locoholic

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...

I think quite a few people were annoyed at the large price increase from the price quoted originally & simply refused to buy or cancelled pre orders.

I'm sure there is a limit to what people will pay no matter how desirable a model may be & Bachmann may have just found that out.

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.

From Peter Cooper's book on the Maunsell S15s, there is only one flush-sided 8 wheel tender left, which came from Barry with 841, and is now behind 825. The 6 wheel tender that was with 847 in Barry was sold separately to go with a mogul.

I bought the Hornby model of 30843 today. It's a lovely model, which will look even better when I get around to weathering it. However, I do wonder whether, if it had been painted green, I would have been able to tell it apart from a King Arthur. (It was the same when I saw Tornado and Blue Peter together at Barrow Hill.)

 Never be sorry for having an opinion and communicating it. There's no hard line rule I can see that empowers posters to claim 'THIS AND ONLY THIS' may be discussed in a thread; the announcement style is as integral to the thread as the subject matter of the model. As a quick glance at the first post confirms.

 

Would there be interest in a  separate general thread on Hornby's new style of dripfeeding product announcements via their website, and what this might mean for the 'traditional' annual announcement/catalogue bash?

I can't say I'm at all worried about how model companies announce their products. I'm just happy that such lovely models as (say) the Heljan Metropolitan electric locos or the Hornby D16 have been manufactured, and there are so many others in the pipeline.

Here's a photo of my Hornby Rood Ashton Hall on my model of Pontrilas, on the line from Newport to Hereford. Sorry about the photoshopped smoke - it's not very realistic.

Personally, I rather doubt it.  Apart from the different shape cab and the decorative valances the footplate is wider on the valanced versions of the prototype and the buffer beam is also wider (only a bit but still wider). The steps in front of the drivers are also slightly different, being separate castings on the 'no-valanced' versions but cast integrally with the fancy valancing on the older design. This shows as a 'line' across the top of the steps on the later 'non-valanced' locos.

 

Realistically, for Hornby to do this would be pretty much a complete re-tooling job, which I cannot see them doing. At least not in the immediate future.  Otherwise, yes - I agree...I would love one myself!

 

It's not even easy to modify the existing model either. Whilst it might well be possible to fret (or etch) out the fancy valancing and it's top covering from brass it would be extremely hard to alter the cab. It's not just a case of building a new cab (relatively easy), for the existing one is cast metal and joined to the boiler as an integral part of the entire body casting.

Thanks for the info. So other options definitely open to Hornby for future issues of this loco are LNER green, named Claud Hamilton , and BR late crest (although I've yet to find a photo of the latter)?

I still hope that Hornby have constructed the tooling to allow for the valencing and older cab, though.

toboldlygo, on 24 Sept 2015 - 11:28, said:

 

62613 Cambridge MPD by Gerard Fletcher, on Flickr

Well, well - I had never noticed there were two types of D16 cab. Hornby catered for different cabs on the T9 - I wonder if they will do the same for the D16? I hope they do, as I would love a model of 62613. If they've done the slide and piston valve variants already, perhaps there's hope.

Does anyone sell cast metal loco crews? That would add a little bit of weight to the cab end of the D16, and as we're told, every little helps.

I wasn't going to buy any of these - just not my area of interest. Somehow, I now own two of them. If Heljan, Hornby or Bachmann don't make some coaches to go with them, I think they're very foolish. As others have said on the S Stock thread, I also hope Bachmann use their new low-profile EMU chassis to produce some vintage Underground stock. Has OO gauge modelling ever offered so many possibilities?

I didn't manage to spend much time at the gala, but here's one shot I took last Friday near Trimpley, showing Sir Keith Park. Out of sight on the back of the train was Britannia.

Just to confirm that Royal Scot was running today, facing Kidderminster. Looked and sounded very good.

I don't believe there's anything so sinister at play; what has been indicated to me is that there are a substantial number of completed design folders for projects within Bachmann Europe which exceeds the capacity that the CAD design for tooling stage in China could handle whilst factory relocations and transitions took place integrating different factories and departments into one etc.  It's quite likely that a comprehensively completed design folder might leap frog another into the design office that's incomplete and progress quicker through the next stages. Hence this year's announcements were to a degree consolidation and creating the opportunity to catch up.

The problem is that they don't seem to be catching up. Special projects like the S-Stock jump the queue instead. Maybe the Class 117 will do likewise? But in the interim, Hornby and Heljan have had lots more of my money recently.

Sorry, back to the DMUs...

 

The authentic livery of the Oxfordshire Ironstone Sentinels is shown above. There were detail differences between different members of the fleet, including different profile cranks. A total of 5 are preserved. 

 

Paul A. 

Any suggestions for a paint to match to the body colour Hornby have used, so I can paint over the wasp stripes on the model to re-create the 1960s livery. (I'm a bit colour-blind, so help would be appreciated!)?

Anyone else had a dud one of these? The lights work on 12v DC, but no motion whatsoever? Any suggestions of a quick fix, or is it a case of return to sender?

At the Bachmann event at the Glos Warks Rly yesterday, I asked Dennis Lovett if there was any chance that the front-end error on the new Modified Hall would be corrected in future releases. He replied that it was possible. However, he also said that all the current ones have sold out, so there are obviously plenty of people who either didn't spot the error, or who are willing to overlook it. We shall have to wait and see.

Can anyone who attended the Club event at the Gloucester & Warwick confirm the asking price for the new "Birch Grove" E4 club model as it hasn't yet gone live on the club webpage.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

RP

£109.95. Need to add postage from Barwell.

All this dithering about the route from Bedford to Cambridge is very depressing. How many consultations and feasibility studies do we have to pay for? It's 30 miles, and pretty well flat as a pancake. Just draw a straight line on the map and build it! We are always being told that capacity is the big issue on the network now, so why are they even considering routes that put extra trains on sections of the MML and/or ECML?

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, but in Kevin Robertson's Southern Region DEMU book, there is a photo of a 2-car unit in Blue/Grey at Waterloo. I think (it was late at night when I looked) it's one of the Class 204 3T sets temporarily reduced to a 2-car. Seeing as the 2-car blue Class 205 Kernow is producing (1122) became one of the 3T sets, surely this is the proof/excuse they need to produce a 2-car blue/grey set?

This isn't a criticism of you, Geep, but surely the thousands of pictures of all the 3-car units are the excuse that Kernow need to get on and produce the centre car?! Every £ spent on stop-gap 2-car models must reduce the amount available to spend on the version that everyone's waiting for, with 3 coaches.

Please forgive me if this has already been covered: am I correct in thinking the current release of Pullmans are in LNER condition? If so, have Hornby indicated whether they are going to do a run of these Pullmans in 1950s BR condition?

...the cheap & cheerful Crosti 2-10-0 will sell ...

Not the Hornby one, then, which I believe is listed at well over £100, even though it's RailRoad.

Reasonable & cheerful, maybe, but surely not cheap!

On the subject of the Stanier 2-6-0, I can't imagine many people buying more than one, which may be putting Bachmann off, but that's true of many of the more obscure types that are now available RTR, and makes it even more crazy that no-one has done the J69 tank yet, as there are loads of livery variations of those that I would buy.

I'm giving the new Modified Halls a miss. Seeing how Bachmann have kept improving the V2, I'm hoping that the current Modified Hall will not be their final attempt.

I'm also trying to imagine what price I would be willing to pay for one of the current ones, in order to have a go at the surgery that Brian Kirby demonstrated, and not be too upset if I mess it up.

A Network Rail 150 would have taken my money...

 

Well, in the now-locked thread about Bachmann's new model there was a photo of the Bachmann display cabinet at the DEMU exhibition today, and there was something that looked distinctly like the NR 150.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98964-new-model-from-Bachmann/page-13

And precisely what evidence do you have to support your statement? I have dealt with them for over a decade and have never known them fail to update their website.Perhsps you have some knowledge!

I

The evidence is the rueful chuckle I get from staff at the shop counter when I use the words "It's on your website", after I've enquired about an item I want to buy. And the fact that quite often I've bought things from them that aren't on their website at all. Is that satisfactory evidence, your honour?!

It's still an excellent shop, and I would recommend them to any modeller.

As the New Model from Bachmann thread has been locked, I'll have to put this here. In the photo of the Bachmann cabinet at DEMU that Nobby posted this morning there looks to be a yellow NR Class 150 - is that not a new model too?

Really? I've been looking at Hereford Model Centre website since they arrived and I'd question that assumption.Stock levels remain constant at 24.Don't all kill yourselves in the rush and I hope this post generates sales.Usual disclaimers apply.

I wouldn't put too much faith on the Hereford Models website. I suspect it's not updated automatically like some of the more high-tech sites. However, Hatton's are still showing plenty too.