ellocoloco

It will be a fictional setting on the east coast around Valencia. I have made a few trips on the cercanias lines out of Valencia to Alcoi, Utiel, Castellon, Gandia, Xativa and Caudiel. The mountain lines really appeal but I will have to have a container terminal and an engine shed to dump all my locos! Apart from that, I'm easy. I do have plenty of space but I must remember not to be too ambitious at first! I do want to move to Spain at some point but that will be ten years down the road. In the mean time I will try and lay some track and at least keep my models mobile and serviceable.

Its been quite some time since I built and no, I haven't laid any track yet but at least I have space in the attic sorted and a plan in my head. I moved to a new house 18 months ago and have cleared out and refloored and insulated the attic space so all good to go. The only problem now is the boss can actually see how many toy choochoos I actually have. Do'h As my main intention is to build a Spanish layout I have been keeping an eye on what Electrotren and others have been offering of late. Most recent has been the excellent 309 shunter and MMC wagons - here with a selection of containers as I thought the ones supplied were rather dull. The 309 is a truly fantastic model. It may be that sometime this year I get round to building the track bed but I would suspect another few years is more likely! Of course, although predominantly Spanish, I have collected so much that there will be some British and US HO running through and a KPEV preserved line!

Full agree with the rest of the points you've made and a very interesting post. I dumped OO 35 odd years ago on discovering OO/HO were not actually the same and went for the more accurate HO. The existence of HO 66s has allowed me to come back to British modelling in my chosen scale. I don't know if this has been mentioned as I'm not contemplating TT and have not read all the threads, but Hornby's launch of UK outline TT models, to my mind is very similar to Bachmann's launch of high standard Chinese outline models in HO around 1999. In both cases the scale was already established in other countries but did not really exist at home. In the case of the UK, there are plenty of alternatives, in China, Bachmann were effectively creating a new market which sounds very familiar to what Hornby have hinted at here. Looking at https://www.chinesemodeltrains.com/ the number of Chinese outline models now available would suggest this new market is now well established. @jjb1970 and @TEAMYAKIMA would be able to correct me if necessary. I would suspect TT will have the same development here. If it had existed 35yrs ago I doubt I would have gone HO. The attraction of an accurate scale/gauge should not be underestimated and although it might have taken 80ish years for Hornby to get this right, it's here now.

Thanks for posting. The models do look very nice. I did buy the first two Bachmann DF11s when they were released and they were not a patch on Roco models of the same era so i understand the reasoning in the article. Hopefully there is enough interest to sustain the hobby in China.

I do like the safari-wood wagon, but then I would have to start modelling a different country - or maybe not! 😆

I'm guessing no knowledge of train shops in Sri Lanka, which is no surprise, but over the last few years I have trained Vicky to photograph any trains she sees on her travels. I'm guessing some sort of DMU cab coach?? They pass close enough to where she is staying to hear the horns. Looks chunky. 👍

@Mark Laidlay I do like your thinking there! 👍 But can't help with the question - sorry.

Roco have offered a DCC uncoupling retro fit for years - but its not cheap. I can't see any reason why Bachmann could not offer this feature as a retrofit, but I imagine it would be a challenging instillation.

Loco looks great. I look forward to seeing it with the new pantograph. Are the Lima Mk2s the correct length or were they produced to 1/100 or similar as was the fashion with HO back in the darker days? And do you need to do much with the height?

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but have to ask! My wife is off to Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks holiday and I need to know if its worth sending her on a quest for something for my railway! I know all the South Asian models I have seen on here have been scratchbuilt /kit bashed/printed, but it occurred to me there might be a local supplier along the lines of Frateschi in Brazil offering my toy like models. Something to sit in the corner of the layout next to my Croatian coach, Mexican ALCo and Austrian wagon. Failing that, she is going to the 9 Arches Bridge so I'll get a postcard! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I don't think we've had Brawa yet? https://www.trainsdepot.org/manufacturers/pdfs/view/1304/brawa_novelties_2024_pdf (Edit: In fact there are loads of catalogues on that website.)

That's a fantastic looking livery, but I don't how long it will stay white!

I'm tempted to wait for the 'washing machine' in Danone. Otherwise not much of interest this year. Still, the 309 should be here soon.

Mabar offered the 432 EMU which was built nearly a decade earlier than the 444 that has just been announced by Electrotren. They do look fairly similar though. I do like the 'Washing machine' version - 444.5XX - but think I'll wait until the model gets released as a 448 (the 500 subseries were reclassified Type 448), hopefully in the Danone livery.

Now that I can finally have a decent 'play' with mine after having been told to put it away after collection I am truly impressed by so much of this model. Sure I can see that the cab numbers are slightly off in both size and colour and the stack looks a little high and certainly these are details that should have been caught in production. But the model feels so good. When lifted together - loco and tender - it feels such a solid bit of kit. The finish is excellent and to my eyes really matches the correct green. The motion looks great and it runs very smoothly. At 50-70% power in a cold attic the smoke really looks the part puffing up about 3" and then hanging over the trailing wagons. It sounds like a pacific to me and the whistle is great. I am limited by my rather antiquated DCC system* so haven't operated all the functions yet but have no doubts what I will get will be good. Only thing I have not tried yet is the closer coupling for the tender drawbar, but I think it should manage R4 at least on the closer setting even though the instructions state this setting is for display only. Most importantly for me, in any view I have of the model that includes the track it looks right. It sits so well and doesn't look like it will capsize at any moment. It is an expensive model, though factoring in inflation I paid more for Roco 310.23 two decades ago and these two are of similar quality though I would rate the Roco model slightly higher in finesse even after all these years**. I hope this isn't the only British offering in HO from Marklin/Trix but I'm not holding my breath. (I can't see a country of manufacture. The box and operating manual have the Goppingen address so I am assuming German manufacture. Wherever it was put together, they did a great job. I have the Trix version.) *Lokmaus 2 and Multimaus. ** 310.23 is handicapped by its 1st gen integrated DCC.