Roy L S

I have been familiar with Met No.1 over many years and am very aware that it has been in steam on LT metals, however it is described by the centre as under overhaul, and last time I was at Bucks Railway Centre I am sure I saw parts of the disassembled loco out in the open - I will check next time I am there.

Yep somewhere around 20% is my understanding too.

If you class a sorry pile of parts (in the case of Met No.1) as being on public display 🤔

Two specifically selected items doesn't really conclusively say anything one way or the other. Of those the Mk5 sleepers were only released in limited numbers to certain interested retailers so hardly likely to attract deep discounts and the TPE sets are not even in the shops yet. A very quick scope of the internet and I have easily found N Gauge Dapol 68s in Compass and DRS liveries at Jadlam Toys and Models which are two more modern ones for £134.89. To counter that claim about modern stuff currently running flying off shelves, I have also by way of just two examples very easily found a Dapol 66 in "Thank you NHS" livery for £79 at Rainbow Railways and a Farish "Biffa" one for £96 at the same shop.

Good to see nylon gears as opposed to plastic on the new chassis, and of course as well as being a lower profile it now has a coreless motor rather than the old can type. Roy

Are all the recent releases "Crewe Cut"? The Rails "special" certainly appears to have the valance on the body side behind the buffer-beam, like the green one I have already - or am I showing my ignorance regarding these locos? Graham Farish 372-247ZSF Class 47 47628 'Sir Daniel Gooch' GWR 150th Anniversary Livery Diesel – Rails of Sheffield Roy

That shows such unbelievable arrogance, it must have been tempting to name and shame and publish the said newsletter!

Nice though they look, I can honestly say that even though they would fit my modelling era and region well, for some reason I am not the remotest bit interested in these, they just do not appeal 🤔

I would be interested to know which retailers Ben, because that doesn't accord with ones I know and have spoken to, who say it is steam/diesel transition that sells best, and speaking specifically of diesels it is still always the green locos and DMUs that sell through first - just try finding them! However I would contend that the simple reality is that with erratic supply of anything in recent times it is pretty much impossible to draw any real conclusions. For example until very recently supply of Farish BR carmine and cream, maroon and blue/grey Mk1 coaches has been non-existent, and they are only just starting to appear in numbers now so too early to see what sells through first, and without the bread and butter Mk1 coach which was a feature of much of all of these eras how is it remotely possible to know? The transition modeller has also had Dapol Gresley coaches etc as a bit of a backup but for the BR blue modeller by comparison supply of a range of M2s from Farish has been to be generous very sketchy and Dapol loco hauled M3s only cover the later part of the period. An additional factor relating more specifically to steam is that there has been a long period where the main producer (Bachmann) wasn't producing much at all, and people can't buy what isn't on the shelves. Thankfully that situation is now improving and not just from Bachmann, we now have EFE, Sonic and Dapol with products coming through and in development. I would also challenge the assumption that it is generational and people typically model what they remember, it is far less simplistic than that, there are a whole host of different reasons why people choose to model eras and regions, often nothing to do with when and where they grew up. It certainly isn't the case for modelling colleagues at my Club whose ages range widely (as most do I suspect), many of barely remember steam, yet most model transition era and none of them model BR blue as their primary era in any scale. The 28 year old in our N gauge group's predominant interest is Great Western/BR WR and he wasn't born until after Privatisation. What I think can be said for certain is that the plethora of the more modern liveries are far less popular, you only have to look at what is in the bargain bins. You won't find BR much from the transition era or BR blue for that matter, it is much more often the more modern liveries you find heavily discounted - just look at the example of the most recent Farish 31 - BR green are long gone, but some of the more recent liveries like the RTC and "Network Rail" ones are still available and at heavy discounts, then there are the recently released Class 90s and upgraded 60s, already easily found discounted by getting on for 25%. Bringing this back to the subject of 175 and 180 (which both look fantastic thus far) I think given the lack of popularity of a fair number of modern liveries as demonstrated by slow sales of even some recent releases, the RevolutioN strategy of being very considered with livery choices, targeting fewer liveries and ones you are confident will sell, simply has to be the right approach. Regards Roy

Me too in green. I have asked and been told that further 47s are included in Bachmann's future plans, but no more detail than that I'm afraid, so we can probably expect the blue and green ones at some as yet unspecified future date. Very odd not to include the blue and green ones in the initial run of sound upgraded models as they are always the first liveries to sell out, but then I gave up trying to understand Bachmann's priorities or sales strategy for their models a long time ago 🤔

Hi Ben Thanks for clarifying, it does makes sense given that they can no longer be pre-ordered. Regards Roy

Were there N gauge production or pre-production samples of these on display at Warley and have I inadvertently missed them?

Yes, always best to have asked for a specific amount on the booking form so as to have seen and agreed an actual sum required by way of expenses in advance.

Personally I would 100% agree with you, promoting a club or association with a demo stand is essentially "selling" your hobby or specific area of interest to a wider audience.

And here I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head Chris, taking a layout to a show is an extension of the hobby and an enjoyable one at that (albeit transporting and setting up can have it's stresses), it is a chance to show our layout and talk to people about it, and that is why I and Club colleagues never seek to cover all our costs and very often decline taking any expenses at all. I also take the view that very often were I not exhibiting I would have travelled to the show in question anyway and bought an entry ticket and some lunch on top so would have incurred greater cost anyway. Roy

To be pedantic, in the context of a model railway show it is typically called a "surplus" rather than a profit. What that can be spent on is usually defined in the rules of a club, but will normally be to maintain/pay for premises and support modelling and other associated activities, it can't just be spent on anything and certainly not things like wages. In terms of claiming back expenses, speaking personally and for most of my fellow club members, we never go so far as to calculate it down to the mile at a given rate per mile, if we claim at all, it is usually only a contribution we ask for, we take the view that (1) we are supporting the hobby and the exhibition by keeping our expenses down and (2) other layout owners very often do the same so they support our show when it comes to it. There isn't any right or wrong here though, individual circumstances differ, but what I would expect is a club to honour the expenses we quote in the booking form, we may decline to take it on the day, but that would be our choice. Roy

Duh! Duly edited thanks! No, fully appreciated but it was previously mentioned that some on the design team modelled in N and were for that reason keen, I wasn't suggesting that they had been employed by Accurascale as N designers, most would (as at Bachmann and Dapol) work across a range of projects regardless of scale I am sure. The Dapol 57xx has been around a while now, but they are still churning them out so it clearly still sells and the price-point is quite reasonable so I do tend to agree that a Pannier would be unlikely. Personally I would think in terms of a diesel and so a 37 or 55 if looking to "clone" from the current range's R&D. I wouldn't care to speculate which, there isn't a whole lot wrong with either of the Farish models except that in terms of technical specification with 6 pin DCC and no sound they are getting a little dated based on current expectations. As i am going along to Warley I will definitely swing by the Accurascale stand if for no other reason to check out the OO "Buckjumpers" and O Gauge 88DS. Regards Roy

Seeing the further OO announcement today on top of a number of others in recent months that seem to have gone down well with the modelling fraternity (including the rather lovely Ruston 88DS in O Gauge) has prompted me to return to this thread and ask as we approach Warley 2023 whether the Accurascale Team have had any further thoughts or reached any decisions about producing any N Gauge models. There have been a range of suggestions made on this thread as to what they might want to consider producing, and I believe Accurascale have one or two N modellers in their ranks who are keen, but as yet there doesn't seem to have been much in the way of follow up. I appreciate this doesn't necessarily mean the matter of N products isn't being considered, but it would be interesting to have some kind of update and to understand whether it is the case, or whether like Heljan the Team feel they have enough on already without embarking on products for another scale. Roy

I don't consider modelling a lost craft at all but it has in many ways evolved, for example from scratch-building a wagon from bits of plastic to spending hours designing the same wagon in CAD to 3D print on a home printer. In the case of these wagons I would content there is little point in modifying Farish ones to take an NEM pocket if others are available (and cheaper) that already have them. Regards Roy

That would go for me too, subject to (as I suspect) the Vanfit looking perfectly fine in normal BR bauxite I will certainly be buying a few, and some of the Iron ore tipplers too.

Personally I don't think the horrible "Santa" livery including different colours on the solebar helps and I will wait until I see the Vanfit in "proper" BR liveries before reaching any conclusions, but it appears the RRPs will be somewhat less than the Farish models and it does have NEM coupling pockets which Farish vans and mineral wagons do not currently. Roy

Sadly I have to agree, I would imagine the green ones will sell well enough, but the other liveries I am not sure about. The sound upgrade has been "in the works" a while and for me it has always been surprising that Bachmann would prioritise this over things like the Class 37 and for steam the Duchess/WD Austerity as far as a sound is concerned. Roy

I have one of the new sound fitted Ivatt 2MTs (in my case 46447 as I remember it pre-restoration at Quainton Railway Centre). I am really pleased with it, the addition of sound was certainly a worthwhile enhancement and I think the Bachmann sound-file is excellent. Given the cost of a Zimo Next 18 sound chip is in the region of £110 on it's own, I actually think that especially at a discounted price of typically a tad under £230 the sound fitted model is excellent value too. Roy

I would hope more 47 liveries will follow, especially earlier ones, and I absolutely agree that the 37 with it's long life and huge range of variations in detail and liveries simply has to be high on the list. Roy

I had hoped (but not expected) that given the length of time since that last all new tool steam loco was released we might have seen something new in that respect to round off 2023, but on the plus side there is still a good volume of N coming through which is a big improvement on where things were not so long ago. As has been said elsewhere the Class 47 sound upgrade has been expected for some time, so isn't a huge surprise, but it would have been good to see the popular early BR two-tone green with small panel and BR blue (pre or post-TOPS) included rather than just more modern liveries. The military liveried EFE J94s were nice to see, and had they appeared in the initial run I would have chosen one of those as an initial purchase but having already purchased two, another would be a bit of an indulgence, however I am tempted as they are lovely little models. The phrase "nothing for me here" does spring to mind, but I haven't done too badly this year in terms of new items so I can say that without any huge element of disappointment this time. Roy