locoholic

Does anyone know of any photos of BR Mk1 suburbans on the Longmoor line, please? I can only recall seeing much older (ie. pre-grouping) coaches in the LMR blue livery.

Doesn't the Bachmann S Stock have a low-level drive system? I hope they'll adapt that for their new DMUs, instead of installing a "lump".

What's going on with the chimney? The top bit looks off-centre.

I wonder if on the finished article, Hornby will manage to get the chimney to "sit" a bit more convincingly on the smokebox? The photos of the samples at Warley all show the base of the chimney with a thick flange that doesn't look at all like the prototype. They've done a much better job with the dome, judging by the photos.

Clearly Dapol have messed up, but to use Bachmann as an example of good practice is perhaps unfair. They managed to comprehensively mess up the front of the new Modified Hall, and I'm not aware of any official response, let alone any action to rectify the mistake. The option which we can all exercise (as I have with the Modified Hall) is to not buy the model.

It looks OK to me.

Will the Bachmann Skarloey be on sale in the UK, or it is the same as their main Thomas range, for the US only, due to licensing issues?

Has anyone got their hands on the Dapol Club model of E6001, green with SYP, please?

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I would like just two RTR Isle of Wight coaches: a brake and an ordinary one, to go behind the Kernow IoW O2. I know the IoW stock was very varied, but I would be happy to buy several coaches to give the general impression of an IoW passenger train, without worrying too much about the exact details of prototype coach rakes.

After one was apparently spotted lurking in the background of a Hornby video on Facebook, I was expecting to see an ex-Crosti 9F in Hornby's range for 2016. Have I missed it, or was it just a mirage?

I'm inclined to buy the Oxford version, just to encourage them to make further models. Hornby have had enough money off me recently.

David, I agree with you (almost) completely. The Bachmann offering is far and away the best Hawksworth autocoach we're going to get. The design of the interior is so disappointing because the faults are totally unnecessary and I don't think that for £60 anyone should be required to dismantle a new model and either make a new interior, or even just paint it, to compensate for Bachmann's poor design. The other Bachmann model I had been looking forward to was the Modified Hall, and Bachmann managed to mess that up too, so may be that's why I'm being a bit "picky"!

Since you ask, Hornby came much closer to it with the Devon Belle Observation Car (where a similar issue would have been even more noticeable), so if they can do it, why can't Bachmann? But then Hornby didn't change their mind halfway through the design & manufacture process and lumber their coach with redundant electrical pickups and four great big slots in the coach floor, nor did they make the coach interior out of very shiny off-white plastic. The pickups in the Observation Saloon were far less obtrusive and were actually connected to interior lights! I am frankly baffled why some people are apparently willing to turn a blind eye to two pretty blatant and avoidable shortcomings in the new autocoach, and yet agonise for days about precisely what design of seat fabric a coach had at any particular time, and I can't help thinking that undue deference is being shown towards the model simply because it comes in a blue box rather than a red one.

If I noticed it immediately, without even getting the coach out of the box, then it's a fairly obvious feature which ought to have been mentioned in the review. Some people do not have the luxury of a local shop where they can inspect a model before buying, & rely on magazine reviews & photos on the internet. And if you're paying nearly £60 for one coach, I think you're entitled to be "picky"! I inspected the model & decided that even with the slots and high floor I would buy it, and have painted the floor and put people in and, yes, it does look better. And yes, I'd rather not have working lights, as they would have highlighted the floor level and the slots even more! But surely the point is that there aren't working lights, just four bits of metal plus screws which I've presumably paid for, but which don't do anything except create the need for four large curved holes in the floor of the coach!

Hereford's gone all cosmopolitan these days - it's got a Waitrose and a Wagamama only a 2 minute walk from the model shop. And you don't need a passport - they let anyone in that can stand waiting at all the new traffic lights.

I finally managed to read a magazine review of the Bachmann Hawksworth autocoach today, the magazine being Model Rail. I was surprised and disappointed to see that no mention was made of the prominent high floor level, or the very noticeable curved slots in the floor at each end. Did any of the other reviews pick these features up? I noticed them immediately, without even taking the coach out of the box. These are very expensive models, & such uncritical reviews are not helpful in my opinion. I really hope that when the Bachmann Birdcage Stock finally arrives, they do not have similar avoidable shortcomings.

The new L&Y NRM loco looks lovely, but it's not on the Locomotion Models website yet. I emailed Shildon to enquire when it's going to appear, but haven't had a reply yet.

Does anyone know if it would affect the running of these models if one was to remove the brass contacts that stick up through the slots in the floor and fill those slots? Also, does anyone know if these coaches have been reviewed in the modelling press yet, please?

I forgot to mention that I had intended to put a driver in the cab on the autocoach. There's a good photo on p57 of On Great Western Lines by Roy Hobbs, which seems to show the driver sitting down. Was there a seat in the driving compartment? I tried putting a seated driver from the Bachmann 1950s loco crew set in, but it didn't look right. Any suggestions for a figure that's in roughly the correct pose, & what about a seat?

There are four catches on each side of the coach. You can see them best on the middle photo. The ones at the ends are the hardest to disengage, as the footboards get in the way. You just have to slide your thumbnails along the undersides of the coach body, trying to get enough of a grip on the underframe without snapping anything off - it's not easy, by any means. The catches do make an audible click when they let go, but they tend to click back again. It took me ages to get the first coach apart.

Whilst my initial impression of the autocoach exterior was very favourable, the bright, shiny interior was extremely offputting, and demanded attention. After nearly levering my thumbnails off, I managed to dismantle the coaches, without (as far as I'm aware) snapping any of the fine detail on the underframe off. The plastic sandwich that makes up the floor is very nearly 4mm thick, which must account for the abbreviated representation of the seats. I opted for muddy lino for the floor, and a wash of matt grot on the seats, to take off the glossy plastic shine and cut down on the light reflecting around inside the coach. To be honest, worrying about which colour cloth was used for the upholstery seems pretty irrelevant when the floor height in the coach is nearly a scale foot too high, and there are big, highly visible, slots in the floor. The plastic passengers all had to have their legs amputated at ankle height. The prominent slots in the floor at each end of the coach are to accommodate the metal contacts. The slots were very noticeable when I first bought the coaches, and as the pickups don't do anything, this aspect of the design is quite baffling, having added to the price and detracted from the appearance of the model. Once the coach is reassembled, the interior no longer catches the eye, especially if passengers are used to distract from the slots in the floor. Bachmann are to be congratulated on producing a fine model which, however, needs to be weathered on the inside - is this a first?!

I've just bought a couple of these autocoaches from Hereford Models, & I'm surprised that no-one (unless I've missed it) has mentioned on here that when you look in through the windows the height of the floor makes it look like someone has emptied a barrel of evaporated milk into the coach. The floor height seems very high, and the light colour of the floor accentuates the effect. I shall have to paint the floor to tone it down, which means I have to dismantle the most expensive RTR coach I've ever bought. I shall also put some passengers in, to help disguise the floor height.

Some hopeful soul has listed a Birch Grove on eBay for £225 plus postage, which is very considerably more than the combined cost of the loco, which is still available from the Collectors Club, and the fee to join the club!

Way back in 1985 I went to Snailbeach, in Shropshire, and there was still some 2-foot gauge track, although it obviously hadn't seen a train for decades. It was like a secret railway from a children's story. If only there had been a steam loco locked up in a long-forgotten shed...

More fool anyone who refused to buy a RTR loco in a fit of pique because they were annoyed by a price rise, because they sure as heck aren't going to get one any cheaper from another manufacturer! Could also be that, in the case of the E4, there aren't many suitable coaches for it to pull, yet? Hopefully within a year there will be the Birdcage stock from Bachmann, which I believe the E4s hauled in SR & BR days, at least. Also, Bachmann did their usual trick of releasing a less than popular version with the unlined early BR crest version. I'm sure that Bachmann factored the suppressed demand due to higher prices into their the batch sizes. All four versions are showing as sold out on the Bachmann website, so they've made their money, which I'm glad about as, otherwise, work on forthcoming models would have been put in jeopardy.