County of Yorkshire

Any intel on the mooted return of the GWR toplight coaches? Cheers, CoY

That's the one! Superb. CoY

Is it true that you might have a new coach of the brake variety gracing Brent soon Rob? CoY

I'd be interested in a tool & riding van pair, Mike. Cheers, CoY

Is this 4mm scale Rob?

Yes, and if you look in the Bachmann sales announced this last week by Rails, Kernow, Derails etc, you'll see the same models again and again; LMS crabs, LNER K3s, LMS 4MTs, BR 2-6-4Ts etc. People aren't buying them at the new - in all reality too high for the market - retail price. Coaching stock is falling into this cachet too - the Birdcage coaches in olive green have been in every bargain bin I've look at over the last 6 months. Hornby, Dapol and Oxford Rail all mange to keep prices within a reasonable range, and so Kader's notion that Chinese wage rises being the main driver of price rises doesn't wash really. CoY

Sorry Rob! CoY

Yep, Sketty Hall of around 8 years ago has it as well: https://hattonsimages.blob.core.windows.net/products/32-004_1.jpg CoY

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47002713 Do you think they'll impound his Toad as a result of their investigations? CoY

Is there now genuinely still scope in the market for the Rails/Dapol version? If I were them, I'd be having a look at the sales forecasts and the R&D spend committed to date...

Yep!

I’ve been after GWR shed allocation transfers for a while - CPL used to do them but Paul Bambrick didn’t have any in stock when I last spoke to him. If Railtec produced some I’d be very interested. CoY

Shed allocation under the bufferbeam...?

I've sort of made my peace with Bachmann's general listlessness when it comes to new releases, and so therefore I'm disproportionately excited by a wartime black pannier. Whilst its RRP will no doubt be 100% more than good, second hand examples in GWR green, this will save me the time of a modelling project that was in the mid-ranking part of my to-do list. In all seriousness, is this the first ever RTR GWR wartime black release? I simply cannot think of another. CoY

It's something remarkable that all items of stock in the Q6's train are still on the line: the loco itself (now operational), the Thompson CL (due to be overhauled shortly after a decade out of use), the Thompson CK (somewhere near the top of the restoration list for the LNERCA) and the H&B coach (the H&BR Rolling Stock Trust are quietly beavering away at the restoration of this coach). Pretty rare that I think? Most bits of stock from the early days of our larger preserved lines always seem to drift away... CoY

Approaching the 4 year mark without a single EP is remarkable though, isn't it?

All sorted now! Thanks.

Hi Dan, I am wanting to place an order for a rake of the GWR bow-ended suburbans but I think you have duplicated the listing for one of the brake thirds in GWR livery - the 'A' numbered one seems to be listed twice, and the one without the 'A' number does not seem to appear at all? Please could you check this and let me know if I can order a matching four car rake (BT-C-C-BT) please? Many thanks. Jon

I'm afraid that I quite simply have to agree. My wallet has been open for a long while now for a GWR 94xx, warflats, the steam crane and possibly even a MR 1F 4-4-0, and yet do we see any discernible signs of progress? The answer ranges from barely to often none. I do struggle to take Bachmann's annual announcements seriously anymore; how can you get excited for something that genuinely might not see the light of day for more than three calendar years? The consistent shifting of RRP's uphill also grates too; not that we'll ever know, but I bet there's about a theoretical £100 difference between the RRP for the steam crane had it emerged in, say, 2016, to when it finally appears in what... 2020/2021? One would think that Kader had shunted Bachmann UK down their list of priorities by quite a way. CoY

Just noticed yet another (diesel powered) tank on someone's lawn. The GWR Railcar has finally been released as part of the Railroad range, and at a very competitive £49.99 RRP (thus £40-45 after discount). Will cream off some future Heljan sales I bet! CoY

A fantastic announcement, and Hornby deserve to have these sell in droves. It's only taken since - what - the 1970's release of the Mainline B-set for GWR modellers to have true RTR non-corridor stock to 21st standards (post-war Bachmann autocoach not withstanding)? I am at work and away from my books but I am eager to know - was there an all third diagram built in similar style and length to this C and BT? Seems odd for Hornby to exclude this if so. In fact, these look so good I may have to reconsider my eventual choice of prototype modelling location - cue Birmingham or London metroland... did these ever get deployed in the Bristol area? All we need from the Bachmann/Dapol/Oxford Rail/Hattons/Rails 2019 announcements is a GWR BG, diner, and siphon and we disciples of Swindon will be on Cloud 9. CoY

Personally I think this is the most impressive Hornby set of realeases for around a decade - just look at the sheer amount and breadth of new tooling. Yet, an expensive year ahead for me... the GWR modeller simply can’t have enough large prairies and I’ll have a rake or two of the non-corridors. The new AA15 Toad is also being released in late (small letters) GWR livery. I’m a sucker for Southern malachite items and a rake of the Bulleids may also join the pre-order list... Well done Hornby! CoY

Funnily enough I seem to be going through a phase of building GWR open wagons at the moment. I don't think there is severe shortage as such; you can currently purchase the following diagrams: O11 - Parkside O13 (China Clay) - Parkside O29 - Ratio O30 - Cambrian Moreover, eBay, swapmeets and some traders at exhibitions throw up Coopercraft diagrams on a semi-regular basis, with diagrams O2, O4 and O5 popping up now and again. Or, if you're feeling brave, Model Railway imports of Canada have some Coopercraft kits listed for sale at the minute - shipping costs will be a factor though. Make a start on those listed above, keep your eyes peeled for Coopercraft diagrams, and eventually you'll have a nice range of GWR opens! CoY

The Ratio Macaw kit is for an ex Taff Vale Railway diagram Rob, and is apparently dimensionally suspect... Still, I picked up a kit for a song at a recent swapmeet and might take my tools to it to make it dimensionally correct. You are right though, the Bachmann version always seem to go for silly money wherever you look! CoY