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R3209 6803 Bucklebury Grange


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KMRC has just updated its Facebook page to show R3209 6803 Bucklebury Grange is now in stock. It looks fine in the photos, but I wonder it was made by Sanda Kan or if the tooling has already been transferred to one of the new factories such as Refined.

 

Since this was originally a 'Concessions Special' release (the former Modelzone plus others), I wonder who else will be getting it in stock?

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KMRC has just updated its Facebook page to show R3209 6803 Bucklebury Grange is now in stock. It looks fine in the photos, but I wonder it was made by Sanda Kan or if the tooling has already been transferred to one of the new factories such as Refined.

 

Since this was originally a 'Concessions Special' release (the former Modelzone plus others), I wonder who else will be getting it in stock?

I understand that KMRC have taken all of them although that info might be out of date

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I understand that KMRC have taken all of them although that info might be out of date

 

Model Railways Direct have them on their website. This morning they were saying available for pre-order but now say their allocation is sold out. Don't know about any others. I have a weathered late crest one from the first batch so I don't really need one. I am more interested to see how well they have been made or if there have been any tooling changes if manufacture is not by Sanda Kan, as this may be a foretaste of how the Castles will be, of which Caerphilly in particular interests me.

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This is quite a predatory, monopoly approach to pricing. Kernow are charging 124.99 (as is their right to do so), but there seems

to be no others (yet!) in competition, as MRD have none. (see above)  Are Hornby trying to bypass the box shifters?? Interesting approach, and is

possibly the way many products in the industry will go.

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This is quite a predatory, monopoly approach to pricing. Kernow are charging 124.99 (as is their right to do so), but there seems

to be no others (yet!) in competition, as MRD have none. (see above)  Are Hornby trying to bypass the box shifters?? Interesting approach, and is

possibly the way many products in the industry will go.

 

I won't be diving in at that price. I don't need another Grange, but if I did I would try to pickup another "Overton Grange" on eBay or the like at a much lower price and knowing that the build quality will be excellent.

 

If you must have "new", then "Paviland Grange", assuming you are not allergic to factory weathering, looks to be available for pre-order for quite a lot less than £125 e.g. at Modelfair.

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"Olivia"'s pricing is,shall we say,"upmarket" ,not to say eye-watering ? The temptations on the website are instantly dampened by the price-tags......but he obviously has found the recipe for a successful business,which is quite an achievement in the present economic climate.

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That's quite a premium for "scarcity" of supply and just shifting a box

 

That's disgusting pricing if you ask me.So what's my two G W R liveried versions worth then ?

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That's disgusting pricing if you ask me.So what's my two G W R liveried versions worth then ?

Earns his bucks mainly from sound fitted,rather than analogue locos.The difference between analogue and bells and whistles DCC sound is proportionately not that much.Thus...if you don't opt for his goodies,you pay a premium price for a basic model. That,I think,is his business "model" ( ? ). As they say,,,yer pays yer money and .....etc.etc. Not for the faint hearted and certainly not me.
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It's available from a well-known Margate box-shifter for £125 less 1p, and less the discount for their own Collectors Club members :jester:

 

Have we seen all the relevant sides of the box in those beautiful pictures, please? I can't see the code markings for the production site, e.g. SK, REF, etc.

 

Richard

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Earns his bucks mainly from sound fitted,rather than analogue locos.The difference between analogue and bells and whistles DCC sound is proportionately not that much.Thus...if you don't opt for his goodies,you pay a premium price for a basic model. That,I think,is his business "model" ( ? ). As they say,,,yer pays yer money and .....etc.etc. Not for the faint hearted and certainly not me.

 

Is this business model not also known as the "There's one born every minute" model or alternatively "The more money than sense" model.

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Is this business model not also known as the "There's one born every minute" model or alternatively "The more money than sense" model.

You may well say that....I couldn't possibly comment.....oh yes I could.The thing is,though,there do seem to be quite a few of those around,don't there?

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In reply to Richard, a few more photos of the box.  

 

I've just photographed it against Overton Grange for comparison, and there are differences! (Quelle surprise!) I'll post these in a bit, after I've put the kids to bed.

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Amazing the price of these now. I bought mine on ebay for £45 with a TCS decoder on board and that was only a couple of years ago. I have recently weathered mine and took the opportunity to put some extra weight into the body as the pulling power was not brilliant. However since giving it more weight it's pulling power is excellent

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Right then.  Children are in bed, and with one of Wychwood breweries finest in hand, lets start to ring the differences!

 

As you can see from the earlier photographs, Bucklebury Grange comes in the new style Hornby box.  After wrestling Overton Grange out of the earlier style box, I think this is a definitive improvement.  So far, no bits have fallen off, which is always good.  That might sound flippant, but many times I've opened a loco, and some of the tiny details haven't made the trip.  For example, Overtons fall plate currently sits in the box!

 

I thought the sleeve details were interesting.  Unlike the 28xx box, there are no obvious typos, and its nice to have the last paragraph given a touch of history for the individual loco, not just information on the loco class.  However I did look twice when I saw 5MT in big letters thinking I had purchased a standard tank by mistake! 

 

Side by side, there are no immediate differences until you start looking closer.  Firstly the buffers to Bucklebury are sprung, but are smaller to that fitted to Overton.  Not having any Grange plans to hand, I cannot vouch for which size of buffers are correct. I do like a sprung buffer though and was a tad worried that Hornbys "Design Clever" would have "designed" these out. Thankfully they remain.

 

The printing to the boiler also shows some differences.  The printing to Bucklebury appears finer, which makes Overton look chunky.

 

Cab details are present to both, and they appear identical with printed dials and open fire hole door.

 

Things then start to get interesting as we start looking at the tender.  The height of Buckleburys tender is 2.5mm less than Overton.  I'm not too sure why this has occurred, however when side by side, you really notice the difference.  There is also differences with the printing of the totem logo which again makes Overton look a tad basic.  However the handrail to the rear corner of Bucklebury appears to be absolutely massive!  It would have been nice for the Swindon works plate to be printed to the rear of the tender, but thats a touch neither loco benefits from!

 

Mechanism wise, things for me take a dive.  Bucklebury uses that annoying fiddly loom and plug arrangement.  It was nice to be able to simply slot the tender against Overton rather than wrestling with that annoying white plug! The DCC socket apparently goes in the loco as per the old Granges.

 

As for running qualities, I'll leave that to someone else!  Unfortunately I don't have a layout that would give the loco a fair test.

 

So for me, its an improvement generally over the old, but it would be interesting to hear about the tender oddity. Any ideas?

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>>>So for me, its an improvement generally over the old, but it would be interesting to hear about the tender oddity. Any ideas?

 

 

The tender is a Collet 3500 galllon version which some ran with at various times, especially in Cornwall I believe.

 

I agree about the tender handrails though... hideous! Still that's easily fixed I guess - not that you should have to.

 

Still waiting for mine to arrive from Kernow. Tomorrow's post hopefully.

 

Cheers, Trevor.

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