G-BOAF

Some decent shots on youtube by Class47Peter (not normally my kind of reviewer, far too liberal in his glue use imho). The lamp brackets actually look quite good once fitted with no bigger plug or hole than would be expected with a separate lamp iron being well fitted into the model. So that's encouraging.

I'm finding equally challenging in quality. The only advantage of Bachmann, is there is normally stock available to send back for a return (TPO and a Class 47 both being recent examples where it has take 2-3 attempts to get one without decoration flaws). Accurascale by contrast, with so many models sold out on pre-orders is an unknown amount of time under repair....

Further interesting quote is "The Group will strive to explore new sales opportunities and manufacture high quality products with competitive prices to sustain its business" I sense the group will struggle in this strategy if Accurascale are selling a 37 for £170 and Bachmann's almost identical version is £245!

For some reason I thought the booklet was only for the sound decoder. but I presume the non-sound decoder is basically set up to operate the non-sound functions in the same way. That makes sense.

Just received a Lokpilot decoder programmed for the 37. WAs a bit disappointed it did not come with a specification booklet and a functions list? I presume the booklet can be downloaded from ESU but is there an online Accurascale function list?

But be ware that some have the Stones A/C unit (2 fans) and others have Temperature ltd (1 large fan); from what we know thus far, Bachmann have only tooled up Temp ltd (meaning a future production run is restricted) and any repaint from a RFO needs to be of a similarly equipped prototype (6701 for example has Temperature ltd). It does appear however that the RLO conversions were not done to as high a quality in terms of plating the windows; the plating is much more visible than on most RFOs. Good source of pics here: https://coaches-library.weebly.com/mk2f---rlo.html

Would at minimum need a new interior tooling, which may be worthwhile if a whole series of CS/IC mk2 sleeper day vehicles is being done. Or indeed might have already been tooled up. Some on here will doubtless know the extent of the tooling, but won't be at liberty to say.

Are there any CV changes on the Loksound V5 that can be done to make the lighting direction independent of the motor direction? Basically for shunting/shuttle work I want to leave the headlights on when the loco is going in reverse for short distances, as would be prototypical with the driver not changing the lights every time they go in reverse.

Rails and Kernow reporting in stock. Looks mighty fine... Except for only being able to run it on a Cattle Train (given headlamp code) forward, and a stopping passenger when running tender first! What on earth were Hornby thinking....? EDIT - noticed rear lamp position.

reposting what I put yesterday (which was removed in general clearout) to which Fran encouragingly replied. The majority of the carbon impact will be during manufacturing, including energy in casting and injection moulding (both hot and energy intensive activities) as well as operations around painting and assembly, to say nothing of extraction of raw materials. My guesstimate is that this will be an order of magnitude higher than carbon use within either domestic distribution or international shipping. It would be great to see total supply chain and production carbon footprinting and offsetting/carbon removal/renewable energy inputs (if it is possible to specify renewable energy purchase within the Chinese energy supply system). But good to start somewhere.

if they are factory/QC rejects, another option would be that Dapol insists all rejected models come to them (after all they have paid for a full batch, which includes an allowance for rejects. It can then use them for spares (the good parts) and/or sells the bodies as seconds (which Dapol has of course done with the incorrect DRS 68 bodies). This would prevent such complete items entering the customer market later.

If they are not part of an authorised production batch, distributed from the factory by Dapol, they they are fake products. Simple as. I do like the idea of a secure hologram sticker being applied to product/boxes by Dapol rather than the factory. I guess making these stickers in the UK will be the only solution otherwise there could be a black market in Chinese production of those! Interesting new item today about Fake stamps. With quotes from Ebay and Amazon that fake items are not tolerated. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13294737/China-flooding-Britain-fake-stamps-rogue-firms-land-thousands-innocent-British-victims-5-penalties.html So all Dapol has to do is raise it with the online market place, stating clearly that they are the manufacturers, and that there are no authorised Dapol Retailers in China, that they have not supplied any of the production batches to suppliers in China, and that therefore these models are unauthorised copies (fakes), or at very lease cannot be regarded as new given, if they are genuine, they will have been already purchased from an authorised retailer (i.e. are second-hand), and not covered by warranty of OEM.

Sobering to think that there are more separate parts on the pair of spare full bufferbeams alone than in some entire models 30 years ago! (I estimate 30 parts across the pair including steps, lifting eyes, hoses, buffers, buffer beams, springs, and the main valance moulding). Not seen these parts in the flesh so doubtless have missed something.

Unless you are Hornby[1], you hopefully don't sell off all your spares before a) all retailers have had stock and b) any retailer warranty repairs have come back. Even if AS are sold out, retailers may take longer to shift/dispatch stock, and warranty replacement items should, I would argue, still be available to cover this. Otherwise huge disincentive to buy from retailer, which (as again Hornby have shown) is not good long term. [1] who for a long time seem to have taken a 'sold out and no spare items, nor spare parts, sorry, now please go away'

My guess is most of the common Youtube suspects have ordered other models. And potentially many modellers who want an EWS 66 have ordered 171 as more representative member of the fleet and over a longer time period (from delivery to today, +/- a few details). Also 001 is a limited edition of 525 out of I'm guessing a 20k+ total production run.