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Farish birdcage coaches


grahame
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Yesterday I collected mine from Alton Model Centre and IMHO, these are the finest items of coaching stock produced in N Gauge to date. 

 

The lining on the Maunsell Green versions in particular is some of the best printing I've ever seen in this scale. 9Q3A1648.jpg.b3d619b18d41af071368351ebb21d044.jpg9Q3A1651.jpg.ba7b5aabfb44555c9df2982352c3536c.jpg9Q3A1654.jpg.ac6e0dcbe764deace4f8433bd262d070.jpg

 

9Q3A1641.jpg.ce68e1b8a0e4eeb8629e65e214ee37e2.jpg

 

The coaches are noticeably weighty, much more so than the Farish Mk.1s, but as a result there isn't a hint of wobble on any of the three coaches in the set. 

 

Simply superb. 

 

Tom.  

 

Edited by TomE
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They do look exquisite, very tempted by a BR crimson set as a "Rule 1". I can see that the couplings appear to be mounted on the bodies of the coach, but do the coaches have a close coupling mechanism ("close" having to allow for the length of the buffers of course so a relative thing)

 

Regards

 

Roy

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18 minutes ago, Roy L S said:

They do look exquisite, very tempted by a BR crimson set as a "Rule 1". I can see that the couplings appear to be mounted on the bodies of the coach, but do the coaches have a close coupling mechanism ("close" having to allow for the length of the buffers of course so a relative thing)

 

Regards

 

Roy

 

There is indeed a close coupling mechanism, which is the same design as on other recent Farish coaches. 

 

The only note of caution I would sound is that due to the wheels being to scale, there isn't as much bogie travel as you might expect, so users of very tight radii might find themselves with a problem. 

 

Tom.  

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23 hours ago, TomE said:

Yesterday I collected mine from Alton Model Centre and IMHO, these are the finest items of coaching stock produced in N Gauge to date. 

 

The lining on the Maunsell Green versions in particular is some of the best printing I've ever seen in this scale. 9Q3A1648.jpg.b3d619b18d41af071368351ebb21d044.jpg9Q3A1651.jpg.ba7b5aabfb44555c9df2982352c3536c.jpg9Q3A1654.jpg.ac6e0dcbe764deace4f8433bd262d070.jpg

 

9Q3A1641.jpg.ce68e1b8a0e4eeb8629e65e214ee37e2.jpg

 

The coaches are noticeably weighty, much more so than the Farish Mk.1s, but as a result there isn't a hint of wobble on any of the three coaches in the set. 

 

Simply superb. 

 

Tom.  

 

 

I do not need these coaches, I do not need these coaches, I do not need these coaches...

 

Not sure if this show of determination is working.

 

Chris

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On 19/04/2019 at 12:51, Les1952 said:

They are beautiful, but even at Maurice's discount price they are more expensive than Fleischmann.   Makes you think.....

 

Les

 

Beautiful coaches from looking at the pictures, but and it's a big but, at that price I couldn't even consider even a rule one purchase, sorry.

 

Bob

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Anyone else been as unlucky as me and got a pack with 3 end coaches and no centre one? <_<

 

Somewhere out there is an olive green set with 2 centre coaches and only 1 end coach....lol

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On ‎20‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 15:48, Shiney Sheff said:

Beautiful coaches from looking at the pictures, but and it's a big but, at that price I couldn't even consider even a rule one purchase, sorry.

 

Bob

 

 

Yep, agreed, decided that I will hang on and wait for the Thompsons.

 

Roy

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47 minutes ago, Roy L S said:

 

 

Yep, agreed, decided that I will hang on and wait for the Thompsons.

 

Roy

 

A few years ago I'd have rule 1'd them, panelled pre-grouping coaches are gorgeous, but not that gorgeous. Thompsons I can justify as they were regular visitors where I model, but when the decision is 3, 4 or 6 coaches for £125, I'll take 6 Dapol Gresleys which fill the same role for me as the Thompsons.

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14 hours ago, Zunnan said:

 

A few years ago I'd have rule 1'd them, panelled pre-grouping coaches are gorgeous, but not that gorgeous. Thompsons I can justify as they were regular visitors where I model, but when the decision is 3, 4 or 6 coaches for £125, I'll take 6 Dapol Gresleys which fill the same role for me as the Thompsons.

 

I already have as many Dapol Gresleys as I will ever need (I think!) and the Thompsons will fit in well with my NGS Thompson BGs and Farish Mk1s. I am OK with the price, I'll get four for around the same price as the Birdcage set.

 

It is perhaps worth remembering when they were launched what must be plus ten years ago, Dapol Gresleys were £25 a pop RRP and the Buffets were £35 - What would that be now??

 

Roy

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3 minutes ago, Roy L S said:

 

I already have as many Dapol Gresleys as I will ever need (I think!) and the Thompsons will fit in well with my NGS Thompson BGs and Farish Mk1s. I am OK with the price, I'll get four for around the same price as the Birdcage set.

 

It is perhaps worth remembering when they were launched what must be plus ten years ago, Dapol Gresleys were £25 a pop RRP and the Buffets were £35 - What would that be now??

 

Roy

 

According to one of those online websites, total UK inflation has been 27% between 2009 and 2018. So 25.00 would have become 31.75

 

Were Dapols really 25.00 RRP then, I don't recall paying more than 20. And they are only 25-26 each now on the Dapol site.

 

Chris

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10 minutes ago, Chris Higgs said:

 

According to one of those online websites, total UK inflation has been 27% between 2009 and 2018. So 25.00 would have become 31.75

 

Were Dapols really 25.00 RRP then, I don't recall paying more than 20. And they are only 25-26 each now on the Dapol site.

 

Chris

 

Hi Chris

 

Definitely. I bought two of the Buffets from Osborns on first release and the price £34.99 is still on the box. All others were £10 less and George Smith of Dapol's reasoning for this was that he would sell far fewer buffets and the price needed to reflect that.

 

I guess the tooling for the Gresleys was amortised long ago and that enables a cheaper price point which is great news for us modellers - I think the Gresleys look excellent value comparatively speaking today.

 

Regards

 

Roy

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Farish do limited runs, Dapol churn out items to seemingly maximise return on investment.

 

I remember when when they did the final runs of the 45xx and Ivatts they were about £50 iirc.

 

What they put into the shops must sell otherwise there would be masses of unsold Hymeks, 45xx, Ivatts, M7s, Colletts and Gresleys.

 

 

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I certainly remember paying £25 when the Gresleys first surfaced, they remain to this day the most I've ever paid for N Gauge coaches. They're bucking the trend in coming down in price since release, which is what makes me consider buying a few more while they're still low. Trying to replicate photographs means I'll be wanting a few Thompsons, thankfully with no maroon on the horizon that means I won't be putting my hand in my pocket for the first batch unless they end up in bargain bins, in which case I'll repaint rather than wait years.

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Bachmann have taken a bit of a gamble with the Birdcage stock, producing the first accurate, RTR, pre-grouping coaches available in N Gauge. I suspect there is a bit of fat in the price to account for the risk they have taken dipping their toes into uncharted waters but even so, given the high quality of the product, the discounted price of approx £42 per coach is well worth it in my eyes. Lets face it, there is no comparison to where N Gauge used to be, not that long ago, in the one coach body for all regions days. 

 

Coach.jpg.682ff13cf1a4cda76e3356053680c0ba.jpg

 

You can't expect such a step change in quality and still pay ye olde fashioned prices. 

 

Tom.  

 

 

Edited by TomE
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As attractive as they are, strictly speaking the body tooling is no more complex than anything which has been produced in the past 10 years and it is only the livery application coupled with the panelling that makes them stand out. Its the same with my kitbuilt LMS stock, at exhibitions its the panelled coaches which people point at. The Birdcages follow the same formula which appeared on the Mk1s, one piece moulded body with a couple of wire handrails at the ends, roof, chassis with half a dozen separate components. Even then, Dapol are churning the lined out Maunsells for almost half the price, which is a much fairer comparison than a 40 year old toy. They aren't a step change in quality, they follow the same path which has been the standard for a long time. Until these arrived the Maunsells were the most recently tooled South coast coaching stock...unless you're describing the Maunsells as low quality and old fashion priced, which they most certainly are not, they are contemporary and competitive. If Joe blogs was in the market for a SR 3 set and these were sat on the shelf at £149.95 with a Dapol 3 set for £85, I wonder which would go first...rhetorical question, I was in my local shop on Thursday and saw exactly what happened. They scoffed at the price of both and bought a few secondhand Farish generic coaches.

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21 minutes ago, Zunnan said:

 They scoffed at the price of both and bought a few secondhand Farish generic coaches.

 

There's always some people that think everything is expensive and/or can't afford things at most price points. There's also those that seem to find money no object and can afford the most expensive of things - otherwise Ferraris and Rolls Royces wouldn't sell.

 

I certainly won't be purchasing a set but then as an alternative some cheap old second-hand generic coaches wouldn't be acceptable either. So long as there is a wide range available from low cost second-hand up to state of the art top-of-the-range then, despite some people scoffing, I'm sure that there will be a market for the Farish Birdcage coach sets.

 

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