Class 158 productions

Emailed Bachmann about the clash with 216, apparently their tooling only covers a handful of units in the gwr fleet, so they are sticking with it as 216. Annoying and disappointing after a large gestation. However it is accurate, I believe it was due to the seating.

With the 2 other competitors being rather far along, and the Bachmann model being announced a long time ago.Will it be outdated by its eventual release? I do wonder how it will stack up, maybe if they update it to the plux 22 system and other modern features, whilst still being cheaper, it may stand a chance. And the question is, is there a demand for 3 high quality rats. But then again this is all speculation.

Now with another 25 announced, will Bachmann pull the plug? Unless they can undercut Heljan with price I can’t see them beating the others. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Very true, Bachmann cancelled the GWR 166 , because they couldn’t make it dcc ready, was verging on £180 in 2017. Even the old toolings will still command high prices.

Do we know how long the slw one has been in development compared to the Heljan model?

Same here, whilst the Heljan samples have looked great. I’m sure the SLw model will have less errors. Although still interesting to see how the Heljan model arrives. Maybe a price drop? Although it’s very early.

Nearly a year on, samples for the northern ones, yet none for gwr. The wait continues

Hopefully now with the plux 22 coupling and drive system now used in the new DMUs, progress may pick up. Would be nice to have more updates on a product that will certainly cost a lot.

Saw the recent video of the blue Pullman early sample. No headlight (top) we knew this. Wrong exhaust cowlings for ex EMT VP185 powercars and a few livery discrepancies. Although nice to see Hornby providing samples

And the counting begins...

Hopefully lots behind the scenes, we had no progress with the manor and then they suddenly have samples. The last samples we had were in 2018 and we haven’t seen anything since. Hopefully the long gestation means a superb model. I’m interested to see how they do the rotating axle boxes.

Not a 25 expert at all, but was this a class wide thing?(drilled wheels) Given we’ve seen the likes of spoked/drilled wheels on many other RTR diesels 22,24,41 etc. Would be a shame if they aren’t there.

Will these feature the new Plux 22 dcc interface? Or am I right in saying this is the decade old cep with a new buffet?

Will the wheels have the holes drilled out? Or was this only on a few of them.

Absolutely fantastic and you say this only a hand assembled one? Unbelievable. Great work