MGR Hooper!

Ordered a couple of Sommerfeldt pantographs from him. I was not sure if they were sold in pairs. Emailed him, got a reply within 24 hours and received the parcel on the other side of the globe in 2 weeks. Definitely some erratic service. I was genuinely worried as I came across this topic after I had placed the order.

The article does make you believe that. Though with most journalists these days, their articles tend to be way off... I came to two conclusions from that article; - Hornby might be making a new product - Hornby may give them another model (Class 153 or Class 67 and Mk4 set) in the TfW livery.

In 1978 under the Colombo Plan, Australia presented India with 24 broad gauge Railcars. There seems to be only one picture of it online with very little information. From whatever research I could do, I feel that these are based on the South Australian Railway Redhen Railcars, I may be wrong. However I am looking for any more information people may have regarding these railcars be it pictures or documentation of any sort.

Hi David, Thanks for reaching out. But we've already completed the CAD work and sent the files over to the client.

Sorry to take this off topic a bit and make it political, but the Government in India doesn't believe in following guidelines. Be it their own or international. Toys are supposed to have a 23.5% customs duty (when I checked last). The last time I paid 23.5% was 12 years ago. Since 2014 onwards I've always paid anywhere between 50-75% customs on models. The Customs Dept in India is not going to bother about what rules are set in the UK. If I have a defective piece being replaced, I will still have to pay a second customs fee. They look at it as another mysterious box coming in. And they look at it as a way of making money. In India if you have contacts within the Customs Dept, you can get your goods shipped in for free. If not, you pay through your nose. - I've paid the equivalent of £1 (INR 100) as a customs fee for a birthday card because they felt the need to charge it. - I've also paid £3 (INR 300) for a club magazine that was A5 sized. Basically a booklet. - I've also paid a whopping 63% customs fee on a small pack of 100 SMD LEDs from Taiwan, a country that's supposed to have a free-trade agreement with India and as such shouldn't have an customs duties.

As per an update from Dapol on facebook, the OO gauge Class 59 is ready for production. They are waiting for a production slot to open up

Finally!

Brilliant job as usual....

Excellent

I think it depends on each individual. I love the Class 66s, but living half way across the globe has it's restrictions. It takes anywhere between 10-60 days for me to get parcels from England. With the current pandemic situation, it takes longer sometimes. International postage for me is ridiculously expensive. I pay half the cost to have things sent to me when compared to have things sent back home to England. Take the Hattons Classs 66, Bachmann Class 90, Hornby A2s, all recent models with known QC issues. If I order one. I'll have to wait ages to get it and when it arrives pay upwards of 50% customs on it. Then there's a 50-50 chance that I can get a perfect model or a damaged model. If it's damaged, based on how badly damaged it is, I can either repair it myself, pay someone to repair it or spend a fortune to send it back. Getting a replacement will take ages again and yet again I'd have to pay a hefty customs fee on it. I'd rather miss out on a Class 66 now (even if it's one I really want) and wait for batch 2 and buy another one that catches my eye. Hattons have still not publicly acknowledged the QC issues with their Class 66., that's terrible PR. Bachmann acknowledged the issues with the Class 90 and were offering a fix. Hornby have done something similar for their Class 60, LNER A2 and Mk3 DVT. Furthermore I always ask retailers to thoroughly test my models before despact. Hattons are a hit and miss in this department. Sometimes they can go over and above to do something and yet other times they've falsely advertised second hand products and I've received something that's not acceptable. I'd rather avoid all that and wait for Hattons to do the right thing.

That's looking pretty good.

I'll gladly buy it if you decide to sell it. This was one loco I was after. Will be nice to have a Hornby and a Cavalex one.

Looking good! Love the box...

That'll be the one...

Sorry if I missed this, but didn't Dapol have a special order page for the GBRf Class 59 on their website? Or was I dreaming the whole thing?

Yes it does.

And why would it not fully translate into model form? It's not like they haven't done it before. And they're literally showing you the artwork

If the upcoming TES blog has an APT-P sample, then the July release date is quite likely. But so far we've only seen pre-production painted samples

This is good news. Still waiting for mine.

I'll be shifting my order!

I'd rather have Bachmann do a newly tooled Class 90 in N gauge than a Class 56 in OO gauge though... If Bachmann do have a plan to do a Class 56 after the Class 69, it'll be a good time to drop it and just focus on the Class 69. There's actually quite a few models from the Bachmann and Graham Farish stable that could do with an update rather than do a Class 56 where Hornby already has a fairly good model and Cavalex have a damn good model in the making.

EWS one pre-ordered from Rails! Couldn't wait any longer in anticipation of Hornby doing an EWS one.

The Class 56 from Cavalex is already in tooling now.

Top notch work!!

Looking forward to the Colas Class 86! Love the Colas livery. Hope we see an updated one from Heljan soon.