nathan70000

Ordered one of these, £130 from a well-known UK retailer, like new condition and DCC sound fitted. Seemed almost too good to be true... well... The loco-to-tender connection took me an entire afternoon to work out. I had to remove the tender body to slide the Y-shaped drawbar in. Bizarrely the box is square-ish and you have to take it apart again to put it back! I hastily sourced a cardboard alternative so the locomotive and tender could stay coupled. Very odd. At first the loco refused to go round corners point blank. I'm not entirely sure how I fixed it, but I did. However the loco still seems to stall over points. I have checked- it has pick ups on all the driving wheels plus the tender, so it can't be losing contact- and it doesn't look like the engine is being lifted off the track in any way. The switch is a Kato Unitrack HO (one of the big ones, can't remember the radius, sorry). Faultlessly reliable and the K4 is the only engine that seems to have a problem. It is very pretty so I want to keep hold of it. Anybody else got one of these and experienced similar problems? I can't find much online and I'm afraid my experiences have put me off buying the (gorgeous) streamlined one.

I certainly appreciate your input, don't worry 🙂 I'll send Rails an email, see what they can do.

Not quite. I've done the maths and whilst yes items are more expensive, there is a still a slight discount over ordering from the US most of the time. I.e. I was looking at some PRR hoppers on eBay, altogether with postage and tax it came to around £120. Rails has similar N&W ones for £89, which is slightly more than they cost in the U.S. but still cheaper than buying, shipping, and then paying the Royal Mail processing fee. Occasionally U.S. retailers discount so much that it does become cheaper.

There are a few upcoming Athearn products I would like to pre-order, but ideally I'd want to avoid the cost of shipping from the States. Do any UK retailers offer the ability to pre-order and reserve an import like Gaugemaster with Walthers products, for example? There are one or two Athearn distributors in the UK but they only seem to order in the modern era stuff, I'm interested in some of the upcoming 40s/50s era releases.

US modelling can be much cheaper than UK modelling if you're savvy. I have a few of the Bachmann sound equipped diesels and all of them were bought for under £100. I notice (albeit not quite appropriate for your NYC prototype!) there's a PRR M1a right now on eBay - with sound- for £149. An equivalent UK loco with sound, i.e. a 9F, would come in at double that. One thing I have noticed about the US market is that whilst items might have a steep RRP they tend to sell for quite a lot less second hand. Proto 2000 diesels are decent and can be picked up for less than fifty quid. Scenery, I'll grant you, is more difficult. Walthers Cornerstone kits are fairly plentiful, Woodland Scenics do plastic buildings in ready-to-plant and kit form that would be perfect for your branch line plan. They're a bit "stylised" but can be toned down with weathering etc. Also worth mentioning some continental (Kibri/Busch etc) kits can probably be "bashed" in to US prototypes. I agree the craftsman-type wooden kits are far too expensive if you're on a budget, even without the postage fees! EDIT- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144681595335?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=lxZgJBf6TDS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=YeSTyWFYRjq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY This sort of thing is what I mean. Looks basic, but could make a fantastic scene with a bit of painting, weathering and detailing. It's on US eBay but if you use the Global Shipping Program you don't get the arbitrary Royal Mail postage fees and pay everything upfront.

Excellent work on the layout, don't see much steam era US HO this side of the pond. What livery were C&O cabooses (cabeese? 🤨) in the late steam era? All the ones I can find in HO are yellow which I understand was introduced in the 50s, but what I can't establish is whether steam would be seen alongside them. To further confuse matters I've also seen some dark blue ones on the web!

I suspect the reason it's not in the main Branchline OO9 range is because it's probably based on the Skarloey underpinnings and not considered "finescale" enough for the brand. However, why they've announced it as part of the USA range is a complete mystery to me. It could have perhaps been an EFE Rail release?

Snuck out in the Bachmann USA mid-year announcements is a OO9 scale "Talyllyn" in three liveries; lined green, black and red. About 3 minutes in

Unfortunately the D11/2s were rarely seen south of the border, and certainly not anywhere near the GC lines in Yorkshire, so they aren't much use! I'd rather butcher a GBL model than a Bachmann one- the idea of messing about with a £120+ loco fills me with dread! I think it's more of a reflection on the perceived poor quality of the original Heljan model. It had all sorts of problems with running and decoration IIRC. I think almost anything will sell, and manufacturers are unduly cautious in avoiding pre-grouping prototypes. And people don't just model what they can remember, I wasn't born until almost the privatisation era but I find the steam era far more fascinating. The fact that the Clayton DHP-1 is apparently a viable RTR model in OO scale should have put paid to the idea that some things just won't sell! I'd quite like to see Hull and Barnsley locomotives produced which there aren't even kits available for, but I reckon enough people would buy a D24 or a Q10 to make them viable at least as a retailer commission. The D24 especially is a very handsome machine.

The SECR brakevan is a wise choice and will no doubt be very popular. I have no need for one, but I'm sure plenty of modellers will be happy to tick it off their wishlist! Apart from that, it's a disappointing announcement for the steam-era modeller. And I'm skeptical that the hi-spec 37 was a good idea. It seems to me like we're one step closer towards a situation where multiple manufacturers compete over the same "popular" prototypes and never actually announce anything that's never been done before. I'm also surprised that a BR green 37 hasn't been announced.

Apparently Marne was a limited edition of just 500 so it will be hard to track down! It was however released in 2014, so perhaps enough time has passed for Bachmann to revisit apple green D11s? Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll be one in the announcement tomorrow! The 1923-1933 period does seem to be a bit of a blind spot for Bachmann. They haven't done the O4 or the J11 in lined black either, and whilst they've issued a V3 in BR livery with the new chassis they haven't issued an LNER example.

Have Bachmann ever produced an LNER D11/1 (as in a GCR built and allocated example) in LNER livery? They've done quite a few GC ones and I think one BR liveried example but I'm struggling to find one in LNER livery. My thoughts had turned to motorising the GBL one and repainting it but Bachmann would do a far better job than me! Ideally I'd want 5506 Butler Henderson in 1930s condition. I'm not quite sure whether it was black or green by the mid-thirties, there's plenty of photos online but none with dates attached sadly. It was definitely black by the end of the decade from the photographic evidence that exists.

There are only two possibilities- the Stanier 8F and the 57xx Pannier, and the "all different" comment makes me lean towards the latter.

Apologies for what might seem like a fairly basic question but does anyone know the best way to stick down ballast and scatter?? I've just started ballasting on a US outline layout and on the previous incarnation one thing I struggled with was actually getting the ballast solid. After a while, it would either return to its unglued state or crack. I'm using Kato unitrack and the matching ballast to go with it, it's not exactly cheap so I can't afford to waste loads of it. I've been using the woodland scenics scenic cement, as I thought this would work better than plain PVA. I would ideally like to spray it in a fine mist but the only spray bottles I have spray in a somewhat messy fashion leaving an uneven covering. Even the bits it has covered don't seem particularly solid to me though, after 24 hours. Plus I have scenic cement everywhere- even on the windows, somehow, which is a terrible waste! I'm stumped. Does anyone have a foolproof way of getting ballast down and making it stick? What do you use? Can anyone recommend a spray bottle that sprays a fine puffy mist and doesn't jam up straightaway? I'm starting to think scenic cement might not be the best solution. Thanks

Two pages of announcement froth and not a single person speculating what might be announced... 😉 Given the recent success of the 812 and the publicity generated by its "tour" around the country, I wouldn't be surprised if a Caledonian Railway 439 0-4-4T appears. It ticks the pretty pre-grouping livery box and it's also a fairly useful "layout loco" for small BLTs. I reckon the 57xx/8750 will eventually get retooled in the same manner as the J72, but it isn't that long since they last released it. Personally I'd prefer a little more bold thinking and see Bachmann do a 517 or an 850 instead. Whilst post-grouping GWR has gotten a lot of attention from manufacturers, pre-grouping GWR is a different kettle of fish. I bet we'll see some 009 announcements, but not locos. Potentially modern Ffestiniog "Barns" to go with the Fairlies. Modern image wise I can see them giving the Class 57 a do-over, maybe. Whatever it is I hope it's not more LNER steam- my wallet needs a rest!

Thank you for all the fantastic information that has been posted! What rules governed the carrying of the headboard? Photos during the LNER era often show the train without the "Flying Scotsman" headboard carried on the locomotive.

It's a more recent model that to my knowledge isn't effected by Mazak rot. The part that appears to be the problem is the cab rear bulkhead which is a separate component. I've managed to glue it to the cab floor so it doesn't lean in to the cab too much but it still doesn't look 100% right. Everytime I reattach the body to the chassis it pushes the cab bulkhead forward.

They're fundamentally different markets. Many (not all) N. American modellers take a "looser" approach to historical and operational accuracy than British modellers do which means the market for detailed scale models is probably smaller despite the USA having a much larger population. Then there's the enduring popularity of three-rail O Gauge which takes up quite a large share of the market, so much so that quite a few models were available in O Gauge before they were in HO. Don't forget that the US dieselised much sooner than the UK did. Most of the post-war diesels from EMD, Alco and GE have been done to a high standard already and even the really obscure ones have been covered. Road-specific steam locomotives are probably the biggest gap in the NA market, but I'm honestly not sure the demand is there at the price they'd likely cost. As much as I'd love a B&M P4, I'm not sure I'd shell out over £500 for one plus p&p.

Excellent info, I thought I was an expert on the LNER and I didn't know this! So presumably outside of those 10 weeks any Pacific could have been used. Curiously the only super detail A1 Hornby have done in LNER Green with a corridor tender is 4476 Royal Lancer. I did predict that they'd do Flying Scotsman in 1928 condition as one of their 2022 releases but they haven't announced any more A1s or A3s.

Recently I picked up some relatively cheap Gresley coaches from the R2888M "Flying Scotsman" set, minus the A4 originally included. I've built up quite a collection of LNER locos and the coaches look very snazzy with my various A1s, A3s, A4s as well as the P2 and the W1. But... "The Flying Scotsman" was of course a non-stop train, which should necessitate the use of a corridor tender. Aside from 10000, none of my LNER era locomotives possess one. Herein lies the quandary; is it correct to have a non-corridor tender fitted locomotive at the head of the Flying Scotsman? It would have meant a stop, but was there enough flexibility in the timetable for allow for this?

Not sure Oxford will announce an LNER loco four years in a row but I wouldn't be disappointed if they did do a J21... The Oxford announcement (if it happens) will probably come around the last week of the month, but perhaps it's best to start a new thread??

Hello, I have one of the newer releases of this loco (R3661, technically it's a Brush Type 2 or a Class 30!) and I took it apart to pop a loose window back in. Unfortunately the "front" end cab closest to the fan came apart when I removed the body, so I glued it back together exactly how it was and how the other end cab was assembled. However when I came to reattach the body the cab clearly didn't fit properly and the bulkhead is pushed to lean forward. This of course looks very wrong and I've tried numerous times to fix it to no avail. Is there a secret to putting these back together??

Overall I think the 2022 range is a mixed bag. The choices for modern image modellers are fantastic; Lumo 800s, the FLIRT, Drax biomass hoppers. Really good, forward-thinking stuff. Hornby seem to be going backwards when it comes to their steam era choices, however. The Turbomotive will surely sell but the big Pacifics need to be balanced out by smaller, more workaday locomotives that modellers actually need. There's no shortage of prototypes to choose from, the ex-Airfix 14xx surely deserves an update and I was very confident that would appear this year, possibly with a retooled Autocoach. Hornby's N2 of identical provenance would also be a good candidate for retooling. Yet these smaller engines seem to have been forgotten and we're moving back to the bad old days when the only thing you could get from Hornby were big named engines. I'm pretty sure almost anything steam would sell, so I'm hoping for some braver, bolder choices next year. More balance would be welcome; I don't want Hornby to stop making big engines, far from it (I bought a W1 and might well save up for a P2) but I think the ratio of big engines to small engines needs adjusting. And the sets... not once on this forum have I seen someone express a desire that Hornby re-release fifty year old train sets as "collectible" limited editions. It made sense in 2020 during the fiftieth anniversary, but I'm honestly not sure there's much of a market for stuff like the Triang Hornby re-releases. Finally, I won't comment on prices again, since I've made my point elsewhere. But anyone who thinks that customers will just passively accept price hikes needs to have a look at the reactions on social media to this announcement.

If only they'd produced a H&B Class B/LNER J23 to celebrate this... I've got absolutely zero interest in dubiously legal film tie-ins, nostalgia-tinged Triang revivals and overpriced metal Duchesses but I would have leapt at a Hull and Barnsley loco...

Neither did any of the Gresley A1s or the original "Hush Hush" but that hasn't stopped Hornby... given that they've put out the W1 in LNER Green I wouldn't be too surprised to see a BR Blue Raven Pacific...