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2020 predictions?


Mr chapman
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4 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

What was the last estimated date given for the Mk2f's?  With the new three month system, there seems to be no way of seeing beyond that to when other items will be arriving. I only want one or two so I am in no rush.

 

They were originally due in Q1 but were reported as having lost their production slot to another model. I would guess we're now looking at Q3/Q4 this year but it's a question i'm intending to ask at the roadshow event tomorrow. 

 

Tom. 

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Maybe not withdraw but certainly scale down.  It's a bit of a Catch 22, they can say there is a shrinking demand for N scale, us N scalers can counter that the reason for that shrinking demand is that there never seems to be anything from Farish to buy half the time compared with the OO scale range.

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36 minutes ago, TomE said:

 

They were originally due in Q1 but were reported as having lost their production slot to another model. I would guess we're now looking at Q3/Q4 this year but it's a question i'm intending to ask at the roadshow event tomorrow. 

 

Tom. 

 

I would be interested to know what the other model was that the production slot was lost to...

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2 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

 

I would be interested to know what the other model was that the production slot was lost to...


My money would be on the Thomas range given that needs to be in production now to make it to the shops for Christmas, but that is only a guess and quite probably wrong! 
 

Tom. 

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It's interesting that some of the Farish items announced last year that were just reliveries of existing items, still won't be available in the next three months, yet some 00 items that have only just been announced will be available in the next three months. I think we can see what Bachmann is prioritising right now and it certainly isn't their Farish range.

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7 hours ago, TomE said:

 

They were originally due in Q1 but were reported as having lost their production slot to another model. I would guess we're now looking at Q3/Q4 this year but it's a question i'm intending to ask at the roadshow event tomorrow. 

 

Tom. 

Hi Tom,

Let us know how you get on Re the Mark 2f's... I've sold off all my old tooled one's a while ago thinking they'd be ready on the shelves December gone lol!

 

Cheers,

Mark

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Mk.2fs due mid year. The delay was the result of a “scheduling error”. 

 

Interesting items of note on show at the Hinkley event are the 2nd ep of the 319 with a much improved cab front. I’m not sure the iPhone camera conveys the changes sufficiently but in person it looked much better to me. The pantograph has also been refined:

 

5DEFA163-4A9D-4BAB-9214-CF7D30D396A1.jpeg.18832c69fb1a210b6214516e5d055fd2.jpeg

9E08E446-F6DA-4070-AADD-D7B9A8ACF9FF.jpeg.c8976348365412da97147f5e8ff3973d.jpeg

 

Also on show was the EP for the Class 450:

 

A7B5ADFF-EFBE-4805-9B76-3CA2CA78AFAF.jpeg.f22aa887cbd9059a29e24017d65b7a85.jpeg

 

685E6302-D879-4A64-85AB-F7AFCBB64712.jpeg.579e9b880b3d8ffd941d89b5679cce60.jpeg

 

Tom

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18 hours ago, Kris said:

This feels to me to another big step towards Bachmann withdrawing from the n gauge market in the UK. 

 

17 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Maybe not withdraw but certainly scale down.  It's a bit of a Catch 22, they can say there is a shrinking demand for N scale, us N scalers can counter that the reason for that shrinking demand is that there never seems to be anything from Farish to buy half the time compared with the OO scale range.

I would argue that Bachmann in general has slowed down production, with Farish being a smaller range the impact looks greater.

 

But the pics from Tom clearly show they are still putting the effort in, the 319 looks excellent and the front end is certainly improved/refined from the last EP and the 450 is still going strong as well.

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Is the 350 actually a new tool then? That seems amazing given the 350 wasn’t that old, was a perfectly good model, wasn’t that popular (based on sale prices), and is basically the same as the 450 plus a pantograph. Looks like the underframe may be more detailed?

 

I’d have liked to have seen them rework them to avoid needing 3 decoders, but a weird choice to focus any more effort on frankly. 
 

Bit like the HKA when they already had the HHA in the range. 

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I think it's a bit early to worry about Bachmann pulling away from N. Especially with this new three months notice policy. There could be a dozen new items in R&D and tooling, you just won't hear about them until they are nearly ready. The problem is until everything catches up to the new time scale there will be a news dead spot. 

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23 hours ago, Kris said:

This feels to me to another big step towards Bachmann withdrawing from the n gauge market in the UK. 

 

22 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Maybe not withdraw but certainly scale down.  It's a bit of a Catch 22, they can say there is a shrinking demand for N scale, us N scalers can counter that the reason for that shrinking demand is that there never seems to be anything from Farish to buy half the time compared with the OO scale range.

 

It was clear to me today that Bachmann are absolutely committed to N Gauge and the Farish brand. Are we going to see the days where there would be 5-6 new tool engines announced each year again? No. Are they going to keep releasing high quality N Gauge models? Yes, absolutely, and there are new tool N Gauge models in the works that will be announced over the year in line with their new policy. 

 

The N Gauge market for Bachmann is not growing as fast as it once was 4/5 years ago, but it is still growing, albeit slowly. A logical statement given the reduced pace of releases perhaps, and it will be interesting to see it starts to grow again as the new factory capacity kicks in. It did occur to me that people may also be tying up funding that might ordinarily be used to purchase regular Farish/Dapol products to use for the one time buy now or miss out models coming from the likes of RevolutioN. I know from my personal order book that a large proportion of my modelling budget is tied up with orders for stuff from some of these new manufacturers as I can't be certain there will ever be a second chance to obtain them. This is by no means a dig at RevolutioN & the like, but is it perhaps an unforeseen consequence of the increase in the crowd funded/deposit business model?

 

What was interesting was the slide show with photos of the new Kader facilities in China. You very quickly realise why these models are not as cheap as they once were when you see the size of the operation out there and the number of people involved in the production of our models, not to mention the equipment needed. An interesting snippet was there are 7 colours in the late BR crest, and the tampo machines only have 6 pads, so one machine is dedicated solely to printing the blue tongue of the lion! 

 

Anyway, I left the event today feeling positive about the future of the Farish range and that we are going to see further innovation and improvements over the next few years.  

 

3 hours ago, njee20 said:

Is the 350 actually a new tool then? That seems amazing given the 350 wasn’t that old, was a perfectly good model, wasn’t that popular (based on sale prices), and is basically the same as the 450 plus a pantograph. Looks like the underframe may be more detailed?

 

I’d have liked to have seen them rework them to avoid needing 3 decoders, but a weird choice to focus any more effort on frankly. 
 

Bit like the HKA when they already had the HHA in the range. 

 

Not entirely new tool, just the car with the pantograph well and the relevant underframe differences. 

 

The 319 will be the first model with the inter-coach connectors and is being used almost as a test bed for those and the low profile mechanism to prove their robustness in everyday use. The speaker, motor and DCC chip will be split across 2 of the 4 coaches to allow for the low profile mechanism, and if successful a similar system will be used in the Class 158 (Which is at CAD stage now) 

 

A few more pics of items of note:

 

Paint samples of the HKA, the weathered version of which is particularly impressive.

 

IMG_2458.jpeg.a437e500822b6dc8aadccb164023f1b2.jpeg

IMG_2473.jpeg.f4113e7f0a4e9f9765fe809e60c30d88.jpeg

 

Another shot of the refined 319 pantograph:

 

IMG_2470.jpeg.b94c70a09fa31f1f9f00c8229d424e07.jpeg

 

And I know it's been seen already, but the 8F looks like a beauty. Of note is that a non-traction tyred set of main wheels will be included, so by removing the rearmost hex bolts from the coupling rods you can swap them out if you don't want/need/like tyres!

 

IMG_2477.jpeg.de31245ecb2d44451fa12015b13c7a2c.jpeg

 

My thanks to the team at Bachmann for organising today. I'd really encourage any Club members to go to the next events if they are near you, it's a very interesting and informative day!

 

Tom. 

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The 319 front end is orders of magnitude better.... I’m glad they took note of the comments made on this forum (and probably elsewhere).

 

With the way it is looking now, I think I’m almost certain to buy at least one example. Two comments though; 1) I’d still like to see actual handrails below the cab windows; 2) the rain gutter above the passenger sliding doors seems very pronounced - almost as prominent as the footstep, which surely cannot be correct.

 

But otherwise looking much improved.

 

still mystified as to why they are pursuing the 450 with such rigour.... I ride these all the time from my local station and I might get one for posterity, but I’m not sure that there will be a wider appetite for them.....

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On 04/02/2020 at 13:09, Kris said:

This feels to me to another big step towards Bachmann withdrawing from the n gauge market in the UK. 

 

Consider this possibility - they release the Thomas range this Christmas which based on comments here will be available in N also.

 

This has a potential (long term) to bring a new generation to N.

 

But, just maybe also a more immediate benefit - the "family" layout that allows the kids to play with Thomas can now be in N, which may then bring the parents into N instead of OO.

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5 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

Consider this possibility - they release the Thomas range this Christmas which based on comments here will be available in N also.

 

This has a potential (long term) to bring a new generation to N.

 

But, just maybe also a more immediate benefit - the "family" layout that allows the kids to play with Thomas can now be in N, which may then bring the parents into N instead of OO.

A very good point. I see a lot of things announced that are on my 'wish list', but I am not going to give up on the hobby just because they come a year later. How ever the Thomas range may well do as you say and bring new interest. It was a Farish starter set (ok not Thomas but the same basic idea) as a young child ~20 years ago that got me hooked, rather than a rake of mk2Fs. 

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18 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

Consider this possibility - they release the Thomas range this Christmas which based on comments here will be available in N also.

 

This has a potential (long term) to bring a new generation to N.

 

But, just maybe also a more immediate benefit - the "family" layout that allows the kids to play with Thomas can now be in N, which may then bring the parents into N instead of OO.

 

Maybe, they are developing an N gauge TTE range so that they can make use of the mechanisms under some of the narrow gauge TTE stuff in OO9 too.

 

In N though, who is going to have a bash at the whole Island of Sodor?

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2 hours ago, Davexoc said:

In N though, who is going to have a bash at the whole Island of Sodor?

 

The Culdee Fell rack and pinion driven mountain railway line would be a bit of a challenge!!  Is that in any of the TV series or is it just the one original book?

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23 hours ago, John M Upton said:

 

The Culdee Fell rack and pinion driven mountain railway line would be a bit of a challenge!!  Is that in any of the TV series or is it just the one original book?

 

I'll have to consult the eldest grandson on that.........

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