Great Waterton

Not to mention the constant use of the cab doors which would arguably make the marking/chipping worse than the bodysides from things like bags, keys and boots from drivers and possibly tools from fitters etc. 😂

It's very annoying when they do things like this. Rather like how they got the FGW "Fag Packet" stuff right many years ago but then made a right hash of it this time. 🤦‍♂️ I'm pleased Mr Kohler has responded but it feels like a bit of a cop out to me.

It's an interesting one. I think it looks nice either way. 🤗

They look black to me, or at least a very dark shade that's fractionally darker than the main bodysides, and certainly the same colour as the cab windows.

The cab doors must've been black at some point, even if not for the entire duration it wore that livery, as the pictures (not mine) below show. I admit the colour is only VERY slightly different to the bodysides, and you do have to look for it, but the difference is there. My Dad has just purchased this model and is very happy with it, and I think Hornby should be praised for picking up this little detail. Hornby aren't a perfect company by any means but credit where it's due.

It was Charlie I was speaking to at Doncaster. 😂 Well, I assume it was, having never met the chap before. But going by other people's descriptions... But yes we'll leave it there for now. Let's get back to complaining about the poor weathering and praying for some proper ones.

Well, the "bloke who owns RealTRACK" has also said this on this very thread: Read between the lines. "Advanced model" = new high specification tooling. Not just a tweaked offering like EFE. "One of the new innovators in the UK market today" = well that certainly isn't going to be Bachmann or Hornby, and I very much doubt it's Dapol or Peco either. The current EFE model is virtually identical to the old Realtrack model aside from small tweaks as I referred to previously. Even if it ISN'T the ex Realtrack tooling, are people suggesting EFE have made their own but copied the previous errors? 😆

As I said, I no longer have one so can't check what was on the box. I mentioned Rapido as the 156 was seemingly made by them, and had the same cost cutting features on the BR models so logically my thoughts ran to them first.

The bloke on the Realtrack stand. 😂 I was admiring a Valenta sound fitted HST on their test track at the time. I left with the understanding that although Realtrack are still in the process of producing more Class 143s and Class 144s, they will be made from new tooling that is more sophisticated and up to date than the EFE offering, and will be the same top specification as their upcoming 142. Who's making this is for them is debatable, but people have suggested Accurascale. Charlie even hinted at this in a recent post, either in this thread or another. The EFE model is virtually identical to the Realtrack model, even down to the poor representation of the marker lights. It has however been altered slightly which has upgraded the DCC compatibility but I can't comment further on this as I only run DC.

Not an exclusive license to produce the specific class, but an exclusive license to use the tooling itself. In this case Realtrack had exclusive use of the tooling from Rapido (? I'm not sure as I no longer have one) until a certain date, and once that license had expired the tooling becomes available for others to use/specify a deal to use, again for a specified period of time. At the moment that's clearly EFE/Bachmann, and therefore no one else can use it. I believe it was similar with the Modelzone TPOs from Bachmann some years ago, either the actual tooling or the liveries made? After the exclusive license for Modelzone expired the coaches then appeared in the Bachmann main range. This isn't idle speculation either, this is straight from the horse's mouth at Doncaster Model Railway Show...

I would've thought Realtracks' batches would be smaller than the likes of Hornby and Bachmann. Their 156 are a good example. In any case they can't sell any more until they make them, or have them made, and they've essentially just sat on the tooling until the license expired so it's no wonder someone else wants a go at them. Hornby have a tendency to make daft choices of niche items when it comes to diesels. One every now and again is fine but they do it every year and I'm not surprised a lot of it gets reduced or is sat on shelves as it only appeals to certain people rather than the majority. Pacers on the other hand, love them or hate them, are an essential part of many people's scenes from the mid 80s to just a couple of years ago.

I'm sure EFE will continue to pump these out steadily in the future, even if it's only one or two a year. From a business point of view it makes sense for them to make the most of the tooling before the (PERHAPS superior?) Realtrack offering comes along. There's also plenty of liveries to choose from too.

Another issue for me on the T&W Pacer 143 and the Regional Railways 144 is that the front lighting is wrong too, which irks me on a £200+ model. Presumably the upcoming (at some point) newly tooled Realtrack offering would address this. A contributory factor of EFE's good sales could well be that some (or all?) of these liveries haven't been produced before and therefore people are jumping on them. Again I find this completely understandable. I did always wonder why Realtrack never made another batch of these after their initial run/s? With different numbers and destinations, naturally, but I'm positive they would have sold well. To me personally it's always felt like a case of "We've made them, that's your lot, move on" which seems an odd way to go about things. However, I'm certainly no businessman so perhaps someone knows otherwise...?

It does seem to depend on the light and the weathering varies accordingly but the spray all over in one colour approach looks awful. To me at least, it might well appeal to others. The Regional Railways one is so splattered you can barely see through the windows and there's more dirt on the bodysides than there is on the underframe! I appreciate there was the odd occasion when they really were dirty but it was very rare and in my experience they were generally kept quite clean. Even into the late 1990s they didn't look bad at all. The small handful of photographs online of dirty ones are also a totally different look to how this model has been released so quite what they're aiming for is beyond me. 😂 And as for the other liveries that have been weathered, I've NEVER seen any of them EVER look as filthy as that, even in winter. It's a very bizarre situation because as we've seen Bachmann have offered some absolutely stunning factory weathering jobs in recent years. Even the EFE 58 in faded Railfreight Red Stripe looked good. But these Pacers? Terrible. Such a disappointment. Nevermind though, hopefully at some stage we'll see some clean ones. And if not Realtrack's will be clean.

I've had both (in fact I sold the RR one to help pay for this one) and to my eyes it's fractionally lighter than the RR. However it does depend on the light, as with the real thing.

I intended to purchase the Regional Railways 144 and anticipated having to do a bit of work to make the weathering acceptable but having inspected it up close yesterday I didn't bother. The weathering is terrible. Hopefully in the future a clean one will appear!

Well Bachmann, it was very expensive but worth every penny to me. This is without question the best model train I've ever bought (and I've bought plenty over the years!) Everything about it is so perfect I can almost hear the Cummins engine whine and smell the plasticky/rubber aroma they used to smell of in the vestibules as you got on. They've amended the beige on this release and it's noticeably lighter than it was on the previous Regional Railways one which is good, and the accessory pack even includes a plastic gangway door cover this time! Very impressed, although at £280 a pop I'm pleased I'm only buying one. Having said that, when is the WYPTE MetroTrain one due... 😂