Introducing the latest edition to our locomotive fleet - and what a handsome beast she is too!
This is Bachmann's Fowler S&D 7F which I acquired at the weekend and, I think you will agree, she is a stunning model that captures the original extremely well.
I really had not intended to purchase one so soon and was going to wait a while before actually buying an unweathered 53809. However, I was in Turleigh Models in Bruton (my local model railway shop) on Friday afternoon and saw one of these on the shelf. Well, to say that I was instantly captivated would be putting it mildly because the weathered version looked so life-like, Bachmann truly have done a great job here.
Anyway, after much debate, I finally decided that I just had to buy her and, now, I cannot wait to see and hear her running on our layout!
Obviously she will need a few modifications before she is ready to haul any trains - a decoder, lights, train crew and, maybe, a smoke unit all have to be added first but, when she is finished, she will look and sound fantastic.
Sound, of course, might be a problem since, I daresay, no sound recordings of a 7F exist at the moment. However, I am sure this will be rectified in the not too distant future now that the model is on the shelves and is, by all accounts, proving very popular.
So, we will probably wait until such a decoder is available rather than fit a non-7F variety and then have to reblow it later. I suppose, in the interim, we could always fit an ordinary decoder and have her running without sound.
We already have the set of six Hornby Pines Express coaches plus a maroon Restaurant Car just waiting to be coupled up to our loco, when she is ready, and then we will be able to recreate that iconic train on our layout - now won't THAT be 7Fing good!
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Oh good for you!
ReplyDeleteAfter much heart-searching we've decided we really can't have her running through the Peak District and it's just so hard because you're about the fourth or fifth person to eulogise over her!
Never mind we're now waiting the 4F re-release and the new 3F from Bachman because, providing the latter has some reasonable pulling power and looks the part even half as well as this 7F does, then we'll at least have some reminders of the Midland and its famed 'small engines policy'!
Enjoy your S&DR loco!
Hi Micky, I'm sorry that you have decided not to have a 7F on your railway but understand your reason why.
ReplyDeleteI guess it isn't, really, one for our region either but, with a lot of licence and a great deal of liberty-taking, we are assuming that this is one of the preserved locos. Besides, I have been wanting someone to produce a model of a 7F for years so I really have to buy one now that my wish has finally been granted.
I am very much a Midland / LMS fan myself and it is a shame that they did not maintain joint control of the S&D, rather than it be handed over to the ruddy Western Region! It might still be here if they had.
Anyway, I am sure that both the 4F and 3F will look great on your layout. The Tri-ang version of the 3F was, actually, my first ever loco as a kid so I will always have a fondness for those.