Fair Oak Junction

I must admit I'm rather jealous of those on here who were able to have their loco checked before dispatch by whatever retailer they purchased it from. When I ordered mine I immediately fired off a message to the shop asking if they could check mine considering the damage that was being documented, and was told that unfortunately they could not check models before posting them. I completely understand that for bigger shops having to check through huge amounts of models is too time consuming and I do not hold it against them, it just means that until it arrives I have no idea if it's going to horribly broken or absolutely fine. And then if it is I'll need to send it back and wait for a refund, by which time the only ones available will likely be the ebay scalpers.

I know it's been a while since this thread was posted on, but I was wondering what kits did you use for Terrance and Trevor? Thanks.

Fair, I know very little about the details of the Japanese market and what their models are like.

Of course, and mine will be staying analogue. I just find it a very strange design decision on a brand new model being made as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. The info from Peco/Kato says it is due to lack of space, but that is entirely down to their design not scale as proved by Bachmann fitting a 6-pin socket into the Quarry Hunslets. I feel that for a model that has an RRP of £150 they could have done better. But it is what it is and I'm sure they will still sell well. Hopefully with those and the Bachmann Fairlies we are going to see a whole bunch of new 009 Ffestiniog and maybe even more freelance layouts springing up, which is never a bad thing.

I admire your faith in Peco/Kato, but given what we've seen of the George Englands I'm not so sure. Outwardly they are lovely looking little things, but the use of generic tooling for both locos, traction tyres and no DCC socket make me Fairlie (sorry) sceptical that their Double Fairlies will be anywhere near the quality of these ones. It is possible they will be competitive price wise but quality/detail wise I highly doubt it. I will still be buying the Englands but I'm definitely not blind to the flaws the models have. And on the price front I can't see them being that much less than the Bachmann ones. Double Fairlies are complex locos and that is going to translate very quickly into tooling and manufacture costs. Considering the complexity of the prototype and the fact each model seems to have unique tooling, the fact Bachmann are charging £235 RRP (£199 at most retailers) I think is actually pretty good.