Roy Langridge

To be fair, whether the fix is too complex or not is a customer decision. I trained as an electronics engineer, changing a circuit board or even the modifications discussed above do not concern me at all. Irrelevant for me as the large headlights are way too late for me. That said, so is my 66005 when it comes! Roy

The Lokprogrammer is expensive but it a fantastic bit of kit, well worth the price tag if you want to change CVs or update sound files. particularly useful for those CVs where different bits do different things. Roy

I can't believe I am reading some of the statements here about what will or will not happen - pure supposition / speculation. Hattons Dave has said they are looking into it. To have a manufacturer admit an issue so openly and quickly is pretty much unheard of. Let us give him the courtesy of having the time to discuss with the factory what has gone wrong and see what is reported back to us. Roy

Big companies argue they are able to keep costs lower through economy of scale. As for making profit and reinvesting, that is true of pretty much any company. Roy

Ran my PLA Peckett in today and it is the smoothest and quietest of all my Pecketts (6 of them). Pleased as I found the works version nowhere near as good a runner as the initial batch. Roy

I am this time. I had planned for one, but it was not essential. Whilst I am not one to normally complain about price, the asking price for the BEP does not, to me, offer sufficient value to now make it a purchase. It is not a case of not having funds (I have a full APT on order), but even at the discounted price, there are other things that will jump ahead in my personal "value" list. Roy

Looks like the discounted price. Rails have the rrp quoted as £239.95. Roy

Ok, but there is nothing different with the 66? I ask as there was a suggestion for Hattons to include a warning, but I have not seen anything to indicate anything that is of particular note with this loco compared to pretty much any other loco and consisting with DCC. I feared I had missed something. Roy

All very interesting about the effects of matching speeds, but what has that specifically got to do with the Hattons 66? Roy

Previous thread here: Roy

As I have mentioned before, I am married into a Chinese family. There is no media hype here - it is bad. My wife's cousin is a very senior figure in the medical community, when he worries, you know you should. China has a major problem, made worse by the time of year. It now seems that some people were contagious before Chinese New Year, but were unaware - they then travelled in their thousands all around the country, as it their custom. This could run and run with many production lines being halted. Further, with the WHO getting involved you can see this a global threat, not just one affecting our trains. Roy

I made the comment about the sales of models being diluted not so much on the basis of cost (which a few posts have referenced) but more that there is now such a wide choice nobody will buy everything. Indeed, some people in the past will have compromised on their purchases to eras / models which may not have been their first choice simply because their preference was not available. Now we have models coming such as the Hattons Genesis stock - some people who would have loved to model that era now will, but perhaps no longer purchasing their second choice. In total the same number of models may be sold, even slightly more, but the number of each particular model will be less (if that makes sense). Roy

I do wonder in part about your last statement. We are now incredibly blessed to have a huge choice, covering models and eras that a few years ago we would never have even dreamt of getting in RTR form. This must have a diluting effect where the number of models sold of each is less than it would have been in the past. I think back to a few years ago and, in diesel form there was 08, 20, 24, 25, 37, 47, 50, HST (probably missed one or two) and that was it. Now look.... Roy

You could well be right about non-model related issues. A whole host of government departments are currently overloaded preparing for Brexit, including some of those that you would not initially have thought would be impacted. Roy

Eh, that’s a black and white photo! How can you tell it was khaki green? As far as I am aware, the green used for locos in that period is fairly well understood: BR Locomotive Green Roy