EddieB Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 The latest edition of this annual from the makers of Model Rail was on sale (£7.50)in Smiffs at Stratford yesterday evening. (Having bought a copy, I trust it isn't also included my MR subsription). Usual format, but bigger than ever, and bursting with a host of new and enticing models for release next year. A mild gripe that some reviews reference other products that aren't reviewed in this edition, and it would be useful to see a full list of products and their liveries in the group reviews. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CullingworthGNR Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Great to see the Hornby 90, 91 and 92 included - don't think they've always been included in past versions. Looks better than ever to be honest, very impressed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Western Scottish Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 I bought it on saturday. Quite a good publication. Didn't bother with last years because I thought it was pretty much same as year before. But there's so much going on in the hobby at the moment with limited editions, new suppliers, that this is really a good overview. Also if you are thinking of modelling in a different gauge and perhaps haven't kept up with latest developments then this mag is pretty useful. Although currently in "oo" I was looking a "n" gauge and this shows you which of the models from Bachmann are newer and which ones are the old Farish ones . Not sure about some of the scores of the models I know about in "oo" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJW Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Got my copy the other day. As good as all the others, but a little dismayed how some of the ratings have changed since the last edition. Such as the Farish Stanier 5 has gone from 91% to 88%, and Ixion's manor from 82% to 76% to name two. If for some reason they now think a model isn't as good, it would be nice to know why. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 It's a good read and useful for checking items you may bid for on Ebay. I'm still trying to get my head round why the GWR version of the Robinson O4 is rated higher than the original when there seems no difference in the two models. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
daryl43068 Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Got my copy the other day. As good as all the others, but a little dismayed how some of the ratings have changed since the last edition. Such as the Farish Stanier 5 has gone from 91% to 88%, and Ixion's manor from 82% to 76% to name two. If for some reason they now think a model isn't as good, it would be nice to know why. Maybe because other models have have been better knocked it down a peg or two, in respect the models are rated compared to another? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 The criteria for the rating system have been slightly adjusted, that's all. With so many models scoring over 90% there was becoming no room for manouvre at the top end when models are improved - you can't have scores above 100%. Where prices have gone up significantly, that may affect the value for money score, causing a difference in the final rating. CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium brushman47544 Posted January 11, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 11, 2012 The criteria for the rating system have been slightly adjusted, that's all. With so many models scoring over 90% there was becoming no room for manouvre at the top end when models are improved - you can't have scores above 100%. Where prices have gone up significantly, that may affect the value for money score, causing a difference in the final rating. CHRIS LEIGH The rating system is useful and adjusting it slightly makes sense. However, this does make it a bit more difficult to compare ratings for models that are in the 2012 edition with those that have dropped out because they are not currently in production. Some such may still be available in the shops, so their inclusion with revised ratings to allow direct comparison with current models would have been helpful. In the case of the Hornby Class 101 for example, the earlier releases can still be found in shops and we will see further releases in 2012, but have only the "old" ratings to refer to for comparison purposes. Also, a year or two back the Heljan Western was omitted just as a new production run appeared. I appreciate you can't second guess what will be in a manufacturer's future plans, but retaining "current" (and so likely to reappear at some point fairly soon) but out of production models for longer in future editions might be helpful. Maybe MR could consider this for the 2013 edition? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 The rating system is useful and adjusting it slightly makes sense. However, this does make it a bit more difficult to compare ratings for models that are in the 2012 edition with those that have dropped out because they are not currently in production. Some such may still be available in the shops, so their inclusion with revised ratings to allow direct comparison with current models would have been helpful. In the case of the Hornby Class 101 for example, the earlier releases can still be found in shops and we will see further releases in 2012, but have only the "old" ratings to refer to for comparison purposes. Also, a year or two back the Heljan Western was omitted just as a new production run appeared. I appreciate you can't second guess what will be in a manufacturer's future plans, but retaining "current" (and so likely to reappear at some point fairly soon) but out of production models for longer in future editions might be helpful. Maybe MR could consider this for the 2013 edition? Space is the issue. If we retain 'out of production' models, where do we stop? Generally, we need to be able to drop out of production models in order to include new items, as we only have a finite number of pages. CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 How about an area on the Model Rail website? Past reviews for models no longer in production but still on the shelves? You could also include the catalogue numbers for the various runs. For example the Hornby 56 has at least two iterations but one is markedly better than the other, but knowing which number falls into which category isn't always clear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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