Progress on my 2 pannier tank projects has continued with the 94xx body reaching the paint stage. Bachmann has recently announced a new RTR model of this class but i’ve never been one for waiting for someone else to do things for me. Those who know me will know that my interest is in the making things side of the hobby rather than the amassing stuff side and besides there’s always something new in the pipeline somewhere so if you want the latest and greatest, you will forever be waiting for it to arrive. Nothing wrong with that of course and i’m sure having all the very best offerings from the trade will result in a magnificent layout, even if its only forever in someones head!

The 15xx tank has been a bit more back and forth. Someone kindly pointed out that the roof of the cab I had used was too shallow so this has been swapped for the roof from the original 94xx body. It did need shortening a little as the 94xx cab is bigger. The roof detail on the 94xx is nothing like so that was all replaced with more archers rivets. I also spotted that the rear cab windows are much further in than the way I had them (and the 94xx) so these have been changed too. Incidentally the Ian Beattie drawing in the April 1985 Railway Modeller also had the windows in the wrong place too so it wasn’t just me!)

For such a small class there’s a lot of variety. the cab door handrails were shorter originally and one class member (1506) seems to have had both long and short at the same time. The lower smokebox handrail also seems to have been added later (perhaps when the steps were changed) and 1503 seems to have had straight horizontal handrails on the rear of the bunker rather than the L shaped ones the rest of the class had. These were also mounted lower down for some reason. It just goes to show the old mantra of work from a photo of the loco you are modelling as close to the date you are modelling it that you can find.