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Just arrived at my desk... Lovely tender detail... Now back to work for me.

30072 has had 2 mods to its bunker (at least) in preservation.It also carried a US style bell in its Orange livery days. There is also another form of bunker (not modelled).. the differences are seen clearly here.. https://photos.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/SR-and-BRS/SR-tank-engines/i-6FQmg7D/1/35913a64/S/S_BR_30064_30073_GWRA130729_slide6D10-S.jpg But 30072's preservations mods are unique to it, and aren't reflected in the model. The preserved ones are heavily modified, 30064 being the only one close to original form. 30072 was modified very early in preservation. Indeed in its BR days it's bunker was a little different to the others with a big welded plate added https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6221/6431298717_2a7ac30dda_b.jpg Then Seen here in 1968 with original bunker as BR but now in Orange http://kwvr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/41241-6806292-RD1.jpg Then again in 1970, original bunker but now with an extension https://www.flickr.com/photos/railwaydave/8400944821 And the model...without the welded plates http://www.modelrailoffers.co.uk/p/53714/MR-108-MR-Bachmann-USA-0-6-0T-Steam-Locomotive-number-72-KWVR Finally In its current guise http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/westyorkshire/KWVR/Img_1359.jpg Oh and here's one with the bell.. https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2660/5833757541_2376848b0b_b.jpg I had thought of modelling a second BR Green one (with 300xx series number), but in the tooling available, 30064 is unique, in BR days and preservation, even Wainwright and Maunsell have been altered in preservation. The preserved ones would unlikely be candidate for any future tooling change as they are unique (and in some cases not even ex-BR or even US built), but 30073's extended bunker was shared by another class mate in BR days so may potentially be a candidatE, but somehow I think it won't happen.

Is this a record for a Bachmann 47... it's not even DCC fitted. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332300957792?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

At £89 for a modern 4 car unit at Kernow I don't know why people are umming and arrring for.. Your never going to see a 4 car EMU new at that price again. Even if your not sure you want it, keep it a year and double your money, the SWT one is much more expensive. Put it another way, you can buy three of these for the price of a new unpowered 4TC unit.

Been going to the US for 20 years and never had an issue with a credit card. Indeed here now I'm using contactless and chip and pin all day long. Even had a miniature Bank of America credit card (about 1 inch sq) on a key ring which worked fine around the world, even if when most people look at it have never seen anything like it before and wonder if it's real.

Trust me there's a lot of people walking the streets with a lot of cash in london. Your safe enough, as long as you don't openly make it easy.. don't leave a purse on top of an open bag, or your wallet in your back pocket, on a pub table etc. There's probably a higher risk of someone trying your inside coat jacket on the tube in a crush, but in 15 years I've never seen it happen, but the risk is there. It's doubtful you'll end up in Tottenham or Brixton, but oppourtunists can move anywhere. Further north in England in the towns/cities they are much smaller so the scrotes mingle closer with the normals of society, I'd be more careful at night as there's more risk of violence from drunks and theft, if your in almost any town up north on a Thursday-Saturday night after 11pm you'll see drunken brawls and smashed bottles somewhere, it's part of the culture and can happen in even quaint railway friendly places. I'd just stay away and watch, it's usually 14-20 somethings had too much and fight with a neighbour, work colleague or family member. They aren't interested in you and usually is a bit of shouting, crying or throwing up on a pavement and is over in a few minutes... just be aware it can happen like a twister from nowhere and disappear again straight after, just make sure it wasn't a ruse to get your attention whilst they grab your coat, TBH you won't need cash though, credit cards are accepted everywhere, atm's are everywhere. When do you fly in to the UK, I'm flying into London from San Francisco this Thursday, currently baking in the Phoenix 50+ degree oven !

Depends what you own... aside employment and a factory, the Chinese tend not to care too much about intellectual property, when I was dealing over there, I was constantly asked about the "Chinese concession" to make consumption outside license for the domestic market, hence forth unregulated and goes everywhere.

If your into N or O gauge the Dapol club is pretty good. It's not got much for the OO modeller, I really joined to get the special edition 73, which was cheaper than the high street versions, so the club membership is kind of subsided, so to that end it was worth it, the value add then is the newsletters. There's nothing in it for me to continue into 2018, so I'd let it lapse, but would rejoin if something was attractive.

Weight, English portions aren't quite what you may be used to.

I'm a member of Hornby, Dapol and Bachmann clubs...by far and away Bachmann is the best of the three, it's the only one I will renew next year, it gives a wagon, frequent predictable magazines with decent content and exclusive updates, they have a strong "on the road" presence and the club has quarterly exclusive models, by comparison Hornby has no club models, no members days and a very ad hoc magazine of limited value, it gives a voucher off in stock models which if combined with the 10% off RRP from their website means you could benefit from a single average priced purchase in a year at a price that will end up being comparable to the high street. In short.. imho only the Bachmann club is worthwhile.

Agreed it had a few liveries towards the end, but to many enthusiasts it's fame came from being a partner to 007 or D400 in NSE, but with withdrawal looming it was the bride without a groom, and putting lipstick on the pig got it into the NRM, even if it was soon pushed from the nest. It was also a bit unique in the Network South East branding being placed inline to its nameplate.. making a statement about NSE ! As well as no arrows etc..

Mine arrived safely from Derails today, Nice little note inside the box saying inspected before shipping. Personally I think this is great one. I'd like to see 50033 Glorious in NSE livery as end of service too (I know This D400 model is 1967).

Do these pictures clear things up... Exiting the works for the first time, brand new in 1967... https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8148/7655212958_e423e24a00_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/355/30985704004_1c5e0d50fa_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/743/31679101372_30c56c984c_b.jpg Front end (apart from handrails), looks right, including the head codes ! Though the horn grills should be bronzed not blue. Body sides look right too, though not sure the roof is correct, there's the circular vent on the roof, which I don't see on the works photos, or others in the same time period. But otherwise looks pretty good.

Most stuff from 20 years ago (b4 1997) is in the bargain bin, limited editions and all.From 40 years ago (b4 1977) is in landfill. Depends on mazak.

People are missing the point. In mid 2015 £280 = $442 @ 1.52 forex for the 1st release In mid 2017 £339 = $438 @ 1.28forex today for the second release. If your not British the price hasn't risen. With VAT back, the price becomes $352 A good proportion of these models probably end up exported. By comparison, the MTH NYC subway 4 car set is $299 + applicable state sales tax. (Av 10% takes it to $330). The price is relative, the complaining on here is down to currency, which was a devaluation decision made by the population in June last year.

I don't disagree, but taking out a competitor can save your own market space. If Hornby started knocking out cheap "railroad" quality big boys that could hurt the ROI of Athearns new investment. That is afterall what everyone in the U.K. Did when Lima went under, the only Diesel Lima model not oversold by the competition with a new tooling was the 31.. but then again don't Hornby own the Airfix, Triang and Lima versions of it might have influenced the thought processes of the others and left the space for Hornby, whom haven't exactly flooded the market with them ?

Wealthy tourists buy all kinds of guff in London.They won't buy a fleet of tube stock, regardless scale. Put it differently, when I was a tourist in New York, I bought a Proto NYC Subway set, even though I don't model US railroads. One point however regards price... the £ is down 20%, the models up 20%, therefore the tourist using it won't see any difference in price in their own currency, and many will claim their 20% VAT back as they leave LHR, making it £275 or so. The price, quality ratio obviously worked first time round, otherwise there wouldnt be a 2nd/3rd batch, so it must have sold ok. it's only us Brits who live here who feel the self inflicted currency pain, but then again we voted for it, and that's not a debate for this thread.

Maybe, but it would arrive flat packed, and need an Allen key to put the coach together. The wood effect isn't far off in this 1950's ikea display (ikea museum in Almhult Sweden)

I hope that what happened with the HFAs doesnt happen with the Peckett.. Imagine if the new Lilleshall Peckett showed up using a smokey joe tooling !

They could always split up the company, rather than selling shares. i.e. Say split off the European arm into 1 company with its own shares, and another for scalextrix, and another for Hornby UK. It costs the shareholders little, they still own the shares in 1:M entities, and of course can chose indepenendantly if they want to sell shares in one division of Hornby and retain control on the others. As for "The Athearn rumour" my speculation is it could be just to buy the US range or even distribution or marketing, Athearns been around decades and I've never seen them venture boldly out of their domestic comfort zone before, it would be a strange move to see them start now, especially one making a loss, a different scale (OO) and a vast UK & European product range, to which their market knowledge will indeed be limited, but Rivarossi did make some very nice "big" US steamers ! FEF, Challenger, Big Boy etc etc and Hornby's place in the US isn't large, taking out a weak competitor in Athearns own market, whom could decide to invest the US market in the future would seem much wiser. Athearn could have done that with Trix, Marklin, Roco and Fleischmann equally heavy hitting product names, but they didn't. Personally I suspect links closer to a "wealthy railway preservationist" in the U.K. Maybe the longer term future.

It had a repaint when it went to the ELR gala in 1988.

How about two... One empty, one full How about a modern loco with the same number of a preserved steam loco ?

I'd imagine with Atearn ,it would be more liveries and numbers, but less variety in prototypes. Instead of a run of 500 or so in 30 different locos classes it'll probably more like 1500 or so in 10 different loco classes with lots more numbers. More like the smaller manufacturers, e.g. The recent J94 or 14xx etc. Otherwise I doubt much would change. The name of the game is to reduce cost and sell more, making less prototypes, but in greater volume is the US way. An example may be the k1, more likely we'd see all 10 numbers in 1 year, but then no K1's for several years.