naugytrax

The flat sides and rectangular water-filler hole identifies it as a Hawksworth tender. This type of tender (except for those fitted to the 1000 Class Counties, which were wider) was interchangeable with the earlier 4000-gallon Collett design and could be seen running with Halls, Modified Halls, and Castles, having been swapped during servicing. However, the Kings, as a matter of prestige, each had their own dedicated (Collett) tenders and as far as I know no King ever ran with a Hawksworth tender. So no model was ever manufactured like this and the unprototypical pairing seen in your purchase must have been the work of a previous owner, perhaps by accident. Rather than look for a GWR King body to "match" the GWR tender, I'd dispose of the tender in favour of one more appropriate for a King. Incidentally, the Dapol County and Castle on which the Hornby models were originally based had Hawksworth tenders whose width (OO scale 8' 3") was a compromise between the County (8' 6") and Castle/Modified Hall (8' 0") types. I don't know about the more recent Hornby models.

Carelessness in manufacturing - or maybe desperation in time of shortage - was not unknown even in the good old days of Meccano Ltd. I used to own a Hornby-Dublo ex-lNER coach in red and cream livery which had been fitted at the factory with bogies belonging to the LMS coaches of the post-war period. Because the bogie types were of different lengths it didn't run quite right, but in my days of using tinplate track on a wobbly hardboard baseboard my expectations of stability were lower!

and all's well that ends well. Thanks for your efforts, gentlemen.

I followed your link and indeed there it is. Thanks. But since I log in from the US, I get by default the US version of the Website (https://us.hornby.com etc.) and there it isn't!

It's now the 5th of May (2022). You've not yet posted the May Calendar. Why not? Will it appear soon (when?) or do I have to search the Web for another railway-themed desktop calendar?

This model was built from a kit. Based on the clumsiness of the details, e.g. the thick boiler-bands, the body is a whitemetal casting. The wheels were made by Romford. It is not a Hornby product.

But the "double crossover" in Code 83, listed in the Walthers catalog, is a completely different beast from a "double slip" by Peco or anyone else. The double crossover is a pair of single crossovers between parallel tracks, one left-handed and the other right-handed, superimposed with a diamond crossing in the middle. See https://www.walthers.com/code-83-nickel-silver-track-6-turnout-double-crossover It's not equivalent at all. BTW, if ordering from Walthers, they carry the Atlas Code 83-to-100 transition rail joiners. It's not clear whether these compensate for the difference in rail height.

A model of Sir Topham Hat (originally known as The Fat Controller before the word "fat" became deprecated due to body-shame issues) is available from Bachmann (US) in their "Thomas and Friends" range.

96RAF's catalogue seems to be later than Howbi's, because it contains fully-diecast (no tinplate) wagons such as the BR 16T Mineral Wagon, a more recent introduction. However, the prices shown for the tinplate-bodied wagons are lower! (Something to do with Tri-ang entering the field?)

General Certificate of Education "S" level stood for "Scholarship". For students proceding to college, the various counties would award "County Scholarships" based on A-level results. But "State Scholarships" were worth more and were awarded to students who succeded at "S" level examinations, which were taken a year after the A-Levels.

If contemplating a second-hand purchase, you should be aware that early versions of this model (e.g. Airfix 54250-0) were fitted with plastic wheels, which are considered inferior to the metal wheels on the later Hornby versions. Also, initially there was only one running number produced, 6894 (or W 6894 W for the BR-liveried model) so to run a pair you might want to renumber one to 6895. I replaced the inner couplers on mine with American horn-hook types which dropped neatly into the Airfix coupler boxes, giving a better-looking spacing between the coaches with less slop than the tension-lock types. Ultimately I plan to fit proper close-couplers from Keen Systems, which will give an even tighter and more prototypical spacing. At that time I will remove the redundant buffers and replace the oddly-curved headstocks with straight ones. And I'll replace the outer headstocks too, fitting longer buffers. I've read that there is an error regarding windows and/or doors in the Guard's section, but that's not the sort of thing that bothers me when they're running around, so I'm not looking to get the (presumably correct) promised new release from Hornby!

The Postman mentioned EWS maroon. I've been committed for decades to using Floquil for repainting my stock, even though it's becoming very hard to get (and expensive) in many colours since manufacture stopped a few years ago. I recently got a bottle of Wisconsin Central Maroon, which I imagine to be identical to EWS maroon given that the WC was a major owner of EWS. EWS maroon looks to me (in photos) as being awfully close to BR maroon, and by dirtying the paint a little I get what seems to be a convincing shade. Any thoughts?

From the last type of MK II coaches onwards, the wheel diameter of the real thing was 3ft 0ins. So the correct OO model size is 12mm. 14mm wheels are too big and will foul the brake blocks. Hornby fitted 3-hole wheels to some coaches needing 12mm wheels. These are only appropriate for freight vehicles, but originally Hornby economized by manufacturing only 2 types of wheels. 12mm plain wheels are now available as R8096.

if someone sensible made them Like this? https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/cobalt-tiebar-labels-12-pack/

It's quite unlikely to find a DMU on a Class 1 train. I think "1A20" is a mistake here. I renumbered my Lima DMU with 2B(something) reporting number. This indicates a down train on the WR, i.e. heading West.