jjb1970

Indeed, I think it is a complete non-starter, but at least if it was possible it'd be a line connecting a pretty well populated, industrialised area with the WCML via a tourist hotspot.

Personally I see the whole issue about is it limited, will it ever be made again as of no interest to my own purchasing decision except that if money is tight and I decide to take a chance it'll be made again. I won't deny that I'm a bit of a collector but most of the models I've collected are worth less than I paid for them in absolute terms never mind real terms or compared with what I'd have if I'd stuck the money in a bank and I do not feel at all bad about the models I've bought. An example is the FIA LMS 10000, an exquisite model, a very limited model and an expensive one yet if you are lucky you can pick them up for a lot less than the retail price of 8 years ago. That is not to say I do not like it when I have something that does appreciate but it is the exception rather than the norm. I don't begrudge investors making money, but part of societies acceptance of investors making a profit is that they take a risk in making investments and that those investments go up as well as down. This is a wonderful choice of model by NRM and Rapido and I thank them and commend them for it. I cannot wait to see the model.

Indeed, you are correct. Carlisle is the only City. As well as Barrow the other area which has a reasonable population collectively is the West Cumbrian strip around Workington and Whitehaven and that area still has quite a bit of industry (though nothing like the industry it once had). The Keswick scheme would make a lot more sense if it was connecting West Cumbria to Penrith as currently that area is not very well connected. The Cumbrian Coast line is one of the undiscovered gems of UK railways for those who enjoy a scenic ride but in terms of connecting towns like Whitehaven and Workington with the rest of the country it is not particularly great. However to extend the line from Keswick to Cockermouth and Workington would be a massive escalation of the project and probably still be unattractive in terms of return on investment.

Looking at that it'd probably be easier to build a new Peak a la Tornado than try and restore 45015. The best you could hope for unless you had limitless funds, time and the right expertise would be a purely cosmetic job so it would look nice on the outside. As an aside I do worry about the long term viability of many preserved details in terms of running. Diesels aren't steam engines and without access to spare parts it'll be very difficult to keep the engines running. Making parts to order is hideuously expensive and assumes that you have suppliers capable of making the parts. All of the engines in preserved locomotives were obsolete decades ago (one reason even the RN finally abandoned the Deltic engine was that they just couldn't support them in service) and I'm guessing if you went to ask Winterthur about some of those old Sulzer engines you'd struggle to find somebody who knew what you were talking about. Sadly I foresee a time when all of these preserved diesels are stationary exhibits, maybe being fired up every now and again.

These look very nice indeed, well done Dapol. Hopefully there will be a lot more models along of this standard.

I don't question Cedric Martindale's integrity or the fact that he is a thoroughly decent chap. I also have complete admiration for the passion and drive he has thrown into his efforts to re-open the Keswick line. I'd also love to see it happen. However, for all that I tend to agree with the poster who is upsetting people in terms of his views of the status of the project and its chances of ever coming to fruition. The project hasn't progressed in years, the authorities (who are not anti-rail) do not seem to see it as a viable project and there does not really seem to be any indication of any changes happening to restore some momentum to the project. Keswick is not a metropolis, neither is Carlisle which is the only city of any real size in Cumbria. The A66 may not be the best road in the world but it is not that bad, the problematic part of the A66 is on the other side of Penrith going towards scotch corner. There is the concept of lost value, if the local authorities put money into this scheme what else will they not be able to support and what offers the most benefit? Cumbria is not the South East of England, the Midlands or the Central Belt of Scotland (something for which most locals are eternally grateful) and the traffic flows I could see for a passenger rail service would be marginal. Apologies if this is seen as negative, but despite my personal wishes to see this happen, if I was holding the purse strings and looking at value for money and prioritising spending (especially in an era of austerity) then I really cannot see that the Keswick line would be attractive.

In fairness to Hattons the prices of Hornby and Bachmann models has increased significantly in recent years. If they offered a pre-order guarantee based on a supplier advising a price of say £100 then when it is finally released the price has risen to say £130 then I wouldn't complain about them increasing their prices providing they allow me to cancel. If however the price was known to be rising to £130 before I placed an order and with a pre-order price guarantee then it is reasonable to expect that the retailer has based their pricing on that known price and are in a position to honour their advertised price. I think there are a couple of very different scenarios. I do not see any malice aforethought in Hattons, nothing sinister, it is just poor communications and being caught out by circumstances and making some rash offers I think but nevertheless it has been damaging for their reputation I think.

Amazon offer pre-ordering on books, I have quite often ordered books months in advance of publishing on that site. So the concept of pre-ordering is not just a model railway thing. The problem railway retailers face as has been said is that it is difficult to anticipate what the prices will be, that is an argument for not advertising prices until they are in a position to be able to do so. The reason people are upset with Hattons is they made a pre-order guarantee when it was known that certain prices were to increase and then failed to honour that "guarantee". I don't think this is so much about contracts etc as it is about trust and confidence and trust in the supplier. On prices themselves, prices are what they are. Some Hattons prices are very attractive, some are not particularly attractive. You also have to consider service, choice etc. If others undercut them on price or offer better service then shop elsewhere.

Indeed, it needs strong nerves to apply the amount of force I found mine needed. That said, I'm very happy with the re-tooled model. I know REX gave it a rather negative review but I've spent quite a bit of time considering their review and my own impressions and came to the conclusion that whilst it may not be perfect it is a very good model and captures the likeness of the 33 well. At least to my eyes anyway.

I have just been fitting a DCC chip to my example and it is a pig of a job, it is worse than the Bachmann 4CEP in that the body is very tight and I found it took a lot of nerve to both get the body off and then back on again as the force required felt perilously close to being enough to break the thing. Why-oh-why can't more models be provided with easy fit DCC sockets like the Bachmann 350?

I wouldn't expect any retailer to sell product at a loss. Equally however if a supplier advertises a guaranteed pre-order price which is presented as a way to beat known price rises then I would expect them to honour that price at least with respect to any price rises which were known at the point of making the offer. Where there have been subsequent further price rises it is a more complex matter however you have to ask the question that when all the manufacturers are being pretty open about price inflation why are dealers still offering pre-order discounted prices when it is highly uncertain what the SRP will be. So I also understand how some of this has upset customers.

The bargains bit of Hattons still has some great offers but their regular sections are indeed matched or even bettered by a lot of independent shops. The one silver lining of the new Hornby terms for smaller retailers is that for Hornby at least it has effectively levelled the playing field whilst Bachmann have their initial pricing policy for the first few weeks after release. I won't criticise Hattons service as I have to say I've never had any reason to criticise and lots to praise, but I have to say I haven't used them that much in recent times simply because other sellers are competitive on price.

I'm not an expert on either the King or S15 but like both of them and plan on getting at least one King in GWR and a S15 in Southern. These look very good to my inexpert eyes and it is nice to see three things here: Hornby new releases at an advanced stage within a relatively short time from being announced Hornby looking like they are back to their old standards with some rather lovely new tooling Hornby improving their communications, SK's blog has been one of the best manufacturer communication pieces for a while and this Engine Shed blog looks like being another excellent bit of comms from Hornby All three things are very definite signs of the continued improvement at Hornby and there is a sense of momentum with them which I find hugely positive.

A lovely series of pieces that are good for people who do not think they like classical music are the Hungarian Dances by Brahms, delightfully melodious and tuneful and very easy listening. And when I say easy listening it is not intended as damning with feint praise as they are absolutely wonderful. I have an old-ish CD on the Naxos budget label which is a superb performance.

Indeed, the original Mainline versions weren't the best for running, when Bachmann provided a new chassis it was a revelation and gave the model a mechanism that the excellent body had been crying out for from day one.

The thing I find really sad about the Bachmann Warship is that the body tooling dates back to Mainline in the 1970's and set a standard for diesels that Hornby would take another 20 years to match and Lima would struggle to match. That the model still cuts the mustard despite lacking some of the refinements that we expect of modern releases really is a testament to just how good it was when released and how British models went backwards again after Mainline and Airfix hit the wall.

I can't wait for these, it looks like it'll be a cracking model and whilst the old Lima tooling was one of their better efforts and is still a fine model in terms of the basic shape and captures the look of the 73 very well I think this will be on a whole new level.

Hopefully Dapol will emerge from a rather troubled period, it looks like the O gauge Terriers are finally about to land (and at the price will I think draw a few into trying O gauge), the N gauge Southern coaches have finally arrived and these shots of the 68 show great promise. I wish them every success!

SE and Midlands, the Chiltern improvements go up to the West Midlands. There is also the Great Western electrification, not new line but a major investment which will benefit people outside of London and the SE. The Oxford - Bletchley line re-opening is not really SE either although I suppose it depends on what you define as SE. OK, so the Northern electrification is not getting new trains but it is a major investment nonetheless not to mention that HS2 if it goes ahead will be the biggest rail program seen in the UK for decades and will go to the North.

For those looking for a nice Warship but baulking at the new price then there are bargains to be had with the old tooling. I just ordered Kelly in blue/yellow from Hereford models, it is the DCC fitted version and they're charging £65. £65 DCC fitted is pretty good and whilst the old tooling is a bit dated and lacking the niceties we all demand nowadays it is not a bad model. Will the new class 43 be better than the old one? I would hope so and the pilot model shots look lovely. Is it worth more than two of the older ones (add the cost of a chip to the pre-order prices)? That is a judgement call, while I'll probably end up with the new one I'm also of the opinion that at the price the older one is still a perfectly acceptable model. If you're not happy with the price of the new 43 then it is certainly a worthy alternative option.

I think before England starts complaining about the other parts of the UK getting more support for railways than England it is worth remembering the Channel Tunnel HS rail link, Crossrail (and talk of crossrail 2), the Chiltern evergreen program etc, these have all been huge rail development projects. There is a major electrification program too, now maybe we'd like to see more and there are issues around relative levels of public spending around the UK but the idea that England has been deprived of Rail investment whilst Scotland and Wales get all sorts of investment is not really true. On the Keswick line, that is a project I'd love to see but just can't see it ever happening. I am from Cumbria and remember this scheme many years ago. Without wanting to take anything away from the stirling efforts of Cedric Martindale I just can't see this ever happening.

The problem for the class 59 is that to many people because they look the same as a 66 they are pretty much lumped into the same boat and because the 66 is so ubiquitous people don't find them interesting. The fact that the 59 and 66 are completely different in just about every way except the shape of the body doesn't seem to matter. Which is a bit sad really.

I've been running a blue/grey 4VEP and also a blue/grey 4CEP on the boys trainset layout this week and whilst on close inspection the Bachmann 4CEP is a much better model (that really is a cracking model, an outstanding bit of work by Bachmann) when running them on a layout the Hornby 4VEP holds up remarkably well and it is a very nice model.

To call an MTK "kit" a kit might be stretching what is accepted as being a kit....assisted scratch build may be more accurate

At £99 the blue/grey 4VEP is a bargain, I have ordered a second set from Kernow as at the price it is too good to not have another. I have the earlier all blue version and whilst I am happy with it I did recognise it was not as good as I hoped it'd be, the solid interior partitions were an especially silly blunder. On a layout it looks fine but nevertheless the knowledge that the shortcomings are there is real. I think the blue/grey release is an improvement and it is noticeably better, it does seem to be a better runner. For sure it is still not a perfect model but it is the only 4VEP RTR model, if I was to try and build a kit it wouldn't be as good as the Hornby model and it'd cost more whilst if I paid a professional builder it'd cost an awful lot more than the Hornby model. The Bachmann 4CEP is a much better model but I have always had a real soft spot for Southern EMU's and this Hornby 4VEP is a good if not brilliant model. Certainly I have never regretted buying my examples and would buy them again.