hi there, i am old enough to remember this loco in 1968, never was the buffer beam red ! 20003 was a different shape and used on the Newhaven boat trains, saw it as a child, looked FAB,and buzzzzzzzz like a bee,
The front and rear of diesel and electric locomotives on the Southern Railway and BR Southern Region had the yellow warning front section bleeding into the blue.
My model suffered the issue you mentioned on certain track. The play in the axles is excessive so I fitted small circlips ( 2 to each axle ) and the issues are now resolved and the loco runs faultlessly. I must give credit to this modification to another RU-vid creator
Thanks- this review pushed me over the edge and I clicked "add to cart". It's great that a mainstream version of this model was produced, and so well! One question- it appears the loco was withdrawn in Dec 1968, but was back in service at least during Jan 1969. However, I can't find a clear date as to when the loco was painted in BR blue. I read maybe only one year, but it is not clear. Part of the reason is to help research what rakes this loco could haul.There are a few photos of it hauling railtours with MK1 stock. I guess this is why the BR blue version didn't sell so well, as it was only like this for a short time. I woudl really like to find out if it was blue before or after the end of steam in July 1967. I suspect it might just miss. However, there are still some interesting opportunities, as I am sure there was still a mix of blue/grey, maroon and green mk1s about. Maybe even still some Bulleid stock in green, even.
@@JenniferEKirk I'm wondering if the blue version ran at the time of the last Bulleid pacifics. I. E. Was it blue in May / June 1967.....I can't find much pictorial evidence of this loco in the mid sixties. Most pictures seem to be from the 1968/69 rail tours. Very enigmatic locos....
In all the period colour photographs of the BR blue boosters the buffer beam is certainly blue. I'm going to repaint my model's buffer beam blue as that is correct and it will look 100% better as well. I really do hope they produce 20003 as for me it's the best looking of the three. There are some lovely colour photos of 20003 in BR green with the late crest. I'd really like to have that in my collection.
@@JenniferEKirk I really hope we do. On an official video when they were released I was chatting with the designer of this model and he said similar, but said also something along the lines of 'never say never'. 20003 was very slightly longer with a different flatter cab roof and front end. Those where the differences which when you look at it wouldn't be so hard to produce using most of the work already done on the others. Could use all the same mechanism, sides , underneath, bogies. It would take them a really short time to produce it opposed to a new loco and 20001/2 did sell really well as far as I've heard.
My problem is that I don’t only use my collection of Southern Railway locomotives on my own layout, but it also gets taken to display on the digital layout at the Hoddesdon Model and Railway Club.
Let’s put something into perspective. The colour of most of the buffer beams on locomotives is mostly red. It was the original warning colour before yellow became prevalent.
When locos were repainted in BR blue they lost their red buffer beams. This model having a red buffer beam reminds me of the Lima class 31 -31401. It looked so wrong on the Lima 31 as well .
