Downendian

Hence one of the driver's nicknames for the class 43s "iron lungs" Neil

You've convinced me Chaz. I'll be up early tomorrow am, camera in hand here in Devon - we have to leave for Bristol around midday. Neil

Re Phil's comments on printed nameplates being larger than the newly fitted etched ones. A trick I used on one of my Heljan Westerns which has printed plates that are larger than some etched plates from at least one manufacturer (e.g. Fox). I used a sharp scriber to very carefully remove the excess printed decal - "catching" the edge of the decal and gently removing. It resulted in a perfect removal without needing T-cut stripping the original decal which always results in a glossy surface, which would need varnishing. One of the later Bachmann 42s D812, Royal Naval Reserve of course was the largest of all Warship plates and a bit of a pain to remove - I have one of these awaiting renumbering. I'm sure my Royal Oak will need similar treatment. Neil

Here's the look I'm after - it got much worse after this, eventually withdrawn 4/11/76 my 15th birthday. A few 1976 shots of D1065 are on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/9tL4te D1065 at Aller Junction David Hayes 22nd July 1976 https://flic.kr/p/74BVqD https://flic.kr/p/74BVF2 https://flic.kr/p/74FPt3 D1065 Reading Ian Allcroft 23rd October 1976

D1065 is an extreme weathering project. Most of the faded blue/white will stay, I'm aiming for summer 1976 condition Jonny. Note the different horn cowl on the end closest to the camera! The other end has the headboard clips removed, about as specific as it gets for a Western. Apols for the photo resolution- a quick iPad job, will capture better ones with my SLR. I have a couple of slides of D1065 still to scan will post when I'm close to getting towards the prototype. All I need is a rake of freightliners and I will have my June 1976 Danygraig-Stratford memories rekindled. The grey on the cab roofs are primer ready for the re spray, and the scavenger grilles are still surrounded in milliput. Spray shops await. Neil

Some quick iPad photos of this weekend and last's work. The Dapol chassis is modified so that the bufferbeams are removed. The plastic under both cabs was cut, releasing the bufferbeam unit at both ends. The Heljan Valances were added to the body, with blobs of milliput placed in each corner and mounted in place, and bufferbeams and lower valance epoxied in place. There is still a small amount of filling to be done to fill gaps on the valances. The body needs to be fettled (excess milliput filed back with Dremel) to get the chassis to fit, will do that this evening or later in the week when all has gone rock hard. I find the Heljan valances fiddly to work with. The holes in the side valances, to accept the bufferbeams are pigs. Once you fit the first time and remove to cement, the interference fit is broken - the holes in the valance seem to enlarge irreversibly. Lugs were cut off and cemented, and a good hour spent making sure all was square before the milliput hardened off. I've painstakingly added filler to bring the grilles for the scavenger fans to be flush with the roof. Once the body fits the chassis there needs to be patch painting of the scavenger grilles, cab roofs and the Dapol chassis battery box covers. Neil

Wish I knew Peter - before eBay anonymised bidders, you could recognise who won. It maybe private collectors or publication houses building collections for books, but I can't see them being an investment. In twenty years who will be interested in the hydraulic era? I agree though - they should appear in the public domain. The photo of the three Westerns at Wootton Basset en route for Swindon hauled by D1040 defies the current scrapping arrival dates of the three, only of which D1069 is one I suspect is in the train, the other two are a mystery. It was also informative to see a brake van in the consist. I'd seen D1005 hauling D1044 and D1029 in March 1975, but don't recollect the brake van. I'm toying with modelling a "Swindon scrapper" with my old Lima and GBL models at some point, so these photos are invaluable for such information. Neil

Some progress on the D1065 project this week. I've taken a hard look at the Heljan chassis for adding the brake rodding and other bits and pieces. Having bought some brass rodding from Albion alloys, I was gearing up to butchering some spare Heljan brake rods and attach to the existing chassis. Problem is, the Heljan chassis has misaligned brake shoes attached to the suspension unit of each bogie and unhelpfully cannot be removed as they form part of the mounting lug to the chassis. I've now come to the conclusion that the rodding and representation of the brakes is the weakest part of the Heljan model. The most famous criticism of the Heljan Western is the peaked cab roof - but I think this can be rectified adequately. The Dapol model also has of course an excellent representation of the scavenger fans - absent from the Heljan version. Mine has the first Shawplan grille etch - Which is adequate but not as fine as the grilles on the class 37/40 from the same supplier. Brian has told me that updated Western grilles are on the to do list, and these will be replaced when/if these become available. So what to do? The representation of the brakes and rodding on the Dapol chassis is superb, and do align perfectly for OO. Whilst the wheels are slightly undersized, I decided to purchase a spare Dapol Western chassis from DCC supplies. So this isn't a cheap option- but this project was never about economy. So I've set about what I think is a first - a Hybrid Heljan/Dapol Western. Sure the Dapol Western body is a better starting point, but I've done a lot of work on my Heljan body. So Dapol chassis obtained, how does the Heljan body fit? It won't without modification to the bufferbeams - I had intended using the excellent Dapol valances, but with these in place (the valances slot into the chassis unit) the Heljan body does not fit. So I cut the Dapol bufferbeams off, and fitted the admittedly inferior Heljan valances and bufferbeams to the underside of the Heljan body. These assemblies are setting at the moment (epoxy/filler used to attach), and will probably need to fettle to fit to the Dapol chassis. I will then fashion some cross beams in the Heljan body to allow fixing to the Dapol chassis. Photos to follow. Neil

One languishing in the BiN list of copyright negs on eBay. A bit pricey as the original seems underexposed - played with a bit using the iPad software. My resistance crumbled this morning as images of MFYE warships are comparatively rare. D817 Foxhound in the company of D823 Hermes withdrawn at Old Oak Common, December 1971. Within a month the whole fleet were gone. Neil

It was nice to get an acknowledgement in said BRM article, having had a bit of correspondence with the boss over the 43s and preproduction shots of the models. There will be a RMweb resource on class 43 details including livery timelines according to the article. I've seen the livery Gannt chart - it's very good - and accurate as far as I'm concerned. I'm guessing Andy will post that in a separate thread. Neil

Crikey if that's the case what have the Hattons staff got on their fingers? . Having removed hundreds of decals for renumbering they need quite a bit of shifting with T-cut etc. certainly not Hornby knocking, but if there's a schoolboy error or QC issue it's a valid concern, I'm sure some new owner can confirm that this is a one off. Hattons of course should have spotted this too as they are trying to sell the things. I'm no stranger to taking a scalpel/file/cocktail stick/spray gun to a new model but reapplication of decals to something fresh out of the box would be a tad irritating. Neil

Many thanks to all those who have posted images, it is a truly stunning model. Wallet is twitching again, I'd placed a preorder with Hattons and cancelled with my purge of Hattons preorders when they reneged on their price promise. Looks like one will be heading to South Devon in the next month or two. Hornby have a few contenders now for model of the year. Neil

Meanwhile one of the ten or so that I won, and not watermarked I'd post the rest if they didn't have the watermark. D841 Roebuck at Newton Abbot, 20th August 1969. Neil

I was involved in a frenetic series of bids last night on some superb hydraulic images that have appeared on eBay over the last few weeks. Unfortunately I lost all but one I bid on, all late 60s/early 70s. A copyright slide of a class 22 went for £50! Super examples included double headed Warships on the 1968 accelerated timetable London services, Hymek/Western double heads, and (last week) an example of Westerns being hauled to Swindon, hauled by D1040. This last one throws the dates of arrival of some Westerns at Swindon for disposal out, at least one of them I think was D1069. The slide was dated 29th November 1975. If you won them feel free to post in this thread . I've postponed my scanner repair until later in the summer as a few recent loco purchases (Dapol Western chassis for my D1065 project, another Dapol Western and a class 16) has meant I'm under strict instructions from the missus to clear the credit card in the next month! However, batch 2 of my collection will come later this year with some luck. Neil

Hi Callum May I ask what the sound chip is in your 31 325? It is superb. Neil

You might have a valid point about the Rails and Kernow images, but certainly not Hattons. So has anyone got one of these models and can confirm the East/Fast decals? Does Hattons have a preproduction image later corrected on the production models? Or do a proportion of the models have an error?. Neil

Rails have posted a photo of the correct side JBM. Hattons both http://www.ehattons.com/98176/Hornby_R4668_East_Coast_Trains_Mk4_DVT/StockDetail.aspx Looks a glaring error to me. Neil

Published elsewhere too, I think from memory in Haresnape's BR fleet survey - volume 2, diesel hydraulics. Can't check as I'm over 100 miles away from my book! Neil

Very nice - raised NBL scavenger grilles, Hymek style marker lights, love the roof vents, lifting eyes and etched wipers. Only fly in the ointment is the lack of three mounting points on the cab front window handrails, but can't wait for my two to arrive. A couple of my recent copyright NBL 43s pics to wet the whistle. Neil

At Center Parcs Longleat this week for a family holiday. Goldcrests constantly calling in the firs and a Redstart wakes me up at the Dawn chorus. Slightly different to Devon! Neil

Pretty much standard for "old" models I guess, Heljan 47 spares have not been available for a few years now (fuel tanks etc). Heljan have done a recent run of Hymeks, and probably Gwiwer is right - the Dapol model has stopped Heljan from any further Western production runs, as has also the Bachmann 47. They (the Westerns) do scrub up well after a bit of work, especially the comical peaked cab roof - and command quite a high second hand price as a consequence. Plus of course they are easy to dismantle for a bit of modelling. Neil

That's precisely where's it's from! Neil