TERMINAL 1

FLYING DOWN TO HUCCLECOTE

However, while fresh chestnuts were keeping the cobwebs at bay on the layout itself, new rolling stock and airside vehicles were being acquired and a theme developed that would unite apron and tracks more strongly than ever before.

Similarly, although no N gauge low relief hangar frontages were found to replace the simple blue sky, 220 002 "Forth Voyager" became operational again - and was joined by a Cross Country liveried HST set.  Other new rolling stock included carriage rakes for diesel push-pull operations, multiple units and a surprisingly topical steam locomotive.

First of all though an infrastructure upgrade featured a new and more robust black on yellow plastic Welcome sign - supplied by Contract Sign Services of Churchdown and pictured above - to replace the original white version which was starting to blister and so disclose the practical size limit of paper signage.

The extra layer of rear wall applied to Platform 1 seen below meanwhile was made of wooden moulding from B&Q and  painted white.  This was to counteract the tendency of the "tarmac" (in reality, fine abrasive paper)  platform surface to curl up at the edges and also added a smoother, more stylish and - I think realistic - finish to the platform environment.  Lamp standards could thus be recessed out of the way of passenger flows and the low walls could also themselves be upgraded in the future with appropriate scale advertisements or even doorways accessing rooms and tunnels under the airport apron

Happily, Clive Reid was able to supply me with a Graham Farish model of 46244 "King George VI" in lined Brunswick Green livery - as carried by all Princess Coronation 4-6-2s from August 1955 to December 1957 - although this did leave the problem that 46244 itself was scrapped in the 1960s, 46229 "Duchess of Hamilton" has from 2009 been restored to full pre-War streamlining at the National Railway Museum and 46235 "City of Birmingham" is now on static display at ThinkTank in Birmingham itself.

However, a major overhaul of 46233 "Duchess of Sutherland" was completed in January 2012 with an official rollout day for the new BR lined green livery scheduled - at the time of writing - for Saturday 3 March at the Midland Railway in Derbyshire.  Given that a number of other preserved British steam locomotives have recently been running disguised as scrapped classmates - most notably 60019 "Bittern" representing 4492 "Dominion of New Zealand" - then renumbering the sole operational Princess Coronation as 46244 and fixing some replica plates to the side of the boiler would not require a great leap of imagination.

2012 also marks 60 years since the death of Britain's last Emperor, whose struggle to unite his subjects in the face of Nazi aggression despite a very unfortunate speech impediment was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film "The King's Speech."

However, although well proven and reliable, the medium speed 16SVT offered acceleration only a little better than equivalent steam locomotives due to the weight of the rest of the Class 40s - built on traditional steam era lines with heavy bogies and chassis. 

The first of ten prototype English Electric Type 4s, D200, made its well-documented demonstration run was from London Liverpool Street to Norwich on 18 April 1958 and behind the scenes careful diagramming enabled Class 40s to achieve weekly averages of 3 600 to 3 900 miles over former Great Eastern metals, 50% higher than the best steam locomotives being replaced while Great Northern diagrams on longer haul services from King's Cross averaged even higher weekly averages of approximately 4 500 miles.  This was despite many early diesel locomotives being maintained in grimy conditions alongside steam locomotives and being fitted with unreliable steam heating boilers.

After their initial success on such prestigious trains as The Flying Scotsman and The Master Cutler, a further 190 EE Type 4s were ordered in several batches and allocated, among other areas, to upgrading passenger services on the West Coast Main Line.  Beginning with D210 in May 1959, these were built at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows although D305 to D324 were erected at the Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn factory in Darlington, thus allowing capacity at Vulcan for manufacture of the 22 production Deltics.

The early batches up to D324 - including D305, seen below at Birmingham New Street, and D252, later 40 052 - carried four white marker lights and white background discs in steam locomotive style on their nose-ends to identify the type of train being hauled.

 D325 to D344 meanwhile carried two two-digit headcode describers to identify the exact train being operated and all English Electric Type 4s up to D344 also had interconnecting gangway doors at the nose-ends to allow crew changes en-route when two locomotives were working in multiple.

Finally, D345 to D399 featured a central four-digit headcode panel but no interconnecting doors, giving a much neater appearance. Some Scottish disc-headcode locos were modified to follow this design in the 1960's, having their disc indicators removed, nose end doors plated over, and the four digit centre-headcode panel installed.

Twenty five of the class carried the names of famous ocean going liners on cast brass plates, signifying the importance of passenger workings to and from Liverpool although as Class 40s became displaced by later and more powerful diesel electrics these very beautiful and collectable plates were removed during the 1970s.  Indeed, after West Coast Main Line electrification south of Crewe and the introduction of Class 50s north from there to Glasgow in 1967, Class 40s were more often found on passenger trains in North Wales and elsewhere on freight workings.

However, on 1 July 1969 216 "Campania" and 233 "Empress of England" double headed the Royal Train from Euston to Caernarfon for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, although after 1977 a new Royal Train comprising Mark III carriages demanded locomotives with electric train heating.

Less favoured was D326 / 40 126 which on Boxing Day 1962 was hauling the up Midday Scot when it collided with the rear of a Liverpool to Birmingham express due to driver error, killing 18 passengers and injuring 33.

On 8 August 1963 it was hauling 1M44,  the overnight West Coast Postal, with Jack Mills at the controls when the Great Train Robbery occurred at Sears Crossing, Buckinghamshire. In 1964 a secondman was electrocuted by the overhead wire while working outside the loco and in 1965 the loco suffered total brake failure on the approach to Birmingham New Street. Luckily in this case, the train was diverted into another platform at the last minute by a quick-thinking signalman, and smashed into the back of a freight train, injuring only the guard.  After finishing its days at Wigan Springs and Carlisle Kingmoor depots, 40 126 was scrapped at Doncaster in 1984.

40 052 was introduced to traffic at York in December 1959, withdrawn from Manchester Longsight in June 1983 and cut up at Crewe in October that year although D200 and a number of other Class 40s have been preserved.

This was largely achieved by my fictitious InterCity Swallow rake and Dapol's Wrexham & Shropshire book set ticked all the boxes, as did the Chirk offering of Virgin Train's Mark III DVT (82126), two First Opens (11007 - seen below - and 11048) and 57 301 "Scott Tracy": pictured above and acquired by way of my good friend Paul Elliot.  Matching Trailer Standard Opens numbered 12078 and 12133 are also available separately from Dapol.

Including spare vehicles, the WB64 "Pretendolino" set comprised Driving Van Trailers 82126 and 82101, First Opens 11007, 11018 and 11048, catering vehicles 10212 and 10217, Trailer Standard Opens 12011, 12078, 12133 and 12138 and Trailer Standard Open (Disabled Toilet) 12122.

In practical terms, the three First Class vehicles provided seating for 143 with another 18 First Class seats available in the RFM and 374  seats in the remaining five Standard Class vehicles.

As well as an silver external livery and LED central door locking indicators very similar to the Class 390s, the WB64 carriages were given new internal doors, carpets, laminated glazing, more reliable air conditioning, re-upholstered seating, power points and wi-fi access.

The hard-to-obtain 125 mph capable rolling stock was also made available for charter work and was even used for the final sequences of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II" where it appeared on the big screen at Kings Cross station. 

As such, its presence at Terminal 1 would be entirely believable with 57 301 although a hired-in Freightliner Class 90 was initially used by Virgin Trains on its Friday night relief workings out of Euston. 

As more fully described in the feature on 57 315, increasing Pendolino reliability from 2008 allowed Virgin's original 16 "Thunderbird" Class 57s to be reduced to just six with half a dozen GM engined locomotives going to Network Rail for Southern Region de-icing trains and a further four - 57 313 to 57 316 - being  sub let to Arriva Trains Wales and rebranded for use on Holyhead-Crewe-Cwmbran-Cardiff "Gerald of Wales" services subsidised by the Welsh Assembly Government.

These diesel-electrics could either be operated by a crew at each end, by one crew controlling both locomotives through multiple unit wiring (if available) or with just one locomotive operational at one time - the locomotive at the other end of the formation being hauled as a dead load when not being used to reverse the direction of the train.

As far back as April 2004 Fragonset owned 31 454 and 452 were topping and tailing Friday-only trains of "Raspberry Ripple" Mark II stock between Bristol and Brighton ( returning to Cardiff ) on behalf of Wessex Trains while similar Fragonset "Goyles" were operating in the North West and EWS Class 37/4s were powering Arriva Northern Knaresborough-Leeds-Carlisle services.

Another example of this in 2010 was the 1103 First Great Western service from Taunton via Bristol to Cardiff formed of ex Virgin Trains 57/3s hired from GBRf sandwiching debranded Anglia Mark II carriages hired from Riviera Trains. 

Despite being cleaned and maintained at Cardiff, these trains - made necessary by a shortage of diesel multiple units - were stabled at weekends on the West Somerset Railway and their arrival displaced the EWS / DB Schenker Class 67s and Cargo D Mark IIs employed from early 2009 to new Cardiff-Bristol-Taunton diagrams. 

Although 57 301 would look equally at home on these four-car Taunton-Cardiff trains as at one end of the Pretendolino, acquiring the debranded Anglia Mark IIs proved to be more problematic with not only N gauge Mark II carriages seeming to be in short supply but Amsies vinyl overlays supplying only the full Anglia TOC markings. 

As no Anglia blue paint was available either, my friend David Phillips - skilled at repainting rolling stock - suggested that he apply some Wessex Trains pink vinyls to three Great Western Trains liveried donor carriages instead.  These vinyls included Westbury-Weymouth Heart of Wessex line branding and comprised representations of Brake Standard Open 9525 and Through Standard Open 6173: making a contrast to Wessex Trains Alphaline 158 746 "Spirit of the South West" described elsewhere on this website.

The 1960s vintage Mark IIs were used to relieve overcrowded multiple units on Bristol-Weymouth trains in the summer of 2006 but in 2011 both 6173 and 9525 were listed in the Platform 5 Combined Motive Power book as being based at Barrow Hill near Chesterfield, painted in BR Blue and Grey livery and owned and operated by Cargo-D.  6173 was also recorded as having been fitted with Blue Star multiple unit wiring.

As well as supporting Wrexham and Shropshire, First Great Western and First ScotRail, from August 2008 Cargo-D also promoted its own Rail-Blue Charters. The inaugural trip saw 55022 "Royal Scots Grey" haul the ‘Hope Valley Executive’ on a circular lunch trip from Crewe to Sheffield on 9 August. However, as scheduled service customers waned and technical problems led to the cancellation of a number of railtours, Cargo-D went into administration in October 2011.

From a modelling point of view, the existence and use of Cargo-D's fleet of carriages painted in the blue and grey of pre-1982 British Rail gave a new lease of life to a number of otherwise increasingly-archaic Mark III carriages that Paul Elliot was keen to dispose of prior to the release of new Dapol HST sets.

These included Trailer First 41015 ( above - now really part of a FGW HST) and Trailer Restaurant Unclassified Buffet 40301(below - now 40701 on the East Coast) as well as a number of Trailer Standard and Trailer Guard Standard vehicles which can now be formed into new push-pull rakes for use on Terminal 1.
 

As built by Brush from 1962, the basic Class 47 design had a pair of fuel tanks with a combined capacity of 720 gallons.  This was adequate for mixed traffic working when short distance diagrams usually followed longer journeys.  After Sectorisation in the early 1980s however, the 47/4s allocated to InterCity were required to haul consecutive long distance trains and to do this efficiently the Type 4 Co-Cos needed extra range between refuelling.

Class 47 locomotives with 1 220 gallon fuel capacities had been in service with Scotrail since 1979 - powering push-pull trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh - and the final 16 conversions from 47/0 to 47/4 specification had similarly been fitted with extra 500 gallon tanks.  This latter group of locomotives - 47 650 to 47 665 - were to form the foundation of the 47/8 sub class, sanctioned by InterCity early in 1989.

In all, 53 machines were upgraded at Doncaster by either RFS Industries or British Rail Maintenance Ltd with the space formerly occupied by a boiler water vessel was filled by a 500 gallon H-shaped fuel tank.  This configuration avoided moving the starter motor batteries and the two existing tanks fed into the new receptacle via balance pipes.  From the new H-shaped tank fuel was pumped directly to the Sulzer engine.

The last 47/4 to be converted - 47 556 - was outshoppped as 47 844 in May 1990 but using the new 47/8s intensively on long distance passenger trains meant that more frequent maintenance to tyres, wheel sets, brake blocks and traction motors was needed compared to their Railfreight cousins.  This compounded the already high cost of running these old locomotives which were finally phased out by the privatized successor to InterCity Cross Country, Virgin Trains, in 2002.

By then however Direct Rail Services had been founded as the rail movement arm of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd ( and is now controlled by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority ), having been granted a licence to operate freight trains over the national railway network from 1995 and passenger trains from 1997. 

As flasks loaded with spent nuclear fuel need to be taken to Sellafield for reprocessing from locations all over Britain, DRS train crews have extensive route knowledge which in turn gives Direct Rail Services the ability to tender for much other freight work - such as container and scrap metal flows - and a range of passenger services.

On 12 February 2008 an inaugural tour of the Southern Region after DRS and Eddie Stobart took over Hertfordshire Railtours saw 47 802 "Pride of Cumbria" top and tail the rake of Mark II and Mark III Stobart Pullman carriages with 47 712 "Pride of Carlisle" while on Saturday 11 May 2011 VSOE Northern Belle carriages formed service 5Z48 from Crewe to Bath Spa via Churchdown, Gloucestershire powered by Direct Rail Services locomotives 47 832 "Solway Princess" and 47 712 "Pride of Carlisle".  Indeed, from 25 August 2011 47 832 "Solway Princess" joined fellow DRS machine 47 790 "Galloway Princess" in being painted in the Northern Belle's chocolate and cream colours.

Most famously though, DRS trains top and tailed by Class 47 and 37 locomotives provided a link between two halves of the Cumbrian town of Workington in November 2009 when the railway bridge was the only one not swept away by the flooded River Derwent.

Following purchase of freight operations in the UK by Wisconsin Central, trading as EWS, the quest began for a high-speed diesel locomotive as a direct replacement for the Class 47/7. Having ordered 250 Class 66s from General Motors, EWS planned to adapt this design, with a high-speed bogie suitable for 125 mph operation, with the provision of electric train supply . However, during the design stage, it was discovered that no suitable off-the-shelf high-speed Co-Co bogie was available, and EWS was thus forced to change its aspirations and go for a high-speed Bo-Bo .

General Motors was awarded the contract for 30 locos, designated Class 67 but GM's lack of experience in dealing with high-speed diesel traction in America, together with tight lead times, led to construction being sub-contracted to long-time partners Alstom in Valencia, Spain.

The Class 67 design shared the same 3 200 bhp two stroke engine as the Class 66, together with much internal equipment, but a total change was made in structural design. While the Class 66 employed a common underframe on which component modules were fitted, the Class 67 had a full load-bearing structure more like the 1962 vintage Brush Class 47. 

However, the Class 67 did break new ground for production diesel locomotives in having a new design of coupling.  Known as a Swinghead Automatic Buckeye Combination Coupler, this device combined a standard draw-hook with a US-style knuckle , which could be swung into position for use when needed.  The Spanish built Bo-Bos were also the first two-cab diesel locomotive class to be used in Britain with a one-piece windscreen for excellent driver visibility.

Looking at the Class 67 from the outside meanwhile, the cooler group grilles can be identified as being part way up the ribbed body side with the gold section of the EWS livery underneath them.  On the front of the locomotive, the air horns are on either side of the triangulation front marker light above the windscreen while below it the two RCH jumper cables (used for controlling Postal PCV trailers) flank the AAR socket used to connect the cables ( stored in the engine room ) used for working Class 67s in multiple.

The 30 strong Class 67 was assembled at Valencia factory from 1999 to 2000 with pre-delivery high speed running trials being carried out by 67 002 in the company of a RENFE Class 252 electric engine on the standard gauge Alto Velocidad Espagnol line between Madrid and Alstom's high speed train maintenance works at La Sagra.

67 003 however was the first to be delivered to the UK, arriving at Newport Docks in early October 1999 with all 30 locomotives following by Spring 2000 although gauge and weight issues meant that acceptance trials on Railtrack did not commence until December 1999.

Similarly, certification for 125 mph running came in mid 2001 only after changes to the initial bogie design although the Class 67s soon found themselves busy on the Royal train, postal services, charters (with top and tail workings including rugby and football excursions) and the Scottish legs of the Aberdeen and Inverness sleepers.

Although all Class 67s were initially allocated to Cardiff Canton, 2011 found all except Toton based 67 028 shedded at Crewe.

The Class 56 design owed its genesis to the increasingly intransigent attitude of oil producing Arab nations following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  With the production of British coal given a new importance, British Rail needed a more powerful locomotive than the twenty year old mixed traffic  2 750 bhp Class 47/3 to improve its merry go round workings between collieries and power stations.  The answer was the Class 56, designed in partnership with Brush of Loughborough despite fierce competition from locomotive builders in the USA.

The styling of the new freight diesel was based on the Brush Class 47 but with a GEC / Ruston Paxman 16RK3CT powerplant of 3 250 horsepower.  This engine had been proven inside 47 601 - with uprated turbochargers among the many new features - and was descended from a line of English Electric 16 cylinder engines.  The Class 56 would also be fitted with self exciting alternators rather than dc generators and be the first BR diesels with air brakes only.

The first 30 members of the class were constructed in Romania as Brush had no spare building capacity at the time.  To ensure rapid delivery a Swiss designed bogie common in Romania was used - below mainly British components - and 56 001 emerged from the works of Electroputere at Craiova in 1976.

The first pair of new locomotives arrived in Britain via the Zeebrugge-Harwich train ferry on 7 August that year but due to the poor workmanship and materials used in them they were not accepted by BR until March 1977. 

As a result further production was switched to BREL at Doncaster with the final 20 units being built at Crewe as "The Plant" in South Yorkshire was preparing to build Class 58s after 56 115 was rolled out in January 1983. 

The last of the class - 56 135 - entered service in November 1984 during the Miner's Strike which was to diminish the role for which the Type 5 Co-Cos had been built.  As a result only 135 rather than the anticipated 142 units were actually built.

Originally the first 55 examples of Class 56 has small horn boxes and recessed lights above the buffer beams while the remainder were built with larger protruding horn boxes and similarly mounted lights. In the same way the heavily grommeted central headlight remained standard until 56 061 was outshopped with larger metal-retained illumination.  However due to collision damage repairs, many early locos now sport revised front ends. 

The Romanian machines could also be distinguished by the rounded corners of the triangular cabside windows - which were not integral with the neighbouring droplight - and a straight rather than curved

Once in traffic the original locos were allocated to the Eastern and London Midland Regions, where they were deployed on merry-go round and block coal workings. As further machines entered service, Western Region was allocated a fleet for use on Port Talbot-Llanwern iron ore diagrams as well as aggregate duties: and it was the relatively poor performance of the Class 56s in the Mendips that first turned the attention of Foster Yeoman to buying Class 59s from General Motors.

Withdrawal of the fleet commenced in the early 1990s, with less than half the original build total remaining in traffic by January 2000, as delivery of new Brush built Class 60s usurped many of their roles.  Similarly, the arrival of 250 Canadian built Class 66s from 1998 also gave English, Welsh & Scottish Railways reason to consider withdrawing the expensive-to-run Class 56s.

The first members of Class 56 entered preservation in mid-2001, and what was believed to be the final train - a Pathfinder Tours charter from Bristol to York - ran on 31 March 2004.  However, EWS found employment for 30 of the class - including 56 105 - hauling construction trains for France's new TGV-Est line and by May 2007 these machines were back in Britain, where in the interim 56 045 and 56 124 had been renumbered 56 301 and 56 302 after heavy refurbishment at Loughborough and were being used on Fastline intermodal trains until that firm went bust in 2010.  Since then, Class 56s have been used on UK freight duties by  British American Rail Services.

As has been discussed above, the purchase of 250 Canadian built Class 66s by EWS from 1998 continued the trend for General Motors locomotives to supplant older British machines started by the arrival of Class 59s in the 1980s. In the early years of the 21st Century too, Fastline, GB Railfreight and Freightliner joined Direct Rail Services in looking across the Atlantic for motive power that was both reliable and environmentally friendly. 

GM-EMD's London, Ontario plant was able to tick both boxes from 2006 with the M variant of its Model JT42CWR in which the standard General Motors 12N-710G3B-EC  3 200 bhp two stroke engine was replaced by a 12N-710G3B-U2 3245 horsepower prime mover.

Indeed, the colourful markings of 66 411 "Eddie the Engine" also demonstrate how railways can work in harmony with both road vehicles and the wider environment - being a celebration of the 2006 partnership between operator DRS and Eddie Stobart of "Trucks and Trailers" TV fame in moving Tesco supermarket goods from Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal , Northamptonshire, to Inverness in Scotland. 

Also returning loaded six days a week, each of these trains - more recently operated by DB Schenker - comprises 26 curtainsided containers measuring 45' long and 8' 6" tall and replaces 26 articulated lorries. 

Stobart - which includes its own rail infrastructure arm - was given £400,000 by the UK Government and Scottish Executive to switch 70 per cent of its cross-border freight for Tesco from road to rail and in 2008 opened another Tesco traffic flow to Inverness from Grangemouth.

30 October 2009 meanwhile saw a new weekly salad train run in partnership between Stobart and DB Schenker linking Valencia, Spain, with the Ford marshalling yard at Dagenham, Essex.  Returning loaded with pallets, this marked the first fully refrigerated goods service to run through the Channel Tunnel, the first alternative to lorries for bringing these fresh Spanish vegetables to Britain and the longest train journey in Europe by a single operator.

DRS once again worked with Stobart in 2011 running curtain sided containers to Daventry from the Port of Felixstowe while Southend Airport also became a Stobart asset, London Southend Airport's own railway station on the line from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria opening on 21 September 2011. 

Uniquely, London Southend Airport railway station is operated by airport owners Stobart Group’s rail division, Stobart Rail, making all airport and railway station staff Stobart employees – a brand synonymous with excellent customer service, unrivalled efficiency, friendliness and smart operations.  Just like the fictional new airport to which Terminal 1 and its branch line to Network Rail belongs!

Compared to the steam era stock that they replaced, the Class 101s were light, spacious, comfortable and clean and made an immediate impression on the branch and secondary line travelling public.  They were also the first BR DMUs produced by an outside contractor and  although the first 1956 examples were withdrawn as early as 1969 due to non standard couplings, a further 339 improved sets comprising 760 individual vehicles eventually served everywhere from Perth to Penzance and North Wales to East Anglia.

Dummy Class 101 driving vehicles 54348 and 51426 were kindly supplied by Paul Elliot in the colours of Regional Railways, the pre-Privatisation British Rail sector that dealt with trains below InterCity speeds outside London from 1990, and can be operated on Terminal 1 with powered first generation dmus as preserved vehicles enjoying the enlightened approach of the airport authority towards vintage traction.

Regional Railways set 101 653  comprising 51426 and 54358 was among the last of the class to be withdrawn.

Together they formed an impressive and historically realistic rake ( with working directional lights no less!)  although both Classes 153 and 156 can also link their Bergische Stahl Industrie (BSI) couplers with Classes 142, 143, 144, 150, 155, 158, 159, 170 and 172.  However, the maximum benefits of multiple unit working are only realised when two Classes which are gangwayed throughout are coupled together - thus allowing passengers and guards to walk the full length of the train.

As was mentioned in a previous article on rolling stock used on Terminal 1, the Class 153 railcars were converted by Hunslet-Barclay in Kilmarnock in 1991-1992 from Class 155 two car units originally built by British Leyland at Workington, Cumbria during 1987 to 1988. 

Envisaged as part of the build of "Super Sprinters" - along with the Metro Cammell assembled Class 156 - to replace First Generation dmus, each 23 metre Class 155 carriage was constructed with techniques similar to those previously used on two-axle Pacer units. Avdel rivets held pre formed panels together to create a lightweight body on a welded floor assembly although the length of such a light body and the number of large windows did create a tendency for the carriages to sag and - initially - for the new sliding plug automatic doors to either not work or open while the Class 155 was moving.

Although this problem was eventually solved, the inability of four wheeled Pacer units to cope with steeply graded and sharply curved branch lines previously worked by Class 121 and 122 "Bubblecars" gave rise to the need for a modern Regional Railways replacement with bogies.

The West Yorkshire PTE units excepted, the Class 155s were thus selected for conversion but although this did not require any external doors to be moved, the No.2 cab was unusually cramped, despite being extended into the vestibule area.  The Red Star parcels lockers originally fitted to the Class 153s have also now been converted into bicycle and luggage storage spaces.

The first of the much more successful Class 156 meanwhile rolled out of Metro Cammell's Washwood Heath plant in November 1987 with the 114th and last following in September 1989.  The first 100 units were painted in British Rail Provincial Sector's Sprinter livery and the final 14 were liveried for use by Strathclyde Transport around Glasgow.

Construction of the 228 welded steel bodyshells was sub-contracted out to wagon builders Procor Engineering (118), WH Davis (60) and Standard Wagon (50) with interior fitment subcontracted to road-vehicle specialist Aston Martin Tickford.

Central Trains was formed by National Express out of the sprawling Central Division of Regional Railways in 1997 and lasted until 2007 when its franchise was split between other operators.  Nicknamed the "Barmouth to Yarmouth Railway", Central Trains invested heavily in new rolling stock and station facilities and cracked down heavily on vandalism and fare evasion on its territory but eventually suffered from poor punctuality levels and industrial relations.  Consequently 153 333 is now a London Midland asset while 156 411 is in the East Midland Trains fleet although both are now fitted with Chapman seating.

As such a milestone design as the InterCity 125 was not yet represented on Terminal 1 and because Arriva Cross Country's livery is familiar all over Britain - Gloucestershire included - the opportunity was decisively taken: the only caveat being that real HST sets are longer than three vehicles and that other trailer varieties were not yet available. 

However, Cross Country marked Trailer First 41195, Trailer Composite Catering 45003 (both pictured below) and Trailer Guard Standard 44052 were eventually sourced from Cheltenham Model Centre so that Edinburgh Craigentinny based set XC03 could be recreated with representatives of each vehicle type.  Although still shorter by three Trailer Standards than the 12" to the foot prototype, my N gauge train still fitted the Jeremy Kyle fiddle yard.

Cross Country reintroduced four regular HST diagrams on its Edinburgh-Leeds-Plymouth route from the December 2008 timetable with some services stretching to Penzance and Dundee.  Other Cross Country maintenance depots include Plymouth Laira and Neville Hill in Leeds.

Deutsche Bahn also owns Chiltern Trains ( running from London to Birmingham with ex Wrexham & Shropshire Mark III stock ), the Tyne & Wear Metro, half of London Overground and, since 2009, the former English, Welsh & Scottish Railway Company which carries 90% of UK rail freight and is now branded as DB Schenker. 

On 4 November 2011, Arriva also took over open access operator Grand Central - linking Sunderland, Bradford, York and King's Cross and, under its subsidiary Alliance Rail Holdings, Deutsche Bundesbahn, was at the start of 2012 hoping to establish a Great North Western Railway brand for services from Carlisle, Blackpool, Crewe and Milton Keynes to Euston as well as reactivating the dormant GNER brand for for other East Coast services.

Similarly, Northern Rail and Merseyrail are jointly operated by Serco Group plc and Abellio, a subsidiary of Nederland Spoorwegen.

In late 2010, my quest for specific N gauge airside vehicles took a new turn after reading a magazine article on 1:148 scale military trains alerted me to the existence of P.G. Models.

This company's 1/152 scale kits are made from pewter rather than white metal - being 25% lighter and better at holding detail - and are best assembled with two part epoxy resin.  Once small quantities of this adhesive have been mixed together it needs to be used quickly but the bond between the small number of parts is much stronger and less brittle than that achieved by using superglue.  Once assembled, each model can then be given a coat of light primer before the addition of enamel or acrylic paints.

Despite never having assembled pewter, white metal or even resin kits before I found my selection from the PG range illustrated above easy to work with and the results were highly satisfying - bringing much needed life and activity to the airliner models on the apron.

Although I initially focussed on the aircraft related vehicles, items such as the Leyland Sherpa van and minibus would not look out of place on the streets of any late 20th Century N gauge layout and the same could be said for the Unimog, Bedford and Foden lorries and Land Rovers. 

Indeed, PG Models also offer Ministry of Defence PFA wagon chassis and with a wide variety of vehicles from the air-portable Warrior and Scorpion CV (T) families also in the range a diorama with a ramped cargo aircraft such as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules or Boeing C-17 Globemaster - perhaps on United Nations peacekeeping duties - sounds very appealing!

The Tactical Aircraft Refueller has been used since the late 1970s and was used in the first Gulf War by the Joint Helicopter Support Unit. After many years service, they were caught up by revised health and safety legislation for fuel tankers and in the late 1990s the entire tri-service fleet went through a modernisation programme. The chassis/cabs were re-worked by the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) at Stirling, and the fuel units by Fluid Transfer. The revised vehicles look completely different as they now have a Bedford MT cab and the side ladder on the fuel tank has been replaced with an end one, and now with a support rail for the fuel tank top walkway. The re-worked vehicles are now being replaced by the much larger articulated Oshkosh Close Support Fuel Tankers.

On 1 January 1946 the British European Airways division of the British Overseas Airways Corporation was formed to take over former Royal Air Force services from the United Kingdom to Europe and on 1 August 1946 BEA became a Corporation under the new Civil Aviation Act to operate all domestic and European flights.  From 1 February 1947, BEA incorporated and effectively Nationalised Railway Air Services, Isle of Man Air Services, Scottish Airways and Highland Airways Ltd.

BEA would eventually serve North African destinations and become Britain's largest domestic operator, even including a helicopter service from Cardiff to Liverpool via Wrexham and from Penzance to the Scilly Isles.  One of the "Bealine" Westland Whirlwinds even featured in the 1964 Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" but ten years later BEA and BOAC merged again to for British Airways.

Seven hundred RF class single deck buses were built for London Transport between 1951 and 1924, building on the success of the 1934 vintage AEC Q side engined single decker and combining a Southall built AEC Regal Mark IV chassis with a Metropolitan Cammell body.  The first 25 RFs - designed for tour and private hire work - were 27' 6" long while the remainer were built to the newly permitted length of 30'.  The AEC 6 cylinder 9.6 litre engine was mounted horizontally below the floor and transmitted its torque through a four speed air operated pre-selective gearbox and fluid flywheel.

From 1952 more specialised 4RF4s with Park Royal bodies, full length passenger cabins above the luggage space and a distinctive double layer of glazing also supplanted "observation deck" Commer Commandoes on the service operated by London Transport on behalf of BEA linking the Central Air Terminal at Waterloo Station with London's airports at Heathrow, Croydon and Northolt. 

The livery seen on the Oxford Die Cast model was applied in 1957 and 1958 - with the white sans serif lettering on a red square replacing the BEA Coat of Arms - and most of these vehicles were retired during 1966-67.  MLL 793 as represented by the Oxford Die Cast model carried the fleet number 256.

The Morris 1000 van was a development of the Morris Minor and was in production from 1956 to 1972 with a 948cc engine and one-piece windscreen.  YYC 708H - as represented by Oxford Die Cast model NMM056 - was built in 1970 and is now preserved at Brooklands Museum in Surrey having formerly belonged to the British Airways Classic Vehicle Association at Heathrow.

Introduced in 1968, the DS420 was Daimler's response to the Rolls Royce Phantom V, being exactly the same length and width and sharing similar internal dimensions and features.  Unlike the DR450 and VandenPlas 4 litre Princess Limousine it replaced however, the DS420 was a Daimler in name only, powered by a 4.2 litre version of the Jaguar XK's straight-six engine and built at the VandenPlas works at Kingsbury, North London, which had been founded in 1870.

Costing more than ten brand new BMC Minis, each DS420 featured twin carburettors and automatic transmission, with optional extras including electrically powered glass divider between the rear and chauffeur's compartment, TV set and cocktail cabinet, air conditioning and personal flag mount.

The first of five DS420s was acquired by the Queen Mother in May 1970 with the Daimler works number 1M1559 (VandenPlas job number 12493) being visited by Her Majesty while still on the production line.  This car had a dark blue cloth interior in the front, fawn cloth in the rear and at King George VI's widow's special request " a rear cushion softer than standard." 

Her Majesty also asked for the lower of the two chrome waistline bands to be replaced by a paint stripe - an arrangement later widely copied and made standard for the DS420 - and for the roof trim side line to be similarly painted black rather than chromed.  Other special features included all electric windows, radio, Lucas flasher lights on the base of the front wings under the round wing mirrors and, for the roof, a blue bullet shaped police light with a clear top section to illuminate Her Majesty's personal standard.  The Queen Mother's personal lion bonnet mascot, front bumper badge bar and registration NLT 1 were transferred from her previous Daimler DK400 limousine.

After her death at the age of 101 in 2002, 1M1559 was sold to a private limousine rental firm in London and re-registered as BLN 416 H

This led me to the idea of the Airport Authority organising a "plandampf" style event where preserved trains would temporarily take over from some of their more modern equivalents and as this "planned steam" ( and vintage diesel too in this case ) concept was German in origin, who better to sponsor it than German airlines!

First flown on 9 April 1967 and delivered to launch customer Lufthansa, the Boeing 737-100 was designed as an airliner for inter-city routes even shorter than those being flown by the earlier and larger Boeing 727. 

To maximise rear fuselage space, two engines were used rather than three and these were moved back under the wings as was the case with Boeing's original jetliner, the 707. However, due to low ground clearance, the two gas turbines were installed tight against the underside of the aerofoils rather than on pylons.

The stretched 737-200 also featured quieter nacelles, reduced drag, redesigned thrust reversers and an optional gravel runway kit with a small forward projection tube below each nacelle blowing air forward to break up vortices that could suck gravel into the intakes.

In 1981 the -300 series incorporated aerodynamic, structural, cockpit and cabin features from Boeing's 757 and 767 as well as uprated CFM-56 engines.  As these were larger than their predecessors, accessory drives had to be moved to the side of the nacelle from the bottom resulting in a flattened nacelle bottom and intake lip.  The CFM-56 engines were also moved ahead of the wing and raised level with the upper surface, necessitating a balancing forward extension at the base of the fin.

The first flight of the Boeing 737-800 was on 31 July 1997, and the first delivery to launch customer Hapag Lloyd was in April 1998.  The -800 introduced a new longer fuselage, extending 737 single class seating to 189, compared with 100 in the original 737-100, as well as new larger wings and tailplanes and glass cockpits.

The result was arguably the safest and most successful aircraft in the World, with 10% improvements in speed, range and fuel economy over the earlier -400 series even before the addition of near-vertical winglets enabled yet greater fuel savings and a faster rate of climb.

Air Berlin was to eventually retro-fit winglets on all of its 31 Boeing 737-800s which ranged in registration from D-ABAA to D-ABAG, D-ABAN to D-ABAZ and D-ABBA to D-ABBE.

D-ABBA carried constructor's number 30570 and in October 2011 was repainted at Shannon Airport, Ireland, and re-registered as LV-CTC to become the first Boeing 737-800 of Aerolineas Argentina.

Since that time, too, Air Berlin aircraft have appeared in a new livery with an oval logo on the tail as represented by new Boeing 737-800 D-ABBF below.

This is probably one reason why D-ABBA is my first airliner model in almost 40 years, and why if asked I am saying that my model represents its flight to Shannon to have the slightly tatty vinyls taken off! 

Other than issues with markings though, Revell kit 04202 went together well.  But I hoped that my next airliner would be mainly white and more like the alternative Sobelair markings which offered only engines, winglets and fin of Ultramarine blue to contrast to the white fuselage and grey wings and tailplane.

As can be seen above, the wing markings were slightly more complicated compared to D-ABBA but the horizontal tail surfaces much easier and none of the main colours required mixing paints.  On the construction side too, the lack of glazing above the windscreen meant that there was no separate transparent cockpit roof component although the choice of IAE V2500 engines for the British Airways Airbus or CFM 56-5B turbofans for the Germanwings asset meant that care had to be taken at Stage 5 of the instructions.

Otherwise all the parts were crisply moulded and went together well - unlike the decals, again produced for Revell by Daco, which tended to combine the rubbery texture found on modern Airfix kits with a tendency to turn back on themselves at the slightest opportunity.  These took patience to apply as well as a brush on hand to keep them wet long enough to slide into position.  Fortunately the spine of the fin and the rear doors helped guide the red dividing lines around the upper rear fuselage although getting the two points to meet on the underside was more problematic. 

It is perhaps just as well that D-AKNF will only be seen from the sides and above, and from those angles it remains quite eye catching without having to resort to its post May 2007 Park Inn or later and more sober Lufthansa Italia and Lufthansa guises.

D-AKNF then became a Germanwings asset on 27 October 2002 with a six strong A319-100 fleet based at Koln-Bonn and Stuttgart-Echterdingen airports to serve 34 European destinations. The Park Inn advertising livery applied in May 2007 lasted until 31 October 2008 while on 1 January 2009 Germanwings became a Lufthansa subsidiary. 

After nominally being re-registered as I-LHKA, c/n 646 returned to the skies once more on 18 February 2009 as D-AKNF, wearing Lufthansa Italia markings and carrying the name "Torino"- a situation that would prevail until the aircraft was withdrawn again on 28 November 2011 and stored at Sofia, Bulgaria.  Happily though, 5 June 2012 saw D-AKNF back in core Lufthansa service.

Rather than another increasingly large passenger aircraft - German liveried or otherwise - how many model kit makers can offer a business jet in any scale with a choice of civil and military options?  My attention was immediately drawn to the trade stand with the products of F-RSIN and to have something so unusual - and relevant to Gloucestershire - to add to the roster of proportionate small and medium sized aircraft visiting Terminal 1 I paid £15.00 for their kit FRP4014

Although narrow enough to fit under one wing of an Airbus A319, the Dassault Falcon 20 injection moulded by the French firm is typical of the business jets that regularly fly from Gloucestershire Airport and, Manx bound Dorniers apart, are some of the biggest aeroplanes in the skies over Staverton. 

Although production of the Falcon 20 itself ceased in 1988, its two and three engined successors remain in service as witnessed by the arrival of winglet-fitted Falcon 2000EX G-WLVS at EGBJ on 19 March 2010 bringing racegoers to the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The twin Viper engined British business jet was originally developed as the Jet Dragon to replace the de Havilland Dove but as the nation's aircraft industry consolidated it variously became the Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace 125 before now being assembled in the USA as the Raytheon Hawker. 

Like the Falcon 20, the 125 has its horizontal tail surfaces mounted high on a single fin out of the efflux of the rear fuselage mounted jet engines but neither aeroplane has a T tail with the associated issues of deep stalling.  As with the much larger Vickers VC10 of the same era however, rear mounted engines provide a clean wing surface for enhanced lift when using short runways in hot and high conditions.

Dassault similarly recycled the name Mystere from its North American Sabre-like swept wing fighter of 1951 for a jet propelled swept wing replacement for the Dassault Flamant, which apart from twin tail fins and high wings had a similar format to the de Havilland Dove. 

Based on experience in building the straight winged Ouragon and swept wing Mystere, Dassault's Mediterranee concept of 1954 featured two engines in pods under the wings but this remained a "paper plane" until revived with rear fuselage wings as the Mystere 100 in 1959.

This in turn led to Marcel Dassault commissioning the Mystere 20 as a ten seat prototype in 1961, the decision to cut metal being enhanced the the availability of small but powerful Pratt & Whitney JT 12 engines, as already used on the Sabreliner and Lockheed Jetstar in the USA. 

The resulting Mystere 20 had a cruising speed of Mach 0.8 and utilised such technology as three-axis servo controls, state of the art fine-tuned aerodynamics and conical wing cambers akin to the ones used on the delta winged Mirage and - later - Concorde.  Similarly, production methods - like integral panel machining and "piano" wing mating - came straight from the Mystère IV A, Super-Mystère B2 and Etendard strike aircraft.

Dassault developed the Mystere 20 using its own funds, and produced it in a partnership with Sud-Aviation, which made several major components while Dassault conducted research and final assembly.  The two companies were later to  merge to form first Aerospatiale and then EADS.

At the time, Pan American World Airlines was looking to diversify into business aircraft distribution and several executives, including vice-president Frank Gledhill, and pioneering transatlantic pilot Charles Lindbergh later watched René Bigand take the Mystère 20 prototype  F-WLKB - on its first flight from Bordeaux-Merignac on 4 May 1963.  Legend has it that Lindbergh cabled Pan Am chairman Juan Trippe "I've found your bird."

On 2 August 1963 Pan Am ordered 40 aircraft powered by General Electric CF 700 turbofans with options on another 120.   As well as new engines, the wings of the Mystere 20 would also be stretched to allow a 1 200 mile (2 000 km) range - a characteristic much more suited to American use than the more typical range of 900 miles (1 500 km) specified in Europe. 

Pan Am's contract also gave the American airline the Western Hemisphere distribution rights for the modified Mystere 20, with a re-engined F-WLKB first flying on 10 July 1964 ahead of the initial production unit taking to the air on 1 January 1965.  French and American certification was awarded on 9 June 1965 and a day later Jacqueline Auriol set a still-standing World women's speed record of 534 mph over 1000 kms in a Mystere 20.  On 17 June 1965 Auriol set the equivalent 2 000 km record at 509 mph.

The first Fan Jet Falcons - as Pan Am renamed them in 1966 - rapidly gained  a solid reputation for outstanding comfort and safety.  They later became known as Falcon 20s with Dassault building seven units a month.  In 1967 Pan Am increased its firm orders to 160 aircraft with outfitting at Burbank, California.  All non-American aircraft, such as those ordered by the governments of Australia, Canada and many European countries, were fitted out before delivery at Bordeaux-Merignac.

These aircraft were windowless but fitted with an enlarged 55" x 74 1/2" cargo door and strengthened floor but ultimately became victims of their own success when replaced by larger Boeing 727s and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s in 1982.  However, the Falcon 20 that carried the very first air express courier parcel on 17 April 1973 is now preserved - next to Concorde F-BVFA - in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.  Registered as N8FE, it is named Wendy after Frederick W. Smith's daughter and all subsequent Federal express aircraft have been named after employee's children - echoing the practices of British lorry firms Moreton C. Cullimore and Eddie Stobart.

1/144 scale decals for sister aircraft N24FE - and many other European and American based Dassaulr Falcon 20s can be found at http://www.jbot.ca/aircraft/21/fedex.shtml

F-BTMF was the commercial registration given to the airframe with the constructor's number 184 after its delivery registration of F-WROQ.  As F-BTMF, the Falcon 20 represented Dassault in Air France markings at the 1972 Farnborough Air Show but was later to fly with TAT - Touraine Air Transport - before joining the German civil register as D-COMF.  A return to France as F-GAPC coincided with transfer to Air Cefco where it was noted at Vienna in 1994 before becoming Austrian registered OE-GCJ of City-Jet Luftfahrt GmbH.  It was last registered in 1999 in Spain as EC-HCX with the overall white colour scheme of Audeli Air Express and after being seen airworthy in Seville in 2002 its last sighting - stripped of engines and other components - was at Le Bourget in 2005.

In the early 1970s, Dassault planned an enlarged 30 seat Mystere 30 but although a prototype flew on 11 May 1973 the project was scrapped in 1975.  At the 1979 Paris Air Show however a Falcon 20 re-engined with Garrett ATF 3-6A-4C turbines was announced and the prototype Falcon 200 first flew on 30 April 1980 with French DGAC certification awarded in June 1981.  Apart from new engines, the Falcon 200 had greater fuel tankage and range compared to the Falcon 20 and featured redesigned wing root fairings, wing fences and fin base.

The Falcon 200 was further developed into a maritime surveillance aircraft sold to the French Navy as the Gardian and to the US Coastguard as the HU-25A Guardian.  While HU-25As are used to quickly locate shipwrecks and direct slower moving aircraft and surface vessels to the incident, specifically-equipped coastguard HU-25 Bs and Cs, featuring F-16 combat aircraft multimode radars and FLIR turrets, patrol the American coasts for drug smugglers.

Two Coastguard HU-25A Guardians were also based in Bahrain during the 1991 Gulf War, and efficiently monitored oil-spill drifts off the Kuwait and Saudi Arabia coast.  Indeed, their availability rate was the highest among all the Allied aircraft serving in that conflict.

A total 477 Falcon 20s and 38 Falcon 200s were built and of those, 512 were sold outside France.

My first issue was with the moulding of the fuselage halves - perhaps a fault of this particular box - where the fins were stunted and had to be rebuilt with plastic card.  This was more noticeable on the starboard side but luckily I intend to display my model with the port side to the audience. 

Similarly, the six wheels and three undercarriage legs were all separate and tiny, fragile components but luckily as the Falcon 20 is a low winged aircraft my less than beautiful handiwork was not as obvious as it might have been. 

There was also the way - not obvious from the instructions - that the two horizontal tail surfaces fitted into the fin slot with differential front and rear tabs.  Otherwise the parts went together well.

The instruction sheet - although very historically informative - was also minimalist in its one exploded assembly diagram followed by top and side decal arrangements.  Although lacking part numbers - let alone Revell's exhortations of where to use weights and tape - the exploded diagram did however use orange and green colours to indicate that the kit could be completed as either an original Falcon 20 or the more advanced Falcon 200 depending on engines, wing fences and tail spine base components.

In retrospect, I should also have taken heed of the F-RSIN website when it mentioned that all three Falcon 20 variants were supplied with laser printed decals.  To be fair, all the decal sheets are pictured in colour on the website but what is not so apparent is that each component needs to be separated from all the others by cutting to exact size first.  And that these decals are, by nature of being accurately thin, extremely flimsy even by Daco standards.

As such I stand by my aversion to complicated airliner paint schemes and decals but have to admire F-RSIN so much for championing unusual 1/144 scale airliners that I am looking forward to their new ATR-42 and ATR-72 injection moulded kits.  Not least as their Air France versions are mainly overall white!

The results illustrated above were also facilitated by Laurent's recommendation of the Liquid Decal Film produced by Microscale Industries Inc of Fountain Valley, California 92708.  Available from model shops, this clear liquid can be coated on to decals to make them less floppy and therefore easier to handle.  Also available from Microscale Industries Inc is their Micro Set liquid which can act as both a softener and a removing fluid for waterslide decals.

Merci beaucoup encore Laurent!