In the 1950s, Hornby, in an attempt to increase their share of the North American market, modified their Duchess by painting it black, adding a cowcatcher and painting it in Canadian Pacific colours. It was not a great success, but it did create a now very collectable locomotive that, in good condition, commands rather high prices in today's market. Around mid 2016, a Dublo "Canadian Pacific" came up for sale on eBay. It was rather sad looking, obviously original, a non-runner and minus a tender. I put in a couple of bids on it and then watched the price climb beyond what I was willing to pay. The locomotive would have needed quite a bit of touching up, possibly a new chassis (depending on what was wrong with it) but, of course, the missing tender meant that a replica would have to be created from a Duchess tender. While this would be simple with the right set of transfers, it did mean that the resultant model would not be original in its entirety and there would be an obvious contrast between a locomotive in poor condition and a good, albeit unoriginal tender, and would have been rather expensive for what it was. I did want one now though, so I bought a conversion kit (transfers, cowcatcher and headlamp) on eBay and waited for a cheap, playworn Duchess to turn up. I ended up getting hold of a scruffy Duchess of Montrose and you can see the result below. At first I was going to give it a number other than 1215, as any locomotive that I have completely refinished or converted (as in my GWR N2) I prefer to have a number different from the Dublo original, as I don't want them to find their way onto the market in 30 or so years time and be mistaken for valuable originals. This CPR pacific however would not fool anyone who knows anything about Dublo, as it is based on a Montrose rather than an Atholl (as the originals were) and, when you turn it upside down, the underside of the body is green rather than black. I also filed off the nameplates, as I think it looks better.
