Sir TophamHatt

It shouldn't be viewed in that way. People are all too happy to point out the doom and gloom these days. Don't apologise if someone else feels it was distasteful. It didn't to you, and that wasn't the intention, so if someone else has a problem, it's their problem.

So why not give up the design or sell it to Hornby?

Thanks - just seen they're all OOS on Accurascale website but found someone else who has some at the same price. Just back to the same question I had with Hattons version... EWS, which I used to see all the time and feel I should buy it won't really go with some container wagons I plan to buy, which is usually Freightliner (although I see EWS has had some before but less common)... of which I hate the green sticker behind the logo (I know prototypical but I still don't like it).

I guess there's no advantage of ordering one now or after release? I've been out of the loop for months now - only just realised a few weeks ago this was happening! Obviously now means I have one ordered but there will be some available over the next few months, surely?

Maybe GNER HST but I dunno, funds are a bit tight at the mo. I guess if it's being released, at least there will be some around later on.

Wow - late to the party on this but glad I got my pre-order in. Let's just hope they didn't raise the price from RRP to launch. Glad to support a model shop (albeit having them post it to me) too!

And realistically, that's the way models are going - DCC fitted at least. From a support point of view, it must be easier to have everything as factory standard as manufacturers don't know if it's a person's decoder that doesn't play ball, or the unit. I prefer DCC fitted as models are getting a bit too intricate to get apart to put in a decoder. Fully understand some people like to tinker with CVs and such and so having their own decoder may be worth it for them but manufacturers surely need to look at the majority, not the small amount of people tinkering. Also fully understand some people will want to grease the motor every so often but I wonder how modern trains are fairing over those from the 70s, 80s and 90s as I suspect anything post 2000 doesn't need the same care and attention as something pre-2000.

Maybe figured it out. In this picture, the yellow on the front is more flat, so the middle is just above the gangway doors. There is blue on the front of the train here. In other pictures, the yellow is much "taller" and follows the shape of the roof, making an almost semi-circle. There is no blue on the front, perhaps a smidgin of grey/black but not as much as the other.

The 2nd and 3rd photo shows the destination LED following the roof line. The 1st and last photo show the destination LED with a much bigger gap and "falling away" from the roof line towards the middle of the unit. It would appear the actual unit is much more like the 1st and last photo but not sure which photos are of the new model as there's two different ones here.

What decoder / ohms speaker are you planning to use? Will there be space if people want to upgrade the speakers?

The issue here is that your view point is jaded because they aren't producing something you are interested in. I see no stand out marketing for either Accurascale than Dapol or Revolution Trains - the only one I occasionally see is Hornby. But then I don't read railway modelling magazines. Enough people saw the EOI as the whole project has gone into production. I don't really follow model railway news but I still managed to see the EOI and get registered for it. Maybe people wanted other liveries more and can't afford two or three units these days? Accurascale aren't selling to the same market as Revolution. I am not interested in yet another Pannier tank, but I am interested in a 180. Not the same market. Different companies have different thresholds on what they want to / can risk. Stamping your feet looking for an answer that you won't accept anyway isn't going to help anyone, brings nothing to the discussion and is quite simply getting boring now. Perhaps I should take my protests to Asda for not producing some Red Leicester with black pepper cheese this year, nor did they last year. It clearly didn't sell that well the year before that, so they didn't get it manufactured again. Do I stand around and complain about it? No. I just accept it and buy some other cheese instead. EOI didn't meet the threshold of [producing that livery] being worth it for Revolution (at this time). Sorry if this seems harsh. I am here for updates about the project, not moans about a specific livery not being produced.

Central Trains RR (whatever you call it) (I removed the others). I can wait but would prefer not to!

Try and find some MK5 sets at a good price. The Class 68 isn't an easy find either. That says, despite a lot of steam and early BR diesels selling "well" - whatever that means, it's actually bang up to date, currently running trains/units that seem to fly off shelves. While not an interest of mine, the first manufacturer to sell the Electrostar unit will be able to milk that cash cow for a long time.

Why didn't it mean people weren't interersted?

Is there a list of the evolution of the status? IE, how many steps to it being released? At the moment, the OO is "in tooling" - I guess after that it's "assessing first EP", possibly some more EPs, then "awaiting livery samples" ? Just looking for an in-order list.