[Gary]

A once in a lifetime railway spectacular was held at Crewe Works over the weekend of 10/11th September. Featuring over 50 guest locomotives the line up of steam locomotives included Flying Scotsman, Duke of Gloucester, Duchess of Sutherland, Duchess of Hamilton, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret Rose, Olton Hall (Hogwarts Express), Union of South Africa and Battle of Britain Tangmere. There were areas of the 23 acre site devoted to modern outline locomotives and the majority of diesel and electric classes had a representative present.

The line up of 5 Stanier locomotives side by side was the show highlight for many visitors.

Model Rail Forum have prepared an exclusive gallery of show images. Visit the gallery to get a flavour of the show:-

Model Rail Forum Crewe Show Picture Gallery

The Hornby Roadshow was present and full to overflowing for most of the day. Hornby unveiled their new Stanier coaches which look absolutely stunning. The new Hornby Class A1/A3 also had its first public outing and Hornby's Simon Kohler revealed that the first examples of this model are due to hit our shores in 2 weeks time. There were plenty of model railway stalls to peruse with bargains to be had. Bearing in mind that this is LMS Stanier territory, Hornby Bulleid Q1 locomotives were going on one stall for £49.50. A rare Lima Class 37 police locomotive was being offered for £80.

It was a great day out enjoyed by everybody who attended and it is very unlikely that an event of such magnitude will ever be seen again in Great Britain.

Happy modelling
Gary

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The show was sponsored by Hornby, Jessops and Heritage Railways:-

www.hornbyrailways.com

www.heritagerailway.co.uk

www.jessops.com

www.creweopendays.co.uk

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[Gary]

Hornby only normally have recent releases or future models on display in the roadshow wagon.

One thing I am going to say that may be slightly controversial.

The sight of all these distinguished locomotives proves to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that British outline steam locomotives are the purest, best looking, steam locomotives in the world!

None of that messy mass of external pipework running all over the boilers and virtually hiding the boiler in many cases as seen on American and European steam locomotives.

Just pure and simple lines.

Yes, I know the Americans like their things big and nothing comes bigger than a Rivarossi Big Boy. But big is not necessarily beautiful.

And to make matters even better for British outline steam modellers the locomotives have romantic names that make you think of clotted cream teas in Devon, or provide nostalgic reminders of British history, or remind you of the people that fashioned this island. Does any other country in the world offer this for its railway modellers?

That British railway modellers have the good fortune to be able to operate and collect such fine looking locomotives make us a very fortunate bunch of folk indeed.

It is simply going to be impossible for anybody to say otherwise!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Gary]

The Cambrian Coast Express is the loco featured in the link below, Foxcote Manor:-

http://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/stock/steam/7822.html

The Manor class of GWR loco was one of the primary class of locomotives used for the "Cambrian Coast Express". This was because of its relative light weight to power ratio. The light weight was required to get across Britains longest timber trestle bridge at Barmouth which was/is weight restricted.

The link below has a lot of images of the approach to the bridge and one or two good ones of the bridge itself. It also features many of the sights visible from the Cabrian Coast Express along this section of the route:-

Coast Walk Fairbourne to Harlech

As you can guess I am a fanatic of that bridge and walk along it several times a year!

The loco 61264 is a Thompson Class B1 in BR livery which has its own website featured in the link below:-

http://www.thompsonb1.org.uk/

As you can see locomotives visited the show from far and wide.

Hope this helps.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Gary]

Hi Northern Chief. Welcome to Model Rail Forum. I have checked the original image which is much clearer.

The headboard is "The Great Briton" with the flags of Scotland, England and Wales in the shields above.

There is also a crest above the buffer beam of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Appropriate considering the cricket!

Images do have to be compressed at Model Rail Forum for the internet else they would take ages to load even with broadband. We do our best to compromise between speed and clarity. Give me 10 minutes and I will post a close up of the front of the loco here in a higher resolution!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Gary]

Happy modelling
Gary