Author Archives: Tim Hall

Last weekend Crewe Works hosted an event called “The Gathering”.

More than sixty preserved locomotives were present, brought in from all over the country, representing steam, diesel and electric. Star attendees included The Flying Scotsman, a pair of Stanier pacifics, “Olten Hall” still in Hogwarts livery (which was giving rides), a Woodhead line EM2 and the sole surviving Metrovick Co-Bo, which was displayed suspended from the workshop’s overhead crane. The representative of the group restoring this veteran told me that getting it’s first bogie lift for 40 years was the condition of it’s attendance.

One fenced off corner contained crash-damaged rolling stock, including the burned-out class 143 railbus which caught fire near Bristol a few months back, fortunately without fatalities. Rather more disturbing was the misshapen carraige covered in tarpaulins, which I realised must have been the wrecked restraunt car from the Hatfield derailment four years ago.

I didn’t take many photographs of the day, partly because the weather was dull for much of the day, and partly because my camera batteries ran out shortly after it did brighten up.

It makes me feel old to realise that this locomotive has now been a museum piece for 28 years. I remember waiting at Slough on a cold February morning way back in 1977 to see the passing of the last “Western”, an enthusiast special hauled by this very locomotive, D1023 “Western Fusilier”. The Warship class locomotive on the right has been preserved even longer, since 1972.

Star “Kettle” was the unique No 71000 “Duke of Gloucester”. It’s BR career was even shorter than that of the Warships, lasting just eight years from 1954 to 1962. It then spent as many years languising in Barry scrapyard in south Wales, before being preserved and restored to main line working order.

Believe it or not, all three of these locomotives are now preserved. The A4 Pacific “Union of South Africa” was preserved when the two electrics in the foreground were built.

There was also a small display for road vehicles, including a couple of Scammell Mechanical Horses. These strange-looking vehicles with three-wheeled tractor units used to be a common sight around railway goods depots.

One of the first completely new items of rolling stock produced by Bachmann since taking over the old Graham Farish range has now been in the shops for a while, the so-called “Super BG”.

The prototype for this model is the 1990s conversion of Mk1 full brakes with roller-shutter doors for use on mail traffic. They were relatively short lived, due to EWS losing the Royal Mail contract.

Bachmann’s new product, while still a long way behind the standard of continental or American models, is a step forward from what has gone before; with finer detailed underframes, well reproduced bodyside detailing, and a good semi-matt finish with well-printed lettering. Speaking of lettering, there are four different variants available, representing different branding they’ve had over the years; the Rail Express Systems version with the blue flashes (the leading vehicle) comes with or without Royal Mail logos, and the debranded post-privatisation version comes with or without the EWS “Three Beasties” logo.

The two biggest faults are a lack of weight which increases the risk of derailment, and the excessive gap between the coaches. The close-coupling mechanisms of all major continental makes, which still go round 8″ radius curves, isn’t rocket science nowadays, and I’d like to see Bachmann do the same on British stock.

They make a nice complement for my CJM class 67, and an 8 car rake in full cry is an impressive sight. Not that they ever ran in Switzerland, though.

Dave “Blimp” Jones of N-Thusiast Resprays have put some pictures of his new class 121 “Bubble Car” railcar online.

Like earlier kits of his, the body is cast in resin. I have to say it’s an improvement on his earlier class 22 diesel, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see a fully painted and finished model in the flesh. It’s promised for December’s Warley exhibition.

The chassis uses Lifelike motor and bogies. I’ll be interested to see how robust and reliable it proves in operation. I don’t know whether it’s cast in resin or metal; if it’s resin it looks a bit on the fragile side.