Silver Sidelines

I have lost count of how many Black Fridays there are in November but I used each Friday (and some of the other days) to stock up on more of Hornby’s Super Detail Black Fives. One of Hornby’s newer models with Combined Top Feed, 45190 aka R2904 I bought 45190 my first super detail Black Five back in 2011.   I was underwhelmed by how lightweight the engine was and how little it could haul.   As a result it spent the next few years resting at the end of the engine shed headshunt.   Most recently I have been following Dan’s Stranraer Harbour thread on RMweb and have been inspired to revisit my Black Five.   https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140736-now-with-videos-stranraer-%E2%80%98themed%E2%80%99-loft-layout-1959-64/   Some older models, 44781 and 44871 aka Hornby R2686A&B I don’t think that I had ever looked inside the engine but the front end of the boiler and smoke box is empty.   Despite what it doesn’t say on the box, all...

A conversation with a friend about changing names and numbers on old Bachmann or Mainline Jubilees prompted me to dig out some etched plates I bought perhaps two years ago, and get on and fit them! Mainline Orion with 247 Developments etched plates and newer Bachmann split chassis One of my all time favourite models was the Mainline Jubilee ‘Orion’.   I think ‘Royal Scot’ was my first Mainline model but Orion followed soon after in June 1981.   Pallitoy must have made thousands of models of Orion and they mostly ran well with their characteristic whirring noise.   When Pallitoy thought the market was saturated with Orions they brought out Leander.   By this time the quality control must have slipped because wheels began to shift on axles and I thought models did not run as smoothly. Mainline Orion from 1981 with black painted wheel rims I sold my original ‘Orion’ in autumn 2007 to coincide with the arrival of the Bachmann ‘improved’ Jubilees.   You ca...

Heljan to my knowledge have produced three models of D1000 Western Enterprise painted in its experimental Desert Sand livery.   Heljan model number 5204 represented the prototype when it first emerged from Swindon Works in 1961 with no warning panels.   Heljan 5213 had small yellow warning panels as applied in November 1962.   Both 5204 and 5213 had a satin varnish finish.   Heljan 5221 also had small yellow panels but it had a gloss coated ‘ex works’ finish. When the opportunity presented itself I would buy Heljan 5213 - D1000 Western Enterprise, with small yellow panel. This would be my second Heljan 5213.   My first was purchased in 2010 when the model was introduced and subsequently replaced in 2012 with Heljan 5204 – with no yellow panels. Heljan 5213, 2012 sales listing My 5213 models appear to have had a couple of manufacturing issues.   I think they would have been made around the time that Heljan was transferring p...