olivegreen

Reading this because I, too, have had the Hattons e-mail cancelling my Bachmann Bulleid coaches pre-order. For the modeller - the consumer - the background to the apparent dispute is irrelevant, he simply exercises his right to order from another supplier. But having seen the prices of current Bachmann coaches (pushing 80 notes each at full RRP), a price when (if) they are released in the order of £240 for a 3-coach set is eye-watering stuff. Now, if Hattons are clear (for whatever reason) of commitments to Bachmann, how about them commissioning Bulleid 64' coaches? On recent experience, they'll be available long before any Bachmann ones are likely to be. Just a thought...

I was about to jump in and say that 35017 was Belgian so what was all this nonsense about 'Dutch' ? .... then I read the thread properly. A senior moment... sorry, I'm very much pre-TOPS

Indeed, but judging by recent performance of the two companies concerned I'd put money on the red box ones being on the shelves before the blue box ones!

Indeed! I have a Nu-Cast T14 kit that has been sitting in a cupboard for years...I'll have to start it one of these fine days! (Version with full paddle covers and the hole for the key included)

851 arrived this morning. Perfect runner straight out of the box... it is a really impressive model - well done, Hornby. Now, where can I get finely-etched smoke deflectors to add to it? Mike

'A disaster zone'. Hmm… are we talking of a populated area after the passage of a hurricane or of the early stages of development of a non-essential, therefore luxury, model for the 'richer' end of the model and toy market? Just wondered….

…as the ill-informed discussion on Twitter continued, counsel for the defence interjected, 'M'lud, I refer the court to my previous statement in post 5316 of this thread', then retired to a small, dark room for the rest of the weekend.

You have my deepest sympathy. When I moved from rural Maine-et-Loire (commune of about 400 inhabitants) to what is in broad terms 'suburban' St Malo (general area well over 50,000 inhabitants) I expected to catapult into the modern age and have an ADSL that was actually worthy of the name. Wrong. The ping test shows that a carrier pigeon would probably be faster for much of the day. Uploading anything bigger than about a megawhatnot? I set it going and take the dogs for a walk. Mike

Wonderful story and photos - thank you for sharing them. As for the 'package tour' element, with all its herded nastiness...I shudder at the thought! Mike

It is very interesting to read this thread but I find it sad that the significant differences between rail travel in Europe in general (rather than just in the UK, which is what the OP writes of) and rail travel in, say, Australia, the USA and New Zealand, are being lost in the arguments about detail. I will generalise a little: in Europe, rail is heavily used for essential day-to-day travel, not just in, around and between urban areas but also throughout the whole extent of the countries concerned as well as for tourist travel 'for leisure', as one might call it. I know more about New Zealand than the other two countries mentioned above but would suggest that in all three (and doubtless many others, too) urban rail travel is well used (albeit in NZ only in the rather limited Auckland and Wellington suburban areas), whilst inter-urban and long distance rail travel is pretty much limited, as has been said, to leisure travel only. (OK, some parts of the USA might claim exception to this generalisation...). I fear apples are being compared with oranges.

All your points taken, John. My comment was merely meant as an observation, of course. I (like you, I strongly suspect) am a 'user', not a 'collector', so did not vote for the Car as I could not conceive of using it! On the other hand, I admit to voting for some of what I referred to as exotica - the Adams 0395, for example, as it was long-lived, did not look much like anything else (opinion!) and I would probably buy a couple. Not the least reason being that the Falcon Brass version as built by me does not really stand up to close...or even distant...analysis! Mike

Thanks for the information, Graham. Poll duly completed with what I hope are at least realistic aspirations! At the risk of sounding negative (which I never mean to be), there does seem to me to be a lot of unrealistic exotica in the lists of all companies and eras, and of one-offs, which are never likely to be taken up by RTR manufacturers. In the SR context, Drummond's Bug would be an extreme example of this: I'm not sure how this could be made to work reliably to RTR expectations and the interest in it, apart from the pure novelty factor, would be limited! Many of the lesser-known pre-grouping locos - despite the repeated calls for such items - might fall into the same category aided, no doubt, by the non-Southern/LSW/LBSC/SEC infidels who would say that most of them all look the same anyway!! Mike

And nothing to do with the sea wall, of course, despite the press attaching the story to the sea wall collapse of a while ago. Once again the press at its disingenuous best!

Agree your point about real prices to pay as distinct from cover prices - like you, I paid just over £21 for this book. I agree also about the publicity photos of the apparently real cover, which is rather why I feel piqued about being conned over the supposed content. It is that, rather than any question of value for money which upsets me! Mike

Alert to misrepresentation! This morning I received my copy of Vol 5 of the Pullman series, which is advertised (with a picture of the cover) in most places, including on Crécy's own web site, as 'Golden Arrow and Ocean Liner Express Pullmans Trains'. The actual cover as received shows 'Golden Arrow' only, and indeed the book only covers that train - there is nothing whatsoever in it about other ocean liner pullman trains. Moreover, at the back of the book (on page 224) there is an advertisement for Volume 6, said to be in preparation for 2019, to cover 'The Ocean Liner Express Pullman Trains'. Caveat emptor - Volume 5 is NOT what the advertising leads you to believe it is. If you are expecting information about, say, Southampton-bound ocean liner pullmans, forget it. I have, of course, represented this directly to Crécy as well as to the bookseller from whom I bought my copy. That said, if you accept that the book is only about the Golden Arrow, then you will probably be happy (despite the hefty cover price), even though some of the technical detail of the carriages has already been covered in previous volumes (2 and 3 in particular). There are masses of pictures and a lot of information in Vol 5, for sure, but I do get the impression that it has been 'padded out' somewhat by more trivial matter than in previous volumes. Makes one wonder what the advertised Vol 6 will be like in reality if and when it appears. Very naughty, Crécy Publications. I feel a public correction would be in order. (Edited for typos) Mike.