TomE

Bachmann were asking for suggestions for the Graham Farish range at Model Rail Scotland. I was tempted to write "Anything!!", but decided against it and made a proper suggestion.... Tom.

Announced this morning: http://www.revolutiontrains.com/revolution-goes-ahead-with-adelante-and-coradia/ N Gauge details here Excellent choice from Revolution. Fills a huge gap in modern ECML traction. Tom.

Dapol not hanging around with this one. Amazing what a bit of competition can do.... https://www.ngaugenews.com/post/Dapol-reveal-class-59-ep-samples Tom.

Well, isn't this a little beauty! Quick first impressions are that it's excellent, and a quick run up and down suggests lovely smooth running qualities with some very nice lighting. Super stuff! There's a closer look here. Tom.

Caught a quick phone shot of the sample on Display at Doncaster. Looks very nice indeed. Tom.

These really are superb, and surprisingly imposing! A few more pics here Tom.

Hi. My name is Tom, and I'm addicted to Hunslets. Couldn't resist a second Tom.

Sadly, it appears that is likely to remain something of an anomaly. KATO don't seem to be in any hurry to move further into British N, even with other liveries and variations of the Class 800 family. Tom.

By way of comparison between 4 car EMU/BiMUs, using the RoS pre-order prices: The Farish 450 is: £318.70 The Farish 769 is: £297.45 The Revolution 321 is: £289.50 The Farish 319 is: £271.96 Of course if you were in at the start for the Revolution 321/320 they do seem like an absolute bargain now, but it shows that when you take away the early Revolution business model, the market price for a 4 car EMU is in that £270-£320 range now. Tom.

It will be interesting to see how the 08 compares to the NGS Hunslet in terms of running and also if there is enough room to squeeze in some stay alive around the new mechanism. The space I used for stay alive on my 08 is now full of speaker, but it looks like there might be a bit more room around the gear tower versus the old version. I think there was a bit of confusion around the green and blue models, but basically the previously announced blue/green models are still being produced but will now benefit from the new chassis and will be offered in both DCC ready and DCC sound fitted versions, the latter being the new models in this round of announcements. Tom.

The Bachmann site lists non sound versions available for all liveries. Tom.

They've bagged one sale with the RSS 08, and seriously impressed they've fitted sound into it. I wonder how much impact the NGS Hunslet had in their decision to go all out on that. The 769 is a good solid use of the 319 tooling, so not completely unexpected and provides Welsh railway fans with something bang up to date, which must be a first! There is an deluge of multiple units about to hit N Gauge, which after years of just a handful is nice to see. Hopefully in the next week or two the revolution 320/321 will be in modellers hands, and with the 319, 769, 313, 450 and 158 all at various stages it's not a bad time for N Gauge MU fans! Tom.

Wednesday 2nd February for the Spring announcements, I understand. Tom.

Class 755/3 & 4 for me please! Couldn't help but be slightly disappointed that Hornby announced it as that pretty much rules it out from the likes of Farish or Dapol, so Revolution are my last hope Tom.

Having now assembled one of these kits I have to take my hat off to Wayne at British Finescale. The improvements in the product, notably the one piece sleeper base with moulded chairs, and the pre milled, pre-soldered switch blades and frog rails are a huge time saver and make construction even easier than the old style kits. It took me only 20 minutes from start to finish to have the kit assembled and I really can't recommend them highly enough if you want finer N Gauge track. Tom.

Get your orders in! 313/314 now available to pre-order https://www.revolutiontrains.com/product-category/pre-order/ngauge/class-313-314/ Tom.

I fear significant and unhealthy increase in popcorn consumption is required to see this sorry affair through to its conclusion, however for those here and in the Rapido thread saying they wish there were a way to not have to spend any money with Hornby, the answer is simple, switch to N Gauge, where you need never have to be bothered by Hornby ever again! Tom.

Revolution have released more images of their Class 59 EP, viewable here Looks like a promising start, and the underframe detail is superb! Tom.

I hope Health & Safety don't see that! Tom.

Improved N Gauge point kits available soon from British Finescale, now without the need to thread chairs! https://www.ngaugenews.com/post/british-finescale-announce-improved-n-gauge-point-kits Available January. I didn't think the original kits could be improved on but by removing the need to thread chairs it should makes construction even easier. Tom.

I have to take my hat off to the NGS. This is a delightful model, quite possibly the best running RTR loco out of the box I've ever had. Absolutely worth the cost of joining the society! Tom.

Decoration samples were on show at TINGS. There were some adjustments to be made before production started and the Revolution Trains website indicates they are still waiting for the full livery samples to arrive. Tom.

I think Bachmann probably has a fairly good understanding of what sells in N Gauge via those models produced which have sold out and those they still have sitting around insulating their warehouse! The simple truth here is that Bachmann Europe is given X number of production slots by Kader. That number then has to be split between the various different Bachmann Europe ranges. In recent years the number of ranges under the brand has grown to include Narrow Gauge and TTTE. There’s no way in hell they’re going to take slots away from their biggest, most popular and profitable scale, so N will have taken the biggest hit as a result of having to accommodate slots for these new products. I’m pretty sure the folks at Barwell would love to be churning out new N Gauge models, but they have to work within the constraints of the capacity available to them and make the decisions based in what’s going to keep the business going. That said, I do still think some of the release decisions have been a little questionable. Why on Earth flood the market with more LMS inspection saloons when you can still find batch 1 models in the shops, rather than churn out another run or new livery variation of Mk.2Fs for example. Bonkers. The real risk for Bachmann is that other manufacturers that are not capacity constrained decide to take advantage, have a crack at N and start eating into their bread and butter items. If Accurascale were to come along with a new 37 to the standard of their OO model, that would undoubtedly make Bachmann sit up take a long hard look at themselves, as it has in OO. Tom.

90, when you include the different variations. Tom.

They're not hanging around with these, EP samples already received. Pics here. Tom.