Chase!

Another Friday which brings the conservatory rebuild almost to the end - well for the builders anyway! I just need to chase them to finish the last bits.

Talking of chase Marty Cat looks on at his new playground! He is an unusual cat in that he does play chase. Throw a toy mouse down the room and he will chase after it and bring it back ready to chase again so he really likes the new space and slidey floor. 

For me the last couple of posts have involved BR green Class 25 locomotives with one on my layout and one at the North Norfolk Railway. The one on my layout is one of the original and earliest DCC ready installed locomotives sold in this country. It came as part of a DCC train set. You got the Class 25, five wagons, an oval of track with a siding and the all important EZ DCC Command controller. I still had the box somewhere so today I chased it down in my man cave. I did find it amazingly given my usual chaotic way of working.

I bought it at the Warley model Railway Show at the NEC I think in 2006 or 2008 having chased around the show to find one. It is an impressive set even by todays standards and you can understand why the sets sold so well. I did have a shock looking at the price ticket which is still on the box. All those contents for £89! Bargain! 

I did see one on eBay some weeks ago with an optimistic 'Buy it now' price of nearly £300. You can buy the latest similar set from Bachmann with a Class 20 loco and some grain wagons for about £330. 

The Class 25 locomotive may be 15 years or more old but in my mind it still stands up against some of the newer models released. It even has a driver and driver's mate in the cab which is a nice touch. In addition it is a solid model with no small parts that fall off that I then need to chase down!

As you can tell I do like this model and that is perhaps why I have a further 3 Class 25's in the WMD loco fleet. Just don't tell Mrs. Woody or she will be chasing me to reduce the fleet!