The Ghost of IKB

I know that what I'm going to say won't be in any way new or original but I need to say it anyway. My 24081 arrived today. It's a 50 th birthday present to myself - that's how I rationalised the nearly £300 price tag. But what a model, simply light years ahead of my fleet of Bachmann 24's and 25's and worth every single penny. To anyone who, like I was, is still prevaricating about spending what is quite a lot of money replacing something you already have (i.e. a Bachmann 24) don't wait another minute. SLW deserve not only this to be a major success but for us all to gratefully thank them. I'm incredibly pleased with mine, and from tomorrow start saving up for another blue one. The only drawback is it's so beautiful I'm too scared to weather it!! Bravo SLW!! this is stunning! Now please, let me buy some 25's of you as soon as possible. I'm 50 next week and I'm losing my faculties rapidly! BTW - no connection other than very impressed customer.

I'm waiting for mine - dcc ready - wish now I'd ordered the sound version. Is it possible to buy the sound decoder and retro-fit?

Colour looks fine, but is it still a bit high? From that shot it looks like the platform edge is higher than the bottom of the door on the coach. If that was the case the passengers couldn't get out as the doors wouldn't open.

Why's that then?

yep.

Good news that there's another run coming...must signify it's doing well. Now SLW let's stop all this nonsense and get a cl. 25 done sharpish! Meanwhile bit the bullet and bought a blue 'un

Time to pay the balance I think. Can't wait to get it converted to EM, so it can travel all 8 ft of my railway (but not at 152 mph!)

It's been in the drawing room so long I suspect Colonel Mustard has smashed it's head in with the lead pipe!

Stop moaning you miserable bunch!! It's all very simple. A new model from a new company. No waiting for years for it to go to market - so nothing to complain about there. Is it perfect - no but it's significantly better than anything gone before it. Is it worth it - well it will be worth different amounts to each of us dependant on how much disposable income you've got and how much you want one. And if anyone thinks there's any unfairness in established customers getting first dibs on it - then don't whatever you do think of going to a football match without a season ticket! If you think SLW are unfair try paying £55 for your seat at a PL match whilst the bloke with the season ticket next to you paid £20. As for marketing all this moaning mean they had this thread at the top of the page for days - excellent free advertising there!

To try and make a case for the high price of models from the big companies by arguing large scale sales networks are more costly and less efficient seems counter intuitive. Surely it should be the reverse. Certainly when olivia's launched the 76 there were people on here defending their high pricing because they were a small operation. When you consider the price, specification and (lack of) accuracy of olivia train's 76 compared to this the 24 seems even more of a bargain. I for one can't wait to buy a replacement for my bachy 24081 and hope 25's aren't too far away down the line

Anyone had a chance to think about conversion to EM yet?

Anyone else noticed that in the hattons pics No88 seem to have d2600 on the buffer beam? An error surely?

So these are all the north eastern locos? Did any work anywhere near the north west? I'm looking for an excuse to buy one! Anyone know where No88 worked and when? I can't find anything on the web about it.

you really need to start selling those cabs now Simon, they look very good and you deserve a return on your work. How you do this is beyond me. I looked at the drawing programme and it would have been easier for me to grow a second head than to draw a class 25 cab!

First impression of the 25 - looks very good indeed.

Even better now the top level is up and running! One small point, is the 0O00 on your duff's head code prototypical? I always remember it being 0000, but then it was a long long time ago now.

I think that looks a good deal better, the proportion of cab window to the cab front bodywork under the cab looks right. I agree with Rob about the prominence of the seam line though - if it wasn't rusty it was very subtle. Only when it was rusty did it become very noticeable. Otherwise I think thats good work you've done tweaking the look.

Arrghh! I'm so sorry to say this because I so wanted to be over the moon with the 3d cabs but there's something not right going on there. The height from the bottom of the windows to the bottom of the cab looks too high to me, and the cab roof profile doesn't look right to my eyes either I'm afraid, if anything I think the curve is too pronounced now. I think the cabs are definitely too deep, looking at where the seem is the proportion of the cab looks better. You did a good job grafting them on and it's a bit better than the Bachmann, but there's still some work to do on those prints I think. Compared to the Bachmann you can see the buffers are now too low, which indicates the cab is too long, and could the indicator box be a little too shallow too?

That's interesting. Cab curve looks good, but the lower cab weld line is too pronounced I think. Here's a comparison shot at a similar angle ; https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholasy/5535152044/in/photolist-9r86RW-dhPh45-eskkxq-dZyCsH-aUBDQv-p28n5b-95hGT6-7KcpMK-88RcBm-p64Y6K-fESTwq-5Bw3KN-eNdkYr-d6TYTh-mEu9LD-dY9kKf-ohnntf-bsFrxa-bnY5x2-9MdH5c-gnEBLT-cHyKNb-cZNPXs-qWRqtY-9hhTRC-9Z6HDe-fZAYGb-ao51ib-9Qv7oi-a7Rvbk-9gLwLf-fAitCZ-o7ziRu-baQBPD-ki4X4w-a9Zutz-9gKW1E-fsGiA8-88bcjw-nFjQ5e-oU4cv5-6158j5-d6kuTA-dxzknS-7xir43-atVq91-cu5fJ5-btRZx1-9fs6DU-bnY6Ei Some more pictures please Rob

This is really looking good now. I liked Pallett lane but this is significantly better. The high level section really adds an extra dimension and the photo back scene is one of if not the best I've seen. I'm sorely tempted to rip off your design and build a cloned one for myself! But get a move on with those 25's!

Come on Rob you know what we want! We wanna see those RATS!

It's amazing that although the two classes 24 and 24 were almost identical they were in fact almost completely different! What a minefield to model!