Meld9003

I'd be interested in two P4 chassis. I'd be happy with either approach to the design, although I do think it makes sense to reuse as much of the original chassis as possible.

Really? To my eye the Hornby one has a much better 'face' and finer moulding. The DJM bogie detail looks superb and the seperate fittings are nice though. Other than that it's pretty much a wash unless you are into DCC sound.

Have you had a chance to build the test etch for the Harton No. 2 chassis yet?

Can I have two sets of guard irons and wipers please.

I'm waiting to see what the Lenz is like to use.I thought the LH100 with the firmware 3.6 was surprisingly good and a lot easier to use, even if the hardware needed updating. I did some investigation last year of handset systems last year (I was worried about the long term future for my LH100 etc) and ended up finding a cheap Uhlenbrock Daisy II on eBay. It's not perfect (the highest functions can't be toggled), but the ergonomics and usability are very good indeed and probably better than anything else other than perhaps the new Piko handset. If the LH101 gets close to the Daisy II then it would be a worthwhile upgrade. Having said that, I do think Lenz could have gone a little further and the ability to assign icons to functions so you know what you are triggering is becoming a necessity I think.

They are definitely an improvement on the old Limby model - they look to be the right shape for a start!

I don't think Hornby ever said anything about doing/not doing a 71 until they announced it. I think some in the trade/press were aware that it was on their to do list. Dave has certainly said on here that he was aware that it was on their list of future projects. It seems to have been on the back burner, although they had the basic research. Simon Kohler has said that a loco ahead of it in the queue needed more research so the class 71 was bumped up the list to fill the gap in their announcements.

V4 firmware is/was supposed to be undergoing testing on larger layouts so hopefully might be out next year too... The handset doesn't look that exciting, but it all depends on the software and the interface. You can tell some thought has gone into this compared to the LH100, just have to see whether or not it's enough.

The two photos of 08176 and 08177 above show them.

Colour-rail have a photo of 13240 at York in 1956 where the conduit is white or very light grey. It does have the more normal layout though, rather than the one Dapol have chosen. On a more personal note and thinking ahead, does anyone know when D3245 got wasp stripes? Or better still know of a photo of it in 1964?

Will you be doing ActiveDrive sound for the 08?

I think most laser printers should be pretty good in terms of accuracy, as long as you make sure you print at 100% and don't scale to fit. Ink jets should be OK on thick photo paper, but anything less and they will probably soak the paper causing it to stretch slightly. This can also happen with laser prints as they absorb moisture from the air. If in doubt, add a dimension to every line.

Branchlines sell them

If I remember correctly, the issue is the start-stop cycle as coreless motors are only rated for so many starts. Coreless motors can stop very quickly when current is removed. Old school feedback controllers or pulsed controllers can have big enough gaps at slow speed that the motor effectively starts and stops many times a second. More modern controllers use a higher frequency so the motor should never stops spinning. This is also why some older and cheaper DCC chips are not recommended for coreless motors.

I would definitely be interested in a long bunker J72, especially if it could do the BR built versions. The Bachmann model is starting to show its age now.

They did say they were doing several variants including as orginally built with two-digit headcode and that they had identified several differences - I can't remember them I am afraid, but one might have been brake compartments.

I asked about the 21/29 at the Diesel and Electric Show. The rep I spoke too wasn't sure of the exact details as it wasn't his project, but he did say that they had been delayed while they got some more information about the bogies. They hoped to have some test shots by late summer/Warley

They did say that they were going to use the model as a spring board for other DMUs and I did mention 116s...

I've seen a lot of criticism of the reviewer's knowledge of history, but not much of his actual points. A lot of the people having a go at him are picking up on very minor points (e.g the 'business card' issue) to try and invalidate his genuine issues with missing parts and incorrect assembly. These things happen with all suppliers and I am not sure why some people are so defensive about it.

I doubt Hornby has any knowledge of individual pre-orders. They are between you and the retailer. The retailer will place an order with Hornby for X models and Hornby will try and supply them with that number. If shops want to try and sell models at inflated models that is up to them, and Hornby can't do much about it.

I think people need to take a deep breath because it becoming rather sad watching them massively overreact to the slightest problem. Do we have any actual reports of a short delivery or is it just retailers selling out quickly? And is anyone really surprised about shops receiving their models on different days at this time of year? There are loads of reports in the media of couriers backed up and other major retailers experiencing delays. And as for the complain about a TMC advertising a weathered version already....

The cab roof looks a bit funny to me, like it's got a thumbprint in the corners.

Try here: http://www.abrail.co.uk/DandEdepots.htm. And here's No 56: http://www.abrail.co.uk/Images/Darlington3.jpg