Notice that in the second photo there's the model wooden house that I bought second-hand last year and repainted, and in the third photo the model farmhouse which originally had a flaming red roof (Posts 487 and 485 respectively). I think that my repainting turned out well.
They are interesting. I used to have a rake of Hornby Freightliners and half were sold at a toy and train fayre and the other half went to someone from one of these sites who bought them without the wheels. (Plastic wheels were on them, which I can use for some of my scratchbuilds... Actually have many waggons waiting for me to build to use them. I had bought the farmyard boxes for use with them. Just have not converted them into waggons yet). The only real downside to the Hornby Freightliners are that they need a little extra weight. The Bachmann versions are of a more modern type of wagon, as I used to see the older versions looking like the Hornby versions go past in rakes of 4 coupled together to make long trains of them. I was told by the drivers that Freightliner trains were heavy trains to pull so they earned their days work pulling them! Why they needed a powerful loco to head them.
I did also later see Bachmann versions go past around the years 2004 onwards though they may have been around before then? The later versions were not allowed in B.R. days as they were not allowed because until the EU changed things, their wheels were too small for British regulations, and there had been debate about this at higher levels because the minimum wheel size had been specified in the past to prevent (Or minimize) rail breakages. Another item being discussed for very real safety concerns with more modern wagons was the use of disc brakes, as in the wet their wheels would slide on the rails, as theolder brake shoes on non-disc wheels were specifically used because they would automatically dry the tread on the wheels when the brakes were being applied, and disc brakes did not do this, so braking in the wet took longer with modern stock. They eventually got around this by adding some sort of device to dry the wheels on certain wagons I was told? I do not know much about this, but ai heard it was being experimented on to increase the braking ability on disc braked wagons. Disc brakes were preferred because they were basically cheaper.
Glad to see one of my favorite British model railways is up and busy, with or without disc brakes! I'd never thought about that issue before, interesting. A most pleasant distraction from the hospital bed. Those great pictures make me want to get up and run something.
Thanks MG for your observations regarding the wagons. I'm rather ignorant of the technical aspects of... well pretty much everything technical. My late father used to say that my mum was as technically-minded as a dinosaur, and I seem to have taken after her in that respect (and my love of tea and cheese sandwiches).
I'm glad that I've provided a little distraction for you Chops, and hope that you are back to health and running your trains. Your movies have given everyone at MRF a lot of pleasure over the years, so I'm happy to give a little back.
Here are some more photos of the Bachmann container wagons although sometimes they're just whizzing by in a blur.
Is nice to see more photos. I am trying to remember classes of loco. Is that a class 71? (I am less familiar with electric locos and DEMU's etc as they were scenes I only ever saw in books due to living no where near the areas they were used. I remember once being shocked when working a train between Cardiff and Newport (The furthest east I worked), as I caught sight of a class 73 which was making its way to Cardiff to get its tyres done as Canton depot had apparently offered bargain prices for tyre reprofiling compared to other depots round the country! It was such a rare sight to see that as I passed it (I was in the back cab of the train). I remember thinking how narrow it was compared to locos I was used to seeing!
Hi MG, I have to confess - and I know that this is heresy - but I really forget what the locos are. Train recognition is not one of my strong points*. I bought them because they looked good. I've still got the paperwork from the boxes, so I'll have a look... tomorrow.
And by popular request, more photos
* As a former air cadet and Royal Observer Corp member, I'm much better at aircraft recognition although I'm somewhat behind the times with that (4 or 5 decades).
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A most pleasant distraction from the hospital bed. Those great pictures make me want to get up and run something.
