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I'm not saying the crane isn't worth a premium price , it looks like a masterpiece of a model , My take on it is I don't want to pay that price . I can afford it if I really wanted but I just feel I've pretty much set levels on my modelling budget and don't want to spend any more. I hope Bachmann do well out of this model , but it's not for me . My 2HAP pre order has also been cancelled, £200 for 2 coaches is in my mind a bit much. It's a shame but that's how it is and is going to be for me from now on. I still have 2x Hornby 87s and a DJM 74 and 20x Oxford MK3s on order but I REALLY want these locos and coaches so will pay what I think is a reasonable price for them . The crane and emu are nice to have only so have fallen on the wayside. As I said before, the Hattons pre order price was ignored by me at the time of ordering .

I generally don't tend to moan about pricing and rises but I think this is a bit over the top . Yes I understand it's going to be a fantastically intricate and detailed model but I can't justify the outlay on a model that will mainly be sitting in a siding. I could stomach £150 ish , I never expected it to be selling for £90, but its just too much now. I have cancelled my pre order, Shame but those "nice to have models" are getting harder to justify. I would love the new retooled Bachmann western Pullman but that's pretty eye watering in the price department too.

Looks lovely ...I actually think that estimate is a reasonable price, I won't be bidding on it though !

Thanks for the offer mike ...I think I'll pass on that ...that £50 could be used to help contribute to the SNCF BB7200 Roco electric loco I don't need for my layout ......but hey it looks nice ! And there we are ....can't explain it.

I model OO BR blue late 70s and adhere strictly to that era ..........so can someone explain to me why I've spent the last hour on eBay looking to buy HO CIWL Orient express coaches by Rivarossi . Also not too sure where the two O gauge SD40s fit in .........

One way to do this is by using a very clean piece of sheet metal or perspex screwed tightly to the board edge but coat the face of the sheet with Vaseline or a similar grease , this acts as a release agent to the hardened resin and makes the sheet easy to remove once unscrewed. The point of screwing the sheet tight is to give a clean straight edge . We used this method on a friend's old layout and it worked very well. Hope this helps.

A couple of pictures of incidents i attended to whilst working at London City Airport the first time i was stationed there. First up , the remains of an Avro RJ main wheel tyre , we had been having anti skid problems on an aircraft and this was a result of a troubleshooting high speed taxi / braking test . Turned out it was a faulty Dual adaptive Anti skid valve , replaced shortly after this picture was taken , along with this wheel assembly ! Funny one this . The BA RJ was being positioned on stand and the tow team had made a bit of a mess on the positioning resulting in the stabilisers overlapping . They were both touching so the resulting solution was to leave the passengers on the Lufthansa RJ to keep both main leg oleos compressed and to collapse the nose leg oleo on the empty BA RJ forcing the nose down and tail to raise creating a small gap , then getting the tow team to move the Lufthansa RJ. Believe it or not there was only some minor paint damage to both after some pretty detailed inspections including NDT testing. I was on my own that day and it was pretty stressful dealing with it all , thats me in the lifter basket . Swiss RJ that had a tailstrike on landing , this was my last turnround on a Saturday and i was all set to shoot off home when this arrived . This was the aircraft that ended up being taken across the dock by barge and repaired in a temporary hangar constructed on the other side of the KG5 dock . Absolutely massive damage to the aircraft and it was in repair for nearly 5 months , a good friend of mine was the crew chief on the repairs . Bent airframe , around thirty frames replaced , five skin sheets , and lots of stringers . Finally for today , a couple of shots i took of the BA RJ that had noseleg failure and subsequent partial belly land on its landing roll . Aircraft was written off as the damage was huge and eventually she was dismantled on site. The nose leg had a manufacturing fault and cracks had formed leading to a stress failure and folding back into the airframe , flight crew and cabin crew whom i knew personally did a tremendous job of the landing and emergency . Pretty sobering when you looked around the damage i can tell you . Anyway hope they are of some interest , sorry about the quality of the photos , all off one of my old mobiles. cheer, Paul.

Wow ......that Victor looks like something out of Thunderbirds !!!

One of my work friends brought his camera in to work today at London City and I had a little play with it .... Brand new Swiss C series on arrival Our A318 setting off for Shannon and New York

Fair play ....that doesn't sound too clever then !

Further to the above posts stating the pantograph will not touch the ohle wire , I've been following this thread and maybe I've missed it but I can't see any proof that it won't. Has someone tested this on the pre production models or has Hornby stated this themselves ? I'm not looking for an argument but until the model is released surely no one can say this for certain . I hope it does touch as I'm hoping to install ohle on two my mainlines on my layout for this and my class 85.

That blue 87 is superb....I'm sure there will be people who will say they prefer the Lima model but to my eyes it's not a patch on this new effort... In fact I might have to order another one .

The blue one looks absolutely superb , I love the look of the pantograph too ....looking forward to getting my hands on this one and can't wait to run it with some MK3 and MK2 stock . Could we be seeing the most accurate UK outline pantograph on a ready to run model ?

I absolutely agree with you Adrian , I used to try and catch any loco haulage available and in front of my friends treated the HSTs to scorn and contempt but secretly really rather liked them even then . I can remember overtaking 56 hauled stone trains through Sonning cutting on our way back to Paddington in the early years and thinking WOW ,this thing really moves . Of course nowadays it's the norm. Oh and that Valenta scream and howling Marston's............

That's a great shot there Peter , a couple of things dawned on me looking at that photo , Wasn't the HST a fantastic design , even wearing fit inducing colours they look great , secondly who says British engineering is rubbish , these trains were built to last , Finally, looking at the middle trains third MK3 makes me feel better about the poor tracklaying on my layout !

My best friend's father's funeral was last week ,I attended as I had known the deceased since I was 13 years old , his last bit of music was the old music hall song "good bye ee" , It brought a little humour and a few chuckles on an extremely sad and upsetting day. Quite a good choice i thought.

Ryanair are a product of the public wanting to fly a thousand miles for less than the price of a meal for two . Ryanair are giving the public what they want in cheap fares and for most people price is their only consideration. It's the oldest argument in aviation , if you pay next to nothing for your fare you can't really expect any kind of service other than getting you to your destination If you want service with your flight ...pay more to another airline. I will not use Ryanair....not because of poor maintenance (Ryanairs is very good) , not because of poorly trained flight crew (once again , they're very good) ,but because I don't like the way they do business with their "customers". It's my choice, same for everyone else . If people were prepared to pay a little extra to other airlines then maybe Ryanair would have to change their ways , I can't see that coming anytime soon though . Just my thoughts Paul.

I'm in the non lit camp here , whilst I can understand people wanting lit coaches I'm sure there's a large group who aren't interested in lighting . For me I have over 20 on pre order and will be ordering another 8 when the hst trailers appear. If as someone above stated it could possibly add maybe another £10 per coach to have lighting it becomes a large amount of extra cash for a feature I don't require. I wonder whether Oxford could maybe go the route Hornby took with the lighting in their mk2e coaches and have some fitted lighting and some without. It would be a shame to have to reconsider quantities due to a large price increase. Just my thoughts Paul.

Good grief...only put the picture up as I thought it may be interesting....

Just found this image of 87001 in the Colin Marsden book "The AC Electrics" . Maybe the white box was on a few locos only on delivery only as it seems by the time names were applied they were all black. Sorry for the poor picture , hope it's not breaking any rules .

I must be being stalked by these ! Just carrying out a daily check on the departing A318 at London City when I spied this sitting on the mainwheel. I only saw my first one last week as per my previous post now another. Maybe they're becoming more common in the area . It flew off before the aircraft took it to New York!

Out for a walk by the Thames with my daughters and this beauty landed on my daughters leg! It crawled onto my offered hand, posed for a picture then flew onto a nearby bramble bush where it was promptly joined by another! It's a Jersey tiger moth and had the most striking red colouring on its wings when it flew . There was a staggering amount of varied butterfly's over there from chalk blues and commons to peacocks and red admirals. Wonderful to see.

What a good thread ! I love hearing the drivers stories please keep them coming. I've always liked the idea of a warm snug signalbox perched in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter......some of those boxes up in the far north of Scotland must have been quite isolated.

The Duster is a car that a few years back I wouldn't touch , but a few people I know have them and I had one last year as a hire car in Mallorca, and I have to be honest now and say I actually think theyre pretty good and definitely value for money , so much so that we may even buy a new one for the wife to use . Believe me as sports car enthusiast and owner it's really been quite a shock to think that a Dacia is a possible choice for buying. Could be a good car to buy and keep for long term.

A blue class 45 with sealed beam headlights.......surely got to be a better seller than a number of basically similar niche 37s in liveries that only seem to last a year or two . I've been buying on eBay for years and have noticed 70s/80s BR blue locos always seem to go for a premium, either the manufacturers are not producing enough of them or there are an awful lot of 70s/80s BR blue layouts we don't know about !