Following a recent significant life event that happens but once per year a couple more items of rolling stock have found their way to the model railway, so I thought I would add some photos of them to the blog.

Hatton’s Railhead Treatment Train

First up is the Hatton’s Railhead Treatment wagons.  These are the first “own brand” type models that I’ve bought where the lead on the design and manufacture is done by a retailer rather than a traditional model manufacturer.  However despite that they are incredible models in their own right.

I first spotted these when Hatton’s first announced that they were going to make them and was interested by them at that point, so very happy now to have a set to run on the layout.  In a slightly unusual choice for me I’ve gone with the weathered look rather than the clean version.  Having looked at both, I came to the conclusion that while passenger trains and steam locos are cleaned regularly, engineering trains are not, so actually the weathered version is far more accurate.

On un-boxing once again with a modern model I was surprised by the amount of detail in the models, to the point where I almost had trouble handling the units and getting them onto the layout as I was worried about breaking them.  The other thing that I noticed was the weight in the base units as they are made from metal, so weigh more than I’m used to for wagons.

Once on the layout I reached for a Lima EWS Class 47 that was readily to hand, and to my surprise I discovered the weight of the wagons was such that the Class 47 couldn’t actually pull them.  This is the first time I’ve ever seen a loco sit there and spin it’s wheels when attempting to pull a train.  So I moved up to the recent addition of the Class 68 which as well as being more representative of real life also managed to pull it fine.

Hornby R1072 Flying Scotsman

Since the layout is rooted in the North Yorkshire area somewhere near York, and has a mix of both local and east coast mainline trains appearing then a Flying Scotsman is a logic choice to make an appearance.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for one on and off over the last couple of years, but not really doing anything about it and there have been higher priorities for new rolling stock.  However more recently it’s crept up the list and I’ve been keeping an eye out for possible options.

In the end I’ve gone with an older set off Ebay was what in good condition.  This gives me a good quality loco which has a DCC socket in it so I can convert easily in the future, as well as three carriages and the usual bits of track and controller.  While I’m not really interested in the last couple of items, the rolling stock was what I’m after and they are good.