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I wouldnt be surprised if a new model turned up at some point. The 153 /155 is the only one thats not had an upgrade or a retool..

There is another problem.. once they arrive here, the laundry process on a faulty one is all too easy.. I suspect these will be identical. ive said for years adding a serial number to locos and the box would be beneficial for warranty purposes, and help modellers from insurance purposes too.

Just a thought, but with 37407, 37667, 37676, 37685 all at FTW, when was last time 4x 37’s were there? i guess whatever stunt wcrc is planning, it doesnt involve heating the stock… 5-11 degrees and rain.

It would imo be very silly to run this for free with pax on. But running an ecs would score publicity points, and using the allocated paths on demand, hence not abandoning them, and denying them from others. Afterall LSL are scoring publicity points too right now.

So easy to find them. But replacing them enmasse also makes a dilemma of business interruption, rehire and training. The ground staff were probably doing as they were told. But any manager in a bespoke hobby like this will surely know his order book, project schedules and recognise something amiss on the floor… especially given the backlogs we are seeing. Anytime a manufacturer leaks a secret picture our amateur eyes are down in minutes, and those guys are the pros…. of course Chinese new year just past and the factories were supposed to be closed, but tbh if it were me working my holidays i’d pick something a bit more popular and easier to make dissapear, and at a lower price to dissapear faster… China isnt totally lawless, Bastian Schweinsteiger made these dolls of him dissappear.. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/22/bastian-schweinsteiger-nazi-doll-sue

I’d be somewhat surprised to see a whole batch of hundreds of models, made in secret at night by an army of dozens of workers, who somehow hide them from the day shift and the factory management for what must be several weeks to produce… These are batch made products, not year on year run of the mill stuff, someone somewhere would see a batch of unfinished locos that dont match a PO. I also have a hard time believing a Chinese factory would be naive enough to believe the “Chinese concession” wouldnt end up on international websites. This isn't exactly car parts to a back door customer that can dissapear. I could similarly understand if X was contracted, Y was made and Z went via the back door… but if that were the case where is batch X ?, or Z has been hiding a few years. The UK company will know their Chinese factory they contracted with. The Chinese factory will want a continual working relationship with the UK company. So tolerating a one off via the back door seems an odd way to keep that relationship…. especially as whom makes what isnt exactly a secret, and the other UK companies using that factory would also know. I have seen knock off model railway stuff before, though not in branded and new boxes, with documentation and parts bags. That makes these fakes quite brazen, akin to a heist. So I would expect the factory to be siding with Dapol, and chasing hare on tail for what happened and giving full support, as its jointly their brand and trust that is at stake… the factory will know who did it…, its not as if any tom, dick or charlie can walk in and operate a moulding press and spray booths.

Traksy shows services up and running, some late, obviously not that serious, nothing oou. Delays show 10-15 mins mostly, a few upto 30 which isnt that unusual, certainly on Southern those delays dont get any attention from the media. Maybe a BBC staffer was late for work and short of a story.

Gosh quite some feast there last night, glad I decided to opt in, had I left it to this morning the pickings are a bit thinner.

When the fingerprint was introduced by the US, Brasil objected but was ignored. So they introduced fingerprinting of US passengers in reciprocity, but they used ink. I recall laughing when visiting there with a US colleague as he rubbed his fingers on an ink that wasnt that easy to remove either. Didnt last long but the diplomatic point was obviously made 😀

You would think a plain blue unweathered 47, with yellow panel and headlight would be a good idea… last one I can think of was 47600 by Vitrains in 2009. Bachmanns offered 47404 and 47408 back in 2006, both sans headlight, and 47001 was close, no headlight round boiler port in 2014.. 47402 Gateshead would be nice, just sayin, but an unamed one would be good too. Heljans promising 47314 though.

9 put of 10 cats prefer it… when was last time they asked the cats ?

I just want to hereby declare another case of general bodily harm has been inflicted on my wallet. I thought I was I done here, but the thought of a second NSE rake was too much to pass. But having seen the Bachmann mk2a on the Accurascale mk2b chassis a page back, has opened a number of thoughts into my head… so its a case of make a bit of hay here and have a few extra in the corner for just in case things…. Not least the boxes are a manageable size… Bless

Rfd europe livery always seemed a bit marmite… even Lima ones werent that popular in the 90’s.

And the roof hatch doors, which are harder to ignore from above, even from a distance.. guess which is Heljans? This weekend I might see what I can do about this. head on… (far left is an 87 chassis). side on, theres really not much in it. Pipework is less detailed on 47596, but the shutters have metal hand rails. tbh I like the front foot step under the buffer, the livery just about hides that “crewe cut” insert, on the side, but not sure that will work on all liveries, and certainly not the front. tbh on my desk from 2-3ft away it passes the test, (and so does Lima and Vitrains), but theres a gap between 1st and 2nd place. I guess a good litmus test here is… How many Accurascale 37 pictures did we get in the first 3 weeks of release… versus this one..

I think these urban trails are a good idea, I did the one in New York, a couple of miles long.. a good place to hide weird art.. The line even passed through warehouses.. NYC is full of sharks.. Thousands of people a day use this line as a footpath. I would like to think the unused “10th” track crossing the thames from Victoria would make a good, albeit short footpath to Battersea Power Statiom from Grosvenor carriage sidings.

Often charities will temporarily occupy prime real estate, for example inbetween leases, or before a refit. These are often at peppercorn or lower rates, and help building management companies by increasing occupancy and building security/insurance as they remain occupied during gaps. That building opposite city airport docks was a good example, it was empty for years before London 2012 and housed temporary office space for charities until Khans mob moved in. I have worked in one firm in Canary Wharf which used to accomodate some office space, and staff restaurant access for their chosen charity at no cost in their building, which I found quite good. Right now Londons got a silent timebomb ticking on property, some reports as much as 50% vacant office space in someparts, which is getting worse as more company leases expire… even the HSBC tower in Canary Wharf will be vacant in a few years, and CW is 16% vacant now, compared to 2008 when there was waiting lists for demand and sold out construction projects for years. The problem making it worse is demand for flats is also at a low, as is retail space. Which means converting offices to flats or retail is a lost cause too. Finally “pay as you go space” is hurting with WeWorks collapse too. The response by management companies facing bloated empty portfolios is to hugely increase management fees on those which are occupied.. hence the stories of flat owners finding service charges jumping from a few hundred a month to a few thousand a month… and of course they cant sell either.. who’s going to buy that ? At somepoint those property owners as well as their leaseholders wont make the payments.. at which point the readjustment follows… it takes time for a bubble to burst.. this year the leaseholders can’t pay, next year the building managements accounts look bad, year after the landlords struggle, then the banks get hit… unless of course someone at the top is watching the bottom, that’s when panic sets in and it all falls down in a free for all.

Another non railway related, but local pub the “Windsor Castle” had a car park sign saying “winsor castle”. My little one many years ago thought the Queen used to frequent there.

It always amazed me how these bridges survived 30 years out of use before the tram came. After Central closed it became GMex in the 80’s effectively killing the chances of these arches. They were wrong side of Manchester for needed capacity too. There was a forest up there at one point in the 1980’s. Elsewhere they would have been gone for scrap a long time ago. Today the tram has generous amounts of space to use.

69011 outside today, GBRF 69 house colours, Orange/blue. Havent yet spotted any differences between 8 and 11, so we may actually have a matching pair. 59102 alongside it, in Frightliner Halloween blood Orange. released from Eastleigh tomorrow.

As someone of experience in handling raised floor loads… putting a heavy weight machine on the ground floor or a tinpot airfield is much more straight forwards than putting it on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a 1970’s concrete building used 24/7… it’s not as straight forwards as wheeling it in, and watching it fall through the floor because the distributed load was used instead of the point load. I know that puts me back in the minority camp… again…

Interesting comparison to the ORR and WCRC here Heathrow airport is asking regulators for an extension to time limits to roll out new security measures https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68723697 the approach is different though, rather than shutting down Heathrow for non compliance, they intend to use fines… different carrot, different stick.

We just got a class 48. Whilst there maybe more than 1, (5) how many people would really buy more than 1 ? Unless your at Tinsley on a sunday in the early 1960’s you probably never saw more than 1 together. Chances are most wouldnt have recognised it even if they saw it, as theyd be looking for chimneys. And you'd need to be in your 60’s to remember a 48, as a 48 (and most likely a steam fan). 47901 is an openday queen of the 1980’s/90’s, and whilst admittedly it mostly slept at Westbury.. its one people regularly looked for.. and in living memory of diesel fans. My personal feeling has always been 47901 would be more popular than a 48.

at this short notice I suspect this will be a bit of a stretch to be successful. if they remained a couple of weeks it may have more chance. (I do wish LSL would buy a 26 or a 27).

In 2016 I bought a 50 from Kernow to replicate 50032 Courageous. For whatever reason its still sitting part renumbered on my shelf. The blue nameplates really stood out on this 50, I have vivid memories of seeing it fly through Clapham. There, now Ive admitted it… it has to be in Batch 2…, just to guarentee it, this weekend i’ll get the box out and see if I can move it along a little…

So was the class 80 / 18100, its still been done. 47901 is an enigma to many. People like enigmas.