Bachmann Class 25 retool announced 2018

[Albie the plumber]

57 minutes ago, Southernman46 said:

Me - I'm thinking - thank god I can have 25155 now without getting the Heljan one and needing to do something about that awful weathering it emerged with 😬

Looks like it was weathered by a YTS trainee 

[farren]

3 minutes ago, Albie the plumber said:

Looks like it was weathered by a Chinese YTS trainee 

Reminiscent of some public conveniences in the 90s. 

Edited May 1 by farren

[stovepipe]

A reasonable selection, but rather too many examples to my mind, from small batches of 2, 4 or 5, or pure one-offs, rather than covering the bread and butter examples. None from the 1971 to 1975 era it seems, and no unweathered domino era blue, or plain green full yellow ends. 7 from the later bodystyle, 4 from the early bodystyle. I've yet to work out the date range for 25155. It appears the tooling may not cover the 62 examples of 25/2 and 25/3 that had the boiler room grille replaced by sheet metal (as opposed to a cover).

[stephennicholson]

3 minutes ago, stovepipe said:

I've yet to work out the date range for 25155.

 

Hoping its when it was Laira based.

[stovepipe]

ah-ha! 3V09 for 25155 in 1975. Rather than BV09! So maybe from the 1974-1975 period when it was at CF or BR.

 

 

Edited May 1 by stovepipe

[stovepipe]

1 hour ago, Southernman46 said:

Me - I'm thinking - thank god I can have 25155 now without getting the Heljan one and needing to do something about that awful weathering it emerged with 😬

 

Perhaps they were going for this? 🫢

 

 

 

[Southernman46]

So would that be partially cleaned RHTT duty weathering  ?

[andyman7]

58 minutes ago, Albie the plumber said:

Looks like it was weathered by a YTS trainee 

 

55 minutes ago, farren said:

Reminiscent of some public conveniences in the 90s. 

The 'weathering' on the Heljan ones was quite variable - some were better than others. It's been sold out for quite a long time now so there will be no direct clash with the new Bachmann model on the shop shelves. 

[Kaput]

Struggling to decide which one to go for out of the green ones.

Don't have a specific modelling region and usually go for preserved locos but something just looks off with the 25's that don't have water tanks because of the big empty space so thats putting me off Tamworth Castle

[Halvarras]

3 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

Me - I'm thinking - thank God I can have 25155 now without getting the Heljan one and needing to do something about that awful weathering it emerged with 😬

 

Jeez. Yeah OK - fair point 🥴!

[97406]

3 hours ago, stovepipe said:

A reasonable selection, but rather too many examples to my mind, from small batches of 2, 4 or 5, or pure one-offs, rather than covering the bread and butter examples. None from the 1971 to 1975 era it seems, and no unweathered domino era blue, or plain green full yellow ends. 7 from the later bodystyle, 4 from the early bodystyle. I've yet to work out the date range for 25155. It appears the tooling may not cover the 62 examples of 25/2 and 25/3 that had the boiler room grille replaced by sheet metal (as opposed to a cover).

 

If the 24/1 is anything to go by, the headcodes can be removed easily from the front with a little Black Tack. It would be a nice touch if Bachmann made different ones available but you can get transfers and stick on ones. Here's 24137 looking decidedly Rule 1.

 

[younGGuns7]

3 hours ago, stovepipe said:

 None from the 1971 to 1975 era it seems

Usual, unfortunately my era is always missed, TBH I would have already preordered one by now if available, so will wait out for the SLW to be delivered

[zr2498]

30 minutes ago, younGGuns7 said:

Usual, unfortunately my era is always missed, TBH I would have already preordered one by now if available, so will wait out for the SLW to be delivered

Good luck with that!

[younGGuns7]

1 hour ago, zr2498 said:

Good luck with that!

Well it’s either slug it out or wait for another manufacturer to do one as previously stated BM don’t know that the pre TOPS blue exists, none of their recent releases I.e. 25/31/37/47 have released a pre TOPS blue with HC 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited May 1 by younGGuns7

[The Ghost of IKB]

Surely changing a running number  and adding a headcode  isn't too difficult?

 

BTW 25057 preordered.

[younGGuns7]

1 minute ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

Surely changing a running number  and adding a headcode  isn't too difficult?

 

BTW 25057 preordered.

Depends if you know what run on the WR and what number you can change to but as always as there are so many variations 🤭

Edited May 1 by younGGuns7

[stovepipe]

56 minutes ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

Surely changing a running number  and adding a headcode  isn't too difficult?

 

BTW 25057 preordered.

 

No it's not, but 25057 is xb with the altered side vents on one side. Not so many of those pre-1974 - in fact none.

 

When there's 11 of the blighters, you might think there would be one to cover the 5 year gap in the middle. It's a common occurance.

 

 

Edited May 1 by stovepipe
clarity

[Mophead45143]

56 minutes ago, younGGuns7 said:

Depends if you know what run on the WR and what number you can change to but as always as there are so many variations 🤭

 

So what if Bachmann did do a pre-tops blue model, but it was a LMR machine? If you want something specific there's a high chance that some degree of customisation will be required. I have very few BR blue era models which are correct for me right off the bat, 20057 being an exception, as they modelled that as a late 70's Tinsley loco - perfect! And 25057 from the 25's will do as a Springs Branch machine having popped across the Hope Valley.

 

Derby Sulzers and Flickr are your bible for choosing what 25 can be modelled from the Bachmann or SLW examples, the info is out there.

 

Cameron

Edited May 1 by Mophead45143

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, The Ghost of IKB said:

Surely changing a running number  and adding a headcode  isn't too difficult?

 

BTW 25057 preordered.

 

The degree of difficulty varies, not only between manufacturers but also within manufacturers depending on the age of the model. You never really know how easy or difficult any particular model will be until you tackle it - past experience with any one manufacturer's models is only a guide up to a point, as printing techniques constantly evolve. Some paint finishes don't take kindly to certain substances which others shrug off - testing first on an inconspicuous area isn't always possible as few if any areas on the outside of a model are inconspicuous, and the problem here is the risk of damaging these increasingly expensive new purchases. Yes, obviously you can disguise less-than-perfect renumberings with weathering - if you do weathering, which not everyone does.

I do a lot of renumbering myself, to recreate specific locomotives, but the majority of these are on models from the 'sub-£100' era so I'm not too bothered if some prove obstructive and it shows (a bit!)

My point here is that 25057 has been treated differently to all of the others in this batch of releases and this may be inconvenient for some multiple-purchasers who do find renumbering difficult.

[stovepipe]

A further factor with 25057 is that the doors were sealed over when it was dual-braked in late 1974, so it's not just a headcode and number change. A respray of D5225 might be easier.

 

[MidlandRed]

D7660 is pre TOPS blue? I’m quite tempted!! I believe it kept that livery for a several years before repaint into the standard layout of the 70s. 

[stovepipe]

39 minutes ago, MidlandRed said:

D7660 is pre TOPS blue? I’m quite tempted!! I believe it kept that livery for a several years before repaint into the standard layout of the 70s. 

 

Yes it is, one of two so painted. New in late-1966, lasted about 3.5 years until repainted. Late bodystyle non-boilered though.

 

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, stovepipe said:

 

Yes it is, one of two so painted. New in late-1966, lasted about 3.5 years until repainted. Late bodystyle non-boilered though.

 

To be strictly accurate D7660 was unique (although D5026 was painted like this but with black buffer beams (I think…..)). I guess you’re referring to D7661 - which had four arrows (cab sides) and four sets of inboard numbers and I think, black buffer beams - effectively as per D7662-77 but with syp - so subtly different from D7660 - a livery it retained until at least 1969. Derby Sulzers is a little ambiguous on when most of this batch were repainted into standard blue fye layouts with central arrows etc. 

Edited May 2 by MidlandRed

[Halvarras]

2 minutes ago, MidlandRed said:

To be strictly accurate D7660 was unique (although D5028 was painted like this but with black buffer beams (I think…..)). I guess you’re referring to D7661 - which had four arrows (cab sides) and four sets of inboard numbers and I think, black buffer beams - effectively as per D7662-77 but with syp - so subtly different from D7660 - a livery it retained until at least 1969. Derby Sulzers is a little ambiguous on when most of this batch were repainted into standard blue fye layouts with central arrows etc. 

 

It was D5026 which carried the same livery scheme as D7660 and D5389 - D5028 was I believe in the early blue fye with four cabside arrows when it got severely torched and inevitably withdrawn before it could become 24028. A photo in one of the Strathwood '1960s Remembered' series indicates D5026 had red bufferbeams*; D5389 did, but I haven't seen conclusive evidence of D7660/1 in this regard as the 'beams are always filthy in photos (you'd have thought somebody at Derby Works would have taken official photos of these first blue ones out the door, but if they did they're still being sat on!) There was a minor change between D7671 and D7672 on which the works plates were moved from the driver's cabsides to the cab doors, enabling the BR logos to be centralised on the cabside, with numbers moved down to maintain alignment, on D7672-7.

 

AFAIK only D7669 lasted long enough in this original livery to acquire its TOPS number (25319) - the derbysulzers site has a good photo of it like this.

 

*The photo is a bit distant and head-on but I'm sure the arrow logo can just be seen on the cabside, in the higher position unlike other early blue '24s'. I know of only a couple of other b&w photos of D5026 in Bsyp livery, one of which was taken in Crewe Basford Yard, with data panels dated 1970 IIRC - incredible really as I reckon it must have run for around 4 years in this condition yet its existence remained a rumour for decades, unlike Bsyp D5021 with its old BR emblems (but then I saw that one for myself at Crewe on 3rd November 1969!)

[MidlandRed]

Sorry I meant D5026 - I’ve corrected the post!! There’s a good photo on Flickr of it at Walsall as well (referred to in the blue transition thread on RMWeb). Both it and D5021 were amongst the myriad of eventually to be, class 24s in the Birmingham Division from the Bescot dieselisation (1966 but some were there from earlier) - in reality Bescot (Ryecroft for maintenance until Bescot diesel depot was ready) - and I saw both of them multiple times in their blue liveries - my recollection is they were always filthy with just the numbers, windows and safety notices cleaned (D4 was also like this when I saw it in 1967) - so much so I only discovered D5021 had the old BR symbol far more recently!! 

Edited May 2 by MidlandRed