No.155 Ex GWR 43xx nostalgia – was it Mainline or Bachmann?
The ex GWR 43xx engines were one of my all time favourite locomotive types. They were disappearing fast when I was collecting engine numbers in 1959 / 1960 but for me they seemed to epitomise trains in rural central Wales – somewhere ‘magical’ that we visited for holidays! When Mainline introduced their 43xx models in the early 1980s it became one of my must have engines. 37-091 Mainline 5328 43xx on my Bracken Ridge Layout around 1982 I bought my first Mainline 43xx in 1982 from Modellers World Cheltenham (now the Cheltenham Model Shop). It was turned out in all over BR black livery with an Early Emblem. It was priced at £19.95. It ran very well and continued in service until 2010 when it was sold on eBay for £28! I seem to recollect that there were lots of black 43xx ‘for sale’ in the 1980s and I did buy a second model for spares. The Mainline engine was replaced by a Bachmann model which seemed less frantic than the ...