Revolution Mike

They are, hence the MOD wagon numbers.

Phil, as you well know there are many new manufacturers that haven’t gone the way of DJM or LLC. That really isn’t a helpful or relevant argument. Particularly given the history of Hornby!

The price including VAT is £120 so if you have it showing as less then that then chances are the system has recognised you’re not in the UK and removed VAT. If you have been charged VAT there will be a line on your order showing the VAT amount (and if you think you shouldn’t have been charged VAT then drop us a message (though I’m away from home until tomorrow night with very limited signal). cheers Mike

I definitely didn't include that on any customs paperwork on the N gauge KUAs...<walks off quietly> Apologies to anyone now on a watch list. Cheers Mike

If others from the same batch are OK then it might not be the casting but the plastic used for the Fastline wagons (if it was a different colour to GBRf or Freightliner versions) - China has had well-documented problems in the past with quality of plastics (particularly recycled plastics, so much so that there has been a ban on importing plastic for recycling to China for the last few years). It would be interesting to hear if there any owners of the Fastline version that don't have issues.

Hi Roy We have no new information at the moment. We update the estimate when we have anything new. Whether that estimate is still achievable will depend entirely on when production is complete and how they are shipped. For example if production finished in 2-3 weeks and they are airfreighted then they could be here by late May, if they go by ship then more likely late June. Conversely production could finish mid-June and if they are air freighted they could still arrive within the current estimate of late May to June (it doesn’t say early June). The decision on how things are shipped is pretty much the final step as it is only at that stage you know exact size/weight of pallet(s) plus both air and sea shipping rates have been so variable over the last 12-15 months. Cheers Mike

I’m really not sure what the confusion is - the menu headings are links and the drop down arrows are sub-headings/more links. It isn’t just the Project page the rest of the website (and many millions of other websites!) work in exactly the same manner! cheers Mike

Specifically about the whether the Projects link is intuitive or not I think is quite subjective (a lot of websites have similar menu structures where a heading has a direct link and a set of subheadings from a drop down), however for those people signed up to receive our newsletters we include a reminder in every newsletter that the Project summary has all the latest information.

The factory have sent us a picture of a box of bits, but as Ben said we're due to have more news (ie no secret that the next piece of news will be the first EP sample) any time now which we will share when we have it (if we haven't published it in our News section of our website or social media or updated the Projects overview table then we haven't got anything new at this stage!). The first EP hasn't left the factory yet so even airfreight I wouldn't expect us to get it for a couple of weeks yet. Cheers Mike

How are Dapol or Kato exposing inflated prices from Farish? I’d be prepared to wager that Kato will make more profit on their Cl800 than Farish do on any of their models (just simply a function of the size of their Japanese customer base and their normal production runs). That isn’t an implied criticism of Kato just reality. Unless you’re seeing a lot of quotes from the various factories (I don’t know if you do or not) or are involved in Farish’s pricing then you have no way of knowing what level of profit they are making. Comparing different models from even the same manufacturer (let alone different factories - Farish mostly use Kader’s own factories which I suspect doesn’t always help them whereas the likes of us and Dapol can ask for competitive tenders) from different years doesn’t help you as tooling costs and designs change so much. I don’t see much difference in the price of something like Dapol’s 68 and say Farish’s 40 (both were around £140 RRP when they first came out). Bottom line if you want a 68 buy a Dapol model, if you want a 40 you buy a Farish model...

They do and it will ultimately affect the price we all pay. Plastic and card prices have all shot up in the last few months (and I can see more price rises to come). Some UK packaging suppliers have had two double digit price rises in the last 6-9 months. Ultimately that all starts to impact the bottom line and customer prices. An increase in the cost of the goods is amplified by the time the customer pays by things like margin (otherwise manufacturers and retailers go out of business) and VAT. Comparisons with Kato are not particularly helpful as the quantities they produce are so much greater than Farish by a factor of at least 10 - that has a massive potential impact on pricing as tooling costs become far less important.

Personally I’ve long found TT in 1:101 and 1:120 form attractive. To me they have a bit more heft than N (my preferred scale) without needing the space (or potential compromise) of OO but this thread neatly encompasses the problems of TT. My view is that introducing a new RTR model to existing compromises is relatively unlikely to do much to create much of a new market which is surely part of the aim for both TT modellers and Rapido. Yes you might delight existing TT modellers but is that enough people to make a market? Given how limited the size of the N gauge market can be, is TT anywhere close in numbers? If you can solve the scale/gauge issue using either 1:120 on 12mm track or 1:101 on 14.2mm track then you immediately have a USP compared to any other UK RTR scale/gauge (OK you will need to be careful with minimum radius and/or clearances but that is always something to be aware of with correct scale and gauge but clearly there are solutions used for 1:87 or 1:160!). That seems to me to be more likely to create a new expanding market - it would certainly attract me! Will everyone else agree with me, certainly not! Being slightly provocative perhaps the challenge is to assess whether the incumbent market plus a bit of growth is likely to be a better bet than creating a new larger market - a difficult decision!

Any of the VNH1 bogied KFAs (incorrectly listed on our site as Y25s) are the closest but the earlier Standard PFAs are a slightly different design to our PFA/KFA. Whether that bothers you is obviously a personal decision! cheers Mike

Superb work! Thanks! We’re glad that you like them! Cheers Mike

I'm afraid not, that is exactly the 320/321 situation that we are trying to avoid. Cheers Mike

No we're not a large manufacturer (if we were then we wouldn't be having these discussions) but that doesn't mean that everything is practical to produce! There is a lot of difference between some customers and enough customers. We've tried to explain our reasoning, plus we're already offering more livery choices than most manufacturers would (that isn't a criticism of other manufacturers, just everyone's level of practical MoQs differs). I've even offered people a potential route to get what they want (I very nearly said make the case without negatively impacting those customers that might want Strathclyde Orange or Scotrail because that is part of the decision!). If you model the central belt between 2007 and 2010 I completely accept that you might be disappointed that there is literally nothing suitable for your period, but for everyone else modelling the same area from 1983 to 2006 and 2011 to 2019 there is something and not just a one-off or special livery. Cheers Mike

Strathclyde Orange coincided with the Pendolinos and our Strathclyde 320s. The Scotrail 314s (which also lived with the 92s, Pendolinos, Mk5s, 320s). 211 and 212 were in Scotrail by end of 2011, 203 by early 2012 at the latest. For the transition from C&C to Scotrail exactly the same argument can be made for the 320s as the 314s ie there is a gap in our liveries (as there is with many choices we have to make). The only difference is that all of the 320s went into Scotrail whereas only 5 of 15 314s did. Cheers Mike

Correct - you can't cover 23 years but you can cover 18 years of that period. We're not offering 7 plus core liveries of the 313 - we're offering 5 as I've explained (plus possibly the NR yellow set). I've also explained why it isn't just about the number of liveries but about how many it is realistic to sell per livery ie if we sell say 300 Strathclyde Orange and 300 Scotrail we meet MoQs, if we sell 200 Orange, 200 Carmine & Cream, 200 Scotrail we don't meet MoQs so no 314s get made. We've explained why we don't want to get into the same situation as the 320/321 liveries - it was a mess for customers and for us which we don't want to replicate. That was a harsh lesson for us that we don't intend to ignore. As I said we're going round in circles now. I'm sorry that we can't make every livery or even versions of liveries that everyone wants but it just is not feasible! Cheers Mike

I'm far from convinced that any Strathclyde Orange 314s did last beyond 2006 so yes I completely accept that there is a 5 year gap (just like there is a 4 year gap without blue grey). As to why there are more livery choices on the 313 - partly because without the 313 there would be no 314, there were over 4 times as many 313s, but also that there are natural geographic splits in the 313s that aren't the case for the 314s. Plus there were only ever 4 liveries on the 314s and as we've established you can pick 2 and cover the vast majority of the life. You can't do that with the 313s. Blue grey and NSE are obvious. Privatisation starts to become more tricky with geographical splits in liveries so we've picked one for each use: ECML/Great Northern/FCC West and North London: Silverlink Metro/London Overground South coast: Southern The heritage blue/grey set we can do as part of the blue/grey offering so is an easy one to do in small numbers. NR Rail yellow is unique and clearly sells well. Cheers Mike

Certain! We've tried to explain our reasoning but there's only so much we can say to people before it feels like we're going round in circles! We really can't produce everything or every variation. No matter what we do there will always be a variation or livery that we just can't offer. Furthermore as explained bitter experience is that if we offer too much then all versions struggle. Blue/grey 1979 to early 80s Strathclyde Orange covers as a minimum 1983 to 2006 ie 23 years Carmine and Cream covers 1997 - 2019 ie 24 years Scotrail Saltire covers 2011 - 2019 So it is a straight choice between Carmine and Cream and Scotrail and I'm afraid that is no choice really. OK, not all were painted in Scotrail but 5 were ie a third of the class! It doesn't matter which we try and cut this - our experience is so overwhelmingly in favour of Scotrail Saltire. Of course there is a difference that C&C lasted longer on the 314s than on the 320s but if you were being asked to make a business case how can we go against the data we have? I'm not talking about a marginal difference. Nor is the decision solely based on the 320 sales. Did I say we really can't produce every livery or variation! Seriously prove me wrong - find 250-300 sales of Carmine and Cream and we'll produce it! Cheers Mike

Here's one of the types that we're definitely doing (the previous might have a different roof profile): 37145 by Timothy Rowley, on Flickr Cheers Mike

Hi Brian Here's a possible photo at Exeter: 08953, Exeter St.Davids. by Jason Rodhouse, on Flickr Cheers Mike

Hi Stu We will try but no promises! Judging demand for accessories is proving difficult for us! Each time we think we might have it cracked things sell out (not that I'm complaining!). Cheers Mike

As I said the inclusion of Carmine & Cream was a mistake. We learned from the 320 that offering all 3 liveries just means that all the 3 liveries will struggle to meet MOQs and that Strathclyde Orange was more popular than Carmine & Cream (and that Scotrail Saltire was more popular than both), so we've picked liveries that give the best possible spread of time periods given what I've just said. If we offer Strathclyde Orange and Carmine & Cream there is a significant probability that neither would get produced... Cheers Mike

The cut down versions also had several strengtheners added when they were cut down (so would require a new set of tooling). Cheers Mike