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Bachmann 2016 Announcements


Andy Y

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It won't do me any harm saving my leisure monies for the foreseeable future.  

 

Imagine if they had announced the two most common types of Brush Type 4/ Class 47 - as yet never produced - how much I'd be expecting to shell out... :angel:   

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this caught my eye though, nice little train pack

 

39-005 BR Mark 2A + Class 101 DTCL ‘Highlander Pack’ with Passenger figures

 

That one caught my eye too! I'm hoping for Blue and Grey version but I expect it will be the later green/cream version to go with the highlander set from last year!

 

Also hoping 37041 and 37284 are ones without buffer skirts this time!! I know 37041 kept its skirts for a very long time so i'm worried we'll get yet another skirted model of the blue split headcode 37 :(

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I should have realised this year is the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Network SouthEast. At least one of my predictions, a 101 DMU in NSE livery has been announced.

 

Living as a youth in Portsmouth, I saw 2HAPs far more often than 2EPBs!

 

There's an upsurge in the number of locos announced with sound - could it be that they're designed the sound chips in-house - a la Hornby - and can offer them more cheaply rather than sourcing them from ESU?

 

However, I can see why Bachmann's not announced much new tooling - they've still got a lot to get through the design and tooling process onto the shelves.

 

 

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A little bit of a mixed one this year for me. The Network SouthEast theme is excellent, and a great choice of locos and stock to go with it. But - rather than the Half/Half HAP (which will be a very fine model for sure), wouldn't the announcement of a Refurbished 4-CEP in NSE really have been more of a show stopper? It's something a good few of us have been asking for for some time and would appear very nicely within the range of NSE models produced. It's also perhaps a little disappointing when, the CEP has been shown to be a good seller and that of Hornby's disappointing 4VEP arrived to us in both original and Refurbished versions. I will no doubt be ordering a few of the NSE range though, certainly a few of the Mk1s / Mk2s and 47s to re-create the WOE services of the 90s.

 

New liveries on DMUs seem to be a little lacking this year as well, I suppose Bachmann are trying to judge sales before launching more and more liveries on a (as in the case of the 117) Not yet existing model - the one livery I'm after on the 117 is Regional Railways. I'm also a little disappointed with the lack of 150s this year, While the ATW livery is a smart one, the choice of producing the newer GWR livery on the relatively old 166 vice GWR on the 150/2 I feel is an odd one. Not least after the investment in re-tooling the chassis for it. Admittedly I wouldn't have minded seing a standard release of the Silverlink 150/1 either, or some of the more complex but producible FGW Local Lines or Wessex Trains liveries either - but I can wait a little longer for some of those. I also wonder about the 57 - Bachmann did of course produce 602 in FGW Green/Gold a few years ago, skipped the FGW Blue version (605 only appearing as an LTD Edition for Kernow), but going into production with the GWR green - I hope the GWR logo comes etched with that!

 

I can see why Bachmann have chosen to do the 319 - It doesn't tread on Revolution Trains's Class 321 project and, a point which I think has been missed here by a few - It was a product of Network South East. The 455, while carrying NSE throughout it's career, was an earlier product of BR and arrived in the Blue-Grey era. The 319 of course was designed and built for the Thameslink Route, a route and service revived by Chris Green & Co's NSE.

 

Either way, it's an interesting range this year and it's nice to see something a little more 'modern' celebrated for a change. I'm also rather looking forward to seeing what the Scenecraft range has for us this year!

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The only problem I have with ready populated coaches is that the clothing styles applied will probably be era specific. When modelling a preserved line, those earlier fashions will probably look a little out of place unless I'm modelling period weekends at every running session! However, I doubt they're likely to be clearly visible inside the coaches so I suppose it won't matter too much.

 

As for the rest of the announcement, I'm glad there's little for me. It almost seems like Bachmann are holding off while they wait for me to be back in paying job (they might have a long wait! ;) )

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Well hardly an unexpected announcement in some respects with clearly the most important part of it being the obtaining of extra resources (toolroom?) from Kader - just the sort of move Bachmann needed to make faced with their considerable backlog of announced but thus far unreleased models.

 

Not much to complain about in my view - reasonable mix across the Regions/companies for steam age models, diesels perhaps less so but with so many livery variations out there it's difficult to see what else they could do and still actually keep the business on a sound basis.  Presumably the weathered blood & custard Porthole stock might be indicative of earlier over-production but it is perhaps too much to hope that they bogie design will be improved.  As there are plenty of other things on their plate so maybe not a bad idea to keep away from having to deal with a relivery of the Portholes at this stage?.

 

Interesting to see that they are pressing ahead with the Pressed Steel bubble car (Class 121 for younger readers) with a possible clash coming up with Dapol - however despite showing some earlyish EPs for the Gloucester (Class 122) version recently Dapol still have a way to go with that one so maybe Bachmann think they could overtake them with extra Kader resource to devote to the Pressed Steel car - time will tell?

 

Hi Mike 

 

I can confirm that Bachmann advised today that nothing previously announced was being droped regardless of any perceived competition from elsewhere so indeed the 121 goes ahead as planned.  

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To be brutally frank, this is undeniably the most underwhelming manufacturers' announcement I've heard in UK terms this century.

I have to agree with you there. Wish I'd actually gone to work on time now rather than wait lol.

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These two sets have interesting titles. What will be in them?

30-130                 Military Manoeuvres

30-165                 The Thanet Flyer

 

 

I have tried to detail those items of SR / its successors on my blog here http://grahammuz.com/2016/03/01/Bachmann-201617-range-announcements-celebrate-30-years-of-nse-with-2-hap-in-00-and-class-319-in-n/

But I can confirm that the Thanet Flyer Train Set comprises of N Class number 1854 (again) with two Bulleid coaches (BTK & CK from exisiting tooling) in SR Malachite Green (albeit incorrectly SR branded as the coaches are based on the later post 1950 built versions).

 

With respect to the Military Maneuvers set it comprises of an MoD liveried ex 03 Class with an open, wagon, TTA tank wagon and an ex BR 20T standard brake van.  

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That one caught my eye too! I'm hoping for Blue and Grey version but I expect it will be the later green/cream version to go with the highlander set from last year!

 

Also hoping 37041 and 37284 are ones without buffer skirts this time!! I know 37041 kept its skirts for a very long time so i'm worried we'll get yet another skirted model of the blue split headcode 37 :(

It looks like both are without skirts, 041 has domino boxes and 284 has played over headcode box the same as blue 37254

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Incredible, stacks of stuff previously announced to produce and people complain that they have not announced enough this time. If everything announced previously plus the extras this year actually turn up by Sept 2017 (the 18 month period Bachmann quote for a new model) then they will have done well but would they be danger of flooding the market?

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I've got to say though - with all these NSE items announced, it makes me wish a little that we still had Modelzone in business. I was probably one of the few lucky staff they had whose manager gave me a free reign of the Model Railways section, with nearly everything from the shop at my disposal to include in the cabinets if I so wished to use. So I ended up making a small 1980s Depot type scene in the bottom using Bachmann Scenecraft & Skaledale, then arranged all the diesels into BR Green, BR Blue, 1980/1990s and modern on the top shelf. Steam had Thomas at the bottom for the kids, then Regions working upwards to the BR Standard Locos. How I'd love to be able to do all that again. It all looked great, and made quite a difference to our sales as well. Admittedly, it makes me cringe a little seeing the display cabinets in WHSmith's version of Modelzone with models here there and everywhere.

 

Oh and Thanks to Andy for compiling the list as usual this year!

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