Airfix 2D TSOs, still rare and expensive

[MJI]

With the release of Hornby and Bachmann aircons I was expecting a flood of these on Ebay, but there isn't.

 

Lots of FOs masquerading as TSOs

 

Lots around £40.

 

I have a repainted one on watch.

 

So where are they all?

 

 

[Legend]

 I've got most mk2ds I need but I think the proper 8 window TSOs still pop up at toy fairs for around £15 either in Airfix or Dapol boxes .   There were a lot more FOs produced, I think Airfix only introduced the TSO in its dieing days , so while there's less of them they are still around.  I think they were even produced by Mainline for a while , but I've never seen one in a Mainline box.

[Dunsignalling]

Presumably, many current owners aren't sufficiently tempted by the new models.

 

Maybe because they've "worked over" their existing Airfix ones and consider them to be satisfactory "layout coaches"?

 

Similarly, whilst I anticipate buying some of the new Bachmann Bulleids when they arrive, the best of my "improved" old ones will be kept. I've had one 5-set for about 20 years and it's had so much use that it needed new bogies throughout last year. I finally got round to adding the correct footboards while I was at it, and it's going nowhere.

 

John

Edited January 25, 2019 by Dunsignalling

[Pete the Elaner]

I need to have a good sort-out so I can sell off all my old air con Mk2s & replace with 1 rake of Bachmanns.

I will get around to it one day.

[DCB]

Could well be folks are satisfied with the Airfix and don't want a downgrade.  I have a 7 coach Airfix Mk2 set and 2 spares as sidings only hold 7. Mine run beautifully and I can't ever remember a derailment, the reason being they have been rewheeled with H0 wheelsets with H0 flanges and correct Back to back not longer 00 axles and floating wheels a la Hornby or stupid plastic axles like Bachmann which wear away the axleboxes in no time. The small articulating discreet couplings are also quite an improvement compared to Bachman and Hornby's ugly attempts, so why pay good money for what in many ways is an inferior product.   Only reason I can see to change from Airfix is you need a different livery

[cravensdmufan]

 I've got most mk2ds I need but I think the proper 8 window TSOs still pop up at toy fairs for around £15 either in Airfix or Dapol boxes .   There were a lot more FOs produced, I think Airfix only introduced the TSO in its dieing days , so while there's less of them they are still around.  I think they were even produced by Mainline for a while , but I've never seen one in a Mainline box.

Can confirm Mainline issued the 8 window TSO as I have 3 boxed ones. 

[John M Upton]

I remember some years ago that the trick was to look thoroughly through those piles of old coaches on the second hand tables at shows.  Often I think people would see FO after FO with the occasional BSO lurking in there but get tired and not realise that the at a glance similar TSO was lurking at the bottom of the pile.  That was how I managed to secure one some years ago, all be it now sold on.

 

Still got a FO though, just dropped a Lima FK interior into it and a set of new metal wheels to make a FK, looks good despite its age!

[Johann Marsbar]

From memory, Airfix just produced the FO and the Brake/2nd when they first introduced them - which explains why I have two of the former and 1 of the latter !

Never bothered with a TSO as the OO layout must have become "disused" by that time, and later dismantled & packed away, with N gauge (and later, G scale) taking preference until fairly recently.

[Flood]

TTC Diecast in Derby had 3 Mainline TSOs when the Bachmann Mk2f stock was released in November.

 

I bought one (about £20.00) so I don't know if the others are still there. They may have had some Dapol Executive TSOs as well, I really can't remember.

[MJI]

Can confirm Mainline issued the 8 window TSO as I have 3 boxed ones. 

 

I have 8, but boxes chucked.

[MJI]

I work them over, etched frames and laserglaze

 

5 TSO still TSO, 1 is TSOT and 2 are now 2E

 

It is nice to have a rake of matching vehicles hence the 2F FOs are Airfix ocnversions

[kevinlms]

From memory, Airfix just produced the FO and the Brake/2nd when they first introduced them - which explains why I have two of the former and 1 of the latter !

Never bothered with a TSO as the OO layout must have become "disused" by that time, and later dismantled & packed away, with N gauge (and later, G scale) taking preference until fairly recently.

The TSO first got advertised in March 1980 RM, so a good couple of years later.

 

Not sure why the shortage of TSO's, but presumably they didn't make enough before going broke. For the FO & BSO, they apparently made too many, as they were for sale long afterwards. Many of their original products seemed to be available for a long time, perhaps they completely over estimated the demand?

[TRAILRAGE]

 I've got most mk2ds I need but I think the proper 8 window TSOs still pop up at toy fairs for around £15 either in Airfix or Dapol boxes .   There were a lot more FOs produced, I think Airfix only introduced the TSO in its dieing days , so while there's less of them they are still around.  I think they were even produced by Mainline for a while , but I've never seen one in a Mainline box.

Hello Legend 

 

They were indeed produced by Mainline as I have two TSO's myself. Two things that will give them away at a glance (if you cannot see the underframe branding) is the colour of the Body as the BR Blue is of a slightly darker shade as is the underframe underframe as Airfix used a light brown and Mainline more of a Coco  powder shade of brown. Unfortunately  I think the plastic may heave gone brittle as the end of one them has shattered at some point. Possibly from being dropped but I cannot remember when!

 

Cheers Trailrage 

[MJI]

All of mine are structurally OK

 

Sawing underframes is not easy!!!!

 

Glues well also for BFKs

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Those Airfix Mk2ds were a real step-change; at least for us modelling the then current scene of the early 1980s. They were well made, ran superbly and had a real "presence" about them. Also not too expensive that you didn't feel worried about making a few improvements to them, eg converting an FO to an FK.  

 

As already mentioned, the FO and BSO appeared first; the TSO appearing some while later.

[Legend]

Can confirm Mainline issued the 8 window TSO as I have 3 boxed ones.

 

Thanks for confirming . That means that this model was produced by Airfix, Mainline,Dapol and Hornby . I suppose the Staniers B set and autocoaches are the same, but Is this some kind of record?

[TheSignalEngineer]

I remember my former local shop having several Airfix ones on the s/h shelf for years. Don't think any ever sold, they went to auction when it closed down.

[RANGERS]

I've collected about two dozen over the years, all bar about six of which are now surplus to my requirements so a listing on a well known auction site may see the rest in the next month or two.

[Talltim]

Surely the reason the TSOs are still rare is the same as it always has been, there were fewer produced?

[andyman7]

The TSO first got advertised in March 1980 RM, so a good couple of years later.

 

Not sure why the shortage of TSO's, but presumably they didn't make enough before going broke. For the FO & BSO, they apparently made too many, as they were for sale long afterwards. Many of their original products seemed to be available for a long time, perhaps they completely over estimated the demand?

It's not so much that demand was overestimated, more that between 1980 and 1983 the toy trade demand for model railways plummeted. This was the era that saw the demise of Airfix, Mainline and Hornby under DCM ownership as the kids went for computer games and traditional hobbies died a death. The Airfix RTR models were early examples of contract manufacturing as they were made in Hong Kong, and the quantities ordered of the BSO and FO did not take inot account the bottom falling out of the market, so there was a logjam of stock. One of the reasons that post 1983 Hornby models were made in such tiny quantities is that the shops put off ordering more than a bare minimum because in many cases there shelves were still full of pre 1980 red box Hornby.and the 1980-2 range items which had been made in greater quantities. 

[newbryford]

£40??

 

A quick perusal of sold listings shows a lot less than £40 - a Dapol TSO went for £7.49 a couple of days ago. 

3 x TSO and 1 x BSO didn't sell for £48 a couple of months back.

I've never paid more than £15 for a Airfix/Mainline/Dapol/Hornby TSO even when they were at the height of second hand popularity about 5-6 years ago.

My local shop often has them on the second hand shelf for £12.50 - £15.

 

As usual - they get chopped into yellow stuff.

I have a stock of about 6 or 8 TSOs and a couple less FOs and a few BSOs (for conversion to DBSO/RTOV) 

(There are only four ex FOs in yellow use and two of them have fully plated windows!)

 

As mentioned above, it's worth a search on second hand stalls at exhibitions for incorrectly boxed coaches.

 

In Airfix days, the same number of FO/BSO and TSOs were made - IIRC, it was a 5 figure number, hence the better availability of the FO and BSO as folks bought more TSO to make up a set.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[MJI]

£18 on Ebay with postage but then add the £20 for Shawplan bits.

 

 

However for rake 3 what do I use?

 

Biggest problem is that most WR sets are 1CDEF mixes with pairs of BFKs. This keeps pushing Airfix due to price of BSO FO

[cravensdmufan]

I'm eagerly awaiting the new reasonably priced Hornby 2f which hopefully will be good - if they learned from the mistakes of the 2e.

 

Then I shall have a mass clearout of Airfix/Mainline/Dapol 2d's. My guess is many others will do the same and the s/h market will be in overload! 

Edited January 27, 2019 by cravensdmufan

[andyman7]

 

In Airfix days, the same number of FO/BSO and TSOs were made - IIRC, it was a 5 figure number, hence the better availability of the FO and BSO as folks bought more TSO to make up a set.

 

Cheers,

Mick

Agree re pricing, but the TSOs are fewer in number certainly in Airfix guise than BSO/FO simply because there were 3 fewer years of production. That is exacerbated by their being more in demand. Interstingly, probably even the harder to find are Airfix Mk2d FOs and BSOs factory fitted with wide tension lock couplings in correctly labelled post 1980 'GMR' brown boxes, as the overhang of blue box stock meant that these were ordered in far lower numbers in 1980/1. They are more common in unlabelled GMR boxes as it seems that Dapol acquired an awful lot of left over stock and boxes when they bought the Airfix/GMR railway system assets from General Mills/CPG in 1983.

Edited January 27, 2019 by andyman7

[MJI]

I'm eagerly awaiting the new reasonably priced Hornby 2f which hopefully will be good - if they learned from the mistakes of the 2e.

 

Then I shall have a mass clearout of Airfix/Mainline/Dapol 2d's. My guess is many others will do the same and the s/h market will be in overload! 

 

I hope they do 2D also so that accurate sets can be made up without lots of carving up.

Are you changing regions as well?

 

2D are mainly ECML with a few TSOT, FK, BFK on the Western Region

2E are everywhere but ECML, WR are mainly TSO

2F are mainly WCML but some FO are WR

 

So I have 5 x 2D TSO, 3 x 2E TSO, and 1 x 2D TSOT from 8 TSO and 2 BSO

 

I thought I had more 2E TSOs but after a big stock take I worked out I had only bought 8 Airfix TSOs.

 

All of the Western region air con sets seem to be mainly 2E TSOs, 2D BFKs, random FO and FK and the odd W19xx buffet, but I have seen ER aircon sets on the Lickey route.

 

But very belatedly I found that Airfix aircons make better late 2Cs than Lima, just when I had only 1 toilet etch left