Considerable funds I'd set aside to buy things like Class 44s have now been squandered on US products such as this Life-Like Proto 2000 model of a GP30 diesel. These can be picked up for between £2 and £8 more than the amount I paid for my Bachmann Deltic, depending on the roadname required, and are so far ahead in the quality stakes that it's difficult to believe that the GP30 is actually the much older product.
Strangely, there is an ever-vocal minority in the hobby over here that will bend over backwards to excuse any third-rate products released into the UK market, no matter how poor they are. Their logic, if you can call it that, seems to be that if they're not too discerning about what they buy then nobody else should be allowed to be, either. I must confess I find this self-centredness both arrogant and obnoxious - they've got 30 years of shoddy rubbish to choose from already. Don't be greedy, kiddies...
Of course, even in the US market £50-£60 doesn't buy you perfection. Coming, as it does, from the same factory as the Hornby Class 50, the GP30 is about as DCC ready as a chocolate eclair, despite the presence of an NMRA socket on the highly questionable circuit board. The lights, it goes without saying, don't match the trademark EssPee style in the slightest. Yet even though there is much work that the modeller can do, it's a very good model straight out of the box and won't look out of place if I don't get around to enhancing it in the next year or ten.
For the enthusiastic detailer, the US market is absolutely awash with high quality aftermarket parts such as these fan assemblies from Cannon. I'm indebted to Tony Sissons for these photos and agree with him entirely - they really are absolutely superb and I can't wait for mine to turn up. There is nothing comparable available in the UK market, indeed many detail parts are very poor and look less accurate than the moulded components they're supposed to replace.
A common bit of whitewash put about by the spin-doctors of the mediocrity lobby is "it's a good job that XXXX has errors, what would the real modeller do if models were 100% perfect?" Ignoring the somewhat offensive implication that sticking whitemetal blobs to dodgy locos is all there is to the hobby, and skipping the rather obvious answer that getting off your *rse and building a layout might be a neat idea, I'm left wondering just how these folk could be so completely ignorant of what goes on beyond these shores? As standards have edged closer to this unattainable perfection in the US, the detailing component market has mushroomed as you'd expect, rather than curling up it's toes and dying. The range of high quality parts available from any one of a number of US manufacturers is bigger than the whole lot of ours rolled into one, and you can literally build a loco from the ground up using individually sourced components, right down to the bodyside (hood) doors and cabs. It seems to me there are no losers, or am I missing something?
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A very significant new release on the DCC decoder front is the Lenz LE1835E. The 18 in the product code indicates not that it's at least 18 months since I ordered these, but that the current rating is 1.8 amps. This is exceptionally good news if, like me, you have a good number of high-current, double-motored European locos that will fry regular decoders - most decoder manufacturers neglect this sector of the market, offering nothing inbetween the regular OO/HO chips and their cumbersome larger-scale siblings that won't fit into HO models.
The new Lenz LE1835E is a typical modern decoder, having both high frequency (silent) drive and Back EMF along with a full range of lighting options, which is good news indeed. It also has a SUSI interface onboard, which might be useful in the future for piggy-backing sound chips but is of little value to most people at the moment. On the down side, this new decoder seems to follow the earlier LE1035E in being dumbed-down a little - there seems to be no access to speed tables and no option to switch off Back EMF. I say "seems" because the manual is more multi-lingual than multi-factual and these features may well be hidden, but I doubt it based on the previous decoder. Similarly, the user only has very limited facilities to tune the Back EMF, unlike the much more sophisticated Zimo products.
Another drawback is the fact that the decoder is only available in a long, flat, single-sided version and not the stubbier double-sided type - bad news for anyone wanting to fit it into one of the many European models that have a ready made space provided for that variety. The older 1024/1025 range was much better in this respect, giving the consumer the choice of size and shape - I hope Lenz aren't losing the plot here.
Finally, the performance. Ignoring my first sample which blew up in under 30 seconds, the other 4 have been giving very poor results - in fact the poorest running I've ever seen with a Back EMF chip. In my stock test loco (runs fine with all other decoders!) I've been getting very jerky operation indeed, akin to a Lima pancake mechanism on a trainset controller. Although I need to do some more testing in different locos (and specifically the European models I purchased these for) initial impressions are not good. An inability to fine-tune the Back EMF isn't going to help much, and if these decoders won't work well in the locos I've got that need the extra amps, I'm going to have a serious problem...
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This is the product that finally made me realise UK 4mm D&E RTR isn't going anywhere in a hurry, Bachmann's Deltic that arrived in the shops yesterday. It has numerous silly errors, both dimensional and detail, but as this isn't supposed to be a review I'll just mention a few of the stand-outs. The real attention grabber is the grossly distorted nose and window area, so obviously wrong that everyone I've spoken too has spotted it instantly. True, a good number of these went on to try and convince themselves the problem didn't exist (positively painful to watch!) but the fact that even people who didn't want to see it saw it is highly significant.
The other issue worth focussing on is Bachmann's new policy of painting detail lines on, as seen in the photo above. This is exceptionally shoddy and combined with the complete lack of lighting on this model, yet again, smacks of profit maximisation over quality at any cost. My opinion of this loco is so low that I've cancelled all orders for future Bachmann releases, although I will continue to buy both Heljan and Hornby to see how things are developing.
A sure sign that the Deltic is aimed firmly at the trainset market are the toy-like roof fans. The prototype does not look like this in the slightest. If you're going to model details such as this then the mesh needs to be much finer and the bars need to lie flat - any hole in the roof is not a good hole in the roof. This is Christmas cracker novelty standard - US and European products were more realistic 20 years ago.
An increasingly common bit of spin-doctoring in the hobby these days is to try and underplay a product's failings by comparing it with a hopelessly antiquated wreck from 25 years ago. Already being wheeled out in this instance is the lamentable Lima Deltic, a model infamously inaccurate with it's curious mix of HO and OO dimensions. Yes, the newer Bachmann offering is better in many areas, but so what? I'm comparing it to the prototype rather than some disaster from the past that I never thought was worth buying in the first place.
So where does this release fit into the market? For me it seems to be pitched squarely in the direction of the trainset and collector sectors, with little or no concessions being made for the more knowledgable enthusiast. No attempt has been made to get the basic shape right or capture the look of a real Deltic. No attention to detail is evident, in fact the printed panel lines are pretty much a slap in the face to all but the most indiscriminate buyer. This is a very basic model, yet typically sells at around the £50 mark. For about the same money I can buy a P2K GP30 diesel that's quite exquisite - is it any wonder I'm going back to US modelling?
A basic technique for comparing profiles is as follows, not 100% accurate but good enough to give you a strong pointer as to where problems lie. You need a prototype image and model one taken from a similar angle. Next you need to get rid of the background in the model shot and resize it to about the same size as the real photo. Here's one I prepared earlier (I've always wanted to say that.)
Next load both into Photoshop, inverse-select the outline of the model using the magic wand tool and copy it. Switch to the real photo and paste the model in and you can move it around using your mouse whilst making rough comparisons of shapes and angles. As the model will be on a seperate layer you can choose 'Layer/Layer Style' from the pull-down menus and alter Blending Options/Opacity so you can see through to the image underneath - I tend to work with a figure of around 60% myself.
Try it yourself - although the perspective of the two photos isn't a perfect match you should still be able to tell that the slope of the Bachmann Deltic's nose is miles out. Sit back and watch people trying to convince you it's correct, secure in the knowledge that they're talking complete and utter b*ll*cks...
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Time to clear up some of the more bizarre rumours about this website that are currently doing the rounds, methinks. Firstly, I have not removed Electric Nose from the internet - I would have thought the very fact that people have been reading it is proof enough of that. If a site has been removed then you'll see a "page not found" error or perhaps a nice screen saying "This Site Is Now Closed." If you see a page like this, however, with a few illiterate ramblings and a handful of train snaps, then the site is what we computer professionals like to refer to as "still there."
Joking aside, in an effort to remove my e-mail address from these pages yesterday (I get far too much mail on a normal day, yet alone when I'm about to trash a large layout) I b*lls*d something up in the database that generates the thing and so garbled a substantial number of pages. In order to leave something visible in the short term (we've got house-guests at the moment and my time is limited) I hastily uploaded a very cut-down OMWB with a view to fixing things in the morning, something I've since done. I suppose I should be gratified by the interest shown, but the irony is that a measure designed to reduce my mail has resulted in a flood of enquiries. You just can't win - grrrrrrrr!
Secondly, I have not abandoned UK D&E modelling. I have switched my large layout plan from UK to US, but that isn't quite the same thing. As well as my other interests, such as 7mm modelling, I'm still going to be dabbling in 4mm UK stuff, but as a sideline rather than on the main layout. I'll still be buying new products, too - look out for some photos of the new Bachmann Deltic later on. This is probably their least accurate model so far, indeed it was the sight of a sample yesterday that made me realise I was wasting my time with my UK project.
Thirdly, my switch back to US modelling is not in any way to do with the quaint notion that a complete layout will fall out of the box - a layout of this size will consume 10 years or more of leisure time. The driving force behind the change is the fact that UK products are so poor, not that the rest of the world's products are so good. We're still being given shoddy toys that are fundamentally the wrong shape. I've seen a lot of juvenile comments in the last few months suggesting that anyone wanting products even half as good as the rest of the world is a whinger, that somebody who expects a model to be of the correct general shape is a rivet-counter. Only yesterday I read a particularly assinine claim that some people wouldn't be happy until their models were perfect down to miniature diesel engines. Where do these idiots come from? If they're happy being second class citizens being sold third rate products then fine, that's their perogative, but if they think they're going to drag me down to their level then they've got another thing coming, I'm afraid.
Fourthly, the screen shot below is of a spreadsheet where I change various figures to get an idea of their impact on the project's feasibility. The figures visible are just the ones that happened to be there at the time and are in no way supposed to represent a master plan!
Finally, as my modelling will be changing direction then the emphasis of this site will obviously have to change as well. I've made no decisions about this as yet, but clearly sections describing a US layout being transformed into a UK one will need some remedial work...
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My return to UK modelling scene a few years back was inspired by the popular belief that the hobby over here was about to emerge from the dark ages. It was widely reported that various manufacturers had plans for a better breed of product, so I figured that it was going to be worth a look and bought samples of the Bachmann N Class Mogul and their re-vamped Warship. Encouraged by the much improved running qualities of these compared to the pancake-motored toys of yesteryear, I was further tempted by announcements of future products and took the plunge. Unfortunately my optimism has since proved to be somewhat unfounded.
Bachmann's diesel locomotives have incorporated more and more basic errors with each successive release and, despite having a useful chassis, aren't a lot of good if you want a replica of the prototype rather than a basic toy. Their latest round of releases seems to be consistent with their position in the US market, so I think I can safely assume that's the niche they intend to occupy. Unfortunately, while the US has a goodly number of other manufacturers catering for the adult market, the UK consumer has no such choice. So far Heljan have stepped into the breach with the flawed but encouraging Class 47 and the markedly better Hymek. Hornby have also recently made their debut with the Class 50, again an encouraging first step but still lagging behind 6 year old US products from the same factory. A couple of nice products, but a Hymek and a Hoover doesn't really provide the basis on which I can build a layout, and as neither company has been particularly prolific as yet I don't think holding my breath is a wise course...
I've played around with various spreadsheets over the last few years, in order to try and get a realistic handle on what I can achieve in the next 10 years or so. I've put various projects into categories, from "1 modelling evening" (couplings, decoder & misc tweeks, but essentially RTR) right through to the other end of the scale where you're virtually rebuilding a product of unmerchandable quality from the ground up, 1980s style. My problem is that I assumed far too much would fall into that new-wave-out-of-the-box category that I hallucinated, and as it has become apparent that most stuff needs the same body rebuilds that the old stuff did (although you do get a working chassis thrown in) the timescales have slipped by about 20 years and that's without even factoring in building the layout itself - the bit I'm really interested in.
So I'm returning to American modelling, where products are both cheaper and vastly superior to the current crop of UK releases. I'm convinced that quality UK products will come, if only because the terminally stupid defeatists bleating on about accepting whatever you're given represent the static, existing market. A manufacturer looking for increased sales will obviously have to look beyond this to the lucrative and more discerning sector that currently throws money at American and European concerns. Unfortunately I've got a layout to build now, not in 5 years time, so American it is. I'll be doing substantial alterations over the Christmas period - unsolicited e-mails seeking to buy my UK stock will be deleted!
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It's a depressing time of year. It's cold, it's damp, Cl*ff R*ch*rd has got another bl**dy awful Christmas single out and you've only a one in ten chance of getting through the month without seeing either the Sound of Music or The Great Escape. So the last thing you want is to find that the new toy you've been waiting all year for Santa to deliver isn't all that you'd hoped.
At the recent Warley consumer-fest, Bachmann unveiled their revised version of the Peak, showing off all three classes. This is the biggest remaining hole in my 1970s plan, so I was not best pleased when the first photographs showed that the loco's distinctive nose was fairly obviously the wrong shape. Although it's been difficult to sift hard facts from the background static of "it's nice" and "I can't see anything wrong with it" comments over the last few days, a few concerned souls have spent some time examining the model and a number of suprisingly basic errors have emerged.
There's a fair slice of the nose missing, which gives a flattened, run-into-a-wall look. This is highlighted by the fact that the yellow end is only about half the depth that it should be - half of the bit that should be painted yellow simply isn't there to paint. From side or three-quarter viewpoints that famous snub-nose of the Peak is missing. Not only is the nose too short, but it's also a little too low and the cab roof slopes a little too steeply. If you're going to make a mess of something, the last thing you want to choose is one of the loco's most distinguishing features.
There really is no excuse for this kind of fundamental error in the basic shape of a product. A number of us spent some time yesterday overlaying photos of the model and the real thing, using nothing more advanced than a computer and a copy of Photoshop. The error was clearly visible in every case, so a manufacturer with vastly superior resources should easily be able to spot it and deal with it long before the sub-standard product is delivered to market.
The problem is equally visible from the front, where the combination of the shortened nose, turning in too soon, and the rather diminished yellow end give you a pronounced blue area at either side. This should either be entirely absent or just barely visible, depending on how far away from the loco you're standing. Another error that's difficult to overlook from the front is the absence of the prominent seam across the nose that's present on all Peaks. How on earth did they forget that?
From the detailing point of view, one of my least favourite features is the continuation of the crudely moulded fan-grille style from the Class 25. This poorly fitting component is seen here with it's trademark gap around the edge. Another couple of biggies are the rather flat detailing on the bogie sideframes and the already infamous absence of an exhaust port. How would you feel if you hadn't got an exhaust port?
On a more positive note, the loco is DCC-Ready, with an NMRA 8 pin plug present on the circuit board - a welcome change after it's absence on both the Voyager and the Super Voyager. Unfortunately there is no lighting whatsover on this model, a retrograde step after Bachmann managed to get at least half of the way there with the Class 37 this time last year..
All-in-all not a very impressive release. I'd rank this model alongside Bachmann's Class 37 in that as well as having a good number of careless and obvious errors, it has a major flaw in it's basic shape. Detail errors are relatively easy to correct, but few modellers will have the time or the skill to put right fundamental faults in shape. That's the job of the manufacture, if they're up to it.
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The actual workbench, as of about 10 minutes ago, looking a little tidier than normal as the threat of a visitor last night precipitated the bi-annual clean-up. Bits of sprue and abrasive paper get swept into the bin and the work surface gets a wipe down with the nearest Persian.
The main activity currently is the never ending assembly of US freight car kits. They're quick and easy, compared to the UK equivalent, but they still take time if you're trying to build up enough trains for realistic traffic patterns. I've tried the ready-to-run models that are now more common in the US market, but they don't make an awful lot of difference to build times. I still need to take them apart to fit non-magnetic weights along with replacement wheels and couplers.
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Just a reminder that Hornby have made a serious error with the Class 50's circuit board and that if you plug the DCC decoder in as they recommend you'll get a short circuit the moment you put the loco on the track. I don't quite know how they've managed it (I've chipped hundreds of locos and never seen this before) but the solution is simple - plug the decoder in the wrong way round and everything will work. Note that in the photo above the orange wire is on the opposite side to the corner that Hornby have labelled as pin 1. This works very well and all of my locos have had a couple of days breaking in over the weekend, using the computer to cycle them around the layout.
Cliff alone knows what all this gubbins is for - since when did you need 5 transistors to run a loco? No wonder it goes belly up when you plug your decoder in. I'll bin these circuit boards and replace them with hard-wired connections fairly soon, I would imagine.
First I need to work out what to do with the lighting, though, particularly on the unrefurbished models which only come with red LED tail-lights. All that bulkhead detail suggest cab lights would be nice, plus I don't like the marker lights on the refurbished machines - mine are ultra-yellow LEDs and don't line up with the light mouldings very well. There are plenty of opportunities here, and plenty of space. DCC sound would go in easily and still leave room for extra weight - the loco is curiously light for something of this size...
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For the last 24 hours I've been sitting with the above photo as my Windows desktop background, trying to make my mind up. That the Hornby Class 50's cab windows are wrong is already widely known, what I'm trying to work out is whether the Shawplan replacement etch (part DP50-03, originally produced for the Lima model) is correct or not.
It's seen here just resting against the model, with some black tape behind it to hide the existing Hornby mouldings. I'm looking just at the shape of the windows, not the errors in the nose profile or the fact that the window surround isn't visible due to my poor lighting technique. I don't think the etch is quite right, even though it's an improvement over the windows as supplied.
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Following hot on the heels of the refurbished Hornby Class 50 is the unrefurbished version in corporate blue and yellow livery. Named locos in this configuration are exactly what I want for my late 1970s modelling, so this release has been eagerly awaited. As feared, the errors in the cab window area are more visible when painted yellow, but the model is such a mammoth improvement over the outgoing Lima offering that I think I can live with that in the short term.
The big spotting feature of the unrefurbished machines is the dirty great chunk missing from the roof (stick around here and learn all the technical terms) visible in the photo. The big spotting feature of the Hornby model is the dirty great gap around the crude, opening cab doors. Something will have to be done about these, one day, but again the machine looks mighty fine as it is when trundling around the layout.
A word of warning when fitting your DCC chip to these locos - installing it as directed will cause a short-circuit. Whether this will blow anything up I don't know, as like a good little soldier I tested it on the programming track first, but it's useless as supplied. It'll work if you plug the chip in back-to-front, but there's obviously something very wrong here, and clearly Hornby have never properly tested it using DCC.
Once you've had a good play and got it out of your system, I'd suggest that throwing the circuit board away completely and hard-wiring the decoder would be the best route. Like the Bachmann Class 37 it suffers from random flickering of lights that are supposed to be off. There are an awful lot of components on the board that you don't need under DCC, especially capacitors, so if you're confident enough to wire in a few resistors with the LEDs then starting from scratch is probably the easiest way to go.
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Well, it's not every day the UK D&E enthusiast has a 4mm RTR loco to enthuse about, in fact it's never happened before in my entire life. Something of a landmark event, then, when two turn up in the same week, after many decades of lacklustre offerings. Following hard on the heels of the Heljan Hymek earlier in the week is the new Hornby Class 50, which is now in the shops and, more importantly, on my layout. This is a colossal improvement on any previous Hornby release, make no mistake about it. By comparison everything else in their D&E range is just Thomas...
Manufactured to the same standard (apart from the odd boo-boo) as typical US products such as those from Proto-2000, this is the first serious attempt from Hornby at venturing beyond the toy train market, and very nice it is too. I certainly find it hard to believe it comes from the same company who recently released such poor wagons as the HAA and the Coalfish - there's hope for us after all!
The general shape and sit of the model are exceptionally well captured, there is a high level of detail and there's a proper drive system, DCC-Ready and with LED lighting. The reason these photos are appearing here some 13 hours after postie knocked the door is I've been playing trains with it and enjoying myself in a way previously reserved for US operating sessions.
It's not all sweetness and light, however, as there are a number of suprising errors. Traction tyres on a product of this calibre are quite shocking, the toy-like opening slats are, frankly, awful and the grille in the roof looks like a cast-iron drain cover.
The biggest error is to be found in the front windows, which completely fail to capture the trademark 'droopy eyes' look that can be seen in the photo of the real thing below. This is masked to some extent by the black window surround on this large-logo liveried version, but will no doubt look hideous on the forthcoming blue & yellow variant. A great shame that a product of such high quality generally should be marred by a few sloppy errors - it could easily have been the flagship model for the industry, not just Hornby, and provided a standard that Bachmann would have found very difficult to meet, yet alone surpass.
As it stands it's a cracking product and a major step in the right direction, but shows too many signs of 'toy train' thinking. Hornby would do better to confine the play features such as moving shutters and rotating fans to their trainset products if they want to be taken seriously in the scale model market - I'd like to think their next release will be a significant improvement over this one. Basic errors in the shape/sit/face of a model just don't cut it, I'm afraid, and the recent Heljan Hymek comes out on top when it comes to accuracy.
Despite the faults, this loco is well worth checking out - I've already put a repeat order in and I don't think it'll be my last.
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Put together a 52' ACF boxcar kit today, one of the old E&C Shops products that I've had kicking around for an eternity. The model is fitted with Kadee #5 couplers, Kadee non-magnetic wheelsets and weighted to 4.5 ounces with self-adhesive window leading. I've never liked the way the couplers protrude on cars fitted with the cushion underframes - the eye might accept it on the real thing, but on models it always looks to me like they've been wrongly fitted.
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It would seem that the new Bachmann Peaks (Classes 44, 45 & 46) are due to arrive in the country some time during December, something I'm anticipating with a curious mixture of excitement and dread. Excitement because this is the one loco that I'm missing for my 1970s scenario and I'll need considerable quanitities. Dread because Bachmann have an exceptionally poor track record with diesel locos.
That Bachmann have been curiously quiet about these models is unusual, especially as Hornby and Heljan are currently stealing the limelight with some flagship releases. Let's hope this means they're about to wow us with a top quality product, something more consistent with their very useful coaches and wagons.
While my layout building is in limbo pending the assessment of the current crop of new releases, operating sessions have returned to US stock for the last week or so - always something of an eye-opener after a period with UK models. Rather than bore you with yet another photo of American models trundling implausibly through sunny Walsall, here's a shot of the real thing for a change. Scanned from a Kodapurple (tm) original, courtesy of Mike "have you got any scenery yet?" Cleaver.
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The new Heljan Hymek is in the shops at last. I never knew the prototype in real life, they'd gone by the time I arrived on the scene, so I can't confidently proclaim whether the model has that elusive 'Hymekosity' or not. I'm mindful of how uninformed comment on things like the Bachmann Class 37 and the Hornby HAA has left so many people looking particularly stupid in the last 12 months, so I'll try and confine my comments primarily to the build quality of the model.
To my untrained eye, however, this loco is easily a far better model than anything that has gone before. If you bear in mind that the previous best was widely regarded as being either the Heljan 47 or the Bachmann 08, according to taste, and that both of these models had significant flaws, then you'd have to come up with something pretty ropey in order not to eclipse these products. It's unfortunate for the UK D&E modeller that manufacturers such as Bachmann and Lima have done just that up to now, bringing suprisingly poor products to market in the face of consumer expectations to the contrary. Heljan seem to have reversed this trend at last.
Not a perfect model, by any means, you're certainly not going to go 'Wow!' unless you've been hiding in the jungle for the last 20 years and have never seen any US or European models. But the Hymek is a good, solid, workmanlike product that makes one hell of a welcome change. Without doubt the best example of a 4mm RTR diesel to date, although with the Hornby Class 50 due any day now it's stay at the top might be brief.
My sample has a very poor-fitting body that leaves an unsightly gap around the buffer beam and a sliver of the chassis visible. The bogie sideframes seem to slope to the centre and the bodyside windows aren't very flush. The horizontal handrail on the cab front tends to sag on most samples I've seen, the fuel tanks don't seem deep enough and the panel lines aren't very subtle, although they're far better than what Bachmann's 'Mad Trencher' normally achieves. A model with niggles, then, especially at £70, but no major flaws that I've spotted so far. Early days, though!
The model is DCC-Ready, as was the Class 47 before it, but the directional lights are pathetic, even on full brightness. Heljan really should be fitting LEDs on a product of this price, but it should be noted that this is a typical short-coming on European models of twice the price.
In summary, this isn't a model that would bring me running back to UK modelling if I was building a US or European layout, but neither is it a model that would drive me away. Had models of this quality been available to the UK enthusiast 20 years ago then I may never have gone American, but this isn't 20 years ago. If I was modelling the Western Region in the 60s or 70s then I would welcome these Hymeks with open arms, but if I was modelling another location or era then this wouldn't make me change. I don't want to sound indifferent when it comes to a model that puts all of it's competition in the shade, but I can't get wildly excited about the Hymek. Workmanlike is the word that keeps popping into my mind. That isn't a criticism - the hobby could use a lot more workmanlike products.
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Ah, the delicious irony. There are certain models that are just so bad that, to my mind at least, it's not worth trying to do anything with them - you're better off starting from scratch or finding an alternative product. A year ago we had the infamous Bachmann Class 37 with such a serious shape problem that even the most skilled modeller is unlikely to be able to fix it. More recently we've seen the Hornby HAA, with both the chassis and body so deformed that many modellers have decided to stick with it's predecessor.
15 years ago (don't quote me on that - I can't remember the exact release date) the one to avoid was the Lima Class 37, one of those classic models where virtually everything has gone wrong. Back in those pre-internet days it was more difficult to gauge the opinions of modellers across the country, but within my circle of friends it was certainly regarded with derision that didn't quite match the typically evasive reviews of the time. Indeed, one chap I knew loathed it so much he would inevitably tip one upside down if it was left unattended and fill it up with lager. We never did work out if it actually did improve things as it was running in.
So where's the irony? Simply that I've spent the last few days seriously considering trying to convert one of these horrors into a Class 37. I've always held that you can't make a decent 37 out of the Lima model, but I suppose that isn't strictly true - it's merely not a good starting point. I never would have believed I would ever consider doing this, but when something like the Bachmann Class 37 leaves you high and dry, you have to look for alternatives, however unpleasant they might be.
One of the other options is the ancient Hornby model above, but that's too ghastly to even contemplate, so I've reluctantly turned my attention to the Lima model. Two of the biggest problems with the Lima item are the almost total absence of a tumblehome and a peculiar 'floating above the bogies' effect. I know there are many other errors, but a few vitriolic lines on OMWB aren't supposed to constitute a comprehensive review - something that seems to escape the attention of one or two crayon-chewers that send me their thoughtful appraisals from time to time. So what can be done about them? The errors, I mean...
The tumblehome can be dealt with in a variety of ways, but the tricky bit is the huge gap above the bogies. This is not caused primarily by the body sitting too high, but by it being too short - there's around 2mm missing from the cantrail area. Note the deliberate imprecision in the use of the word 'about' so don't e-mail me saying it's actually 1.75mm. The point is there's not enough bodyside, you should be able to see this easily enough if you compare the cantrail grilles with photos of the real thing - they're way too short. Everything below these grilles is thus moved up which pulls the bottom of the body away from the bogies - a mess!
Any attempt to get a vaguely 37-shaped model will obviously have to tackle this, but splicing in the missing 2mm will be laborious at best. I'm still pondering which would be the best way to do it, or even if it's worth bothering at all...
Other things I've been up to in the last week or so include:
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While I bide my time until I can get my hands on the Hornby Hoover, I've been mulling over various contingency plans for future layout building, should the manufacturers of UK equipment prove unwilling to rise above their current level of mediocrity.
Dumping UK modelling just isn't an option for me, British Diesels are in my blood, but I might have to be more realistic about the targets I'm setting myself. If most of my leisure time is to be spent correcting errors rather than modelling, a large mainline layout is out of the question, so the obvious solution is to flip my priorities around - use US or European models for the serious layout building and revert to something less ambitious for the UK. I'm not happy with that, by any means, but there are only so many hours in the day.
There are a couple of flaws in this plan, however. Firstly, although I love the US scene and it's excellent, value-for-money models, I've already got a few layouts under my belt and don't really want to get stuck in a rut. Secondly, much as I'm full of admiration for the incredible quality of European models, the prototype doesn't fire my imagination in the way that British stuff does. It's not all sweetness and light in HO-land anyway - Roco's Re 6/6 electric suffers from the same kind of cantrail problems as the Bachmann Class 37. It doesn't capture the shape of the prototype pictured above (courtesy of Nigel Emery) very well at all.
Another idea that has been gently simmering is something large, but less complex. I've been hopelessly in love with the railways of the Scottish Highlands since spending a holiday there in 1978 and the wild, largely single track routes would certainly simplify construction. I've been reluctant to tackle this in the past as it would mean forgoing the pleasure of MGR coal trains, but that doesn't seem such an issue now. The major obstacle these days is motive power, as the Lima Class 26s and 27s are extremely poor models. Nothing a complete rebuild won't cure, of course, but do I want to spend half of my life filing out front windows on BRCWs? I could even see this kind of layout happening in P4, although that would mean scrapping the existing, computerised fiddle-yard - not something I want to do.
Realistically, by far the most sensible option is to carry on with the existing layout, but slide the theoretical location to the south-west somewhat, playing on the (assumed) strengths of the forthcoming Class 50 and side-stepping the weaknesses of both generations of HAA. Already having most of the stock is a major plus point, as is the ability to re-use the fiddle yard, something that has probably accounted for 90% of my layout building time in the last 2 years. Against all this must be weighed the need for some Class 37s - a problem with no real answer at the moment. I'm willing to compromise quite heavily in most areas, but at the end of the day I do expect a model to be of roughly the right shape - that's the biggie for me.
Standards are a very personal thing, obviously, and I must confess I've lowered mine significantly over the years in the interests of pragmatism. But I know I could never lower them enough to accept the Bachmann Class 37 or the Hornby HAAs - there's compromise and then there's comical. That's the tricky bit - trying to balance acceptable compromise against available product in order to get enough workable components for a layout in a given location and era. In the interim, while I'm waiting to see how the Class 50 turns out, I've mainly been building 'neutral' models - things like 12t vans that will fit any UK layout I'm likely to do...
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Completely & utterly nothing to do with my layout whatsoever, but this product is so damned excellent that I feel obliged to bore you with it for five minutes or so. My friend Nigel Emery popped round for an operating session today, bringing with him (as always) the odd item of European rolling stock in order to make me feel decidedly uncomfortable with my collection of 4mm plastic lumps. Pictured is Roco's HO model of the Swiss (SBB) Bahn 2000 Bt. This is pretty much like one of our DVTs, except that the Swiss have fitted it out with bi-level seating - presumably because they haven't yet embraced the concept of trying to fit the entire population of a medium-sized market town into a 4 car Voyager.
The model really is first class, it just oozes quality. If things don't work out in the UK modelling scene then it wouldn't take much to tempt me into modelling Swiss - I'd do it for a rake of these babies alone.
As well as the customary high level of detail (there's even relief on the face of the leftmost buffer, if you look carefully) what struck me was the sheer quality of design. In order to get the vehicles to negotiate trainset curves, the skirts either side of the bogies swing outwards. This isn't really visible on my curves, indeed I had to lift the back end off the track and twist the bogie as far as it would go in order to take the photo, but it's very well done. I'm sitting here comparing the model with a photo of the real thing in Eisenbahn Journal's SBB Special and the gap around the moving panel looks pretty much to scale, as far as I can tell. Certainly more accurate than some of Bachmann's 'Mad Trencher' panel lines on UK stock.
The icing on the cake, though, is the very impressive way the directional lighting works. A small cam/switch arrangement on one of the axles switches the lights depending on the direction of travel and works for both DCC and legacy DC systems. Why can't I have British stock like this?
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The Hornby Class 50 is fast approaching - apparently samples are now with magazines. Phil Sutton stated today in an online forum that the next issue of Rail Express (due out 25/11/03) will include a full review. Encouragingly it seems that initial impressions are favourable, with one of the hobby's more knowledgeable reviewers claiming to be "dragging my jaw along the ground and wiping up the drool." Hopefully this will see Hornby elevate themselves to the top of the D&E modelling tree - who knows?
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The patented workbench tidy. The standard model comes equipped with long fur that sweeps up all plastic shavings and offcuts, eradicates troublesome detail parts and absorbs unruly couplings. Also incorporates SwishyTail (TM) technology to eliminate larger obstructions such as those 12t vans. Should be in the shops for Christmas - this one certainly will be if she does it once more!
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More Airfix nostalgia, as I'm sorting through various dusty boxes of unmade kits at the moment. Few model railway enthusiasts 'of a certain age' can have failed to have built at least one of these trusty girder bridges - if you wanted such a structure you didn't exactly have much choice. Coming to think of it, just how many alternatives have UK manufacturers thrown up in the intervening 40 years?
Even if for some reason (holiday on Mars to see the rock-snakes, perhaps) you somehow managed to miss out on this kit, there's no way you'd have escaped seeing it on television - 90 percent of the sets in Gerry Anderson's 'Thunderbirds' couldn't have existed without it. Check out the underground complex that housed Thunderbird 1, for instance, or take a look at the docking platform at the end of Thunderbird 5. A testament to the skill and resourcefulness of Derek Meddings and his team, of course, but also to the value of a well thought out, modular kit.
Since then the British modeller who hasn't had the savvy to turn to the European or, more likely, American markets for structure kits has been forcibly detained in an Enid Blyton-esque world of West Country branchlines. I doubt if the hardware in Thunderbirds would have appealed to the post-Meccano generation in quite the same way, had it been assembled from milk churns, cattle docks and rustic out-buildings. Five Go Mad on Methyl Ethyl Ketone: "I say! He looks foreign!" - "Yes! Better call the police!"
And lashings of gingerbread cottages...
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I'm treading water on the layout front, at the moment. A project of this magnitude is wholly reliant on the assumption that a reasonable range of acceptable RTR stock will become available over the counter from key manufacturers, it can't be done with kit or scratchbuilt items alone. Although I'm a reasonably prolific kit builder it boils down to simple maths in the end - the sheer weight of numbers means I won't live long enough to complete it, and that's the bottom line. So, after the sheer disdain with which Hornby treated their recent HAA release, I'm sitting back and waiting to see what happens next. Will Hornby's forthcoming Class 50 be as good as it promises? Will Bachmann make the same mess of the Deltic as they did last year with the Class 37? C'mon - give me a sign!
To keep myself amused in the interim I'm tackling some of the unbuilt kits/projects I've got kicking around. I'm doing things for the fun of it rather than because I need them for the layout - this is relaxation, pure and simple. The Midland Railway wagons, for instance, are so far out-of-period for me that it doesn't bear thinking about, yet I'm hopelessly obsessed with such pre-grouping goods stock. It's a similar story with the sprung w-irons, I love messing around with the amateur blacksmith stuff but it's not really geared up for more ambitious projects. That doesn't mean I can't play with it, though, it's my hobby after all.
It's fairly difficult for me to start hacking wagons around without picking up an Airfix kit at some point - I've got dozens of these old things squirrelled away and they're still an excellent source of spare parts for other projects. To be fair, the mineral wagon in the picture isn't a lot of use these days as Parkside and Bachmann have got it more adequately covered - it's simply an exercise in nostalgia. I built a lot of these, way back when the world was still young, inspired by the various David Larkin/Bradford Barton booklets and, of course, the vast quantities I used to see clanking along behind Peaks. The under-width floors with their chunky ribbing were a pain in the butt when you'd just discovered compensation units.
The other problem with digging out the old Airfix kits is I tend to wander off on a tangent and end up wallowing in some of the nostalgia sites rather than building the models. I vividly remember spending hours drooling over some of those catalogues in my childhood, especially the one with the Saab Viggen on the cover. Now, in my second childhood, I'm dribbling over the keyboard at the very sight of them...
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More wagon building at the moment - a never ending task but, thankfully, one I enjoy. This batch of Parkside vans is just the tip of the iceberg, I've got a lot more to assemble but can't find where I put the damned things. I really must tidy the loft up soon.
Proper BR era vans are needed in quantity for D&E era layouts, but have been suprisingly neglected by the RTR manufacturers over the years. Nothing even half decent has been produced apart from a couple of 12t examples from Dapol that I haven't seen around for a long time now. So, as the promised Vanwide from Bachmann seems to have vanished from the radar for the time being, if I want to reproduce scenes like the one above I need to get off my *rse and start building.
Fortunately the ever dependable Parkside have most of what the traditional D&E era freight modeller needs available as easy to build plastic kits, and on the van front kits PC07A, PC08A and PC41 are the ones you're after. This small company in Kirkcaldy has been quietly producing very useful wagon kits in a variety of scales for more than 2 decades now, whilst Hornby, supposedly one of the grown-ups, has yet to produce a single D&E era wagon that doesn't need major surgery in order to resemble the prototype. Small wonder, then, that these guys have had far more of my money over the years than Hornby - it's well worth supporting the manufacturers that are interested in supporting you.
While we're on the subject of Hornby, the release of their much anticipated Class 50 is growing near, so much so that the service sheets for the product are now online. This has been the subject of much online discussion today and the signs are certainly encouraging. Although the quality of the product obviously won't be known until it arrives in the shops, the service sheets clearly show the loco has been designed along US or European lines, which is a good start. As well as showing proper 6 axle drive for the first time, you can also see:
I do hope the Class 50 turns out to be high quality product. It would be good for the hobby and good for Hornby. The sad thing is that I'm sitting here typing this at all, if it was a release from the likes of Roco or Life-Like then I'd have already ordered fleet quantities. Fingers crossed - there's a lot riding on this one...
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Now here's an interesting little blighter. This Roco electric was my first ever European purchase and is seriously old now, I bought it back in the very early 1980s and I have no idea how long it had already been in production at the time. The loco hasn't been in my ownership throughout the intervening period (it's changed hands more often than a bored schoolboy) but recently returned to the fold as part of a typically high-finance deal - the exact details elude me but I'm sure a bag of marbles and a Batman colouring book were involved.
The reason it's currently 'on my workbench' is I've been fitting a DCC decoder to it, and while I'd got it in bits I couldn't help but notice just how many bits there were...
Somewhat aged now, with a dodgy paint job and generally crude by modern European standards, the loco is still far more detailed and accurate than any UK D&E offering to date. It's got central can drive, full lighting, flush windows (even if I have pushed one in a bit during handling) and more roof detail than the entire Hornby range rolled into one. Of particular note are the seperate detail parts on the bogies, indeed the way the loco sits low on these bogies while still negotiating trainset curves. Bear in mind that this model pre-dates most of the Lima range, including the particularly crude Class 37...
Despite being younger than it's Roco counterpart, this Lima model looks little more than a child's toy in comparison, and a poor toy at that - look at the huge gap between the Lego-like body and the pressed-out-of-wine-gums bogies. Even 20 years later the UK market hasn't produced anything to quite match the battered old Roco model, and, of course, in the intervening two decades the continental manufacturers haven't been standing still. We're substantially more than 20 years behind the rest of the world, yet barely a day goes by without some numpty telling us that 'there's nothing wrong with them' or 'they were fine in their day, they're just a little old now.'
B*ll*cks! A turd's a turd, whether it's got a limited edition certificate or not.
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Having spent the last few days going through photographs of HAAs and weighing up Hornby's latest release, I've concluded that the following parts are useful:
To rub salt into the wound, this startlingly mediocre release sits alongside a range of steam locos that are quite exquisite. For the last few years the steam enthusiast has been showered with a wallet-threatening array of quality products whilst we D&E types have sat twiddling our thumbs, hoping for a crumb from Hornby's table. Well, we've eventually got something and it 's crumby indeed.
I suspect the most fun I'm going to get from this product is watching for the flattering reviews in the monthy comics. Who'll be the first to prostitute themselves for a free wagon?
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