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Oxfordrail - Adams Radial


John M Upton
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I must say that with the recent Hornby updates and the accompanying photos, my money is going to Margate. I am still intrigued with Oxfords proposed release but it would have to be very special to convince me otherwise. It makes no difference to me which arrives first.

 

Hornby appear to have got their act together in terms of information sharing and production. Delivery is if course a different kettle of fish. No doubt we will cross that particular ocean as and when the container arrives.

 

I will obviously look forward to being proven wrong and welcome their arrival to the 4mm market place but Oxford appear to be losing out here. Updates which are either cryptic or non existent are not helping anyone.

 

Yes I know its still June and there is still time for a few lines of a poem to appear.

 

Rob.

Edited by nhy581
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I think Hornby are - quite wisely - pulling out all the stops to bring theirs to the market as quickly as possible in light of the potential competition on this one. Oxford Rail ought to have guessed that this would happen, so it will be interesting to see how quickly theirs reaches the shops.

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I must say that with the recent Hornby updates and the accompanying photos, my money is going to Margate. I am still intrigued with Oxfords proposed release but it would have to be very special to convince me otherwise. It makes no difference to me which arrives first.

 

Hornby appear to have got their act together in terms of information sharing and production. Delivery is if course a different kettle of fish. No doubt we will cross that particular ocean as and when the container arrives.

 

I will obviously look forward to being proven wrong and welcome their arrival to the 4mm market place but Oxford appear to be losing out here. Updates which are either cryptic or non existent are not helping anyone.

 

Yes I know its still June and there is still time for a few lines of a poem to appear.

 

Rob.

The only real problem Hornby might face is whether they can get the factory involved through all the development stages and into production at the pace they want but as you say we will no doubt cross that ocean when the container appears.  But equally of course Oxfordrail are in a similar position - they can only proceed as fast as the factory's efforts allow (and their own research permits of course - whereas Hornby seem to have the research part fully sorted).

 

Thus in both cases, research and any UK development and design work apart, both are in a very similar situation and reliant on a factory in China (and that ship of course) and there can of course be many a slip 'twixt cup & ship (sorry!)

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I think Hornby are - quite wisely - pulling out all the stops to bring theirs to the market as quickly as possible in light of the potential competition on this one. Oxford Rail ought to have guessed that this would happen, so it will be interesting to see how quickly theirs reaches the shops.

There is nothing like a bit of good old competition to focus minds!!!

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Didn't Oxfordrail say at the time of their announcement that they were ready to start cutting tooling? In which case they might just surprise everyone - isn't there an announcement due this month.......

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Didn't Oxfordrail say at the time of their announcement that they were ready to start cutting tooling? In which case they might just surprise everyone - isn't there an announcement due this month.......

They did say that .... er ...

 

In the case of various models we have been told that 'tooling has started' or 'is about to start' and things have subsequently gone very quiet for far longer than might normally expect (not just in the case of Oxford I hasten to add, and the firms in China do indeed have problems with toolmakers disappearing at New Year - never to return).  I think it is probably realistic to believe that tooling is underway when results appear very shortly after the announcement - even if it's only a couple of sprues - because then you really know that tooling is underway.

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Keep you ear to the ground next weekend.

 

Just to expand on this...

 

If you go to the Bluebell Railway model railway weekend next weekend - http://www.bluebell-railway.com/event/model-railway-weekend/- there will be an Oxford Diecast stand manned by Tim. It's hoped that there will be a few updated samples on show but this is dependent on air-freighted samples.

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Just to expand on this...

 

If you go to the Bluebell Railway model railway weekend next weekend - http://www.bluebell-railway.com/event/model-railway-weekend/- there will be an Oxford Diecast stand manned by Tim. It's hoped that there will be a few updated samples on show but this is dependent on air-freighted samples.

 

There were 3 examples on show from the production mould, two in BR black and one in LSWR green, two in the cabinet and one being shown but within its protective plastic box, looked OK to a layman, the rep said that they were the paint approval samples and they still weren't happy with the way the handrails were being fitted. Photos not allowed.

 

Jon

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Why put them on display if they were not willing to have them photographed? If you are not happy with the product, don't display it.

 

Nope. Will be sticking with Hornby. Sorry.

 

Rob

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I have to say, it is ironic when you look back at the begining of this development where the consensus was that Hornby comms were dire and their product was bumping along the rocks and that Oxford would be a breath of fresh air. Now it seems Hornby are the ones who are being relatively open and sharing information whilst Oxford are keeping quiet.

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Why put them on display if they were not willing to have them photographed? If you are not happy with the product, don't display it.

A good question and a fair point.

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Bluebell just said on Facebook there will be a limited edition of 488 as preserved limited to 55 pieces in the bluebell shop.

 

How much?? How does this differ from the main edition LSWR 488?

From what I could deduce, it's a limited edition of 55 because it will be 55 years since the 488 was withdrawn from service. It's expected to be available 2016 Q1 and can only be purchased from the Bluebell Railway shop. As of about 16:30 today they already had taken reservations for 23 (I think). Not sure of the price (the normal runs at £99) but it will include a significant donation for work on 488.

 

Luke

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Why put them on display if they were not willing to have them photographed? If you are not happy with the product, don't display it.

 

Nope. Will be sticking with Hornby. Sorry.

 

Rob

Because what was on display were livery samples. The weren't using the most current tooling but rejected samples to get the liver renditions correct.

 

There was:

one in BR late crest in a sample packaging insert 

one in LSWR green "55"

one in BR early crest

one tooling sample of a modification (plastic talks, dicast boiler)

 

And one hidden behind the counter on a in-development running chassis.

 

The space for the decoder (8-pin) is in the bunker.

 

The normal batches are expected "to arrive towards the end of the year"

 

Didn't get to earwig anything else!

 

Luke

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Because what was on display were livery samples. The weren't using the most current tooling but rejected samples to get the liver renditions correct.

 

There was:

one in BR late crest in a sample packaging insert 

one in LSWR green "55"

one in BR early crest

one tooling sample of a modification (plastic talks, dicast boiler)

 

And one hidden behind the counter on a in-development running chassis.

 

The space for the decoder (8-pin) is in the bunker.

 

The normal batches are expected "to arrive towards the end of the year"

 

Didn't get to earwig anything else!

 

Luke

 

 

8 Pin decoder? Oh no, that rules out easy fit DCC sound then. Come on Oxford, we should be seeing 6 pin with space for a sugar cude these days....

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Very interesting about no photos. Would of loved to of seen them and how they are getting on. Funny to think Hornby seem to be showing lots of development on their front... Who would of though it when both models where announced... :jester:

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Why should they let photos be taken by a bunch of amateurs for posting on the web, of rejected/old tooling samples painted in the correct colours? Very few folk have colour-true monitors, and what about the lighting of the samples? Posting such images on here would raise so much agro. Nobody would be able to tell if the colours were correct, and instead would be rabbiting on about misplaced rivets or mould lines.

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Why should they let photos be taken by a bunch of amateurs for posting on the web, of rejected/old tooling samples painted in the correct colours? Very few folk have colour-true monitors, and what about the lighting of the samples? Posting such images on here would raise so much agro. Nobody would be able to tell if the colours were correct, and instead would be rabbiting on about misplaced rivets or mould lines.

 

It would have been very difficult to have photographed them well, and as I said there were known faults with them (for instance the handrails were still wonky - the rep said that one of the things they have not yet got the factory to do was to build a drilling and/or placement jig so that they were consistent). I believe that the reason the one out of the case was still in its packaging insert was so that it didn't get beaten up in the hands of an unsympathetic public. They had only had the test liveries since Tuesday and Friday. I thought it was perfectly reasonable of them to have a please no photos sign, and respected their wishes.

 

Jon

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