johny retro

That's true. But unfortunately it also means that certain livery lines then don't line up, regional railways for example. I discovered this when experimenting with different bogies under my mk2's. I guess I will just have to see what comes along. But thanks.

We obviously have slightly different opinions on what we accept from manufacturers.

I'm sure you apply the same attitude when buying a brand new car too - 4 doors made by 3 different manufacturers which vary in size and shape, odd coloured body panels because older ones can fade if left in the sun too long, wheel alignment has to be done properly yourself when you get it home rather than at the factory, lights which don't work so you have to fit your own... It's amazing that we seem to have such low expectations and standards from manufacturers these days when it comes to RTR models. Maybe I AM being a little OCD, but when a rake of brand new coaches is going to cost me over £400 then I'd like a little consistency and a reassuring level of availability. I don't feel it's acceptable for a manufacturer to take so long to give me 3/4 of a rake then just give up. Then hope that somebody else brings out something similar in a few years time and sit here making excuses for them when nothing matches properly. Stock availability/being able to buy and run full rakes has always been the downfall of N gauge, which puts a lot of modellers off. I see little has changed and I am starting to regret switching over. I just hope I am wrong and we all get the items we need.

The worry for me would be whether they match. Farish can't even produce their mk1's to be the same height as their mk2's, so what are the chances accurascale ones will line up. Then there's the question of paint shades. I like variety, but would much rather spend my money in one place and have rakes of carriages which don't look like they were rescued from Booths yesterday.

For most of us that would mean starting all over again, after already spending a lot of time and money buying the ones produced by Farish, in the hope that they finally produce the remaining ones that people require. I will look into the accurascale versions, so thank you for that. I just don't see why Farish can't look at their own sales and feed the demand. As for virgin livery, not everyone is modelling the same layout/era that you are. There are plenty of folk out there who want to run virgin liveried rakes. Especially behind the IC and virgin liveried 90's.

Agreed. The pan is the only disappointing feature on this model. Looks awful!

Looking at the ridiculous prices of rolling stock on the likes of eBay makes me worry that the same thing will happen again - box shifters will buy them all up, and we will have no choice but to either pay double or wait endlessly for another batch. Which will no doubt arrive in a different paint shade. It's all very well making new loco's and novelty items, but there is obviously a very strong market of modellers wanting realistic rakes, which is seemingly ignored by Graham Farish. I mean, where is the mk2 bfk in regional railways, a RB(r) in blue/grey for wcml layouts, a weathered mk1 CK in blue/grey, more batches of tso's in RR, blue/grey and intercity, or anything in virgin livery? "Very interesting things in the pipeline" really doesn't fill me with confidence.

Along with those ScotRail twin packs. Yet the regional railways stuff is like rocking horse sh't!

No idea how I've missed those. I've been watching almost daily for months! I did manage to get 5 blue/grey tso's but never seen any in InterCity. I will do what you suggest though, cheers.

I'm still trying to find some in original InterCity. They don't even pop up on a certain online auction site, except for the BSO and RF.

Rails have announced Mallard and silver king as 'new releases' on their website. Forgive my ignorance, but are these actually new models, or are Dapol still using the same tooling and tech from around 10 years ago? And if so, how good are they?

Let's hope a re-run of their mk2f's happens, as I still need a load of InterCity tso's for my mid 80's/early 90's sets. As well as the likes of swallow, virgin, Anglia, drs, ATW etc.

With the new highly detailed class 37's imminent, I wonder if we will soon be getting a new 50 from farish? Oh, and I use the word 'soon' very lightly.

Totally agree. Surely a higher percentage of buyers are modelling more national layouts based on the 90's/early 2000's rather than Scottish sleeper services. And the abundance of those carriages compared to the likes of InterCity liveried stock shows this clearly. I also hope there wil be a re-run of Dapol's loco hauled virgin mk3 buffets and DVT's too, as these are virtually impossible to get hold of. Or better still, a completely new DVT from farish.

Yes, I know what you mean. It's weird, I can't tell if the mk2a is too low, or the mk1 is too high, as they both look fairly accurate as stand alone models. But put them together and something's not right. Part of me wonders if manufacturers do this on purpose, so that we buy them out of necessity, and then buy them again when they're retooled a few years later.

With regards the height difference, I've noticed something. If you put the wheels from a mk2a into the bogies of a mk1, the height reduces considerably. It does however mess up the livery lines, and the axles aren't really long enough to fit properly into the commonwealth bogie. But it does show you that it wouldn't have taken much for Farish to get these coaches to compliment each other so much better if they had done a little more product testing and tweaking before putting them out as a finished product.

This is true. However these are the result of poor paint choice by the manufacturer, not a deliberate representation of realism which has been achieved. I mean i get what you're saying, but if you bought a carriage with lighting which didn't work you wouldn't say "cool, sometimes the coach lighting didn't work in real life back in the day, that's brilliant." I have decided to keep it and put it in some kind of mixed rake or something, as it's otherwise a very nice model. It's just really disappointing when the other farish items I have compliment each other so well.

I said the same thing to my mate, lol. Dapol are traditionally the ones with livery issues, however I'm relatively new to N gauge and all of my Farish purchases so far have been spot on (to my eyes). It's not just down to the factory weathering aspect either. The unweathered areas are a completely different shade of blue altogether. This is a shame, as I am planning on running mostly mid 80's rakes and I am buying all brand new models so that the chances of mixed products/releases etc are minimal. This has completely put me off buying any more mk2a stock. I guess I'll have to make do with rakes of all weathered mk1's and rakes of non-weathered mk2f's. At least until the height/livery issue on the mk2a's is resolved (not holding my breath on that happening soon though...)!

Has anyone else found paint shade issues with certain Farish models? I recently received a brand new weathered mk2a BSO and the blue is noticeably darker than the weathered mk1 TSO's and the unweathered mk2f's. The difference in height is very noticeable too alongside the mk1's

Thanks. Will keep checking for updates.

Does anyone know the typical consists to and from ford halewood/speke during the mid 1980's, as I would love to replicate these workings. And will these models come weathered at all, or will they be pristine?

God, I really hope they produce a load of these ones, as I used to love seeing them go past our house as a kid in the 80's! Trying to remember what would be hauling them. A scruffy 85 or 86 probably. Or were they always diesel hauled?

Apologies if this has come up previously, however I am quite new to N gauge and can't seem to find this topic on previous threads on here. But does anyone know why certain coaches are missing from what's available - with main stream model shops as well as box shifters on the likes of greed-bay etc? It's really annoying as I plan on modelling a layout covering the mid 70's through to the late 90's, running whichever period I feel like at the time, and I therefore have several formations in mind. However, I am struggling to find blue/grey full brake carriages (BGs) and a blue/grey mk3 buffet with buffers, regional railways mk2 BFK's and mk1 tso to go with the mk2a TSO, mk1 fk and mk1 bsk that I have seen advertised, and intercity swallow and Virgin DVTs to go with IC mk2 and Virgin mk3 stock. Have I missed all these and will have to scour the second hand market, or are they something which will come along eventually? Given that the Dapol mk3 and Farish mk2f coaches were released quite a few years ago, it seems strange if they were never produced. Thanks in advance for any info.

Thanks steve, that helps alot. Been away from the hobby for over 20 years, and looking to get into DCC N gauge whereas i've only ever done DC 00 gauge, so it's a minefield! Especially with all the model shops being closed at the mo, it's not easy finding things out.

Have the latest Dapol mk 3's and farish mk2f's been around for a while? Willing to buy used but don't want to buy any with old tooling/liveries etc. How do i know i'm only buying the latest versions? Thanks in advance.