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Railroad Sparrow Hawk & Bulleid Merchant Navy in BR Blue


Choobacca

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As the title says, I'd really like to see a Railroad version of the A4 'Sparrow Hawk' in BR Blue aswell as the Bulleid 'Merchant Navy' in BR blue. If there was a Railroad 'Sparrow Hawk' then I hope that the handrails on the cab could match the ones on the tender. I believe that the Railroad' Falcon' cab uses molded handrails and the tender has separate metal ones. Personally, I'd have liked just molded handrails on both :-)
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  • 4 weeks later...
Experimental and early BR blue was intended ONLY for locomotives in power class 8P, thus the LNER A1, A2, A3 and A4, LMSR Princess and Princess Coronation, GWR King, and SR Merchant Navy classes were the only ones to received blue livery, and all the rest

of the express passenger classes were painted dark green. The West Country class went directly from Malachite green to Dark Green, and many of the later ones actually appeared new in dark green. Being in class 7P5F they did not qualify for blue. However blue

was quickly rejected by the Railway Executive as unstable and difficult to keep looking smart, and by 1953 ALL express passenger locomotives were painted dark green lined orange and black. The Merchant Navy class retained their air smoothed appearance until

1956 when they were progressively rebuilt, the last being done in 1959/1960. The general outcome of this was -

Only Air Smoothed Merchant Navy class locomotives appeared in blue during BR days.

No Battle of Britain or West Country class locomotives

were painted blue by BR.

Port Line WAS painted in BR blue in preservation for a short period. It was never this colour when originally rebuilt or throughout its period of BR service.

There has been a model of Port Line in this colour but I cannot

remember whether it was the Hornby model, or one of the Wrenn multi-coloured offerings.
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Hi LC&DR

I didn't know about Port line but can confirm 35005 Canadian Pacific ran on the Mid-Hants in Blue. (Just checked in my photo collection)

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  • 1 month later...
I agree have never seen Port Line in BR blue but do have a Canadian Pacific which i have wired for DCC. I must say i have heard rumors going around from several sources that Hornby are planning to make a Merchant Navy with DCC sound next year. I really

hope they do as the sound locos are really great. I have the green class 08 and the schools class St Pauls
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It's good isn't it could listen to the sounds of that one going around all day!. I have only got a select controller though, so i don't get all 12 of the sounds available only the first 8. Still think it sounds great though. The little shunter is good

as well. As i said before i hope hornby make a sound Merchant Navy, as have only seen one done by Hawes sounds and wasn't that impressed, as the loco had slipping when it pulled away as one of the sounds and it looked wrong when the loco whells weren't even

turning but it sounded like it was trying to gain traction
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Even my wife was impressed!

Now what WOULD be good would be a DCC sound fitted SR EMU (2Bil, 4Cor, or similar) with the unique sounds of that class of train. The westinghouse air pump chugging away in the station after a stop, the sharp click as

the contactors change when accelerating away, the whine of the EE traction motors, the rattle of the current collector shoes. Also a spark flash generator (blue/white LED?)on the motor bogies. The beauty of these older SR units is that instead of roller blinds

that have to be fixed in the factory, or require the body to be removed to change them, the SR units had stencils that could be clipped to the headcode display panel. Now that is a challenge to Hornby (or somebody else!!)
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Rotterdam Lloyd was planned for

the first Golden Arrow set but it was changed to the SR BoB when someone told them the Pullmans were wrong for the BR late green period,
Great pity. I could have lived with that.

Now we have to persuade Hornby to do the 1951 Golden Arrow Pullmans

with square windows.
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Poliss, that is like saying a Fowler 4MT tank engine is like a Stanier one, just because it has the same number of wheels! It never stopped Hornby making models of both. The original Southern EMUs had domed ends over the driving cab, and were rebuilt from

steam suburban stock so they had nice panelled bodysides, or they were built new to Maunsell's stylish Art Deco carriage designs with huge corridor windows. The BR designs were basic Mark 1s with motors underneath. Crude and ugly. No contest!

In one

of Hornby's earlier catalogues they actually substituted a picture of a rake of their green Mark 1 loco hauled carriages on top of a BR official picture of a 4Cep, passing over the level crossing at Stone between Sittingbourne and Faversham, with a party of

train spotters waving at the train. (I actually bought these very gates when the crossing was modernised in 1975 and gave them to a heritage railway). The loco hauled Mark 1s were only disinguishable by the lack of driving cab windows.
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  • 2 months later...
Hi, I have a blue coloured rebuilt Merchant Navy Class and it looks and runs great. Was made by Hornby a few years ago. I understand the blue livery applied is as running when preserved which is fine for me. She pulls many of my steam specials amongst

the blue diesels. I have just got my local model shop to install a DCC sound decoder and it now sounds great too. Lovely.

I understand Wrenn did produce blue locos too as noted above.

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Late reply - The 'U' class cars were 'all steel' cars running on LNER bogies (and underframes) with rectangular lavatory windows instead of the more usual oval ones. They were built new for the 1951 'Golden Arrow'
Cars included 'Aries', 'Perseus',

'Cygnus', 'Hercules', 'Pegasus', 'Aquila', 'Orion', 'Carina' and 'Car No 303'. They ran with 'K' class cars 'Minerva' 'Car No 35', and 'Car No 208', and reconditioned 'K' car 'Phoenix', although not at one time. Oddly enough Hornby Dublo actually modelled

the 'U' class car 'Aries' with the correct bogies and windows, albeit a trifle under scale length.

A model of the 'Golden Arrow' train with a BR liveried Merchant Navy, a Britannia, a Light Pacific or a Class 71 would be incorrect without 'U' class

cars in the make-up.
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