Hroth

I suspect not - I only mentioned the fact to highlight the extremely basic nature of the coach, and any "glazing" would consist of a couple of strips of transparent plastic material glued inside the body. As for the Toad undercart, I was thinking along the lines that ANYTHING would be better than the overpriced Hornby 4 wheelers.....

Its a pity they don't! The one in the set doesn't have an interior and apparently doesn't have any glazing either. Priced at the level of the Lima Junior basic coaches http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/brands/lima-h0-1-87/lima-junior-h0-1-87-second-class-carriage-xmpr.html they would probably be snapped up, especially if both the composite and brake versions were available. (just thinking - how "appropriate" would be a sliced up clerestory on the chassis of the forthcoming Oxford 6-wheeled Toad?)

Not bad, but close to the price being charged by Hattons. Hattons are currently flogging 4 Hornby train sets all powered by the same 0-4-0 chassis, but to be fair one of them has the Caledonian Pug body instead of old 101. The most risible is the Postal Express set where the poor thing has to lug not only an operating postal van but a dodgy old ex-triang clerestory brake too! Hattons prices for comparison: R1151 Caledonian Belle £35.00 R1185 Santa Express £44.00 R1188 Country Flyer £57.00 R1180 Postal Express £70.00 At least the Santa Express has the most reasonable excuse for its fictitious livery, but it should also include a figure pack of Santa, a reindeer and some elves too...... edit because I forgot some punctuation, etc.

Just so long as all the 2016 models cross the finishing line in 2016! Particularly thinking of the H&P Peckett....

I'm sure that this is the worst possible thing that could happen during the transfer period. It was bad enough adjusting from M/W/F to the Tu/F publication frequency, but a blackout means that people won't bother to check at all and when MREmag comes back online, they'll fall through the cracks and may never return. This isn't good as it seems that maximal eyeballs to screen (ok, page views) are the key to MREmag continuing to exist in ANY form! My best wishes to Phil Parker and the rest of the team! And I hope that MREmag returns sooner than later...

So many rivets suggests a sandpaper of rivets might make an appropriate collective noun. And prompts the thought that, provided the plastic isn't too tough, an emery board and some dirty black paint would cure the superfluity of carbuncles already present. Given the other criticisms levelled at the model, perhaps it should be renamed the Dean "Great Wen" - see, back to lumps and carbuncles again......

Not good news. MREmag was the first thing I looked at this morning. Hope its just connected with trashed indices rather than a loss of content. You did back up all your hard work before hitting the upload key?

Of course, every now and then someone will ask "Why can't Hornby reintroduce CKD kits to save money on assembly?" Of course, its well known that the CKD models were a way to get around Purchase Tax and when VAT was introduced, they vanished because the kits were no longer cost-effective. However, others will chime in with "Well, there's so many small parts in a modern loco/coach/whatever that modellers wouldn't be able to cope!" Yet anyone building an Airfix kit, even at the least complicated level (not including the Lego inspired stuff) is dealing with a large number of pieces to be identified, any flash removed and carefully glued into place. Individual sub-assemblies may also need painting before combining with other parts. It may be a collection of (finely detailed) pre-moulded parts, but the success of the final object is a combination of the skill and art of the modeller. I'm not sure what I started off to say, but I suppose that if we don't want to have to build all our locos and rolling stock from an Airfix style kit of that level of complexity just to reduce costs a little then we should be glad that there's people in China who are prepared to do something similar to the above for not a lot of money, and provide us with highly detailed models at fairly reasonable prices. Of course, with an Airfix kit, the main challenge is in the assembly and decoration, the damn thing isn't expected to fly too!

Indeed, but I'm sure that people will find something else to fret over. Anyone counted the spokes on the drivers or the leading bogie?

Nahhh - just the callsign of a giant with a stutter.....

According to the Hornby website, they are "Out of stock" for R3428, the MSC livery Peckett and "Pre-order allocation Sold Out" for R3427 Dodo and R3429 H&P livery Pecketts. The semantic difference between the two states isn't quite clear. So its not just Hattons (and a number of other retailers) who are up against the buffers with regard to what looks set to be a highly desired model. I should imagine that Hornby will be looking into a second batch as soon as possible, depending on how confident that they will be able to sell the majority of an additional batch after all the early adopters have been satisfied!

All I can say is that the legroom appears to be abysmal, though that goes for the modern prototype experience too......

Artfully hidden and incomprehensibly indexed.

I'm getting a B12, flares or none! What we SHOULD be worrying about is the colour match between the plastic moulded wheel spokes and the rest of the loco, especially with the LNER liveried one. Hornby are notorious for getting this wrong and sometimes end up with an almost neon green effect....

Yep - its an extra soft pencil.

I fear that we're going to get the creased firebox no matter what is said at this point. At the end of September, I took the optimistic view that the final decoration models had been done using older bodyshells that were to hand and that modifications to the firebox might be under way prior to production. However, due to the increasingly vague delivery date, and the fact that Christmas is a money sink for things other than model railways, I withdrew my pre-order and I'll see what actually arrives. If there are any about mid-January, I might reconsider, even with a bent firebox!

Ohhhh - properly cooked sprouts! None ot this "al dente" lark - a well cooked sprout should be like "a little ball of pus", and treated accordingly! Correctly speaking tinsel and baubles should go up the day after Bonfire Night, especially when you're putting on an external display that could power the whole neighberhood. I also find that it pays to use an artificial tree until at least mid-December, otherwise you'll have to swap the tree a couple of times to avoid a modernistic "bare twig" effect..... I think I'll temporarily decorate my B12 too, if it arrives as advertised, and give the Santa Express a run for its money!

The problem with the Class 67 is that not as many modellers address the ever changing NOW, which is where the 67 fits in. Most people seem to want nice steam locomotives and to look back to a time when things seemed less difficult. An angular diesel box, even if its well executed and highly detailed isn't going to cut the mustard. Even under Rule 1, its more likely that a P1 (the very definition of a Large Green Loco!) would be preferred over a class 67.

No longer.....

Disregarding the spokes/wheelbosses controversy, R3431 (BR Black, EC) has appeared on the Hornby website "Coming Soon" ( http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/coming-soon.html ) page. Mid-November is soon? Its almost Christmas!!! gibber

Ah, Bricks - there's a song about that...... I don't think they were thinking about Lego!

Only slightly, considering the ratio between the loco driver wheels and the tender wheels!

Not easily - I can't remember the details without having another look, but I recall that the couplings weren't conventionally pocketed.

Did anyone notice in the cab detail shot that the body fixing screw appears to be in the same place as the old B12?

Quoting todays Engine Shed, "And that is what we have to show today, the Final Approval Sample for the LNER livery. We had planned (and would have loved) to show you the decoration samples for the Late and Early BR liveries as well, but unfortunately these are still in transit from our Hong Kong office." The ones on the website are probably just livery samples for the BR black models - whilst the LNER green shown in Engine Shed is the "press the button and make the batch" sample.