A few other bits and bobs have been added, including test fitting all of the front bufferbeam pipework which are blue tacked in. They are all Hornby Thompson L1 spares, which looked closest to the Ivatt N1's and were also readily and cheaply available. Will definitely go down this route for future N1 builds.


I've got a surprisingly long list of minor bits to add (I keep forgetting to add the lamp irons, for instance!) but overall the build is progressing very well, and it's been a lot of fun.

I'm very much in the frame of mind to just crack on and get this model finished by the end of the week, before I get on with the next mini project, upgrading a Hornby Railroad Flying Scotsman.

However, there will be a slight blogging interlude between these two modelling projects, as I will finally have something to show for my last few years hard work next week...and it'll be available to buy soon after I hope!

I'll return to the Ivatt N1 later in the week, with the intention of getting it into plain black and branded/numbered before the weekend. I'm unlikely to get it weathered for a good while if I don't get it finished before the weekend. This is one of the hazards of being self employed now: you have to be much more disciplined with your time!

Until next time.

Is it a rebuild too many? I speak not, of course, about the real locomotive Flying Scotsman (that's a debate to be had elsewhere!) but of the latest incarnation of Hornby's model of no.4472 Flying Scotsman.

Before we move onto to the new model, a quick step into the annals of history, and a reflection on the effect no.4472 has on one's childhood.


There has been a model of no.4472 Flying Scotsman in the Hornby catalogue continuously since they took over Tri-ang, reusing their tooling for their own (of which, my father's very first model train, is a sample of).

This lovely model locomotive may have been very much in the toy train mindset, but as proven by James May in his excellent television series, James May's Toy Stories, it remains a legend in its own right, complete with the chuffing sound tender and the glowing firebox door. My father's model is the same as James', in all but its original tender: for when it was bought, it actually had a BR dark green tender provided with it. This has been put right some years later!


When Hornby stopped making their Tri-iang tooling, they made a succession of new toolings, which accounted for the many variations in the Gresley A1 and A3 Pacifics, and allowed different tenders, boiler and chimney combinations to be modelled, along with different names and numbers for the first time.

By the late 80s and early 90s, Hornby had started to produce a model of Flying Scotsman with a tender drive mechanism, and this was available in lots of different guises, including a model with two tenders, as per the 1968 non-stop run to Edinburgh under Alan Pegler's ownership.

My first electric train was this one: Flying Scotsman in its dark green guise as British Railways no.60103. This was bought for me shortly after a visit to the Llangollen railway, where I was to see my first ever steam locomotive. Click here to see what that first steam locomotive turned out to be...!

No doubt that visit helped instil a love of railways and in particular, those locomotives of the London & North Eastern Railway. Though nowadays I would state happily for the record, that my favourite locomotive classes are the Peppercorn A1s and the Thompson rebuilt Holden B12s, Flying Scotsman herself remains very much in my heart, despite the well publicised problems of recent years.


By the end of the 1990s, Hornby's tender drive model was looking increasingly out of date, and Hornby replaced it with an all new, loco drive model, of which the above express passenger blue liveried no.60103 Flying Scotsman is a member of.

This model was made exclusively in a train set for Marks & Spencer, the "Blue Scotsman" train set, recreating no.4472 as it was in the late 40s and early 1950s in the short lived blue livery that was standard for Pacifics in the 8P category (and the Great Western Kings).

The super detail loco drive tooling has a huge range of variations, including tenders, cabs, chimneys, domes, boiler types, smokebox doors, bufferbeams, superheater headers and even left or right hand drive models included. This was always a clearly high end product, with a price to match, and Hornby has released it in many liveries and variations over the years, including a special edition NRM model in wartime black, to celebrate the delayed return to steam of the real Flying Scotsman.

Hornby then produced a new range of models a few years ago, called the "Railroad Range": an entry level range of budget models, based mostly on older tooling but updated with new, DCC ready chassis and given bright liveries to match. Their first model in this range was no.4472 Flying Scotsman, based on the old tender drive tooling, but incorporating sprung buffers, the super detail model's excellent chassis (albeit with the older, more robust valve gear) and the large, over sized tender drive tender (minus its motor now).


In 2012, the original Railroad Flying Scotsman model was retired, and a new tooling was introduced to replace it. I had originally intended to review this model as one of my video reviews, but time due to my full time job, and money became a factor in delaying it indefinitely. A friend of mine has lent me this model for review, complete with a challenge for me to complete in remodelling it.

When reading through this review, I must ask that you consider these points below.

1. It has been developed as, and is being sold as an entry level, budget model. 

2. It has been sold as being an "all new" model. 

3. The main target market are children and their parents, and newcomers to model railways.

4. I have no affiliation to Hornby, nor do I have a desire to be anything other than fair and balanced in my views: critical where it is necessary and give praise where it is due.

So on that note, how has this rebuild of no.4472 Flying Scotsman gone for Hornby?


On the face of it, very well. The model is very well presented in a basic version of the London & North Eastern Railway's (LNER) apple green livery, everything looking very crisply moulded or fitted, with no manufacturing errors present on my sample anywhere.

Instead of the white/black/white lining out, only the white lines are provided, and the normally gold shaded red lettering and numerals are printed in gold only. This gives a deceptively detailed appearance from a distance, but to the discerning modeller, it looks very plain when viewed at close quarters.

The model looks to have been designed to represent no.4472 in its 1934 guise, when it completed (along with another A1 Pacific) the first non-stop runs between London and Edinburgh. It therefore has a corridor tender, no superheater headers and a boiler moulded to depict the original 180lb A1 boiler type.


One thing to note are the moulded handrails on the cabsides and tender. In my view, these would have looked better if they had been painted in some form, as the green plastic finish gives them a rather sunken look which doesn't match up to the size and look of the separately fitted handrails fitted to the boiler.

This does however make the model more robust in this area, which is a thumbs up for Hornby as that is part and parcel of their aim to make this a budget model aimed at a particular demographic.

In terms of accuracy to the prototype, the cab side sheets are beaded and straight sided, unlike the entirety of the class A1 and A3 which had beaded, curved turn ins at the end. This has been done it seems to make the cab area more robust and is acceptable in my view. Somewhat bizarrely, this makes the cab more accurate for Thompson's rebuild of Great Northern!


Where this logic starts to break down a little is in the bufferbeam area. The actual buffer shanks are exquisitely moulded, better even than the super detail model in terms of capturing the shape of the prototype's buffer shanks, until you see that there is an additional "step down" from the buffer shanks to the buffer. A very odd addition, however what is more heinous is that the buffer heads are extremely thin moulded plastic, and are very flimsy.

They can and will be easily damaged early on in any child's ownership of this model.

I said this at the time of the Railroad Tornado release (which as you will find out in this review, shares a lot of traits and components with this model) that this is one particular area where unsprung, metal buffers would have been more acceptable. This is I'm afraid a poor design decision on Hornby's part, as they are clearly not robust enough for the demographic the model is aimed at.

The steps at the front, on the other hand, are very robust and are moulded as part of the whole body shell. This is a positive move in my view as the steps are quite robust in their own right.

The bufferbeam is very plain, with a moulded plastic hook and a hole drilled for the vacuum pipe (which is included along with some brake gear in a plastic packet at the back of the model's polystyrene packaging).



Accepting that this model is probably designed to reflect no.4472's condition in 1934, there is a discrepancy in terms of the chimney height. The type modelled is in fact the taller, Great Northern Railway (GNR) chimney, which was replaced by the time of the 1934 non-stop run, along with the taller cab and the GNR eight wheel coal rail tender.

Regarding the dome, I personally think it's fine, but one friend has said it's too tall, another has said it's the wrong shape...make your own minds up on this point I feel.


One very clever bit of design work can be found on the roof of the cab. The vents are moulded to look like they open. This did in fact completely wrong foot me as I went to try and close the vents out of habit with my super detail models!

The one vent slightly more closed than the other look gives the cab roof a sense of realism despite being otherwise very basic. I like this sort of clever tooling, particularly in mind of its intended demographic and its place in Hornby's budget Railroad range.


Inside the cab, we find the boiler back head moulded in plain black plastic. Now, this isn't the best photograph (I could not believe how difficult it was to photograph the inside of the cab!) but the moulded detail is incredibly crisp and well defined, as well as being correct for a right hand drive locomotive (note the placement of the screw reverser).

There's no bucket seats, but these can be easily added from spares obtained elsewhere, or made out plasticard.


It's under the bodyshell that has seen the most changes. The chassis is actually a further development of the existing super detail chassis, as it was before with the original Railroad 4472 model. There is only current collection pickup on the driving wheels, however, although in my experience this doesn't actually translate into poorer running on DC or DCC, as long as the track is well maintained.


A new 3 pole motor and flywheel has been fitted to the same basic chassis block used under the super detail Hornby A1s, A3s and A4 Pacifics. This arrangement of motor and gearbox has previously been used on the Hornby Railroad Tornado model, to great effect as it is a very smooth operator.


The valve gear is very nicely detailed, and is much finer than the previous Railroad 4472's coarse tender drive era valve gear. This I believe is also shared with the Railroad Tornado to an extent. In spite of the so far logical and welcome changes for this model, however, there is a strange oddity here.

The cylinder block is an all new tooling, but is clearly and based directly on the super detail chassis' cylinder block, being dimensionally identical, and fitting in exactly the same manner, but leaving out the holes for the cylinder drain cocks (somewhat understandably, as Hornby don't supply any with this model). Making this new tooling specific to this model seems to me to be a bit pointless.

Why spend the money tooling up a whole new cylinder block when you can simply reuse the current one? It's made out of what appears to be the same grade of plastic, fits the same way, and (after testing my theory) fits both sets of valve gear (this type and the super detail one) perfectly.

By all means, don't add the printed red lining out or the silvery paintwork for the front cylinder casing, but save money by simply reusing the existing tooling, surely?


When you compare the previous super detail chassis to the newest Railroad incarnation, you get a good feel for how similar the two chassis are. The major difference at the rear of the model, is the addition of a die-cast block for the cartazzi instead of the previous moulded plastic affair.

This is in my view a good addition specific to this model, given its intended demographic, as it adds weight to the model which will add traction (and the plastic cartazzi has always been, in my view, a rather unnecessary and very flimsy component, despite its very pleasing and very accurate moulding).


Now we move onto the tender, which for me, is a major point of contention. If the buffers were unacceptable for their lack of robustness, then the tender must also be rightly criticised for its lack of robustness in a specific area.


Firstly, we'll look at the positives. It's a very nice model actually, the tender body being directly based on Hornby's super detail 1934 built tenders, but simplified with moulded detail in terms of handrails, the water filler cap and other normally separately fitted details.


This is at its most evident when looking at the tender's front plate.


So, how can we conclude that this tender body is in fact based on Hornby's previously existing super detail tooling?


It's frustrating as the model is so very nearly there physically. Hornby's decision to fit plastic buffers and this entirely flimsy tender coupling don't hold much water I'm afraid, when you put these facts alongside their assertion that the Railroad range is meant to be a robust, entry level series of models to get youngsters and newcomers into the hobby. That does not add up at all with this model.


Furthermore, the Railroad range is meant to be a budget range. It's certainly been sold as one since its inception. The original RRP of the Railroad 4472 model (which, let's remember, was based on the old tender drive model) was set in and around the £55 mark. A very reasonable price to pay for a DCC ready locomotive, which featured as its sole positive in terms of the older bodyshell tooling used, extremely robust sprung buffers and some degree of compatibility with its super detailed counterparts.



So, bear in mind that the new Railroad 4472 model has a vast degree of shared tooling, re-uses CAD work which already existed, with minor modifications, and actually uses components which are of a lower quality (looking at the very flimsy, very cheap moulded plastic buffers against the sprung metal alternatives of the older model) and are less expensive than that used in its predecessor (looking specifically at the 3-pole as opposed 5-pole motor and lack of tender pickups combined with the 3-pole motor combination).

You would think, therefore, that this model would have an RRP similar to the original Railroad model.

Not quite.

This model has a staggering RRP of £79.99.

So one penny under £80 for what is supposedly a budget range, robust entry level model locomotive? It is also very much a case of not getting it for much less than a few quid under this RRP at the box shifters either. This sample, bought by a friend, cost £75 from a well known box shifter.


For around the £80 mark, you can buy the forthcoming Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 2-4-2 tank locomotive from Bachmann, or their excellent London Midland Railway 3F tender locomotive.

Both of these models are supremely well detailed, are very robust (featuring die-cast metal components throughout) and in the case of the latter (as have not seen the former run yet) you will get a superb, DCC fitted locomotive with excellent high and low speed running characteristics.

You must remember that Bachmann's models are not budget or entry level, they are top of the range with lots of separately fitted items, at prices directly comparable to this model which is sold both as a budget and as an entry level model.


I want to be fair to Hornby, but how can they possibly justify lowering the overall quality of the components, reusing older tooling as much as possible, and then upping the price of the entry level model by around £30?

At an RRP of £79.99, it's not actually good value for money at all. I could harp on all day about the buffers and tender coupling, and the over height chimney and other details, but the fact remains that this model is a miss-mash of components and CAD work which Hornby already had in their inventory. If we look a little closer at the model, you can see that actually, much of the model's genealogy comes from previous models.

The buffers and the tender body are genuinely the only new "tooling" the model has. By the way, did I mention that the front bogie is actually shared with Hornby's B1 model? I didn't? There's another example then of the miss mashing of parts.


I can't recommend this model as either a budget or an entry level model. It's too expensive to be a budget model, and it's too frail in several key areas to be robust enough for the entry level, for children predominantly. It's replaced a tooling which was older, granted, and not up to the detail standards of the day, but was near perfect for the market it was supposedly being aimed at.

What perhaps has really got my goat is that the buffers and the tender coupling smack rather badly of a rather underhand concept: planned obsolescence. We know all models have this built in to a degree in some respects, and that it's the nature of consumerism today that everything has a pre-designed shelf life, but it's utterly irresponsible and rather mean spirited in my view to design that into two of the most important areas of a model locomotive, in terms of the rough handling they will get from children. The buffers, and the tender coupling.


My original Flying Scotsman model was definitely roughly handled in its day. It was pushed along by hand, it was picked up and dropped on a constant basis, it was run round a train set at breakneck speeds...and to this day shows very little sign of giving up the ghost, motor and all. Even the smoke deflectors are still intact!

It was extremely robust, and it was to Hornby's credit that the first Railroad model was the tender drive Flying Scotsman model, updated with a better chassis for the new generation of young railway modellers.

Note that the buffers on my model - which are not metal, but plastic in fact - have survived the tests of time and old age. These buffers were well designed by the toolmakers in Margate (yes, mine says "Made in Great Britain" on the bottom!) and are the sort of thing Hornby should have designed into the new model.

Looking at this model purely from a reviewer's point of view, and bearing in mind those four points I asked you to consider earlier, do you feel this new model suits its target audience? I don't. Not at that price and not with those buffers or tender coupling.

Hornby very nearly had this model right. With metal buffers (they don't need to be sprung) or simply more robust plastic buffers, keeping the previous tender connection and keeping the tender pickups (which, let's face it, if you are going to go to the expense of re-using your super detail tender in many ways anyway, how much extra cost does that actually add?) along with putting the right chimney on the model, thus cementing it as a 1934 era no.4472, it would have been perfect as an entry level model intended for children to play with.

At an RRP of £60-65, it would have been a more than reasonable budget model too. As it stands it's neither robust enough where it counts for the entry level, and it's £20-30 too expensive to be a budget model.

You can't expect much goodwill from your customers if you are going to lower the overall quality of a model and then push the price up.

That's before we get onto the alternatives. You could buy the older tender drive Railroad range model (which I recommend for children in particular for all of its superb features, e.g. robust sprung buffers, tender pickups and DCC ready) more cheaply on eBay thanks to the emergence of the new model, or any one of Hornby's newest top of the range Flying Scotsman models...all at eye watering RRPs of £144.99 and £154.49 respectively.

Again, you are unlikely to find a box shifter willing to sell them for much less than that.

It's very easy to call this blog an example of "Hornby bashing" and I'm under no illusions that people will do so without realising the ramifications of that sort of unnecessary (and unfair) branding.

So let me be clear: nobody in the hobby wants Hornby to fail: everyone wants to them to succeed on some level. If you think I'm being unfair, go back and read my Hornby O1 and B17 reviews from last year. I give out praise when it is due and criticism when it is warranted, and never without some level of constructive thought on the matter.

Hornby's problems are more or less summed up in this model. They don't know what they want to be.

They either want to be the entry level and budget model railway company, in which case prices, quality and robustness have to match the expectations they put out to their customers, or they want to be the top of the range manufacturer producing exquisite locomotives for their customers who will gladly pay higher prices for higher standards.

They produce two ranges to that effect, and whilst the super detail range more or less meets the criteria (but, as I say later, with very high jumps in price) the Railroad range is looking increasingly less than good value for money.

I've noted that some models from the 2012 range have been introduced, some with £30 price rises, some with £5 price rises, and some are entering the market later this year with what they would have you believe are bargain prices for the design on offer.

I think it has to be a case of wait and see, but it must say a lot about Hornby's current situation amongst modellers that there's been so much written about "Design Clever" and the quality, against the specification, against the price that you simply don't see spoken of elsewhere as much about other manufacturers.


I've been issued a challenge by the owner of this model to "turn it into something more authentic" so look out for a modelling blog later in April on the trials and tribulations of turning this model into something authentic and special in its own right.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

The first thing to change were the cylinders, as I wanted to be able to fit a set of Hornby's cylinder drain cocks. This set of the super detail cylinders (complete with lining out) were left over after the conversion of an A3 chassis into the A1/1 Great Northern type. The rear portion of these cylinders (which the valve gear fits into) were used on a special set of resin cylinders for said Great Northern conversion.

Since this new Railroad model uses the same type of cylinder, I reasoned that the rear parts would be removable, and that they would fit this super detail cylinder block. I was right: the rear part of the cylinders came out, and fitted perfectly.


In addition to the cylinders, I also elected to use a spare bogie from a long broken up for spares second hand NRM edition Flying Scotsman model to replace the (completely inaccurate) Thompson B1 type bogie which had been used for this model.

The bogie wheels are a slightly darker apple green, and are lined out. I think I will have a go at lining the driving wheels (the model will be weathered quite extensively below the footplate so I am hoping the difference in the colour of the plastic won't be such an issue.


It's on the bodyshell that we find the biggest changes. The plastic buffers and the plastic hook are gone, to be replaced with more suitable items.

The smokebox door (which was a new tooling, surprisingly) has been replaced with one of my own resin casts, based on the super detail Hornby A3.

I've fitted a pair of Graeme King resin superheater headers (though you will need to move a handrail knob forward slightly on each side to put them in the correct position). This helps to both date the model and to confirm its intended type as A3.

The original chimney has been replaced with a shorter Margate made Hornby spare.


At the cab end, I've removed all of the moulded handrails, and extended the cab side sheet upwards (to take into account the fitting of the bucket seats), and given it a hint of turn in, as per the tender which it will be married to (a super detail Great Northern Railway eight wheel tender).

Which leads me neatly onto this mess:

How was I going to be able to couple up the existing tender to the locomotive? The solution was extremely simple and obvious with a bit of lateral thinking. Lateral thinking which I can't really take any credit for. My late grandfather was in the Royal Engineers, and I'd like to think it's this sort of simple solution to a problem he'd be proud of, but it is my father who always tells me that "there are no problems, only solutions".


So here it is: basically a round plastic plug, attached to the end of the attachment point on the locomotive, with the metal bar reused from the Railroad tender, but with the close coupling mechanism facing the opposite way to how it was originally fitted.

This allows me to use the close coupling bar as it was intended with the super detail tender. Result: the locomotive can now pull its own tender! The way I've manipulated the bar round also means that the tender can be put into either of the holes for close coupling or for dealing with train set curves.

So that's all for today's modelling. You'll note that I removed the washout plugs, these will be replaced by resin alternatives (giving the correct number and type for the 220lb boiler), and that I have not as yet touched the dome.

There's a reason for this: if I leave the model as is, I can turn it into 60110 Robert the Devil, but if I remove the dome and give it a banjo dome, I can turn it into e112 St.Simon thus presenting my good friend who owns this locomotive with a permanent reminder of the challenge he presented me with.

He did not expect me to get this far: needless to say, I intend to have the last laugh in this challenge!

Until next time, goodnight.

I had completely forgot to finish reporting on my recent Thompson L1 renumbering and weathering exercise. The worksplates arrived, and together with some Johnson's Klear on the valve gear, have finished off the model nicely in my view. I'm much happier with it now as a result, though I feel I still have a ways to go with my weathering in general.

Until next time, sorry for the mini-update!

I'm not even going to pretend that this particular build is anything other than using as many spare parts and different components as possible to make something which, in reality, did more or less the same thing!

I mused on building Thompson's lone, short lived B3/3 locomotive a while ago, but with the arrival of a set of 6ft 9in driving wheels (actually standard Hornby Royal Scot spares), I decided to push it up the queue a little bit to see if the idea was a goer or not.

The answer is...yes, it's definitely a goer. So much so that it's jumped ahead of quite a few projects whilst I'm developing it further!

I have fitted the new driving wheels, which required re-quartering on two sets to the proper configuration, along with the correctly sized brass bearings from the Hornby B1 chassis' wheels. It is somewhat infuriating that the Hornby Royal Scot and Thompson B1 share axle sizes, but not, apparently, the brass bearings. Try as I might, I could not get the set which came with the Royal Scot drivers to fit the chassis, but the B1 bearings fitted first time with the Royal Scot drivers. The result is a working Hornby B1 chassis, re-wheeled with 6ft 9in wheels.


In order to get the wheels to fit good and proper, all of the brake hangers plus any other details such as the sanding gear, need to be removed from the bottom keeper plate and surrounding area. I have kept all of these moulded details for reuse later on in the build (the brake blocks, in particular, can be simply repositioned to fit properly).

Stunningly, all of these modifications have helped to give me a chassis which is only 1mm out on for the actual wheelbase of the B3/3, and that's on the rear drivers which are 1mm too far backwards.


I think I can live with that though, as the front end is absolutely spot on, both for the level and inclination of the standard B1 cylinders, and the placement of the valve gear. I really did not expect it to be fit quite so well as it did!

The next job on the chassis is to fit new brass pickups. Fitting larger wheels meant that the brass wipers already on the bottom keeper plate, would not be long enough (larger diameter, longer distance to circumference of the wheel where the pickup meets the tyre). I therefore need to make some bespoke ones. In order to test the chassis, I simply attached the red and black wires to the terminals of my Hornby rolling road. It ran smoothly through all of the power ranges, and in reverse too.

The driving wheels will need new balance weights to be fitted (it is likely that thin plastic overlays will be the order of the day) in addition to refitting the brake blocks, hangers and similar along with the sanding gear, and as mentioned previously, rewiring and making new brass pickups before the chassis is complete.


In the body stakes, I've discovered a very interesting fact. The B3/3 had its B1 boiler pitched higher than the Thompson B1, with a shorter chimney and a squarish Gorton dome fitted, but the cab and the boiler fittings at that end remained in proportion to the boiler, as per the B1.

This meant that the high shoulders on the B3/3 are actually deeper than on the B1, and at the rear, the running plate dip under the cab is deeper too. The cab itself is longer and deeper, although the roof remains the same more or less. In theory, cutting and shutting two Bachmann B1 bodyshells should give us the correct length running plate at both ends, and cutting and shutting two cabs will give the deeper, longer B3/3 cab.


Obviously the above is by no means a finished picture, but it's an interesting amalgamation of components to present my progress on the idea. That we've got a working chassis (albeit minus pickups at the minute) is a great starting point. I sincerely did not think it would be this easy to simply replace the driving wheels and refit the valve gear!

I've quite a bit of work to do on my other outstanding projects. The Ivatt N1 needs coal rails, Great Northern needs her running in before a coat of blue and transfers (but the nameplates have arrived!) and I've got to finish that Railroad A3 conversion before the end of the month. The B3/3 will fit in and around those projects as they come to completion.

I've also got a layout related update coming up this month, surprisingly!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Some of this blog's regular readers will be aware that I've had a set of etches developed by PH Designs in order to model Gresley A4 Pacifics of the post war period, by removing the valances and adding etched detail to Hornby A4 Pacific models.

These etches are also suitable for modelling Sir Nigel Gresley or Bittern in their post preservation guises. I've had the costings back for the production etches, and the prices I am looking at are as follows.

The cost of a full conversion kit (including all of the etched components and the valance cutting tools) is likely to be around £27.

One kit will fully convert one model from an A4 with valances to one without, with lamp irons, lower firebox sides, reverser, access hatches, smokebox numberplate and cab window spectacles included.


The breakdown of the individual etch prices comes in at RRPs of £20 (cutting tools, lower firebox sides, AWS plate, lubricator arm), £5 (access hatches, lamp irons, smokebox numberplate, cab doors) and £2 (cab spectacle plates).

I intend to have the first production batch made in May 2013 or shortly afterwards.

Postage & Packaging will be separate, and I will investigate prices to set a standard cost for the full kit, and the individual etches accordingly.

Due to the higher cost of the largest etch to set up and produce, only a very limited number of full kits will be available straight away. They will be sold on a first come, first served basis. If demand for the full kits is higher than expected, I will look to increase the number in the first production batch.

If you email me on copleyhill@live.co.uk and let me know of your requirements, I will take orders on the full kits and individual items on a first come, first served basis. I will also create a waiting list for full kits and individual etches dependent on the demand. It may be possible to reduce the prices of the etches for the second batch if I can guarantee the batch will sell out.

Further details can be found on our products page here.

On a related note, I am looking at perhaps having etched some sundries for Gresley/Thompson/Peppercorn Pacifics, with washout plugs, mudhole doors, cabsides and bufferbeam overlays all being mooted at present. If there's anything in particular you think you'd like to see, let me know and I will investigate further.

Until next time.

It's amazing sometimes how quickly things seem to go together when it's half two in the morning.

I had another batch of insomnia last night, something which affects me particularly when I am stressed. I cannot switch off. The brain will not be told to go to sleep. It continues unabated, incessantly repeating the worries until I nod off through lack of sleep around 4am before having to get up at 8.30am to go through my usual writing routine, along with job applications, orders for the book and more planning and writing of future books and videos.

So in order to take my mind off things (job prospects, the book being published, sister heading off to Madrid to be in a play, paying for car repairs, girlfriend's teaching career troubles) and all the other little things at present, I decided to get my Isinglass drawings out and see what more could be done to my Thompson B3/3 model. This was just after midnight last night, and I didn't stop until it was actually half two in the morning.


I bought a spare Thompson B1 bogie off eBay last week. This bogie has actually come off the latest Hornby Railroad Flying Scotsman model, which for some reason doesn't use the correct type but re-uses that on their B1 model. This suited me as the spare B1 chassis I bought did not originally come with a bogie.

In a similar vein to the changes I made to 60113 Great Northern's bogie recently, I will chop off and file down the obtrusive NEM pocket when I get a chance.

You will notice the difference in buffer heights. This is the next stage of the build which I have to work through. The B3/3 had the B1 boiler pitched higher than the B1, which necessitated deeper "shoulders" over the cylinders. It also had deeper and longer cab sides to compensate, which I will tackle at the same time.


The next step was to cut off the existing moulded dome from the Bachmann B1 body shell, filing the boiler smooth afterwards. This is so I can fit one of Graeme King's excellent Gorton style domes instead, which the B3/3 was fitted with (being rebuilt in real life at Gorton).


You will notice I've cut and moved the rear steps and running plate away to show where the cab needs to be modified along with the rear curve down. The cab side sheets need to be replaced, and luckily I have worked out a way of doing this so that the correct length and depth to the side sheets, along with the correct window placement can be done. The curve in the running plate will need to be cut and then extended to match.

The rear splasher can be taken care off very easily by retaining the cutout in the existing cab. The difficult bit is adding the small splashers further up the running plate. Holes will be drilled to fit, and then splashers made in plasticard and fitted thereafter.

I'm planning, once the front running plate is cut and shut to the correct depth, and the spare Hornby B1 buffers have been added, to fit a set of false frames over the bogie wheels to give the model less daylight in that area, and preserve the bulky look further.

The next stage is to finish the work on rewiring the model, and adding pickups to the tender to help with the running capabilities. I've been astounded at how smooth the model is on the rolling road, particularly as no modifications have been made to the valve gear or the driving wheels to fit each other. It was a simple drop in replacement for the original B1 driving wheels.

So there you have it. A few bits of cutting and shutting, dome replacement and the addition of a front bogie to push the Thompson B3/3 build a bit further on. It is proving to be the tonic to my sleep problems as I nodded off shortly afterwards, still at my workbench. I am glad I had put the scalpels away by then...!

Until next time.

Building model locomotives has been my way of letting off steam for a few years now. I can feel the stress and anxieties melt away as I start chopping, filing, gluing and soldering bits and bobs to make new models.

The current project is my Thompson B3/3 build, which is starting to get into its stride and take over just about all my modelling time. I see it on the workbench and I long to get the next bit done. The "next bit" in question this evening, along with the driving wheel balance weights, was sorting the cab.

If you're a Peppercorn A2 fan, best to look away now.


A cab left over from a Thompson A2/3 conversion (in fact THE Thompson A2/3 conversion: the prototype Graeme King did as a commission for me, and which spawned all of the other Thompson conversions which have come to pass in the last two years) was used as part of a cut and shut. This is because I discovered the Peppercorn A2 cab's side sheets had the windows pitched in exactly the right position, with the right shape, and were (in addition to the width of the side sheets) also the correct length for the B3/3.

I therefore cut them out, and then cut them to size to the existing B1 cab. The side sheets on the B1 cab had to be removed, along with the splashers in the cab.

With the  cab roof was cut along the centre line, and moved back. This gives the correct length cab, and now all of the roof's vents and panels are in the correct locations too. The roof was given a thin plasticard lining to cement it all together, before it was then


I should mention that the original splashers were not deep enough for the larger Royal Scot wheels and consequently a new set will have to be fabricated from plasticard, along with a new cab floor.


Gamesworkshops green putty, along with some Humbrol plastic filler, were used to bring all the pieces together, and also fill in any redundant Peppercorn A2 odds and ends. This will be carefully filed back and sanded down smooth tomorrow after my errands.


The final job for the day was fitting some new plasticard balance weights for the driving wheels. Once these have stuck firmly, I will filed away the Royal Scot balance weights which are just about visible underneath still.

All in all, not a bad day's work on the B3/3, and I even managed to fit in a good hour's running on the rolling road too.


Until next time.

It's been a long old road, but we're nearing the finish line with the printing. Delays of all sorts of types have come to try us, but now it's just a case of signing off on the front and back covers, and we're there.

I will be contacting our stockists soon to confirm allocations and delivery dates.

There will be a limited number of books available from our Amazon shop at full RRP with postage and packaging. Pre-orders will soon be invited on the shop, with members of the BRWS Ltd's Facebook group being offered first refusal.

In theory, although our first batch of books has sold out, I have a number of them reserved for magazine and newspaper reviews, and some for friends and family.

A second batch of books may well be printed and delivered before the end of the summer, dependent on funds available.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their patience, and apologise for the lack of communication recently.

Yours faithfully,

Simon A.C. Martin

It's been one of those months unfortunately - being made redundant at the end of March has put pressure on the finances, but happily it's affecting my hobby in a positive manner. I have made it my duty to sell off anything and everything absolutely not required. So many things have already gone up on eBay and sold, so the money is coming in at a steady pace and more or less keeping me afloat.

It's difficult to keep the hobby going when there's so much pressure on getting back into work. That has to come first I'm afraid (yes, even ahead of the book at present - which is still on course for being released very, very soon).

So it's been a sparse April, my apologies. Things can and will get better, but there's a few priorities I need to work on first, mostly regarding my better half and a certain holiday abroad we need to take towards the start of the summer...

Until next time, when hopefully things will have picked up for the better.

The results are in from Locoyard, part of the UK Heritage Hub, in their quest to find the world's most famous steam locomotive...

The results are more than a little surprising...!


With an absolutely stunning 15% of the votes, "our Allen" has narrowly pipped a certain little blue tank engine into third place, behind Australia's no.3801 in second, and the UK's Flying Scotsman in first place.

It is an absolute honour to come third in the poll, and it is a testament to our fans around the world.

Thank you all so much for your support, particularly with the book nearly ready to hit the shelves at long last.

Thanks both to Locoyard and the UK Heritage Hub for setting up the poll, their coverage and their support.

Until next time!

It's quite simple really: Hornby have not quite got universal praise for their latest round of steam outline products, the 42xx and 72xx Great Western Heavy Tanks.

Across the internet, whether it's on MREmag, the New Railway Modellers Forum, Modellers United or similar, there is definitely an undercurrent of disappointment from would be purchasers of these models and future products from Hornby.

Now, it's fair to say that the Heavy Tanks are flawed. Not so flawed that they are absolutely dreadful, but simply not up to the specifications that modellers and collectors have come to expect for their £120-£140 RRP.

Richard Foster's review in last month's Model Rail got it absolutely spot on. They're not good enough for their price, and they are certainly not up to the very high standards Hornby themselves have set. Not the consumer, I hasten to add, but Hornby.

I think the point that Model Rail were making (and I myself amongst others across the internet) is that you cannot continue to push prices up at RRP and put detail standards down without at some point going past an accepted level of "value for money" and thus alienating your core group of consumers.


No one notices sprung buffers, but to tool up a new set of unsprung ones when you have the correct types already tooled up for use on previous GWR models is bizarre.

The Thompson trio of L1, B1 and O1 from Hornby all share certain components, plus some portions of their research and development, so not only do we know it can be done, we know Hornby have done it previously.

A case in point is the Railroad Peppercorn A1 and all the other loco drive LNER Pacifics that Hornby offer. Their chassis in particular are exercises in reusing shared components amongst different models.

The 42xx/72xx feel like they were built down to a price and marked up at RRP to the limit of that the market would stand. Most modellers will tell you that's how it works across the board, and I wouldn't deny that, but the heavy tanks feel like an extreme example.

I feel almost confident that, had the models been at an RRP of £100 instead of in and around £140, reviewers might have been more inclined to overlook things like the door dart, sprung buffers and similar. In terms of price at sale, models have to meet the standards met elsewhere at similar RRPs (like Bachmann's magnificent Midland Compound. For the same RRP, and at similar discounts at the box shifters as the Heavy Tanks, you can have one of these. Not helpful if you really want a Heavy Tank, but it puts the specification versus price debate into perspective).

However couple that with the chassis design (for which I am not convinced the sudden loss of brass bushes set into slots on the chassis will prove a long term gain for Hornby in terms of reliability and running characteristics), the poor paint job and printing (look in particular at the buffer beam numerals and crests) and the whole model just doesn't match up to Hornbys high standards or their competitors.

Richard Foster nailed it in my view. If these had been the first of the new generation, and not the MNs and BoBs/WCs over a decade ago, and at a price suitable to their spec, we'd be extolling their values and praising them to the hilt.

The world has moved on, Hornby has taken a step backwards, Bachmann and Dapol continue to impress and push up their own standards.

Why Hornby have to be so Jekyll and Hyde in their approach to model railways is beyond me. I will tell (and no doubt bore) anyone who'll listen how brilliant their LNER models are.

We can't afford to be blaze in our purchases anymore, money is tight for everyone and its clear people are not going to pay out for everything if it doesn't quite meet their expectations anymore.


So that's my point of view on the 42xx and 72xx discussion. It's shared elsewhere by a good number of people. I can only say (as I always say) that you should treat forum discussion as a sample, but the sheer number of disappointed purchasers and bystanders is surprising.

Now, I am convinced the 42xx and 72xx can be turned into excellent models by changing a few things. Sprung buffers, smokebox dart, a better paint job and some weathering. However, it's the starting point which has changed. The price is higher, the specification is lower. Modellers are a discerning bunch, and they have to be.

There will be modellers looking at Hornby's future products and wondering if they are going to come out like these models. Will they pass on future models if they're not up to scratch? In my view it's best to tell Hornby now how you feel now, be constructive and be upfront and honest, than to stay quiet and wait for the inevitable to happen.

So what do we think of this post by Andy York on RMweb?

"The flames seem to have been fanned by some that I wouldn't think would have an interest in the specific product but have used it to register concerns about future potential releases and it seems in some cases that some people have been on an active search to find faults to add to the list. Let's just keep it level-headed, it's beginning to sound like some are calling for blood".

Well yes Andy, that's the point. If the models are not meeting the expectations of their purchasers, or potential future customers of Hornby, why can't people make their viewpoints heard in the most constructive manner?

If you actually bothered read back through your own Heavy Tank thread on RMweb, you won't find people "baying for blood" or actively trying to find the most preposterous faults to devalue the model. 

You'll find a group of modellers actively trying to define their feelings on Hornby's latest steam outline models, and the "design clever" strategy (which, lest we forget, Messers York and RMweb were actively extolling the values of in December last year) with as much reason, careful discussion and genuinely good natured debate as is the norm in the hobby.

What is frustrating is the amount of incomprehensible doublespeak that comes out of the mouths of people who should know better, or who have previously allowed good and positive, constructive discussion to influence the development of some excellent models.

So is this "Hornby bashing" as it's become fashionable to term, by people who can't debate and have no idea how to be constructive? No, of course it's not. We all want Hornby to do well. Anyone who actively wants Hornby to fail is not acting in the best interests of the hobby and future models.

We have to make our voices heard in the most constructive manner. People like myself have done so without resorting to name slanging, or accusations of "fanning flames" and generally being unpleasant and abusing our positions of power. We need to continue to do so without being beaten down by people who try to control news, views, and viewpoints.

Until next time - and apologies for the lack of blogs this month. Have started a new job and time has been at a premium. Normal service will be resumed soon!

Sometimes I think railway modellers are inclined to look at things through rose tinted spectacles a little too often. 

The point of the matter is that the Railroad D49 is perfect material for further modelling, and the results (as can be seen across the internet and in particular on the LNER Encyclopaedia Form) can be really rather convincing.

My job now is to convince myself into modelling either a Hunt or a Shire, and to what extent I modify the locomotive bodyshell or replace it altogether. One thing which IS going to be replaced is the tender, for which I have a cunning plan involving resin casting and one of Bachmann's excellent Robinson D11s. Purely for my own use, you understand, and this will solve the tender issue of the Thompson B3/3 as well...!

Until next time.

We're getting there! Yes it's been long, protracted and not without some blood, sweat and tears along the way.

I am finally at the stage of feeling like we are going to have a superb product at the end of it all, having seen printed samples of the final pages, and the front cover, gloriously produced by the London College of Communication.

I have worried for nearly seven months solid as to whether or not the book was going to look the part. I can say categorically that we have a product which can sit on a shelf in a bookstore and be seen, and taken seriously.

It was never my intention to go into this half-heartedly, and by going through this first book and getting to the print stage, it has taught me a lot about self-publishing, and what can be done better for the next book.

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently. I started a new job with the Financial Ombudsman Service, which I am absolutely loving. The office and its staff are wonderful, amazing people and I'm very happy to be back in work and earning a full time wage again.

That is not to say I am giving up on the blog, merely that I am scaling back my modelling activities.

That does mean that I have had to delay the A4 conversion parts, however this is a minor set back which I will rectify once certain events are out of the way (my impending holiday to Malta, the fiancee's sister's wedding, and a few other family events). I intend to have the kits and parts ready for sale by August, so please feel free to email me with your orders and queries.

Thanks to everyone for their continued patience too. Remember that The British Railway Stories Ltd is a one man operation, with a two man publishing team and both members with full time jobs and other commitments which limit the scope sometimes of what we can do.

We do try very hard, and will continue to do so, to bring these wonderful stories to you in both print and eBook form.

I hope to have finished Drew the Colliery Engine (Book 2), Gresley's Goliaths (Book 3) and our as yet unannounced Book 4 (featuring another preserved railway locomotive) over the course of the next three to four months. Writing has been difficult due to the job change mostly, but things are getting back on track slowly but surely.

Until next time!

It's incredible what constitutes "moaning" these days!

I really do tire of the cyclical debate that model railways seem to create. It's impossible on the internet to HAVE a debate sometimes, let alone approach one with a critical and a modelling eye.

Some people also seem to have switched their brains off and forgot that constructive criticism in the pre-production phase can sometimes generate even better results. Suddenly we have all manner of people coming out of the woodwork, "defending" the manufacturers by berating anyone who speaks out of the party line.

The "party line" by the way, is alive and well on a certain model railway forum and I don't think I need to tell you how wearying it is to constantly read people stating that those of us with a more critical eye are "berating the manufacturers".

Sorry to disappoint, but nobody has berated Hornby as far as I can see. I can certainly surmise that the moaning about someone else moaning about "plastic buffers" will have been aimed at me, but to be fair this is a criticism of Hornby's Tornado and Railroad Flying Scotsman models too, and in both cases it has been proven that the thin, moulded plastic buffers are no substitute for proper metal turned ones (whether sprung or not) in terms of their durability.

Here's what I was quoted as saying on MREmag this week:

Hornby's Gresley P2 has made its debut, and what a debut. Despite my natural reservations (moulded plastic buffers, square axleboxes and moulded handrails), Hornby's newest "big green and named" locomotive looks like unexpectedly bucking the trend this year and proving to be the stunner of stunners.

My only real criticism at this early stage are the plastic buffers. The 2012 Railroad 4472 model and the Hornby Tornado both share this trait, and they are very easily damaged or broken off altogether whether in the youngest or oldest of hands.

I do not understand how the recent 42xx/72xx Heavy Tanks can have unsprung metal buffers (probably the best compromise if the aim is to reduce the number of separate parts from the sprung alternative) but the Gresley P2 and the Duke retain plastic buffers?

I reserve judgement on the square axleboxes, though it is with some regret that we see Hornby move away from their excellent chassis design of years past. The Railroad Tornado retained the brass bearings inset into the chassis principle of the best of Hornby's most recent Pacific and LNER outline models, and remains one of their smoothest operators in the range.

On this occasion, despite the head leading with a firm desire to be constructive, and despite the reservations outlined above, the heart melted at the sight of the perfectly curved deflectors, the exquisite valve gear and the handsome high shoulders of the Gresley P2.

Truly, Hornby could have a winner here. I do so hope they do. Nobody in the model railway world wants Hornby to fail: to do so would be counterproductive to the future of the hobby. We must not, however, be blind to their discrepancies when they arise, and be as constructive in our critique as possible.

Simon A.C. Martin

(And thank you to MREmag for printing it un-edited: it is nice to know that there are still places for model railway enthusiasts to discuss topics without being censored or silenced altogether).

So, where exactly is that "berating" Hornby or "moaning?" We are in danger of letting the lunatics take over the asylum in terms of being able to talk about our hobby, whether it's latest releases and how the manufacturers can improve them (before manufacturing them) or improving the latest model by - well - modelling!

The biggest problem I have with model railways at the minute, and the one thing which has spurned me from being able to talk about them on the blog, is the politicking, point scoring and general sort of reverse snobbery which stops people from being able to produce fair, balanced opinions with all the facts to hand.

I'm currently working for a superb organisation whose core beliefs centre around "there are two sides to every story", and in the case of Hornby's Gresley P2, there are two sides to the debate: those who want to have one and discuss it maturely, and those who do not and want to silence everyone else.

Pick your side carefully!

In my case, I choose to remain constructive, cautious and looking towards the future with an open mind but also a practical one. Railroad range models, intended for younger hands or for older ones returning to the hobby should not have plastic buffers which can be easily broken.

That's my view, it's based on actual experience and testing this out both with children and my own modelling experience. If you don't like it, feel free to have your right to reply here and give your view. I will publish any and all comments on this blog (if it doesn't work first time it's because I have a spam filter in place and will publish your comment at the earliest available opportunity).

Until next time, have a great weekend, enjoy Wimbledon today and tomorrow and remember: model railways are meant to be fun but can also be a great source of informative, constructive debate that feeds the mind.

Get your chequebooks and Paypal accounts ready: the books will be ON SALE from www.britishrailwaystories.com from tomorrow night! (RRP £7.99 plus postage of £2.50)

Our stockists will be informed later tomorrow night as to the delivery of their allocations. Anyone who would like to stock the book, we have a limited number available for wholesale purchase.

The first paperback book in The British Railway Stories: Tale of the Unnamed Engine, is finally here!

I absolutely loathe last minute hiccups! So it was with today's intention to have the book on sale for the first time.

The first hiccup is the PO Address - which is not ready to give out yet (entirely my own fault!) and the second hiccup is the Paypal address, also giving some problems. I intend to have to have these problems fixed by the end of the week. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the wait yet again, however it's for the best to get the bugs sorted so we don't have any problems ordering.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to buy a book can reserve their copy by emailing us at the address on the "contact us" page and requesting a reservation.

Postage and packaging costs to be confirmed by close of business tomorrow.

The final thing - and the BIG NEWS - you may remember that buying the eBook would entitle you to money off the paperback book? I am extending the deadline to the 30th of September 2013, to allow everyone to have the offer (because the deadline for the tokens expired a few months ago)

More on this as it develops this week, however I thought I'd give an indication of the finished product, which looks utterly fantastic. Photographs do not do it justice. Dean's artwork looks grand, inside and out, and the writing is all perfectly printed on high quality paper.

Not long now everyone!

Simon

We are now taking preorders for the first book in the series, Tale of the Unnamed Engine.

However, there is a catch! The company email address to place your pre-order is now...


...to cope with the renewed demand.

Therefore if you wish to order the book, or any other product from this blog (including the A4 Conversion Etches, which will be the subject of a blog next week giving an update), please email me there with the name of the product in the email header.

I will advise on postage and packaging costs tomorrow evening for the book, including home and abroad. The RRP remains £7.99 (however if you have an "Allen Token" from purchasing the eBook on Kindle or Kobo devices, you will get your £1.14 discount honoured until the 30th of September).

Until next time!

The paperback you've been waiting for is now on sale! Tale of the Unnamed Engine is now available direct from this website, for both the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. Simply click the button relevant to your location to go onto the payment link for the book.


Please remember that although I am a "one man band" in terms of the distribution of the book, I will endeavour to send out orders as quickly as possible.

All copies will be signed on request.

After six years on YouTube, The British Railway Stories is now in print for the first time. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and hopefully this will be the first of many.

On behalf of myself and Dean, may I say thank you for your patience, your support, and your kindness.

These are the stories we tell, and we have many more to tell, rest assured.

Simon A.C. Martin