Silver Sidelines

The English Electric Deltic has long been popular with railway enthusiasts. It was a hugely powerful locomotive with a particularly evocative exhaust note, characteristic of its 18 cylinder two – stroke diesel engines. Production units began to appear in 1961 and ran initially in two tone green livery without names or yellow warning panels. D9002 – without name and warning panels 1961 It was about this time that I was ceasing to collect engine numbers. Notes inside the rear cover of my Ian Allan ABC book shows that I ‘spotted’ D9003 and D9004. From memory, I saw these locomotives speeding past the outside of Darlington Station on the ‘non-stop’. Train Spotting in 1961 The availability of some good quality old Bachmann models has prompted me to add to and reorganise my fleet of Deltics. There is a view below of my models of D9003 and D9004 with names and small yellow warning panels as running perhaps as early as 1962. Early model Bachmann...

It has just been announced that the Rails Rapido Dynamometer Car has won the 2018 first ever Hornby Best OO Scale Wagon or Carriage Awards. Deservedly I would say. My model was purchased long before the awards were announced. The model is highly detailed and very well made. I think more a scale model than an item of model railway rolling stock. Ex LNER Dynamometer Car - complete with magic wand (to turn on the lighting) Over the course of a year I buy the odd item from Rails of Sheffield. This year Rails have been putting in their parcels, an advertising flyer for the ex LNER Dynamometer Car. It was made for Rails by Rapido, a Canadian business. The advertising flyer did not pass unnoticed by my wife who eyes, with a certain degree of suspicion, the various brown boxes delivered by our Postie. “Are you going to buy one?” she asked, followed by “I think you should get one”. Well – how could I resist! Ex LNER Dynamometer Car My layout is ‘60...

I am really very pleased with my black Heljan 47xx. I think it is becoming one of the best ever locomotives to grace my layout. It has been a long journey which will not suit everybody. However ‘job done’ and I am well pleased. Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl When Heljan announced their 47xx I preordered a BR green model. I read with interest the associated thread on RMweb and noted the trials and tribulations with 4706 the ‘black’ model. I dithered. I cancelled my preorder. Then I reordered and took delivery – ‘Shades of Green’. https://longsheds.blogspot.com/2018/08/no-146-shades-of-green-2018-edition.html I was well pleased with my green model; it ran like a sewing machine and arrived mostly in one piece. (It was only after I had written my last Blog Post and I was reviewing the pictures that I noticed that one of the lamp irons had ‘fallen over’ - now sorted.) I was so impressed with my green engine that whilst new models were still avail...

This Post is made in response to the appearance of Heljan’s latest BR Green 47xx. Heljan’s choice of colours for both the engine green and the lining has evoked a certain amount of correspondence within the railway modelling community. I thought it might be useful to bring together some of my pictures. Some have already been posted elsewhere showing the new Heljan model in company with some older models from Bachmann and Hornby. I used the same title back in 2014 for a Post when I repainted the white cab roof of a Hornby ‘Royal’ Britannia: This time I am using the title as an excuse to post some pictures of my latest acquisition, Heljan BR green 47xx, number 4705. The Night Owl has landed The perceived wisdom is that the model is rather bright. The Royal Duchy? My first impressions are that the orange lining is rather more ‘luminous’ than the lining on say Hornby or Bachmann models. I have to say I am beginning to quite like the model. It is seriously weighty, runs su...