Andy W

The thing is, Bachmann production has never ever been in the UK so they can't "bring it back home". Bachmann Europe has always been a subsidiary of Kader Industries, a Chinese company, who do the manufacturing. Kader was Hong Kong based, and got involved in UK model railways by doing the production for Mainline, the model railway brandname of Palitoy, Palitoy never made model railways in the UK either. Kader got left with the tooling when Palitoy was taken over and the new owners decided to exit model railways, and Bachmann Europe is the result of Kader's attempt to turn the tooling into an income stream. Kader own the factory that the models are built in, so "ride out the storm with their current manufacturer" is really the only option that exists.

This probably isn't the best place to discuss the Hornby range, given that there is a separate section of this forum for each manufacturer, and this is the Oxford Rail section. However one thing that is common to both Hornby and Oxford is that they start work on developing new models a long time before they announce them, so that they can actually deliver them in the same calendar year that they announce them. This doesn't always work, but they've been pretty good at it recently. So Hornby might well feel that other manufacturers are duplicating the models they intend to release, not the other way round. They can't easily substitute different models if someone jumps in and makes an announcement part way through the development cycle, and indeed why should they if they can bring their own models to market sooner. It's also fair to point out that the GW Large Prairie and the Terrier were already in the Hornby range, this is a re-tooling, so who is actually duplicating who?

As a Loughborough resident, I should point out that the model and antique/curio stalls are in the marketplace on Fridays. Thursdays is given over to food, clothing, household requisites etc.

In fact Bachmann via Andy York have provided us with that in another thread. This thread is meant to be about new announcements!

I think some people are failing to understand how Bachmann, and indeed other manufacturers, compile their catalogues. There are three groups of models that they include: New tooling or reissues/new liveries on existing tooling just announced, as detailed in Andy York's initial post for Bachmann 2019 Models announced in previous years that have yet to arrive (less any that have been cancelled) Models that have already been delivered by the factory but have significant stock still unsold in the warehouse. So when people complain that there is no new 4mm steam, for example, that's wrong - the catalogue will include the 1P 0-4-4T, the retooled J72, the retooled V2, and the 94xx. Just because we already knew they intended to make them doesn't mean they won't be new when they arrive. If the scaled back selection of newly-tooled announcements allows for toolroom and production capacity for the new/retooled steam and diesels also already announced, that's surely a good thing?

Not in the Birmingham area, where a fair number of these coaches were allocated from new. Diagrams including Birmingham-Stourbridge Junction-Wolverhampton-Birmingham or Birmingham-Stratford upon Avon-Leamington Spa-Birmingham were bread and butter work for non-corridor stock, and later for the dmus. Both take the train round three sides of a giant triangle.

Well yes, but if you preorder say Hornby or Bachmann from a model shop, you don't pay up front, you pay when they supply the goods. The objective here is to ensure the shop orders enough units from the manufacturer to meet the demand. It is totally different to ordering from smaller manufacturers or commissioners who are indeed using a prepayment system to fund production. I don't see even that as an issue if it means something is made that would otherwise never see production. I've certainly pre-ordered Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol and Heljan from retailers and never been charged up front. I've also ordered models or parts from small suppliers that are effectively made to order, and I did pay up front for them. I haven't ventured into pre-paying or crowd funding for batch-produced models, not because I have any objection, but because none have been offered yet that suit my scale/period/location.

It isn't as simple as all that. The 57xx and 8750 classes are different bodies on the same chassis - that's fine, because the real things are basically the same, the most obvious difference between the two series is the cab. But early Bachmann pannier tanks used a split-chassis design. These are fine when new, but over time the bearings wear and the axle-muffs that join the stub axles together split. You will find both 57xx and 8750 series panniers like this. Later they developed a conventional chassis which is much better, and again you will find both 57xx and 8750 series panniers with the conventional chassis. Added problems happen when previous owners have mixed-and-matched bodies and chassis, to avoid repainting or renumbering their locos, and you will also find Mainline 57xx bodies on Bachmann split chassis - they sold the chassis separately to help people who wanted to do this because the Mainline bodies are excellent and the chassis are dreadful. All the Bachmann 57xx and 8750 Panniers that I own are on the modern chassis, and I'm very happy with them. Because of people mixing and matching, there's really no substitute for looking at the model before buying. Take the body off, if there's a motor in a white pod, it is a Mainline chassis. If there's a huge cast metal block with a motor almost hidden in it, that's a Bachmann split chassis. If the chassis looks "normal" then it is a later conventional chassis. If the model is described as DCC ready, then it must be the conventional chassis, but it has been round for long enough for conventional chassis to be have been produced without DCC sockets - I have some that I've hard-wired, and some perverse people will have hard wired DCC decoders into split chassis examples.

That wasn't the end of NSE liveried Northampton line trains being used for reliefs though - it just got harder due to traction knowledge being needed for the units. I can remember seeing 12 cars of 321 units sitting in Platform 3 at Preston on a relief to Euston

The description of how the UK model railway market changed is pretty close but misses out how Bachmann function. You can trace their development back to Palitoy deciding to enter the model railway market in the UK in the 1970s using the Mainline brand, and commissioning Kader Industries, then of Hong Kong to supply them with models. So no manufacturing was moved from the UK, because Palitoy never made railway models in the UK in the first place. The tooling for Mainline models was owned by Kader, who were thus in a different relationship with Palitoy than other Chinese manufacturers were with the UK companies that commissioned models from them. When Palitoy got into difficulties in the 1980s and was sold to a company that wasn't interested in the train market, Kader was stuck with the tools and had no outlet for products made with them. Replica commissioned some re-runs of former Mainline models and some nearly-finished new projects, such as the B1, were completed and sold under the Replica brand. But Replica wasn't awash with cash and Kader wanted more sales. They formed Bachmann Europe in conjunction with some of Palitoy's former sales and development team, it has always been a Kader subsidiary, but it is no coincidence that Bachmann Europe is based in Leicestershire just as Palitoy was. Kader has far less product made by subcontractors than the other Chinese model-assemblers, and indeed is putting the finishing touches to a new factory designed to bring even more work in house. It can do this because it also owns Bachmann USA, Bachmann Europe owns Graham Farish and Lilliput, and models are also produced and sold for the local Chinese market, so there are considerable economies of scale. There is a much higher degree of vertical integration than with anyone else involved in the UK model railway sector (except I suppose PECO).

Don't forget that "route knowledge" workings weren't and still aren't just for loco crew. The guard also needs to know the road, in fact in the days of loose coupled freights it could be literally disastrous if the guard didn't know exactly where he was on the railway so could use the van brakes to avoid breakaways or runaways.

Interesting to imagine someone with the attitude described in the first post deciding to go to Hattons - only to discover that the head of the firm is - Christine Hatton!

Apart from The Coastal on platforms 12/13, there was The Dome in the main station building. The Coastal was so called because 12/13 were the main platforms used by trains to/from Blackpool (and sometimes Southport), The Dome actually had a glazed dome in the roof and a very attractive tiled floor. One memory of the Coastal was a machine that sat on the buffet counter and dispensed hot Vimto. Every so often a large bubble would pass through the purple liquid - a bit like a 1970s lava lamp. But on a cold foggy winters night with everything running late, the Vimto was a lifesaver. Even now Victoria has 4 through platforms, and could really do with more, so an unrebuilt Victoria might well have kept the famous 11 on the main building side, 12/13 as an island, and the second island 14/15. The far side through platform 16 and rarely used bay 17 would probably have gone.

Indeed they are now available from Wizard. I think this was mentioned earlier in the thread by Timbowilts, and seeing it I ordered the etch and it has been delivered from stock. Catalogue number is MT226.

Yes, that could happen in the period between electrification and the introduction of push-pull working, but at some times of day electric locos were allowed to accumulate in the longer platforms at the buffer stops until 2 or 3 were there, and then they all set off coupled together, presumably for Willesden and district. I suppose it saved on drivers and paths. Not every loco hauled train needed a fresh loco to take it out again either unless forming a down departure as some trains were backed out of the platform by the loco of the arriving train, since unlike most London termini Euston had carriage sheds adjacent as well as using the carriage sidings in the Wembley/Stonebridge Park area. Several roads at the foot of Camden bank were officially known as Backing Out Roads, and were used to hold sets waiting to be placed in Downside Carriage Shed by the shed pilot, or sets coming into service out of Downside waiting to be backed into a platform by the loco that would take the train out.

At what point did the LMS Wolverton-based Royal Train set become the sole Royal Train in use which included sleeping accommodation? I did know this, but have forgotten. I do remember that for purely daytime use any of the other Big 4 companies could and did assemble a Royal Train from assorted saloons, dining cars and first class coaches, rather than borrow from the LMS.

Yes, it was one of the pre-printed names you could stick onto the station nameboards that were/are part of the Platform Fittings kit. I think Dapol have changed the selection of names.

It appears that the recipe used oyster shells (after the actual oysters had been eaten) as a refining agent to help the beer to "drop bright" and avoid a yeast haze. Other beers used an extract from fish bladders. Nowadays some brewers put whole oysters in their recipes for Oyster Stout, but this is really not traditional at all.

I agree, by the 1960s there were just two nationally known brands of stout in the UK, Guinness and Mackeson. The southern half of the UK was supplied with Guinness brewed at Park Royal, London, the northern half with Dublin-brewed Guinness brought across the Irish Sea in the brewery's own seagoing tanker ship. Mackeson was also brewed in London. Some local and regional breweries had their own-label brands of stout still, declining rapidly as breweries amalgamated and production was concentrated on fewer sites. To the best of my knowledge none of them used molasses as an ingredient, preferring to use barley malted to a very very dark colour (known as chocolate malt for the colour, not the flavour), and occasionally caramel. Products described as Milk Stout, Oatmeal Stout, or Oyster Stout hint at other ingredients but these were sold to a rapidly declining and elderly clientele, it wasn't fashionable then. Most stout sold in mainland UK was in bottles rather than draught at this period, and Guinness subcontracted their bottling to a number of regional breweries who took delivery in road tankers or originally rail tankers, the bottled Guinness then used the regional breweries' distribution systems to reach pubs and off-licences. Park Royal was very much rail connected and at one time stout was despatched from there in rail tankers for bottling. It would be possible to say that this continued for Herr_Style's brewery. The Dublin-brewed stout mostly came into Liverpool Docks, very much rail-connected too, so if the model brewery is meant to be in Northern England rail tankers might still work. I can't remember what the arrangements were for Scottish distribution.

While this is true, there is a truly native cat species (Scottish Wild Cat), which is so close genetically to the domestic cat that the two species happily interbreed. Guess what the Wild Cats eat - exactly the same diet of small birds and animals that domestic cats so avidly hunt. Most people couldn't tell a Scottish Wild Cat from a large domestic tabby cat - there are differences but the Wild Cat is unlikely to co-operate by remaining while you look it up in the Animal ABC.

Snap. That sounds par for the course for Royal Mail's two day service. If it looks like being possible in one day, they just leave it sitting in a sorting office until two days becomes inevitable.

Given the regular and tiresome interruptions by the exhibition management team making usually loud but incomprehensible announcements over poor-quality PA, Pete Waterman's Greatest Hits might be seen as a real improvement, especially if Kylie can be persuaded to make a personal appearance. And Pete himself doesn't just bring high quality 7mm models to exhibitions. I remember one Midlands exhibition (I'll save their blushes by not naming it) where Pete had been coerced into performing some kind of opening ceremony coupled with a book signing. Various people tried to talk into a microphone that must have been set up by someone who was rejected by the club layout wiring team, resulting in the worst feedback you ever heard. Pete took charge and reconfigured the audio system. Suddenly everyone could hear the ceremony clearly and at an acceptable volume. You could certainly see he hadn't forgotten how to set up a recording studio.

The majority of older depots, particularly where space is short, have underground fuel tankage. But that's an excellent model of a diesel fuel tank, and I did manage a depot that had a tank just like it, except that ours was in the overflow parking ground behind the depot building, on the boundary with the adjoining building. We found the other reason why underground tanks are preferred when that adjoining building (tyre and exhaust centre) caught fire, right in the middle of a fireman's strike. Luckily it is quite hard to set diesel on fire, and the part-time but highly professional retained firefighters from the neighbouring small country towns had arrived and put the blaze out before things got hot enough to ignite the diesel, and well before the Army turned up with their Green Goddess. One thing you might like to add, since there is no overflow parking ground on your model, and nowhere to put one, which is to have the side street well supplied with middle-aged cars, or suggest that the recipient does that. The drivers have to park somewhere, since some will arrive before the first buses leave and others don't go home until the last ones are put to bed. Staff buses weren't common outside big cities.

A really good piece of modelling, and excellent step by step photography. Having worked extensively in the bus industry, I'd love to know where the prototype of the modelrailwayscenery bus depot actually is/was, because there are some decidedly odd design features. Firstly the height - a bus operator wouldn't normally build a depot with so much brickwork over and above the door height unless they needed extra headroom inside for installing overhead lifting gear or fixed jacks to raise a double decker so that fitters could work underneath the chassis. But the architectural style predates the fixed jack era, there would have been pits instead. Any depot as big as this would have had at least some maintenance facility built-in. On the other hand it postdates use for trams/trolleybuses that needed overhead wire clearance. The round section support pillars inside the depot are unusual, you mainly see them in converted tram depots where there was no risk of the trams running into them. They were avoided wherever possible in purpose built bus depots. Then there's the fuelling point. These were most commonly just inside the depot entrance, rather than as a free-standing structure, and having a double-sided fuelling shelter is odd, as an operator would normally specify all the fuel fillers to be on the same side of the vehicle in their whole fleet. You couldn't fill two buses at once anyway as there's only one fuel pump. I'm not saying there has never been a depot like the one the kit represents, but I'd dearly like to know where it is!

Puzzled as to why Tyseley would try to get a loco back onto the GC section via New Street-Rugby, when there was never any physical connection at Rugby onto the GC. The logical way would be to send it to Banbury, from where it could go either to Woodford Halse or via the GW/GC joint to Neasden, both GC sheds. It is possible that the loco was sent across Birmingham to Saltley expecting it to be returned to the GC section somewhere in the Nottingham/Sheffield area, where several connections existed, but was then "borrowed".