Andy W

Probably because if they named it after the airport it would irritate the NEC, and vice versa.

You can buy decal paper designed for inkjets, and decal paper designed for laser printers. As long as you use the right sort in the right printer, there's no melting. The ALPS/OKI printers were neither laser nor inkjet but used yet another process (thermal wax sublimation). The cartridges don't dry out, because they don't contain liquids, and I believe the cartridges are still made, just not the printers.

Worsley Works already do a set of etched brass sides for Class 116. White metal cabs and cab-end roof domes have been available in the past and the masters might still exist, or I suppose you could cut the ends of a Dapol 122 - one 122 would provide the ends for a 3-car set. Silver Fox have a resin cab end for a 116, though I don't think they sell it separately, just as part of a complete unit.

The Bachmann website only displays models they have in stock in the warehouse, plus forthcoming items that have been announced, and possibly models that are in the current catalogue but have sold out from the warehouse (not so easy to tell this from the current design of website) The most recent Bachmann 57xx/8750s have been acceptable to most modellers and of course Bachmann still have all the tooling to hand. They seem to be working on the "one pannier at a time" principle, so there are plenty of 64xx around at the moment. I doubt any other manufacturer would risk launching their own new tooled 57xx/8750 as it would be fairly easy for Bachmann to undercut them on price (because their tooling costs will have been covered by lots of previous sales and is sitting there waiting to be used). The models that have been snatched out of Bachmann and Hornby's back catalogues are those where there are known problems, or where nothing has been reissued for literally years. So the GW Moguls were last produced by Bachmann in split-chassis days, the Hornby Large Prairie is the 1970s Airfix tooling with a more modern motor, the 14xx was again an Airfix design that did get a new chassis from Hornby but had serious build quality issues, the Dean Goods was Airfix in origin, though first sold by Mainline, and was still tender drive when last produced by Hornby. Now might someone commission Bachmann to rerun their 57xx or 8750? Entirely possible, and if they don't it will be because they believe there are ample unsold or good second hand ones about.

But for every other Modelzone commissioned model made by Kader Industries (Bachmann's parent company) in China, the tooling never left Kader's factories in China and was available for mainstream Bachmann catalogue releases after a sufficient period for Modelzone to have made their money on their investment. Why would this one, which was after all simply a modification of existing tooling, be any different. Rather more likely that either Bachmann didn't agree that another Peak was the most profitable use of what have been scarce production slots, or that the tooling has been damaged in some way so needs to take its place in a very long queue to have new components made in the toolroom, or that the rejection rate of bodies made on the modified tooling was unacceptably high so again a visit for partial retooling is required.

Let's get back to the original question, which nobody can really answer because no DMU driving trailers or driving motor cars ever were converted to intermediates. This is because: (a) too many first generation non driving trailers were built in the first place as traffic was declining at the time, so sets started being reduced from 4 to 3 cars and from 3 to 2 as early as the late 1960s. There were always spare non-driving trailers if it was necessary to lengthen sets again for some reason. (or they just coupled driving cars on the end without converting them in any way). Some of the first non-driving trailers to face the chop were the ones with buffets, as a buffet was uneconomic on a 3 or 4 coach train on the routes they used. Even when the buffet equipped trailer remained in service, almost inevitably by the 1970s the buffet counter was locked up and disused. Buffet trailers were built new in class 101/111, 119, 120, 124, but could have been coupled into any Blue Square set, which of course is the vast majority of units built. (b) Sprinter (second generation) dmus had gangways on both ends as built (though the issue with class 158s is detailed earlier) so there has never been a need to convert anything, they couple together in any formation you want, and are often re-formed differently from one month to the next. The only second generation buffet cars are class 170 units, though there are only a small number. These remain as the centre car in the three car sets they were delivered as part of, and have never been used with anything else. So - there's absolutely no real-world example of what you want to do, it is your railway, your decision as to how you do it.

At first sight I was impressed by the news release - the sidebars showing on one side the geographical area the model is suitable for, and the other the period it belongs to seemed really useful for modellers without shelves full of reference books. Unfortunately whoever drew the area sidebars seems to have a very strange grasp of geography. For example if Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire aren't in the Midlands, where are they? Yet the Great Central ran slam bang through all three, and the Great Northern had stations in all three - so why are LNER/ER brake vans or Gresley passenger stock not suitable for the Midlands? Then, why is the Collett autocoach suitable for the Midlands in GW livery but not in BR livery?

There was a very senior BR engineering manager called Freddie Harrison who had an unreasonable dislike of English Electric diesel products, and did his very best to prevent orders going to them. He's certainly to blame for the vast numbers of class 47s with their too-highly-stressed Sulzer engines, instead of at least a proportion of DP2s. You can see the battles he lost when non-EE products failed to live up to expectations - additional Class 20 orders when the Claytons were such a disaster; the Class 50s, when the 47s had to be de-rated; and the re-engining of class 30 to class 31 with EE engines,

Tyseley also does the maintenance for Cross-Country's 170s (under contract) so you'll find some of them around too.

What has the poor Cambrian done to justify being the only sizeable railway grouped into the GWR to be left out of this discussion? Is it the terrible offence of actually having its loco department headquarters in England? Or that even in BR days Cambrian 0-6-0s could be found working trainloads of ballast from the quarries near Oswestry to the industrial West Midlands, whereas most South Wales locos never left their home ground apart from the odd trip to Swindon Works? Or just having incredibly beautiful scenery that cries out to be modelled?

Do be careful what you wish for. Peter Drummond produced some interesting locos for the Highland and for the Glasgow & South Western, do you only want the Highland ones, or were you thinking of brother Dugald? And does Class74 want SECR/SR locos, or the ones Maunsell was responsible for during his time at the Great Southern & Western of Ireland?

Excellent edition. However on Page 9, forthcoming models, is Dapol really intending to produce an OO BR Standard goods brake van and sell it at £79.99? Should it be O gauge, or is the price is misprinted (or, I suppose, both)?

One point that has been hinted at but not made explicitly is that most 1st generation 2 car units came as Motor Brake Second and Driving Trailer Composite. These only ever ran as 2 cars, or multipled together with other units. Adding a centre car to one of these sets would leave the resulting unit so under powered that it could do no useful work. There were also 2 car sets with Motor Brake Second and Motor Composite, but not many of them. These could .run with a centre car if one taken from another set was used. Class 101/111 (the difference was in the engine type originally fitted) came in 2, 3 and 4 car versions. Only 20 of the 2 car versions had both cars powered. Bachmann's 2 car model is of the power/trailer version so to make a three car set you'd need to convert the trailer to a power car as well as finding a centre car. DCKits made a plastic kit for a 101 centre car - I have one, but the DMU kit part of their range isn't currently available. Class 108 was built in 2, 3 and 4 car versions, and there were both power/trailer and power/power two car sets. Bachmann have modelled both, and also produced 3 car sets. So if you could find a suitable centre car you could insert it between the two power cars if you have the right sort of two car set, but as other have said, why not just buy a 3 car set and sell the two car set to part-fund it. Class 105 came in 2 and 3 car versions, and there were both power/power and power/trailer 2 car sets. Bachmann's model is of the power trailer version, so not only would you need to find a centre car, you'd also need to convert the trailer to a power car. Other have covered the Hornby and Lima dmu models better than I can. Of the commercially available 2 car sets, Bachmann have mostly produced the Motor/Trailer combination. Edited to add the correction made by giz in post #32: Bachmann have also produced a power-twin version of the Cravens class 105. Basically you need to look at the underframe. If there are representations of engines etc on both cars, your unit could support a centre car, if you could find one. If the car without the guards compartment has an engineless underfarme, then it can't. You will also have issues with lighting when adding centre cars to some, but not all, Bachmann 2 car sets.

Is this subtle irony that's gone right over my head? If not, a general service First Open was supposed to have a yellow band (and the model does), dedicated catering vehicles ranging from all-seat Restaurant First Opens through cars with buffet counters and/or kitchens and some seating to all-kitchen or kitchen/buffet cars were supposed to have a red band (only over the section used for catering if the seating was common user). Again the model does.

Well, blue diesels on crimson and cream coaches is definitely a heritage railway phenomenon. But BR steam on maroon stock is absolutely fine, and since steam lasted until 1968 in the North West of England, there were plenty of trains there containing blue & grey coaches (often randomly mixed with maroon ones) pulled by steam in the final years.

I think you are missing something - they're completely different models of completely different prototypes. It would indeed be odd if they were the same, but the £13.50 ones are BGs, the dearer ones are BCKs and TSOs. I have the feeling the BGs have been in stock in Replica's warehouse for some years, and full marks to them for not jacking the price up if so.

True, but the Moguls did the same, for many more years but with much the same endpoint, and got to all sorts of places Manors never reached (Barnstaple/Ilfracombe being just one example). That said, I treasure the memory of being behind double headed Manors climbing up to Talerddig.

Hornby haven't usually been backward in letting people know about re-releases and re-liveries. Brighton Belles and T9s are obviously just that. Something GWR could be King, Castle, Hall, Grange, 28xx, 38xx, 42xx, 72xx, 61xx from the tool store, even 2721 or 101!. There's an (engine) shedload of coaches and wagons to go at too. NBR might be a tarted up J83. LBSC could be a de-Thomased E2, or a Terrier, or even yet another release of the brake van. Industrial could be a new livery for a Peckett or Hunslet Austerity, or one of the freelance 0-4-0 tanks. Now of course the GWR, NBR, LBSC, and Industrials could all be brand new models, but the hints have been crafted so they'll do for either new or re-issued. Is there anything that was tooled/retooled at Sanda Kan that hasn't been reissued from other plants yet, apart from the Clan, the tools for which seem to have been lost or irreparably damaged?

They aren't technically headlights in the sense we use the word today, just marker lights replicating the function of the oil lamps used on steam locos to indicate the class of train being worked. As such, they would need to be on during the daytime so signalmen and platform staff could distinguish between express, stopping passenger, and empty stock movements, since there's no physical object like the oil lamp body or the Southern's marker discs for them to look at instead. That said, given the small number of railcars, it would be amazing if everyone didn't already know which train was which, and they were anything but brightly lit

The interesting question is where the designers and engineers from Sanda Kan went after the last models were produced in 2014. Some of them will have remained with Sanda Kan's by then owner Kader, but others may be the core staff for the newer model railway manufacturers. Edited to remove irrelevance.

You can get W14 without DCC, I've got one. It may be sold out at some suppliers but someone will have one for sale still.

Most sensible place to put a buffet I've ever seen, tea can be supplied to the driver as required, at least in one direction. So this is railcar 4, the only survivor of the streamline cars. Were the others in the 1 to 16 series identical inside apart from the buffet (and presumably toilet) fitted to 2-4 and the toilet in 10-12?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/123769-zinc-pest-mazak-rot-the-affected-models-list/ It's a work-in-progress, and the list of models is updated as necessary.

Lets correct that. It is now clear that when buying a second hand Hornby loco manufactured in the Sanda Kan plant you take a small but significant gamble ... etc. There's no evidence that the subcontractors Hornby use now have similar quality control issues, and you can't buy new Sanda Kan-built locos because the factory has closed down. This whole thread started over a second-hand chassis... Now you might well say that there's no evidence that the current subcontractors' production won't display similar issues in 10 years time, and that's true. But in that case you won't be buying from anyone who started up less than 10 years ago either (sorry, Oxford, DJM, SLW) or from Heljan who were having the same problem as recently as 2014 - we don't actually know the problem is fixed because it won't show up for ages

The points you seem to be missing are that Hornby don't manufacture locomotives themselves, in fact none of the "manufacturers" of UK outline locos do, and that the fault is in no way apparent until several years after manufacture. Not all the locomotives in a given production run ever suffer from the problem either, so random testing of the metal in manufactured chassis is in no way guaranteed to show whether the batch is safe or not. Bachmann/Graham Farish locomotives are at least made by another company in the same group, and after a small but high-profile number of issues affecting their UK, US and Chinese ranges over 15 years ago they seem to have a grip on controlling the purity of the alloy used to make the chassis blocks. If you read the thread on Mazak Rot in the Modelling Questions, Hints and Tips section of Rmweb, you'll see that all the currently available brands of 4mm/2mm mass-produced UK-outline ready-to-run locomotives have suffered from mazak rot on some of their production at some time or other except Dapol (and SLW, Oxford and DJM, but given the timescale over which the fault develops the jury would have to be still out on these). All of the reported incidents for Hornby affect models produced in the Sanda Kan factory, which is now closed down. You can tell which these are because Hornby fix a label onto the outside of their boxes with a production centre code - SK is Sanda Kan. The last locos arrived from Sanda Kan in 2014, and these were just completing long-overdue orders. Sir William Stanier and the H class are both brand new 2017 production models. They aren't made in the same place as the offending Granges, and neither are current-production Granges. We did have a tracking thread on which Hornby locos were made in which factory, there seem to be around 5 different plants producing locos for them. I make no comment on product liability - I have no legal qualifications and I'm not a Trading Standards Officer.