Silver Sidelines

My last session featured some of my older models of BR (LMR) steam 4-6-0s. On that occasion I had started to strengthen some of my rakes of coaches and had added additional second class BR Mk1s. Six Up The Hornby ‘Staniers’ are relatively light weight. The Bachmann ‘Portholes’, despite some criticism of the bogie design, I think are free running. Adding an extra Bachmann Mk1 to the ‘Staniers’ and the ‘Portholes’ did not cause any haulage problems on my gradients. My Bachmann Mk1s appear to be heavy and rather sluggish coaches. A rake of six Mk1s was maybe a ‘coach too far’ for some of my 4-6-0s. With a good run the train would manage the gradient but the performance was rather frantic. I would clean the coach wheels and check the bearing cups with my reaming tool. The old split chassis type Bachmann Jubilees weigh in around 308 gm. Mine have quite a good haulage capacity. The new Bachmann Jubilees have a space inside the boiler for the DC chip and th

The Xmas period has provided an opportunity to bring some of my older locomotives out of retirement. I was prompted in part by questions about the running of old Palitoy / Mainline 4-6-0s. Holiday Reliefs – Mainline Jubilee and Scot on Bachmann Chassis When I returned to the hobby in the late 1970s both Mainline and Airfix had just started to produce their range of super detail plastic models. The contrast with Hornby Dublo and Triang was amazing – was Meccano management asleep on the job? While Airfix concentrated on tender drive locomotives the Mainline / Palitoy range featured engine driven locomotives. Mainline Baby Scot ‘Illustrious’ - black painted wheel rims In 1980 I bought Illustrious and Royal Scot from the local model shop in Morpeth. These purchases were followed in 1981 and 1982 by Jubilees ‘Orion’ and ‘Leander’ from Johnson’s in Alnwick and Trent’s in Swindon respectively. Mainline Jubilee ‘Leander’ The wheel rims on these early M