Silver Sidelines

The winter solstice has passed and we are heading to Christmas and the New Year. Times are certainly changing and last Saturday we spotted our first daffodil flower. First Daffodil for 2016? SW Scotland 19.12.15 We have also seen some unusually stormy weather. ‘Desmond’ deposited something like three months rainfall in 48 hours over parts of the Region. There was some local damage but thankfully not on the scale of the property damage and personal misery that has affected the North West of England. Dumfries and Galloway disruption Back to Bob Dylan, he appears to have written the song "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in September and October 1963. It was released as a 45 rpm. single in Britain in 1964, it reached number nine in the British top ten and was Britain's hundredth best selling single of 1965. So – effectively 50 years ago! What were railway modellers up to fifty years ago - in 1965? Christmas Cover Railway Modell...

It is 1961 and here is a view of 6029 King Edward VIII with some chocolate and cream carriages behind it. This is the arrival of Hornby’s new King Class engine. The purchase was an ‘on the spur of a moment’ decision – well worth it I feel. Hornby 6029 King Edward VIII   Why 1961? Well the Great Western Archive has 6029 allocated to Plymouth Laira in March 1959 (as shown in my Ian Allen book for 1959). Also it has its last shed as Old Oak Common which agrees nicely with my Ian Allen book for Spring 1961 and Hornby’s shed code plate on the model. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the new model but the finish seems to me to compare very favourably with the latest Hornby Castles. Rumour has it that the spokes on the driving wheels are not quite the right shape but I have to say that this is not apparent when looking down at the engine running on the layout! My model runs quietly, smoothly and straight, and will handle seven coaches up and down and roundabout the layout. This is j...

The arrival of Bachmann’s new Class 43 Warship Pegasus has encouraged me to revisit my fleet of Bachmann Warships.   I have counted four distinct variants of the Bachmann Warship: the early 'low' version, the corrected version, the lighted version and now the latest Class 43.   I don't count Kader’s early Mainline models as being Bachmann, although they have a place in this narrative. Four ages of Bachmann Warship, left to right, Onslaught, Glory, Zenith and Pegasus First some history, Kader Industries introduced their first Warship under the Mainline label I think in the late 1970s. I certainly bought a couple in the early 1980s, now long since sold at auction. The Mainline models had a good shape and came with directional lighting. When Kader rebranded their UK models under the Bachmann label the body shell from the Mainline Warship was reused (with different fixings) right up until the introduction of the Bachmann Class 43 in 2015. The Mainline chassis had...

Back in July when I resurrected my Mainline ex LMS 2P 4-4-0 I must have been very lucky because the video made at the time has the engine running perfectly smoothly. Since then attempts to run at slow speed have resulted in the engine stalling on a diamond crossing and worse still coming to an unexpected dead stop in out of the way non scenic sections of the layout. Peco Streamline Short Diamond and Mainline ex LMS 2P The diamond crossing provides the clue. Peco Insulfrog Short Diamond The Mainline 2P only has electrical pickups on its two pairs of driving wheels. The tender drive unit is based on the old Airfix design with all plastic wheels and rubber tyres. The spacing of the dead plastic frogs on the Code 100 Peco small diamond crossing match perfectly with the wheel spacing of the driving wheels on the 2P and it is not surprising that the engine stalls on this piece of track. Mainline ex LMS 2P As to the other locations I am...