BR (ER) A4 class no. 60017 Silver Fox

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
Silver Fox
BR (ER) A4 class no. 60017 Silver Fox. This is a DJH PIERCY No.1 Shop Custom Built model. Bought second hand with sellotape damaged paint to the left side of the tender. Rather than try to repair the tender by trying to match the paint finish, the difficult decision was made to strip the full loco body and tender of the factory applied paint and Warren Haywood has now given her a fresh coat. I must say that these DJH No.1 Shop models http://www.djhmodelloco.co.uk/djh-no-1-ready-to-run/ have a fabulous build quality, better than anything else that I have ever possessed. But in my opinion the paint and lining colours are not as accurate for a model as those used by Messrs Haywood, Brackenborough, Rathbone and the like. This model has now the best of both worlds and is the finest kit built model in my collection, no doubt. I just wish that I could lay claim to have built it.

I have vivid memories of Silver Fox at Peterborough North in steam days. She was on station pilot duties, facing south,  very clean and awaiting a diesel failure. These were the days after Top Shed had closed and some of the fleet of top link steam locos had been reallocated to New England shed. She looked fabulous that day and to think, as we now know, that she was only weeks away from scrapping is beyond belief. But that was British Railways in the sixties for you, the elimination of steam at all cost. Memories of days like that helped to formulate in my tiny mind an interest in railways, as a hobby and a profession, that has stayed with me ever since.