GordonC Posted May 20, 2021 Share Posted May 20, 2021 15 hours ago, surfsup said: I too find the Oxford Rail Mk3 situation rather odd - QC issues aside, which with a few tweaks at the factory could be easily rectifiable, they are a coach which deserved to be churned out in there droves! It's not as if there isn't a plethora of liveries to chose from either - and like you, I to find they do make an idea base for a repaint or conversion. I had hoped the Mk3 range was to be shunted into Hornby's range this year but alas not. I can only think they're doing something to retool some of the faults possibly before making more use of the tooling again. Mk3s should sell by the bucketload with the right product 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieGuyRob Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 Could they be appearing in Hornby's range as the re-tooled sleeper cars at the end of this year? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGR Hooper! Posted June 11, 2021 Author Share Posted June 11, 2021 3 hours ago, PieGuyRob said: Could they be appearing in Hornby's range as the re-tooled sleeper cars at the end of this year? It would be nice to have the OR Mk3s in the Hornby range. An instant upgrade. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieGuyRob Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 Hornby don't have the current GWR livery available on the new sleepers which is strange? Also do OR have any plans to release their carriages as hauled stock for the Night Riviera? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Black Hat Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 On 13/05/2021 at 17:01, VXDH92 said: The Virgin Trains ones are curious in that I emailed OR last summer to see what was happening and they said they were imminent. Then heard nothing until Feb when they announced they had completed production and would be shipped following Chinese New Year. It's now mid-may and one of the retailers has told me they've been put back to late summer / early autumn. Cheltenham are showing them due Dec 2021! I think everyone appreciates covid delays, but this doesn't seem right - if production was finished in Jan / Feb, why are they now due late summer at the earliest? 5 or 6 months to ship from China?? And why say they were due immediately last summer? I'm afraid it'll be decades before we get HST trailers as it must have been 2-3 years since they announced the VT ones! Love the model, but they must be losing sales by taking so long to produce even new liveries, let alone other variants. I know what your saying but when Oxford produce the Virgin Red and Black stock they will be going between my Hornby Virgin XC power cars. Yes the details are not true for an HST coach, but few will notice if any. The finish of the models matches the stock nicely and they will be unnoticed by 99.9% of modellers that watch the train pass at an exhibition. All they will care about is that the finish and stock matches up and that the HST has arrived. As said, this coach deserves to be tweaked to make it a little stronger but then churned out in liveries galore so that we have a decent coach. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonC Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 This is when Oxford Rail pop up out the blue with something like a Class 442 out of their Mk3s explaining the radio silence! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
159220 Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 5 hours ago, PieGuyRob said: Could they be appearing in Hornby's range as the re-tooled sleeper cars at the end of this year? Have I missed that announcement, I cannot find any re-tooled sleeper coaches advertised anywhere. Would love to get rid of the crude old Hornby ones! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieGuyRob Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 I "presumed" the sleeper carriages were new toolings. I'm wrong by the looks of things. They are just the current (Lima?) tooling in new liveries. Though I still stand by, it's weird they don't have the Night Riviera livery, as it the only franchised TOC that uses them now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGR Hooper! Posted June 11, 2021 Author Share Posted June 11, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, PieGuyRob said: Hornby don't have the current GWR livery available on the new sleepers which is strange? Also do OR have any plans to release their carriages as hauled stock for the Night Riviera? KMRC did them as a special commission from Hornby 2 years ago Edited June 11, 2021 by MGR Hooper! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rembrow Posted September 18, 2021 Share Posted September 18, 2021 (edited) Was just browsing the Oxford facebook site, as there was an announcement of new diecast items for the Sept to Jan 2022 period (which includes a Duple Brittania bodied coach from the late 1950s), and drifted into the new arrivals area, where low and behold they are showing two Virgin liveried Mk3a coaches as arrived, one FO and one TSO as having arrived. About £3 price increase, still sub £40 with discount. Edited September 18, 2021 by rembrow Correction Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig1989 Posted September 24, 2021 Share Posted September 24, 2021 Are the blue/grey coaches suitable for the charter coaches in use today? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cbpete Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 At last I have 2 Virgin mk3’s on the way to me placed the order on 24/1/17 this is the longest I’ve ever waited. Just hoping for some extra numbered coaches next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
VXDH92 Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 1 hour ago, Cbpete said: At last I have 2 Virgin mk3’s on the way to me placed the order on 24/1/17 this is the longest I’ve ever waited. Just hoping for some extra numbered coaches next year. An even longer wait for those of us wanting the buffet (RFM) variant - due early next year according to OR, though they were unable to explain to me why they're so far behind the TSO and FO. Have you had an email confirming they've been posted to you cbpete? Only none of the online retailers actually seem to have them in stock yet, but perhaps you ordered from OR directly? Cheers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold franciswilliamwebb Posted September 28, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 28, 2021 Hattons are showing the FOs as in stock. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
VXDH92 Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 2 minutes ago, franciswilliamwebb said: Hattons are showing the FOs as in stock. Ahh my bad, so they are. And the TSOs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cbpete Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 Ordered from Hattons and at the original price, which as surprised me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 On 11/06/2021 at 11:27, 159220 said: Have I missed that announcement, I cannot find any re-tooled sleeper coaches advertised anywhere. Would love to get rid of the crude old Hornby ones! Hornby are due to release more mk3 sleepers in the coming months. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cbpete Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 (edited) So just looking on the Hattons site and photos of the Virgin MK3 and they look like they don’t have the tinted windows. Surely they would not of but clear glazing in, that would be a backward move. Hattons also say they have metal buffers. Got my hands on them now yes they have tinted windows but still plastic buffers. Edited October 1, 2021 by Cbpete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiftyfour fiftyfour Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 The interiors on the Virgin TSOs are totally wrong, wrong colours, entirely the wrong seat layout which should be the 76 seat/10 table of 4 layout. They stick out like a sore thumb, you could just about get away with the wrong interiors if doing a very early Intercity 'swallow' livery and never running a Class 90 on the rake but there is no getting away with it on the Virgin TSOs. People will still buy them and pretend they are right. PM me if you want a solution... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
VXDH92 Posted October 9, 2021 Share Posted October 9, 2021 Finally got them after all the years of waiting for the VT livery (minus the RFM that's spuriously due next year now). Really good overall - colours look better than Hornby's Virgin liveries to my eye, although perhaps still too dark. Quality control is poor though - lots of minor anomalies; even the window tint seems to vary in shade from coach to coach! But the step boards seem better attached than early OR mk3s. Run very well with Hunt Couplings, both pulling and pushing. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Harvey Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 The Virgin RFM is shown on the back cover of the latest edition of The Globe magazine as a November release. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/9369/0011/files/Globe_257_low_res.pdf?v=1635410061 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandwich station Posted November 13, 2021 Share Posted November 13, 2021 On 29/10/2021 at 05:54, Mike Harvey said: The Virgin RFM is shown on the back cover of the latest edition of The Globe magazine as a November release. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/9369/0011/files/Globe_257_low_res.pdf?v=1635410061 It's showing as being in stock at Hatton's. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanspareil Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 (edited) So I finally got my hands on Oxford Mk3's. Hmmmm... checking not complete but boy, the worst quality control seen in recent times (2/3rds with issues of sorts). On one carriage on one side the no smoking labels are all on the bottom not top of window. There's some very clear under/over spraying issues. One had a screw rattling about inside. Body fit is very hit and miss, clip issues? One coach had a strip of masking tap stuck to it oddly. Gaps between the included couplings are huge! The kinematic couplers are too weak when pushing, be that shunting a lengthy train or just in prototypical push/pull operation. The loco/MK3 standard coupler wants to override given the high flexibility in the coupling mech and weight of train, other manufacturers seem to have avoided this with better designed stronger mechs. These are going to take some work. Some with serious issues will have to go back sadly. Given some of the readings here I assume this is pretty standard for Oxford and the Mk3's? This was my first Oxford purchase. Edited November 30, 2021 by sanspareil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Roy Langridge Posted November 30, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 30, 2021 7 hours ago, sanspareil said: So I finally got my hands on Oxford Mk3's. Hmmmm... checking not complete but boy, the worst quality control seen in recent times (2/3rds with issues of sorts). My son and I have a few* and we have had a 50% success rate. *would be more if the ScotRail colours were right. Roy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium njee20 Posted November 30, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 30, 2021 On 04/10/2021 at 20:56, fiftyfour fiftyfour said: The interiors on the Virgin TSOs are totally wrong, … People will still buy them and pretend they are right. More likely 99% of people won’t know. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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