JSpencer

Now in a train with mostly other Rapido wagons including the 3 RCH in late SECR, a pair of Bachmann ones and 3 Rails 1424 vans (of course the C class might see itself replaced at the head by an O1 at some point): On an inner line, 3 early SE&CR RCH can be seen with 3 other early coloured SE&CR opens. The free running of these wagons really allows us to capture the length of these mixed trains. No issues for the C pulling it all.

Comparisons.... I think it is safe to say that the Bachmann Collectors club of 3 SECR opens has now seen its day. The paintwork is generally too dark and obvious within a rake. (the same can said of Hornby and Dapols standard wagons in SECR colours). Rapido Maunsell 7 plank bottom (could do with a few more of these) vs Rapido RCH top: Bachmann Collectors club right vs Rapido Left (that Bachmann is dark...) Rapido top vs Bachmann bottom Bachmann left vs Rapido right Bachmann top, rapido bottom

Rails SECR versions arrived this morning. Very welcome in helping to rebalance my SECR wagon rakes back towards being mostly opens. The end doors were not glued in though and I now wonder if they could be made working so as to discharge 😅

Their new class 31 but only the deluxe models. Most of my HM7000 fitted locos (I have about 10), do not have space for a powerpack. Most are older models made between 2005 and 2015 with 8 pin loco fitted plugs and certainly not designed with sound in mind. Worse, often only the 6 driving wheels actually picking up (no tender pickups). But despite this I found I have run some of these models non stop for 30 minutes (including stops at stations etc and not simply just going round) without issue of cutting out. I only get issues when there is dirt, but then it is out with the track rubber, and cleaning the wheels then it is all fine again.

Also Bachmann's OO-9 mainline Hunslets have them too.

That's fine, they can do with and without. Some people want these, some don't and the two views are not incompatible. Look at Bachmann's all new diesels. You have a plain DC version, DCC sound version and then a deluxe version which seems to outsell DCC sound version. As for the effects, I doubt most will run them as such very often anyway and probably adds hardly anything to humidity in the air.

Glowing fireboxes is one thing, but what people notice the most is all that steam coming out chimney. Here Hornby have made inroads (no other competitor has this feature yet but they are working on it). It's going to be a while before that retrofits across key locos in the range but that is an opportunity. HM7000 must be something that is doing well too. These chips allowing synchronized smoke as the price being asked is going to be a winner as development progresses. I noticed this reduction of stock in the previous report did not do much to reduce debt. My gut feeling would be fewer all new toolings but in many liveries to recover costs in year one instead of year 4. (Even Bachmann is on fewer toolings with more liveries even if hardly any are steam except OO-9). Another thing is stock levels of high ticket items. When they do hit a winner, there is not enough to go around and far too many when they don't. Although I think they are better here now than 5 years ago. Direct sales are up, but I do wonder if the cost of the operation outweighs the gains. Admittedly one player fell to the side in January which might mean Hornby are becoming or have become the big box shifter themselves. Are model shops regaining confidence to place decent orders with Hornby ? Or are there still issues of many wanting say 10 of an item and getting only 1?

A problem with Hornby on their all-new tooling is that they still look at recovering costs within the later run rather than the initial one. New Players like Accurascale and Rapido give us umpteen choices. We buy the one (or more) that we really want and we have little need to wait for a rerun. IF a rerun does happen, we'll probably add another to our range. Hornby are, the common liveries in run 1, the pretty liveries in run 2 which only appears 4+ years later by which time their market has moved on. Likewise you cannot build up a rake of wagons with Hornby on run 1, nor even with run 2, 3 or 4... they are drip fed. They have a tonne of stuff well within their tooling waiting to be done which should have been done by now. But helas, it is like the French army in 1940. They are replying to the huge break throughs by new competitors with an army attacking in penny packets along the front line. Some little parts do show brilliance but overall no where near enough to stop the huge breakthroughs.....

There are online bits 'n' pieces of an Albert Usher Coal Merchant at London Bridge. So this and the above would lead me to think it would be ok to consider a visit by this wagon on the SECR. In anycase I consider it good to have a ratio of say 75% known SECR region types 10% from the LBSCR, 5% from the LSWR and 10% further afield (TBH there is probably more evidence of further afield than the neighbouring lines, but I do have a few LBSCR locos so not too bad to have suitable rolling stock). Some proper Midland Railway opens would complete the illusion though....

Well done Rapido. Very nice but - @RapidoCorbs - we are missing the Bluebell one 😀😉

Very nicely done. And you just made me order another 3... 😅

The overall package with the speaker is smaller than TTS. It means that older 8 pin locos with chip holders in the loco body instead of the tender can now often have the chip and speaker placed into the smokebox. Even the smallest sugar cube is quite loud and clear. Under TTS, the supplied bigger round speaker had to be located in the tender, while the chip went into the smokebox (some sources saying TTS were suitable for sugar cubes). Next 18 seems to be the main one oversize as most RTR locos using that are designed to the NMRA size spec. I have not used those yet (too few locos with them and none are Hornby so...).

TBH, given the price point, I am not surprised that the Dongle probably won't work as well on other systems. Though I get that the initial marketing seems to have been a bit over enthusiastic. The fact that it ties in well with Hornby's own systems (though not the eLite) seems normal enough to me. In the DCC world, TXS is low end entry point. Like TTS, it is reasonably good at covering a lot of subjects for a lower cost than a full fat high end sound chip. But takes up less space than TTS. Locos that I thought I would never add sound too, due to space and not really designed with sound in mind (about 80% of my locos were brought between 2003 and 2013) , can be made DCC sound. I can run them adhoc on the layout from my telephone or bring them under full DCC (only 1/3 of my collection will get DCC, the rest runs under DC). Leaving the high end full fat DCC sound for "preferred" locos where high quality is a must.

Me too and I thought I would be quickly satisfied on the industrial front. Helas no. The first small industrial tanks were not really easy to fit sound into them, but these are. And just when I thought Dapol had satisfied my thirst for a noisy small 0-4-0 industrial shunter, Rapido offer more of them... And thus we are condemned to make an industrial plank, what with all those wonderful Accurascale and Bachmann cement wagons... A cement works it will be....

Excellent. Look forwards to this.

Thanks Jenny. I have just a couple of questions if I may please. 1/ Is there a compresseur sound? (very distinctive on these EMUs coming on almost after every braking action) 2/ The sound seemed a little off (tinish) to my mind, could that be the recording? Or wires taped to the top of the speaker (not sure if this has an effect)?

In general no. But sometimes when new, the screw link coupling can block a bogie from turning by fowling the NEM pocket. It can be folded up onto the hook or loosened up by moving it a bit so that it is no longer stiff.

Kernow's MOGER arrived. Lovely wagon, shown below next to a 15 year old Dapol MOGER wagon which is longer and uses a different running number (couplings replaced with modern slim tension locks). It was the last RCH I ordered and yet the first to arrive.... I feel Bachmann's E4 looks a little big with this pair, so hopefully we'll get E1 110 to run instead 😉 Some quick snaps: EDIT : EXTRA PICTURES: After Rapido saw some other LBSCR loco with their RCH wagon today, they decided to go ahead with E1 110, so that I'll have their LBSCR loco with their wagon LOL

FWIW, Hattons original run included weathered versions.

I posted a video on the The Monday Club Jenny Kirk Facebook page. I have not posted anything to Youtube for about a decade!

Me too, I'm planning on taking a train to England to get one (used to be a member of the Chatham club too).

I've been out and about on social media, gathered quite a few likes, lets hope each one equals an order.

Info leaked out from elsewhere forcing them to reveal their hand. Little risk of them appearing this year though. 2025 at best or 2026 .

July is a long time to wait ;-)

Interesting, I don't think my 33s have ever suffered droop but then I only fit Kadees on one end and I guess pull mode holds them up under tension.