Silver Sidelines

Good fortune or a lucky chance meant that I have acquired a pair of Dapol’s new ex GWR Mainline City Toplight coaches. All second ex GWR Toplight in BR livery The advertising literature tells me that these coaches were all withdrawn by 1957 although two or three lived on, on the South Wales Mineral Railway for carrying miners to work.  I love the squat appearance and I can imagine that prior to withdrawal these coaches would have been cascaded down and used on some quiet remote branch line.  My brake second and all second will form an extra early morning working in place of the routine daily ‘B’ Set. An early start When I first unboxed the coaches I was immediately struck by their heavy weight.  The Dapol Toplights weigh in at 175gm compared to 125gm for one of Hornby’s suburban Collett coaches.  Even Bachmann MkI coaches only weigh 165gm and they are nearly 50mm longer!  It was only later that I realised that Dapol have provided a proper metal chassis, similar to the arrangement used

I do like the Bachmann 4MTs, that is the post 2009 versions that are DCC ready. Bachmann 75029 (31-116A) from 2021 By and large they look good and run very well.  I did have one issue with 75029 which out of the box rather limped along.  It seems to be a known issue where the pipework under the cab is not seated properly and catches the coupling rods.  The picture below shows the underside of the fixing bracket with the locating hole for the pipework. Bachmann 75029 Pipework Locating bracket Back in 2021 I didn’t purchase 75014 because it was modelled ‘as preserved’.  More recently I have come across pictures on Flickr showing 75014 in its last years with British Railways working on the Cambrian. Talerdigg 75014 at Talerdigg Courtesy Phil Waterfield https://www.flickr.com/photos/124047467@N05/ I would think again about buying.  I didn’t have to think very long before a ‘new’ and cheap model appeared. Bachmann 75014 (31-117) - Preserved Only after purchase did I realise that in preserva