Nova Scotian

Riffing on the Inland Waterways and Docks theme... how about an Avonside 0-6-0ST? Portbuy started with I.W &D, before going to PBA.

Mid-April now and getting angsty. Hope this one is a success for Dapol - their B4 is a sweet runner and we need more well designed shunters :)

Very supportive of this. Will be adding 40p to my 2x Andrew Barclay pre-orders when they arrive. I work in supply chains (inc Decarb of). Decarb all the way through the supply chain is extremely challenging - it's complex, there are gaps, chain of custody can be a challenge, and obviously some companies are further ahead, some lag behind. The most important thing is to start. Start where you can. And roll out from there. Accurascale to be applauded for this.

Thanks to the OP and others for this thread. Going there for work in July and looking to add a couple of personal days (including minatur wunderland with my father). Very helpful.

My father models both n gauge and OO gauge. Thanks to rmweb and I he now also models O gauge - a spectacular deal on lionheart pannier tank + 2 mk1s from the bargain hunters thread. And he just lightened Dapol's website by one Guinness 08 :) (I believe he also as a BR green gronk + a Heljan 128). I've been kicking myself for 4 years I didn't jump on the 150 quid Heljan 05 in pre-pandemic clearouts. Fancy a Dapol 14xx too, once they do an approved run and I can buy through a UK stockist!

From everything I've seen of this industry, UK companies could either outsource production, or would have been out of business. I don't see any way they could have been price competitive with the market's willingness to pay for the fidelity of models required. You're right it's a risk, but I can't see this coming from a place of "saving costs" - everything we've seen since the 90s is this would have been about saving the company. I don't like outsourcing - it's amazing how quickly things go wrong in mission-critical applications when supply chains are opaque. However, expensive as they are and however much we love them, these are toys. And we (modellers) are price sensitive and assign more value to fidelity than to domestic sourcing.

There was one response blaming Dapol for outsourcing to China ("what do they expect") and two others in a similar, but less direct vein. I certainly agree there's been lots of discussion about how it happens - that wasn't the basis of my post. Following your comment I went and looked at Dapol's Facebook post. That was a mistake 😯 Can delete my post if you wish.

Yeah, that was the stimulus for my question. I saw the email, went to see what else had been changed over and gave up with the PECO website. I do have sympathy for PECO - they have a large catalogue over several brands and keeping the e-commerce side current/accurate is extremely time consuming. Side note - my kids still talk about their visit to pecorama. Particularly the kind people they met who taught them how to glue together a plastic shed :)

Learn something every day :)

Interesting - when I saw "cdn.shopify" when I went to download some plans from their site I assumed it was location services playing up (as the links were broken). But they most host with Shopify, who are Canadian... Thanks for that - I hadn't worked out the coding system. What you describe makes sense. That price list is much clearer than their website. Thank you @Bucoops - extremely useful. I can probably wait, if they plan to produce Code 100, otherwise I'll probably try and pick up some electrofrog. Or just get over myself with attachments to my Hornby J13 :P

I'm frankly disgusted at the attitudes of some people on this forum. They're acting like Dapol is a big bad business and this serves them right - anything for a modeller to be able to get a cheaper model. They have roughly 30 full-time employees at last filing. One assumes most/all in Wales. What's happening is likely theft, a break of contractual agreement - and I would hazard has the potential to threaten the future of Dapol. People filling their boots of counterfeit goods (eg. not sold by Dapol) is going to reduce demand for future runs. Without someone to do the market research, measure the prototype, purchase the production slot (and provide QA on EPs, production etc), have relationships with retailers, market to consumers etc - does anyone here really think we're going to get quality UK outline models? At 150+ quid a pop, a quick look through ebay suggests there's been a lot of models already sold (and the bulk discount should have any modeller questioning the posting!). That's likely 10s of thousands of pounds. Wishing Dapol the best here - I hope they get the posts taken down, they prevent this in future, and they have full redress from whomever has done them wrong.

Has anyone seen a list of those PECO switches/turnouts/points that have been converted to Unifrog and those that haven't? I find the PECO website extremely unfriendly. I could go with electrofrog, as that's my plan, but I like the flexibility of and design of the newer unifrog. Model in OO - but assuming if someone knows where a master list is that'd help everyone. Currently planning to use code 100 as some older stock I'm attached too, but if that's too hard then I'll go with code 75 which seems to have been updated.

That's because they didn't produce anywhere near enough of the composite corridors! Without those all your three car sets are two car sets! 40% off a new Bachmann 37, not seen one this cheap yet. https://www.themodelcentre.com/35-304

I would assume it's from the LNER train ferries - then ran Harwich to Antwerp right? And yes, does not look like a carriage - but to me like a wagon, though oddly high and without clear planking (so might be container like you say?)

My father surprised me with one of these as a present. Got to look it over properly when I received it, but first running was tonight. Few thoughts: 1. Rapido have replicated a black hole - there's no way something this size can be that dense with such mass. Where did they stuff all the lead/tungsten? 2. Pick-up is excellent - crawled through insulfrog points 3. Gearing and motor excellent Like many people, now wondering what I should run it with. I like to swap rolling stock around often, so chain couplings for Hornby stock will be annoying (in this case, I like the tension lock couplers!). I wouldn't be surprised if there's more in time from the various manufacturers. Well done Rapido - excellent model.

Ordered one of these in the Hornby sale around Christmas, tonight I got to start giving it a run. First impressions were pretty good. Yes there are plastic handrails, but they're okay. No lights, but at this price that's fine. Out of the box it ran pretty well. It has a slight tight/binding spot on every revolution, only noticeable when creeping so slowly you can see the cogging. I need to get some rollers to give it a proper running in, and give it a dab of oil. It's good decent pulling/pushing power, it's quiet, gearing is decent. If I hadn't then run the planet industrials shunter immediately after I'd have been even happier. Still, for what I paid for it it does what I want, namely: 1. It looks the part - it looks like the PBA Sentinel. It has presence 2. It shunts, starts, stops well - push and pull 3. It handles points well, surprisingly well given wheelbase. (waiting for some unifrog I'm just running insulfrog on a test layout) If Hornby could spring the front axle too and find room for a flywheel I think it'd a winner. I'm surprised some of these are still sitting around on sale, they're currently half the price of some other shunters and they're definitely more than half as good.

Had a chance to give mine a proper run today for the first time. I can state, hand on heart, that this has the best mechanism of any loco I've ever owned. The weight for an 0-6-0 is amazing, and with the gearing as it is even at very low speeds you can see the flywheel smoothing gaps in electricity delivery (I made it creep over insulfrog). For something of this wheelbase and format it's absolutely incredible. (Roco diesels always had amazing mechanisms, but that's easy when you've got bogies, central motors etc - doing it in steam outline 0-6-0 is just incredible). Paint finish is excellent. Looks the business, sounds the business - and does the business. Two problems - and they're glaring 1. I'm terrified of messing up the paintwork when I do decide to decal + weather. 2. Why would I spent more than 130 GBP on any loco ever again, when I could buy another one of these? That I got this for 100 GBP is an absolute steal. On the thread for suggestions for Rapido I asked for a MSC Hudswell Clarke long tank (MSC no.70, specifically!) - I'm now hoping they leave that one to PI.

That's great - gives me 2-5 months to recapitalize my modelling budget between this arriving and the Andrew Barclays I've ordered. Although won't be in time for me to pick it up on my next UK trip - will have to be when my partner comes over in May/June. Excited about this one.

I wasn't saying their range are duds - but I would suggest they've had a couple of years where they themselves state they're playing "catch up". Eg. less announcements, producing things they previously committed to. However, when someone like accurascale is taking everyone on (diesels, kettles etc), and successfully - those will stay in the accurascale range for many years too. Same with rapido. Hornby should want something to perform well next year - if they want to remain committed to OO gauge. TT is theirs for now and maybe that's where their attention is going to fall. I don't own a true Accurascale product (I have two andrew barclays on order which doesn't really count), but I'm certainly going to want to given these results. Just have to convince myself on why I want a Manor that won't fit on my shunting layout!

Maybe not, but probably some worried looking faces at Hornby this morning.

Added another one to my pre-order. Had ordered a Dapol Hawthon Leslie PLA, and the lined dark blue will pair perfectly... Both were much better prices than RRP for some shunters from mainstream brands - I understand of course if you wait they'll go on sale if there's any left, but where I'm now looking into a couple of liveries I can't really take that chance.

Just preordered a Port of London Authority one from Rails. I seem to have fallen down an industrial shunter hole. Wallet is hurt, but not as hurt as if I were on a Merchant Navy spending spree! Looking forward to this. Also couldn't resist the Cadburys vent van to go with it. (pre-order)

Hampshire models sale https://www.hampshiremodels.co.uk/collections/sale One bonus seems to be they have stock from a couple of years ago, discounted against the RRP from then (rather than now). Few quid cheaper on a few items than elsewhere. Eg. https://www.hampshiremodels.co.uk/products/Dapol-4s-041-001-oo-gauge-large-prairie-2-6-2-5109-green-great-western?_pos=1&_sid=5f968e6af&_ss=r

Poor Lemburg doesn't get much love. At 128 GBP it's a steal for modern tooling, diecast footplate etc. https://www.themodelcentre.com/r30087-Hornby-oo-gauge-1-76-scale-lner-a3-class-no-45-lemberg-diecast-footplate-and-flickeirng-firebox-era-3-new-tooling We seem to be back to some pretty deep discounting - good for buyers, but not for the companies - stock sitting around, more and more getting into the 40%-50% off range.

Thank you.