Parkside 4mm Toad E

[jwealleans]

Parkside Dundas are now advertising their 4mm Toad E kit (PC64) as due for release in Q4.

http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/acatalo ... ducts.html

[65447]

And not to be confused by the 7mm scale kit for the Toad B above - hence the massive price difference.

I note that 'advance orders are being taken' - does this mean that PD are attempting to assess potential demand before producing the moulds?

[Dave]

Thats good news that the Toad is on the way.

I don't think 65447 that is the case, when I asked at Scalefour Wakefield this spring I was told they were aiming for a release for Warley this year.

[Robpulham]

Parkside do a 7mm Toad E too which they released before the Toad B.

[Daddyman]

Yippee! Thanks for the notification.

[Atlantic 3279]

'Twas once suggested to me by one of the Parkside team that the eventual re-issue of a modernized kit for the LNER short wheelbase brake would include alternative duckets, ends and so on to allow either a B or an E to be built. No hint of that in the latest publicity.....

[65447]

'Twas once suggested to me by one of the Parkside team that the eventual re-issue of a modernized kit for the LNER short wheelbase brake would include alternative duckets, ends and so on to allow either a B or an E to be built. No hint of that in the latest publicity.....

In the 7mm kits the principal difference is in the width of the planking and of course the duckets, although both narrow and wide boards were used at various times on both types and so were the later pressed steel duckets seen on the earlier variant. So to provide for both variants in one kit would mean providing almost all of the body parts twice over; I guess that then would result in Parkside being requested for the roof and underframe moulding sprues only as spares so that modellers could use up the alternate body mouldings.

For those who wish to construct one of the less common lots or later repairs with replacement pressed steel duckets then some mixing and matching becomes possible.

Let's just be grateful for small mercies...

[Atlantic 3279]

I agree that something is better than nothing. A half decent modeller can convert a Toad E to a Toad B of course, given the urge.

Have Parkside made the right commercial choice by going for the E kit as the standard item? With dimensionally incorrect (but plausible in the eyes of many) RTR Toad E models already plentiful, will enough of us want to build one "that looks the same" from a kit? I know I went to the trouble of turning Toad D parts into Toad E parts of the right size, but how many others will want to even go to the trouble of building a kit? Would a van with visibly different duckets and ends have more appeal? I hope they know their market.

[Hatfield Shed]

I 'fiddled around' with the earlier Parkside B kit to make a couple of E's for variety as the pressed steel ducket and short T posts on the ends make it look very different. Incorrect width of the side sheeting, meh. Far more significant is adding wire handrails, that really lifts it as a model once externally tatty in operating condtion. Will be easier going back to B from an E, as the larger timber end posts and duckets of the B will cover those E features.

[65447]

Have Parkside made the right commercial choice by going for the E kit as the standard item? With dimensionally incorrect (but plausible in the eyes of many) RTR Toad E models already plentiful, will enough of us want to build one "that looks the same" from a kit? I know I went to the trouble of turning Toad D parts into Toad E parts of the right size, but how many others will want to even go to the trouble of building a kit? Would a van with visibly different duckets and ends have more appeal? I hope they know their market.

Well Rovex did, the Toad B was their first (and only) Brake Van, and still available on the pre-loved market. And there are substantial differences between the Toads B & E variants compared with the Toad D, whether LNER or BR versions, and it is the latter (D) that is most plentiful RTR surely?

The Parkside chaps have already done all of the research for the E and now B in 7mm and so much of the mould development will no doubt be scaled down from those produced for churning out the larger scale kits.

Readers of this forum are amongst the most likely to want, and those modelling the earlier Grouping years will be very pleased. Remember that the Toad D was designed for (and allocated to) express goods workings and so not seen much off the main lines.

[John Palmer]

Tri-ang/Rovex also manufactured a brake van that somehwat resembled one of the species of GWR Toad. When I was given my first train set as a birthday present, the moulded detail in the Tri-ang product seemed a big advance on Hornby's tinplate offerings, yet to be superseded by their own injection moulded vehicle bodies.

I understand that a few Toad E's (and B's?) were either piped or fitted. Can anyone supply details of these, and/or the workings for which they were so modified? I am guessing certain fish trains might have prompted such modifications prior to the Toad D's introduction.

[65447]

Tri-ang/Rovex also manufactured a brake van that somehwat resembled one of the species of GWR Toad. When I was given my first train set as a birthday present, the moulded detail in the Tri-ang product seemed a big advance on Hornby's tinplate offerings, yet to be superseded by their own injection moulded vehicle bodies.

That was 3 years after the NE Brake Van.

I understand that a few Toad E's (and B's?) were either piped or fitted. Can anyone supply details of these, and/or the workings for which they were so modified? I am guessing certain fish trains might have prompted such modifications prior to the Toad D's introduction.

Peter Tatlow in LNER Wagons Volume 4B notes that there were reputed to be some Toad Bs and Es vacuum fitted but provides no further details of that - if he could not find them then I doubt that anyone else can. The only allocation information is for Toad Ds.

[Hatfield Shed]

Further to which, in the much earlier single volume, specific mention was made of AVB fit for those vans on the Tyne Dock-Consett iron ore traffic, as a rare exception from the norm. That this was not repeated in 4B suggests it could not be verified.

[D2100]

Peter Tatlow in LNER Wagons Volume 4B notes that there were reputed to be some Toad Bs and Es vacuum fitted but provides no further details of that - if he could not find them then I doubt that anyone else can. .

Further to which, in the much earlier single volume, specific mention was made of AVB fit for those vans on the Tyne Dock-Consett iron ore traffic, as a rare exception from the norm. That this was not repeated in 4B suggests it could not be verified.

There is at least one photographed example of a vac fitted E in 1960s BR (SR) engineers' use (either one or both of Messrs Larkin and Bartlett) although of course that's not conclusive of the date of fitting. Also I have seen a published photo (Railway Magazine c1965/66) of a bauxite E on a Consett job - although again the livery alone isn't conclusive, the location, plus the otherwise late use of an E, is strong circumstantial evidence.

[Daddyman]

Was this on sale at Warley? I wondered if when they said "Quarter 4" they were aiming for a Warley release.