So here we are, a nice parcel arrived... Being in big kid mode, I opened the slip first. There's just something about them, isn't there? Ok, just me then. There's not a lot else to say other than in O it's pretty impressive. And big.

So to the 08. Sad old me had watched an unboxing video of one, luckily as it happens, because getting it out of the foam had no obvious route. The bod in the video broke his, so with some trepidation I tried tipping it out into my hand - all was good, except one rear dumb (guard) iron fell off - it'll glue back on. Probably. Having mostly built a brass kit 08 and been amazed at the detail I was kind of sort of expecting to a little disappointed, with it being plastic and all that. But lo! What an amazing model, the detail is incredible, even the old brackets the ladders were mounted on at the front of the bonnet were there, and to scale - only noticed when I stuck one in my finger. I could waffle on, but suffice to say with even the wiper arms, supplied to fit yourself, are to scale. What the other bits in the bag are for, who knows - sound fitting or something? Best hang on to them (though I'm not going down the DCC route). The sun roof is missing, but spares seem easily obtainable.

The the track! Well, OK, two lengths joined up. Now the significant key word when describing an 08 is 'slow', and there's nothing worse than a lurching 08, so when I opened the throttle (I have a very poesy controller I picked up in a garden centre) I was a bit cross fingered. But off it went, nice smooth start and gently going to up it's max speed some distance from the speed of sound. I certainly looks about 15mph - I love that feature of the model. The Warship I was building didn't like the gizmos in the controller and had to use 'direct' mode, but the 08 is great with it. Put it in 'delay', open the throttle to full and.... after a pause the engine starts slowly away, accelerating at a believable rate to max. Put controller into 'coast' and it does, at whatever speed it started at, slowing a bit as in the real thing - closing the throttle does the same, but the deceleration is faster. Then a bit 'brake 1' to reduce the speed a bit, or 'brake 2' to slow a bit more quickly. 'Off' ('Stop') does and 'Direct' will take you back to normal control. After using any of the fancy control the throttle has to b returned to zero before it has any new effect. It adds a new aspect to 'train driving' - though I think a Big Red Button might be in order on a end-to-end layout. And the lights work, with the correct one red, one white 'shunting' arrangement (bar swapping over when to the left or right of a running line, as per brake vans). Annoyingly the cab light comes on when moving - you do not have the cab lights on while driving, just as with a car! (Seen this on so many exhibition layouts, together with red marker lights ('tail' lights) on while pulling a train - that is a potential Form 1 offence and will get a 'Stop And Examine' from any mechanical signal boxes it passes. While the marker lights may be a tiny bit bright, they are much better than the incandescent moon-illuminating ones fitted to so many OO models. The only gripes I have, which might be irrelevant as liveries varied, are that the lighting electrical conduits should be orange I believe, and more of the grab rails on the bonnet should be white. Nit picking really. Oh, and there's one bit of fun - the doors are open-able, but you can't shut both as you have to reach in through one door to shut the other! I love it.

It's nicely finished in BR blue with the wasp stripes nicely done. Like the picture above with it sitting on the nice shiney slip, brochure photos tend to make the yellow look a bit plastic, but in real life it's bob on. The wagon I built in the first year of my degree, and used as a desk tidy for years - it's suffered a bit. This was the first time in all those years it got pulled by an engine.

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