Train of the week is a new feature that were are starting in August 2018 and hope to feature every week subject to how manic it gets with new product launches. Of course it is subject to how succesful the concept is and on going sales from it but it is not just about that it is also about showing ideas and putting together locos, coaches and wagons from various manufacturers together into a realistic train. Most featured items are standard stock items and we can always recreate it again to customer's own specifications with either more or less items of rolling stock or even different liveries as required

As such even when completed and sold we will leave them on the list as inspiration for short, simple trains that you may want to tackle yourself or leave us to do for you subject to items still being available and a new "Train of the Week" should be added every Thursday and we intend changing the era and type of train to keep it fresh and different.

Rather than constantly increasing the size of this, we have now archived the Train of the Week features from 2018 which can be found through this link 2018 Train of the Week feature, 2019 through this link 2019 Train of the Week feature or for 2020 through this link 2020 Train of the Week feature

Cant believe we are now on to the forth year of doing this feature!

Something a little different this week inspired by the release of the Heljan Mk1 coaches and the update on the release of the Heljan Class 47 expected later in the year.

The Class 47 shown here is a custom conversion and complete repaint based on the original Class 47 that Heljan produced but a Netowork South East liveried Class 47 is one of the liveries that is being produced in the new batch that should be with us around Christmas 2021

The relatively small layout we usually use for photography simply would not do justice to the train with a total of eight of the Heljan Mk1 coaches in NSE livery and a good mix of versions within the rake.

These photographs are all courtesy of a customer and taken in his garden. The coaches come from Heljan un-numbered and these have not yet been either numbered or weathered as of yet.

At the same time these photographs were taken it seemed a shame not to photograph the same rake of coaches but being hauled by another iconic NSE loco with one of Heljan's award winning Class 50's that has been custom named, numbered and weathered.

We still have some of the Heljan Class 50's in stock in both BR blue with full yellow ends and both original and revised NSE liveries and there is a re-run of the Class 50 in other liveries expected later in the year.

The latest batch of Heljan Mk1 coaches are also on a mix of their new Commonwealth and B4 bogies which are also now available separately.

We are taking advance orders for both the Class 50 re-run and the Class 47's now for despatch as soon as they become available. We still have some examples of the first batch of the Class 50 available of the shelf and the Heljan Mk1 coaches are all in stock.

Details of the forthcoming Heljan Class 47's can be found through this link

Details of the remaining Heljan Class 50's can be found through this link

Details of the remaining Heljan Mk1 coaches can be found through this link

Bit of a last minute reminder for people with an ever popular pairing both of which are close to selling out. Here we have one of the BR crimson Autocoaches from Dapol along with a suitable Dapol BR black 14xx, both of which have been lightly weathered and are a prerfect match in time frame.

Over half of the liveries that was produced of the Autocoach are now available and the choice for the 48xx/14xx/58xx is even more limited.

These together make an iconic short western region BR set that even the smallest of layouts should have room to fit in at under 3 feet in length and a perfect for any branchline or suburban service.

Dapol have not announced a re-run of either of these yet but I am sure that there will be a re-run of both the Autotank and matching Autocoach for 2022.

Details of the remaining Dapol Autocoaches can be found through this link

Details of the remaining Dapol 48xx / 14xx and 58xx liveries can be found through this link

Thought I would get this up earlier than normal as it may be busy tomorrow and Friday with the arrival of the new Tower Models Exclusive O gauge platforms that are being produced by Bachmann Scenecraft for us. I was also concerned we might have the new Dapol South Wales coal trucks at the same time but thankfully they have confirmed these will be towards the end of next week now.

Last month saw the arrival of the first of the Dapol Mk1 coaches with the introduction of first two body types in the first two liveries to be released. Shown here are clean examples of both the maroon BSK Brake Second Corridor and SK Second Corridor coaches behind an all green example of the Heljan Class 45

The Class 45 shown here is one of the Tower Models Limited Edition Class 45's in original all green, without the small yellow panels. This is the only livery of this locomotive that is still available.

This set of three coaches was destined to be weathered and we thought it worthwhile showing the relatively clean coaches alongside a weathered locomotive before they were weathered.

Here we are showing just a pair of the coaches after being weathered with an image directly aboove it from a similar angle showing how the light weathering just takes the edge of the sheen of the coaches as new.

Change of loco though for the weathered train, this time with one of the Heljan Split headcode Class 37/0's in BR green with full yellow ends, which again is the last livery of this locomotive that is still available.

These Dapol coaches are a very good representation of the Mk1 and include lights as standard. There is also an option for DCC control of the lights if required. We still have some of the maroon BSK's available off the shelf but Dapol have now sold out of these themselves. Dapol expect the next batch of coaches in June and will be both the BSK and SK in crimson and cream and chocolate and cream liveries. After this they should complete first two body types with the blue grey versions. At this point the factory will change over to make the second two body types covering the SO Second Open and CK Composite Corridor coaches and fingers crossed should start with both the green and maroon versions of these. With 90 versions the launch of these is a mammoth task an understandable that is is going to take a while before they have all been released

Here is a link to the Dapol Mk1's Dapol Mk1 coaches

Here is a link to the Class 37/4 Heljan Class 37/0

Here is a link to the Class 45 Heljan Class 45

Subject to time next week we should have the next in this feature with a rake of the new Heljan BG's in blue grey livery.

Following on from the graffiti channel tunnel special we did on the 12th of February we have now completed our very last cargowagon in a simlar condition t the rake of wagons that was previously completed.

These are very unique pieces as they are very labour intensive and all hand painted by a professional graffiti artist who also happen to be a railway modeller.

This was sadly the very last of the Heljan IWB cargowagons that we had else I am sure we could of continued with a regular through put of this custom. With no further stocks it will certainly add to their rarity. This time we are showing it with one of the Tower Models limited edition Transrail Class 37/4 finishd as 47411 which was an un-named example but with both chrome double arrows and the Cardfiff Canton plaque. Again with though it a good contrast here between a prestine locomotive just out of the paint shops compared to the wagon which has seen some abuse.

With it being a single cargo wagon we have also shown both sides of it to display both sets of artwork featured. The cargowaggons were first introduced in 1977 and have also been weathered showing a little distress with their age. Futher images of examples of the Heljan cargowagons with graffiti can be seen if you scroll down to the last feature from the 12th of February which has 7 more examples of these.

Street Art or mindless vandalism, graffiti is a fact of life when it comes to the railways and can be seen on many a station approach on retaining wall or redundant stock left in sidings and is by no mean a new phenomenon having plagued the railways for many a year. Graffiti has always been something that has divided the model railway fraternity. I, myself, have always admired the skill of the artist but there is nothing worse than a poorly executed piece.

Heljan produced both the IWB cargowaggon and cargowaggon flat but sadly these are now sold out at Heljan. we do hope that they will one day re-run these but that is purely down to the demand and in these strange times it is unlikely they will be re-run anytime soon

Network Rail estimates more than 5 million pounds per year is wasted on cleaning up graffiti and feel we should also put this link British Transport Police and Graffiti and we do not encourage anyone to risk their lives around the railways or break the law to create graffiti.

Here is a link to the Class 37/4 Heljan Class 37/4

Next week we should start with a series of Train of the Weeks featuring first the Dapol Mk1's in BR maroon and then in later weeks several rakes of the Heljan Mk1's and GUV's which are currently being completed for customers.

About a month ago we starting thinking about all of the ICI wagons we have commissioned and how nice it would be if we had a suitable ICI industrial locomotive to go with them.

As a result we started researching hoping to find something suitable to go with the wagons for shunting on site. We did find a German style loco in red but not a Class 05 but similar enough for it to look right.

So here we are just showing various short shunting trains of the different types that we have produced, all custom weathered through the workshop.

The Tower Collection has also produced a kit for the Class 07 and we did find an example of this in ICI livery and they are going to finish one in this livery later in the year but as always with kit built locos this is going to take some time!

The Soda Ash wagons shown here are the first test samples for out Limited Editions 16 ton minerals from Dapol which are due for release in the second half of 2021.

Here is a link to the new Tower Models Limited Edition ICI Soda Ash wagons Tower Soda Ash wagons which are due for release later in the year.

Here is a link to the new Tower Models Limited Edition ICI wagons which are now available Tower ICI wagons

Here is also an outside link to the Tower Collection site for their Class 07 kit Tower Collection Class 07

We have been very busy for the last month with the sheer number of launches from both Heljan and Dapol. We are finally catching up with the backlog through the workshop and completing a large number of locos and coaches for customers.

As part of the recent Heljan Class 37/4 we produced the Tower Models Limited Edition Transrail livery which has been very popular. Although on paper Transrail only existed between 1994 and 1996 examples could still be found almost 15 years later. Mainline, Loadhaul and Transrail were all taken over by EWS but many locos remained in their respective liveries until they had an overhaul and were repainted into EWS livery.

The release of the Class 37/4 in Transrail livery got us thinking and firstly resulted in the announcement of a limited edition the Class 56 from Heljan.The second idea we had was as shown here, with the triple grey Class 08 from Dapol. Dapol produce both a numbered and un-numbered example of the Class 08 but both examples have the Stratford Cockney Sparrow emblem which needed to be removed. We have completed two examples so far, one as 08955 from South Wales which remained in this livery until 2007 when it was scrapped. The second is 08954 which was operating in the Warrington area around 2004 before being put into storage, both of which remained in this livery from the Transrail days.

Here we are showing them shunting some of the Dapol engineering Dutch Turbot wagons ready for the locomotive to take them away from the yard.

Then we thought just to finish off the series we would show one of the fully finished Class 37's in Transrail livery as 37411 that operated from Cardiff Canton to take the train away.

All the locomotives have been completed by the workshop and light to medium weathering applied to all items shown.

Here is a link to the recently released Heljan Class 37/4's. Several of the new liveries have already run out but we still have some liveries available.

Here is the link to the later bodied Dapol Class 08's There is not the option of the Transrail listed there as this is a custom livery through the workshop. We have two currently available but can do more if required.

Here is a link to the Dapol Turbots We still have stocks of both EWS and Dutch liveries available for immediate despatch having bought all remaining stocks that Dapol had of the Dutch liveried examples before Christmas.

We have also completed the next two weeks examples for Train of the Week so should be a problem for a while with new ideas.

I was hoping to get this short update done last week but the launch of both the Heljan Class 37/4 and Razoredge railcars meant that we were now able to find the time. Here we are showing one of the new Heljan Class 17's that was released a few weeks ago that we have numbered and weathered with a customer's choice of number anbd weathering.

The Heljan Class 17 should of been available last year and in preparation for the launch we commissioned Dapol to produce a limited edition set of Leith General Warehousing vans which were inspired by the iconic picture below.

We produced a total of eight different numbers for the wagons and only a total of 25 of each wagon. Here we are showing a set of seven that have all been custom weathered alongside the weathered loco Sadly there are very few of the Leith General Warehousing wagons left now and we can no longer do a full set of the 8 but we do have 7 differeent numbers still available.

The train looks very good and although not the length of the train in real photo looks very effective.

Here is a link to the wagons Leith General Warehouse wagons The standard models are clean but the workshop can custom weather the wagon as required.

We still have stocks of all versions of the Class 17 in stock but Heljan themselves have now sold out of them so once the stocks we have are gone we cannot replace them.Heljan Class 17 Link

Next week could be equally as bad with the expected launch of the Dapol southern green Mk1 coaches so no promises of a Train of the Week next week.

Well, I didnt think I would have the time to do a Train of the Week this week with the launch of the new Heljan Class 17 Claytons but we are waiting for these to clear customs which talking to them today may well be Wednesday next week as it is just a lottery to getting them cleared and released.

Two weeks ago we finally received the 1960's blue liveried ICI salt vans and the workshop have been working on the custom weathered examples for customers.

Above are shown all four number variants of the ICI salt van that we have done along with one of the new Tower Collection Class 07's which have now been released. The loco is £299.95 for the basic kit or £374.95 including wheels gears and motor. Sadly this example has not been weathered to match the wagons. The kit for this is only available directly from the Tower Collection as they have not factored in a trade margin and so can only supply them direct.

Secondly as we had completed for complete sets of the salt vans thought it would be nice to show a full rake rather than just a shunting scene

On this we have one of the Heljan Class 33's in BR green with small yellow panels that we have numbered and weathered for a customer.

Before Christmas we bought all remaining stocks of the most popular liveries of the Heljan Class 33, firstly to ensure we had continuing stock to last a while and secondly to get them into the country before the Brexit deadline to avoid any potential issues as at the time we did not know whether there was going to be a deal at all!

Here is a link to the new Tower Models Limited Edition ICI blue salt vans Tower Lime wagons

Here is a link to the new Heljan Class 33's Heljan Class 33's

Here is also an outside link to the Tower Collection site for their Class 07 kit Tower Collection Class 07

I am going to try to keep this as a regular feature again but in these strange times we have been very busy. Another issue is the lack of rolling stock currently available with so many items delayed in the latter half of 2020. Dapol have promised me that the ICI blue salt vans should be completed approximately two weeks time which will be a welcome addition but they too have been struggling with staffing in the last couple of weeks.

Another one this week in our special graffiti series that we have been working on since October last year when we did the Royal Mail graffiti special and once again this week is image intensive as we show off the work.

This time we have really pushed the limited of the little layout with a full rake of six wagons, so long that we could not show it as a single rake of wagons and instead are having to show one train passing another.

The IWB cargowaggons were produced to transport palletised cargo between Britain and Europe and since the channel tunnel opened in 1994 have become synonymous with freight traffic across the continent.

In the previous graffiti special we have recreated actual graffiti fromn around London but with the international flavour of the Cargowaggons we have here instead copied prices of graffiti from across Europe with pieces from Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

Street Art or mindless vandalism, graffiti is a fact of life when it comes to the railways and can be seen on many a station approach on retaining wall or redundant stock left in sidings and is by no mean a new phenomenon having plagued the railways for many a year. Graffiti has always been something that has divided the model railway fraternity. I, myself, have always admired the skill of the artist but there is nothing worse than a poorly executed piece.

Heljan produced both the IWB cargowaggon and cargowaggon flat but sadly these are now sold out at Heljan. we do hope that they will one day re-run these but that is purely down to the demand and in these strange times it is unlikely they will be re-run anytime soon. The locos featured here are also Heljan with both a Class 37/4 in EWS that we have fully finished through the workshop and are currently available from us and also one of the Heljan Class 60. The Class 60's are not currently available but Heljan have announced a re-run of these for later in the year and we are taking advance orders for these now including our own Limited Edition Coal Sector liveried example. There is also a new production run of the Class 37/4 with new liveries is expected in th next month that also includes our Limited Edition Transrail liveried example.

The cargowaggons were first introduced in 1977 and have also been weathered showing a little distress with their age. We have turned the wagons round half way through the photography to show the opposite sides of each vehicle with a couple of them only having graffiti on one side for a bit of variety. Every one of them is unique and all of them have been hand painted onto the vehicles.

The fact they they are all different also makes you think there are more of them than there actually is and would be nice to see them going round a large layout.

As it happens this set of six has a new home now and will be seen at Preston club so once restrictions are over I will be going do to the club one day to see our handywork in motion.

Network Rail estimates more than 5 million pounds per year is wasted on cleaning up graffiti and feel we should also put this link British Transport Police and Graffiti and we do not encourage anyone to risk their lives around the railways or break the law to create graffiti.

I was chuffed with how these have turned out so I have taken the very last one of the cargowaggons we had in stock to do another one, ironically it is one of what Heljan called their "graffiti" example, well this last one is going to very much more graffiti when we have finished with it and will be for sale in approximnately 3 weeks time. I really must try and find a figure to go on the layout of a cleaner with bucket and sponge, preferably crying!

Here is a link to the Class 37/4 Heljan Class 37/4

Here is a link to the forthcoming Class 60 models Heljan Class 60 re-run

We are taking advance orders for these now for despatch as soon as they become available.

Not really a train this week but something that has been completed through the workshops this week for a customer. Here is the The BR U1 2-8-0 0-8-2 Garrett that has been built from the Gladiator kit with Slaters wheels and two of the ABC gearbox motor units. The customer wanted it in clean finish although I would of prefered a bit of weathering myself.

The London and North Eastern Railway Class U1 was the solitary 2-8-0+0-8-2 Beyer-Garratt locomotive designed for banking coal trains over the Worsborough Bank, a steeply graded line in South Yorkshire and part of the Woodhead Route. It was both the longest and the most powerful steam locomotive ever to run in Britain. It was built in 1925 with the motion at each end being based on an existing 2-8-0 design. The original number was 2395, and it was renumbered 9999 in March 1946, and then 69999 after nationalisation in 1948.

Here she is shown in here later life as operating on the Lickey Incline. on the Ex LMS Bristol-Birmingham route to supplement the existing 0-10-0 banker nicknamed "Big Bertha". Initially she worked chimney-first, but after difficulty in buffering up to passenger trains, she was turned to run cab-first up the bank and an electric headlight was fitted. Despite this the crew had great problems with visibility from the cab, particularly after dark, and the U1 returned to Mexborough in November 1950 and was officially placed in storage there.

In February 1951 the U1 was again banking on the Worsborough Bank and continued doing so into 1952 then was briefly placed in store before being sent to Gorton locomotive works for work in preparation for a return to the Lickey Incline. She stayed at Gorton for three years while several different attempts were made to convert her to oil burning and an improved electric headlight was also fitted. In June 1955 she resumed work on the Lickey Incline, but was stored at Bromsgrove on 13 September and returned to Gorton the following month. She was officially withdrawn on 23 December 1955 and was subsequently taken to Doncaster Works and cut up during early 1956 having travelled around 425,000 miles (684,000 km) during her 30 years.

This was a special commission but we still can undertake these sort of jobs to a customer's requirements but this has taken also a year from start to finish to complete.

Last one with the new Tower Models range of ICI 5 plank lime and alkalid wagons for a while.

This time we are showning the lime and alkalid wagons in very late condition featuring some replacement planks along with the custom weathering. The very nature of the lime meant that the load could rot the planks and often they had to be replaced

As well as the standard weathering we have added a little whitewashing to the area of the doors as often these could end up almost white in appearance with regular use.

The loco is a secondhand one that came in before Christmas. It is one of the Bachmann Brassworks 2-6-4 4MT's that was traded in. The loco had been untouched and was as new and we have put it through the workshop for fully finishing as 80126 on a 6E shedplate in BR late crest livery with a light weathering. These are a very rare piece and it is for sale but I expect to find it a new home very quickly.

To finish off the train we have used one of the Dapol BR brake vans that we have custom weathered. These are currently sold out at Dapol but we have half a dozen BR grey examples left that we have weathered; one in the 1950's livery and four in the 1960's livery and one in the BR post TOPS livery. Dapol are talking about re-running the BR brake vans but no indications as to when this will be at this stage.

Here is a link to the Dapol BR brake vans Dapol BR Standard 20ton Brake Vans

Here is a link to the new Tower Models Limited Edition ICI 5 plank wagons Tower Lime wagons

I am going to try to keep this as a regular feature again but in these strange times we have been very busy. Another issue is the lack of rolling stock currently available with so many items delayed in the latter half of 2020. Dapol have promised me that the ICI blue salt vans should be completed approximately two weeks time which will be a welcome addition but they too have been struggling with staffing in the last couple of weeks.

Well it was a very busy end to the year and then a well earned Christmas break for all of us here. Amongst the new items received just before Christmas was our set of ICI Lime and Alkalid 5 plank wagons and we have now had chance to custom weather some of these for sale after completing all customer advance orders for these before Christmas.

For a change we are featuring a steam engine for a change with one of the Tower Collection Black Five models that has just been completed through the workshop alongisde the rake of wagons all of which have been weathered. These all represent Buxton Lime wagons 5 plank and these cover the 1950's with the Lime Division wording and then the 1960's with the Alkali Division wording with a total of 5 number options of each being produced, as always in limited numbers.

The 1950's liveried wagons feature the words "Lime Division" but then in the 60's this was changed to "Alkalid Division". You can obviously use the Lime Division letter wagons well into the 1960's though mixed in alongside the Alkalid Division wagons. Here we have shown them with a degree of a whitewashing effect from the lime around the side doors as part of the custom weathering . There is another set being completed through the workshop which will feature a good number of replacement planks representing these in their very final days but more of this with a later feature on here.

We have now completed a few full sets of the ICI Lime wagons for stock having completed all of the advance orders for these before Christmas. The full set of ten wagon is approximately 52 inches in length so a good number of wagons in a relatively short space. These can be bought individually if required or as a full set. The BR late crest Black Five is a kit built model which has recently been completed by the workshop from the Tower Collection range of kits

Here is a link to the fully finished locos that are available off the shelf for immediate despatch RTR locos available off the shelf We do not generally put kit built loco on here though as they usually sell so fast. The only other kit built loco we currently have a BR green late crest rebuilt Patriot 45529 "Stephenson" from a Gladiator kit that the workshop completed at the same time as the Black Five but in clean finish @£1750.00

Here is a link to the new Tower Models Limited Edition ICI 5 plank wagons Tower Lime wagons

I am going to try to keep this as a regular feature again but in these strange times we have been very busy. Another issue is the lack of rolling stock currently available with so many items delayed in the latter half of 2020. Dapol have promised me that the ICI blue salt vans should be completed approximately two weeks time which will be a welcome addition.