GordonC

The Hornby model is ok, but its priced pretty steeply and has hardly been as 'available' as it really should have been in the 20 years or so the tooling has been around. How many Class 31s will have been in the non-red stripe railfreight livery or BR Blue 31/4? Lots - how many have Hornby produced? 0. The bigger the gaps left the more appealing it is for competitors to duplicate. Hornby have been too busy chasing the one-off niche liveries then wondering why they're not selling

They'll be here when they're here ... no-ones life is depending on them. I ordered sound, but haven't heard anything yet

Not in my hands they cant!!! ... yours must be a lot more gifted!!! ... ;)

I think he's playing it down and it could be something big

there might be limitations on what they can produce for the Drax wagons - Have Drax not copyrighted their wagon design and commissioned the first run of wagons ... so they may actually own the tooling. I certainly got the impression permission had to be requested for further runs

There could also be another factor in that of lost skills. When the ECML was electrified it will have been much more recent for other electrification works to have been done so more of a continuation of previous projects. But there was a long gap before GWML and MML were later wired where skills could be forgotten or standards changed in the meantime

The only thing I would say is that sometimes a bit of variation in the sound recordings from different sources can be good with multiples of the same type on a layout. There could always be variations in prototype locos sound if one is running well/roughly/needing maintenance If all AS 37s get directed to use AS chips, and with the same speakers then they'll all sound exactly the same

I got the impression they were spreading the batch out to only receive one or two numbers at a time for sending out to make it easier for a small team to deal with

Its an irritating habit and would surely reduce sales one way or another. There are quite a few examples - 24035 and 37254 have certainly been out on different tooling when you'd think there would have been plenty alternatives

I'm not sure it can get any better than the first pictures of that production model, it just looks absolutely superb and correct

I'm sure they're already well planned out ahead, but manufacturers normally give an option or two at a time when the numbers of variations even in the main liveries must be huge e.g. Large Logo - depot logos, centre/split headcode, refurbished/unrefurbished, headlight style and position, boiler fitted or plated over, bogie type It'd be good to have a bit more choice for the BR liveries

While the odd celebrity or one-off is nice, personally I'd much rather see a whole load of everyday locos in the more standard liveries

Model Rail Scotland is coming up in the next month ... perhaps something to announce there

I think its pretty limited what has only ever been double-track to between Wigan North Western and Standish

I think the 6-tracks south of Preston are still there, but dont think that goes all that far before dropping to 4 tracks. The finances of building an entirely new route north of Liverpool/Wigan/Manchester area surely wouldn't add up so any construction north of that would be more about capacity as a freight corridor rather than speed for passengers. Restoring Quad track where it had been before but reduced to double track would have to be a far more realistic option

Where does the WCML drop down to double track between Golborne and Wigan? Is that not 4-tracks all the way through until north of Wigan North Western. Then the bit from around Standish through Coppull to Euxton used to be 4 tracks so would it not be relatively simple to relay those or is that not possible now?

just look at those beauties ... wow!!!!

Its a nice idea, but I'm not sure it would, coming out just to the south of Shap village would be pretty close to Shap Summit anyway so you wouldn't be cutting much off the top of the climb on either side and to do that would take a much longer and costlier tunnel. I really cant see the expense of miles of tunnel being spent in that area and could you imagine the environment protestors beating their gums? Climbs at Shap and Beattock may be much less of an issue these days anyway with electric power on tap and regenerative braking possible

The dimmer cab light definitely looks better! Lights didn't used to be as bright as they are now

Not sure thats true when I saw a few domestic flights within the UK somehow ended up in France and Germany yesterday.

The only place I could think of would be old magazines that reported that info. Things like Rail used to report works dates, it could be a long job to wade through months/years worth though unless anyone knows a better source

Perhaps less for the sections in tunnel, but you wouldn't exactly be able to blast through the uncovered sections at full line speed either. I'd be surprised if HS2 made much difference for storm disruption

I think Hornby were too busy trying to play the long game with their tooling that they'll really have missed out on sales. Unbelievably for a tooling that must be the best part of 20 years old, we'd still not seen obvious big sellers from them - a plain BR Blue 31/4, 31413, Railfreight Large Logo without the red stripe, Intercity Mainline. The more of these you dont produce, the bigger it leaves a gap for someone else to step into ... enter Accurascale. And then also producing so many niche or obscure liveries is just daft ... they had 'bargain bin' written all over them as soon as they appeared in the catalogue!!

Was the prefix always removed at a works visit? Would it be easier to lookup overhaul dates for powercars to extend the date range backwards to last overhaul from a dated picture?

That would be a pretty conclusive range of suburban DMUs and there would also be the class 118 and 125, but not many similar groups have appeared from manufacturers before. The Bachmann class 117/121 hasn't evolved into and other similar types yet. I'd prefer to see a Class 107 but is that too close to the 108. If it was easy and cheap to produce a different body, you'd think Bachmann would have done that already. Or Hornby with the 110 and the demand for a 104 ... It makes me think the body shell is probably a very large part of any tooling costs and savings in duplicating chassis and drivetrain between similar unitsis probably minimal