Due to my partner's medical emergency knocking our domestic schedule for six, I've had precious little contact with the world of model railways for the best part of a fortnight. Indeed, the previous entry on this page took 4 days to complete, despite it's brevity! Things are beginning to settle down, however, now Fiona is back at home recuperating, and I managed a brief shopping trip today - what better way to ease gently back into the civilised world?
First into the goodie-bag was the new Hornby Seacow, something of a landmark release for me as Hornby have never managed to produce a wagon of their own that I thought was worth spending any significant money on. The Seacow is the exception, fortunately, and I can see myself buying train-quantities of these once some of the other promised catalogue items appear in the shops.
There are a number of little niggles (none of my intended prototypes have a handrail shaped like the right-most specimen in the above photo, for example) and the lack of a NEM socket is especially annoying as I'd intended to fit Kadee couplers. But the overall look is very Seacow-like, and a far cry from the weak efforts that were the HAA and Coalfish. I sincerely hope that Hornby build on this success, preferably with a model of the more common rivetted type of Seacow - and not using the old Lima moulds, thank you very much.
Bachmann's 'Mucky Duck' is something I've been eagerly awaiting in RTR form, as ugly prototypes often give rise to characterful models and the Ivatt is one of my favourite uglies. The model is very nice indeed, Bachmann as always making a much better job of a steam loco than they generally do diesels.
Daylight under the boiler is somewhat diminished in order to accomodate the drive train, but curiously there are a couple of extra areas under the smokebox due to poorly fitting parts - nothing that should be visible during normal operation, though. None of the add-on parts were fitted for the photos, as the loose-fitting cab-doors kept falling off and the locating pins on the other parts were too large for their holes. Given that the quality of these mouldings wasn't that good, I decided to investigate alternatives rather than drill-out the holes to use what was supplied.
The moulded coal is particularly poor, so this is best levered out to expose the tender's interior or replaced entirely. Overall detailing is good, although it won't turn the head of anyone used to overseas models. I'm not trying to be overly-critical here, but feel I should counter some of the hyperbole in the monthlies' adverts, whoops, I mean reviews. The Ivatt isn't the bestest, most super-detailedest model in the history of the world (squared) but it is a damned good release at the price. It has a few rough edges, such as the moulded-on smokebox door handle, and is generally a bit chunkier than some of my 15 year-old (plus) Euro-Kettles. But the Euro-Kettles can't be snapped up for £60.50, so all-in-all I'm a happy bunny. I could use a few more products of this calibre - good, solid, value-for-money buys designed for sensible price-points in the market. Equally, I could do without b*ll*cks reviews trying to convince me that a product is anything other than what it is.
Tomorrow, if I can find time, I'll hopefully be fitting a decoder and couplers...
Currently On My Stereo: Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream