KymN

I'm not!

Very much appreciated service Andy. Sadly my wallet will suffer.

Mine was dispatched on the same day as my 6-wheel TOAD. It will be a while before they get to Oz but it will be interesting to see if they are in the same package. Whatever, they are extraordinarily efficient.

They are excellent. I always feel I am getting personal service, despite being on the other side of the world.

Some of you must have got in really quickly. I ordered mine on 13/11/2012 and am still on the waiting list.

I ordered the DCC version. Still waiting.

I checked with Dapol. They won't be blocked in the production model, Fockers or no.

They look very good - notably the Southern Railway line black version. But, while I don't normally comment on details, why are the 'monocles' on Normandy blocked out?

Must be all those German settlers we had in the old days.

It takes just bit longer to unload a ship, work through customs and security and to distribute the cargo than it does to pop down to the local post office.

They are still in China, other than a few that were airfreighted for review, with a couple sent to the first people who ordered them.

Just gets curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said. My 1364 is still showing just 'Allocated' on my order history. But then it also shows a couple of Hornby hard to get locos, one of which I have and the other on the way, as blank

The Kernow Web site is still showing them as not in stock. I have one on pre-order and have not seen any movement yet.

That is exactly how I do it, and what Kernow advised. Works for me.

I can't justify any of the existing releases but I would buy a teak version to run with Sherlock Holmes regardless!!

I thought that the saying was 'If you laid all the economists in the world end to end they'd never reach a conclusion. :-)

John Harrison of Torpoint (GWR) famously wrote: ‘Ooever eard of a red engine? Tes vlyin in the faace of natur…. Everybody knaws the praaper colour vur an engine is green and braassen. Even they Zouth Western people knaws that an they dawn knaw much’. Harrison J. (1963). ‘Progress Report’. Railway Modeller. December 1963 pp290f.

Thanks Chris, I understand. But after seeing the images of Rapido's Stirling Single and its undercarriage I will continue to hope!

I was rather hoping to see the lower rail - it would make the partial skirts version that I have ordered complete. This week I took delivery of two Bachman wagons that have nicely modelled underbody detail in metal - very fine but strong enough. I also took delivery of a pair of 6 wheeled brake vans in H0 from Austrains. These have exquisitely modelled brake rigging and other underbody detail of metal (wire) held secure within the moulded hangers. This has been done within a reasonable price (c. 44GBP per vehicle) in the small Australian Market. It can be done!

I picked up a copy of the May issue of Hornby Magazine from my local newsagent earlier this week. Here in South Australia British mags seem to get to newsagents via square-rigger ship around Cape Horn, they take so long. I am curious about the articles in this issue about bulk trains. I found both Tim Shackleton's article and that by Mark Chivers on the 'Bulk' theme to be at odds with my understanding of what bulk freight is. Tim does, however, refer to 'Block Trains, carry large volumes of a single type of traffic. Here in Australia at least, ‘bulk trains’ are only those trains that carry commodities such as coal, minerals or grain in hopper wagons, loaded from stockpile or silo and unloaded similarly. The term does not include trains of structural steel, motor vehicles, oil, cattle or containers, even if the train is exclusively made of the one type of goods. These are known as ‘block trains’, or are referred to by the cargo carried. Thus we have ‘the steel train’, carrying slab steel, structural steel, coil and wire between the various steel works. Trainloads of containers – the usual means to move general freight and consumer goods by rail these days – are ‘intermodal’ services. The distinction is as much related to handling methods as it is to the volume of freight. Likewise Mark Chivers’ article headed ‘Bulk Handling’ is equally confusing. All but one illustration is of passenger trains. The one freight with a few bulk cement wagons would not be regarded as a bulk train here. It almost appears that this article started out as a layout based on Exeter Central and was retitled to suit the ‘Bulk’ theme. Notwithstanding all of the above, Hornby Magazine is a great read, and I have now taken a subscription so I’ll get it in a more timely fashion by air mail!

Huh? I think that it says that they have received the images. The carriages are in production, due in a few months.

And they look superb, especially the SECR version. If I buy any more pre-grouping stock I'll need to backdate my railway!

I assume that it has been because of the 100th anniversary of the 1914-18 War.

Rev Awdry's own 00 model of Toby from his 1960 Ffarquhar Branch layout was painted GER chocolate brown with blue side plates, and a big number '7'. It had no face! Toby hauled 'Henrietta', a four-wheeled W&U tram coach, and 'Elsie', the unique low-slung luggage van from the W&U. There is a picture of this train in the RMweb archives here: