NXEA!

I’ve only just caught up with this thread. A lot of opinion, but the majority of it is positive, which is my shared view. Hattons should be commended, I think this will tick several boxes for a lot of modellers - I’ve been looking for quite a while at ways of getting/creating a couple of 6 wheelers a’la the ones on the Mid-Suffolk that survived until 1952. Therefore the LNER brown versions will be perfect, and I shall have a brake and a composite. I do think some of the hand-wringing about the generic nature of these to be mildly amusing, considering the vast majority of us don’t model real locations, and actually loosely model a freelance/generic location in a certain region and era - similar to the principles behind the choice to make these generic coaches in different company/regional liveries!

Any news on the BR and DCC sound versions? All very quiet.

Thanks for the responses all, much appreciated.

Apart from the Dornoch branch, did any of the 16xx's have booked passenger work? I've seen the Tetbury branch mentioned.

I've seen mention of these working Lydney docks. I'm off on holiday to Lydney in September, can anyone provide me with any reference material and pointers on Google Earth/Maps as to where the railway was? I can feel a small dock layout and a couple 16xx's coming on...

Thanks Chris. Just to check, which sheet - I'm assuming 14P, like this? https://www.petersspares.com/hmrs-14p-oo-gauge-br-steam-loco-coach-van-pressfix-transfer-sheet.ir

I'm planning on renumbering 68223 with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' lettering to 68217, and I didn't know if anyone could advise me on transfers. As the numbers are on the bufferbeam, do I need 2mm, 2.75mm, or 3.15mm? I'm assuming 2mm as its pretty small. And colour-wise, do I need off white (straw)? I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give me, cheers in advance.

I gave the customer service team a ring and chances are the B12 and Q6 chips were canned due to low pre-orders. The chap I spoke to did say they could be brought back into the range at a later date, but personally I have my doubts as there’s unlikely to be a massive additional take-up next time around. I’ve already got a B12, and have slightly mixed views on the omission of the chip from the range. I was looking forward to being able to add sound to mine for a low price and give TTS a try, although as others have expressed on here, I did have reservations over sound synchronisation in particular. I do wonder why they went for the B12 as it seems to have been a slow seller - if they wanted to do a GER engine I would’ve gone for the J15 as that seems to have sold strongly. All is not lost though as Coastal Sound do a B12 sound chip - I have the J15 one already and it’s superb quality. Just need to save the pennies now!

Apologies if I’ve missed it elsewhere, but it appears Hornby have cancelled some of their forthcoming TTS sound chips. I’ve been keeping an eye out for the B12 chip, R7145, and I’ve just checked and Hattons and others are showing it as now cancelled from production - it was showing as due in May as recently as last week. The link to the product on the Hornby website no longer works either. The Q6 chip also appears to have been cancelled. Does anyone know why - I’m assuming low pre-orders? It’s disappointing, especially when the release date was close, but I can understand the decision if take-up hasn’t been great.

Non-railway bargain alert, but my local Aldi are selling reels of LED lights for £14.99 including plug and transformer - might be useful to someone in the middle of a build.

Not my modelling era, but this is a cracking choice by Accurascale of an interesting prototype, and its one of those wagons that you can justify anywhere coupled to most classes of loco. Hope it is a success!

Well spotted - hate to break it to you, but it is a piece of coffee stirrer that fell in through the cab door. You've just reminded me to tweezer it out, thanks!

Here are some cruel close-ups of my weathering efforts on 8223 from the first batch, posed on my unfinished layout: It still needs lamps, crew, and one of the lamp irons straightening out - and also a bit of a brush to remove dust/fibres as its been sat on my modelling tray for a while! Method was similar to Alex's, I used Humbrol Smoke powders on the body, and dark earth on the skirts and cowcatchers. Looking forward to receiving my second one! I'm going to switch my pre-order to 68223 with BR lettering and renumber to 68217 as per this photo:

I spoke to Oxford this morning on the phone briefly to ask about the sound versions. The sounds are currently being stitched together from recordings of the real thing, and they're expecting the files imminently - so they won't be generic sounds which I'm pleased about. The LNER versions (I'm assuming DC) are on the way and due very soon, with BR ones likely to follow in May or thereabouts.

That latter point has swayed it for me, as I won't be butchering the speaker. Looks like I'll be giving TTS a try then! Can always save up for the Coastal chip if it isn't to my liking.

I'm tempted to dabble with TTS sound for the forthcoming B12 chip. Does anyone know whether this is likely to be generic, or recorded from the real thing? I've watched some videos of TTS steam on Youtube, the revolutions/chuff relationship does look a bit strange, but the sound is decent quality and at £35 it is significantly cheaper. Alternatively, Coastal do a B12 - I already have their J15 sound, which is superb. I can't decide between the two options at the moment! I see that the S15 revolution/chuff is allegedly a lot better, has this improvement been carried forward in their more recent releases?

Some decent bargains there. GWR 153 for £76, and the Works Peckett for only £67 is rather keen.

Agree with that - my layout is DCC and operated with an NCE Powercab, but I run everything in on DC on my test track to check all is well before I chip a model, and I use a Bachmann Trainset controller for this. I didn’t come across any issues doing this with the J70.

I received mine today. Safe to say it is a beauty, model of the year candidate for sure and definitely worth the wait. It was quite surreal opening the box of a RTR steam tram! It’s simply a sublime model, it looks spot on, the finish is fantastic, and the level of detail is brilliant. I might have a stab at fitting the detailing parts and running it in tomorrow evening, time permitting - if so, I’ll take a few photos. I’m a GE modeller, but its such a charming and unusual prototype that I can see these selling well and being snapped up by collectors and impulse buyers. Big thank you to MR/Rapido for their hard work and making a J70 a reality, and I’m looking forward to my second one coming when it is ready.

Just checked my emails, and mine has been dispatched too.

My order was processed this morning. KMRC are expecting the first consignment on Monday, with dispatch of MR202/3/6/7 due end of next week. There is another container on the way containing some of the other versions, apparently. Very excited!

I would hope that the N7 uses real recordings, although 69621 hasn't steamed since July 2014 - I guess it depends whether Oxford recorded it before it was withdrawn? In mitigation, the Dean Goods is stuffed and mounted so no surprise it doesn't use authentic recordings really. I notice Hattons are offering N7's with Olivia's sound, but again, not sure if this is generic or not. As an aside when I popped into my local shop today (and apologies if this is old news), I was told they were expecting deliveries of the LNER and BR ones at the end of this month and end of March - they weren't sure which order they were coming in, though.

Which are all very good reasons to doubt the veracity of the info. That period is (unfortunately) before my time so cannot vouch either way. I had a look at Shed Bash and there’s no mention of a Pannier - 9401 doesn’t appear to have been seen during the time it was allocated. Clearly BRLocoDatabase has a source for the 57xx/97xx claims - I wonder what the source is?