Silver Sidelines

I was tempted recently by one of the larger Internet Stores to purchase an ‘end of line’ bargain. It has been in my mind for some time that I should add the Hornby L1 to the railway.   Ideally I would have liked 67777, a Darlington engine (51A) which featured prominently during my train spotting days around Stockton and Middlesbrough. However the Hornby model on offer was 67722, which in 1959 was shedded at Bishops Stortford (30C).   Interestingly my Ian Allan books show that by 1961 engine number 67722 had been moved out to Cambridge (31A).   Never mind I added 67722 to my ‘basket’ and proceeded to the ‘Check Out’.   Perhaps I was feeling nervous about the Post and felt that I needed a service that offered some tracking. Unusually for me, I selected Express Delivery. The engine was probably ordered too late in the day for delivery on the Saturday and it arrived with our usual Postie on the Monday morning. There was a knock on the door, the parcel...

This is the final installment in a series of Posts about adding detail to a Hornby / Dapol County Class. After posting pictures of the Dapol locomotive body with its new lamp irons and replacement buffers I was directed by friend José in Argentina to ‘do something about’ the moulded smoke box handles. Yes I know that there are turned brass items for purchase but I was born in Yorkshire and I still relish the challenge of saving some money! Ex GWR darts courtesy of FJ Roche What should Smoke Box Handles look like? Well there are drawings which variously show two equal length handles around 12 inches long, or on some drawings the lowest handle closest to the smokebox is elongated to 15 inches. How have Bachmann and Hornby modelled these handles? Bachmann 43xx   The early Bachmann engines such as the 22xx continued the Airfix Dapol tradition and moulded the handles as a lump of plastic on the front of the smoke box door. Later Bachmann models such as the Halls, Manors and 4...