Derails Models

The intention on that comment was aimed towards these power cars, but now you've mentioned it....some other items may randomly appear. But as we are so busy at the moment, I don't want to make any promises ;-) Unfortunately I haven't seen the SKG pack in the flesh as I've been out of the office today, but I'll take a look as soon as I have one in my hand. To save clogging this thread up, I will PM you. :-) HTH

Evening all! Thought I better just clear up a few bits here: We rarely use eBay, as some may know they take 10% fees from sellers. This means each sale of these sets has cost us £26 in fees, and is part of the reason we charge the £9.90 postage as selling via our own site is considerably cheaper in that regard which allows us to offer the free-postage there. However, this voucher meant eBay was to good to resist as it meant we could offer people £50 directly from eBay's pocket! They foot the bill when it comes to giving the discounts so it's a win-win on all sides - I don't know about you but I love giving away free money, especially when it's a big corp like eBay! The voucher itself wasn't anything to do with us - it was eBay! For some reason that eBay account was selected to be part of the 'PICKSMALLBIZ' 20% off voucher offer (T&C's here). You are automatically opted in to it, you can't opt out and it's just one of those special offers eBay do themselves. We had some spare of these new PC's so thought "hey, lets give some people some good deals". They were advertised at the standard 10% discount every Hornby dealer has to adhere to, and with you not being able to opt-out, it seemed a too-good-to-be-true opportunity! A good proportion of those who've ordered are regulars of ours as we wanted to make sure that no-one missed out. In fact we wanted to make sure of this so much, we even called as many people as we could who had these sets on pre-order with us directly and actively told them to go and order them from eBay! We've now either refunded or moved their £20 deposits elsewhere so again, everyone wins. We like to actively take care of our customers, and although that sometimes that results in unconventional practice, as long as YOU win in one way or another, we are happy! We have only put a limited number on eBay, and you'll notice now that they are sold out as of course, we have to keep some for our own website. HOWEVER: this is only a proportion of what is arriving so some may be appearing again next week, as the PICKSMALLBIZ offer runs till the 30th June. Keep an eye out there, you may notice a few more appear here and there. There was some issues with the postage options on a few very early orders. I will be looking into each order on a case-by-case basis and contacting those affected. Cheers for the support, apologies for any confusion and thanks to anyone who ordered! Ciao!

Evening all! It looks like the R3810 has tripped over from "Pre-order" to "New" on Hornby.com which (usually) indicates imminent shipping!

We're aware there were some technical difficulties when ordering from our website over the past 24 hours, mainly regarding the checkout process being unstable. These have now been resolved and we are back up to speed! Apologies for any inconvenience caused. For anyone wondering, there was an error with the password of an email client used to send out the order update emails. This, tiny, seemingly-insignificant problem caused the checkout page, customer registration page, returns page and contact us page all to crash when used!

Well thanks for the compliments guys, but I can't take all of the credit: there's a great small team here keeping everything going and they've done flippin' well given the circumstances and pressure they've come under over the past few months! I'm very proud to work alongside them. Oh man, what a day that was! Swear we had more rain that day than we did for the rest of the year! We took the Saloon didn't we, which was slightly pointless as the windows steamed up so quickly we couldn't see a thing! However much I'd love to guard a 142 (automatic doors would be so much easier to deal with!), unfortunately the Class 108's we have would get jealous! Jokes aside, our DMU group have done so well to immaculately restore their 5 x Class 108 cars (one of which is an rare centre car) in my own opinion, they're more than capable for our MU demands. I may put the case for a full 2+9 HST forward though....... But this is about Class 117's and 121's so back on topic - with one of the new Class 117's on my desk, I can safely say they're a cracker! With the photobooth packed away, there's no photos to accompany this post but if you've got one on order, you're in for a treat! Ciao!

Doh! I did it again! Yes this delivery excludes the NSE one, which is due on the next container. Edited original post to reflect

G'day all! Just received the Bachmann delivery note, so our B&G + Green Class 117's and all of the 121's have been despatched! They should start hitting shelves from tomorrow onwards....

Anyone who has visited our store will know how small the individual rooms are and with the staff in them, social distancing would make it incredibly difficult to function... Therefore we are opening an "Argos style" counter on Thursday, Friday and Saturday's only from next Thursday (the 18th) with a view to building the hours back up to regular opening hours as things return to 'normality'. We look forward to seeing you soon!

New info regarding delivery, received in comms from Bachmann just now. Models arriving next week: 35-500 BR Green Class 117 35-501 Blue and Grey Class 117 35-525 BR Green Class 121 35-526 BR Blue and Grey Class 121 35-527 NSE Class 121 Arriving within 4 weeks, on the next container: 35-502 NSE Class 117 Apologies for the slightly incorrect info provided in my earlier post.

Edit - new post with new info posted on next page

Amen to that! The 150 was the primary reason I changed my fiddle yard to primarily form of cassettes......I could save more money by changing half the layout and leaving the 150 permanently coupling than I spent on the bars! I don't think I've uncoupled my Arriva unit for a good five years now.... Back on topic - having coupling and uncoupled a lot of them during pre-despatch testing, the these big type connectors on the new 158's, I find aren't too bad at all. They're quite easy to put together on the track and uncoupling just requires tipping the unit onto it's back (on a suitable soft surface or large loco cradle as we use, of course) and 'helping' them apart. In terms of aesthetics, having seen the production sample 117 in the flesh, I didn't find the coupling noticeable at all and I think the benefits they bring in the functionality of the model outweigh any downside. All personal preference of course. HTH

Not for us, I've got all ten variants here next to me now. DPD driver didn't like me, as he had to lump all 14 boxes through our car park in this heat....and yes, I did 'socially distant' help him....

Sorry a bit OT from F1, but Audi have just suspended Daniel Abt for the above infringement.... Interesting one, usually suspension means...sacking? Edit; Source article: https://the-race.com/formula-e/abt-audi-suspended-simracing-scandal-imposter/

Even better - thank-you for the updated info!

Call received from Hornby this morning; Scotrail Coaches (and the few missing CrossCountry variants) are starting to be shipped today. We're getting close to selling out here, but if they're open and despatching why don't you give your local model shop a call - I know from personal experience that they'd be especially appreciative of the business at this difficult time... Just a reminder for those who would like to know about the formations of the Scotrail sets, to save you searching back through this thread, here's the little infographic I produced a few months ago:

Hah! Instant Karma and well done to Stoffel and JEV for noticing...to be able to be certain of it just from watching the driving style of the other car is quite impressive!

They certainly were done by GC weathering! They did a cracking job and we use them for pretty much all of our loco modifications, their weathering is second to none. [Sorry for the off-topic]

It's probably a bit of both - I know some retailers have ordered from the website, but as well as this, we did get an email from our sales rep yesterday who had a very limited number available but without any trade discount - if you wanted them, you ordered them at full RRP. I feel that this is more than fair, as Hornby are making a substantial donation to charity which would be way less if they were offered to the trade at normal discount. (of course, if some are to be believed, trade discount is 99% and most retailers are driving gold Rolls Royces)

Thanks Chris - I must say, that's an impressive array of electrics behind too! What we got there, 86's, 87's and 90's!? Although I'm aware there's half what it looks like, as I assume the cabinet has a mirrored backing....

The GWR and XC coaches arrived just as I was leaving the office today, so I popped one of each randomly in the car and took some photos when I got home. Not professional quality but hopefully they show off the detail that has gone into this all-new tooling! XC - Full by Derails Models, on Flickr XC - End by Derails Models, on Flickr R4895 - Full by Derails Models, on Flickr R4895 - End by Derails Models, on Flickr Great value for money in my opinion, they are pretty darn stunning!

Indeed! Invoice has arrived so we're expecting them at some point today, which means we'll be processing pre-orders over the weekend (it might be a Sunday job this!). I'll get some close up pictures posted once they've arrived.

I should explain...there are two Dan's here, big Dan (aka Danny) and me, Little Dan (aka Dan) but it got a little confusing so we got these nicknames! He insists it's all to do with height and nothing to do with age or waistline.... Flattery gets you nowhere sir but points for trying!

Hi everyone, firstly I hope you are all keeping safe and well. We're still continuing with online, telephone and mail orders as normal. Easter hit us quite hard as it was our busiest time for a long time with a huge increase in orders (it beat Christmas by a long way), and with us running a 50% staff ratio, things did get a little slower than normal and if that's impacted you, I apologise. We're just about getting back to "normality" (ha, what's that?!), although the stock has depleted a lot, especially on Peco items - I've never run out of fishplates before, we usually stock hundreds of packs! The staff now entirely comprises of members of my family who all live together close to the site, so we're able to carry on with a very minimal risk, and I am appreciative to them for stepping in and helping in an industry that is completely new to them - my Mum has no idea of the difference between a Pannier Tank and a Class 50 but bless her she tries! Luckily she is not packing the mail orders... We're getting a few delays from Royal Mail and DPD but we know and understand that they, like us, are trying their absolute hardest to keep things running and we salute them for it (and of course that extends to all key workers, I must emphasise). To sum-up, we're still here and operating our limited service and are very much appreciative of all of the support we've received over the past few weeks - thank-you, it means a lot. Please keep yourself safe and and of course keep modelling; it's fantastic to see that during this difficult time, our hobby is providing so much joy and keeping spirits up around the world! Kind Regards, Little Dan Proprietor Derails Models

Hi all! As promised I've edited my original post from the information provided by those who replied - thank-you all for your contribution! Hopefully that info is as current as can be now! Isn't this the great thing about RMweb? We can take a confusing situation and with input and discussion from all sides, we can get a clear picture. Keep well everyone, and thanks again for your help. PS: if anyone has ordered their coaches from us based on my original post and would like their order changed to represent the current set numbers, please do get in-touch with me directly and I'll happily move your order around with no risk of you losing deposits, etc!

Aha! This is exactly the sort of feedback I was after, thank-you everyone so much! Firstly, thanks for the clarification on the power cars situation, that's super handy to know as it's been a most-asked question from customers pre-ordering these coaches. Regarding the erroneous coach numbers - these numbers provided are ones provided from Hornby so no typos in my original post. It's a bit late now, but tomorrow morning I'll take a look back at the info provided above and ammend my post to the best of my abilities, however it looks like we may have an issue with an incorrect running number for at least one of the sets as they are currently marshalled vs what is being produced in model form. Apologies for any erroneous information supplied and thanks for the feedback everyone, it's helpful for me especially when advising customers on what they need to purchase. I will get my post altered and try to show what we have vs what we can make in the best way possible! Keep well!