Pteremy

They do look good. But mine will be a Rule 1 Pullman Hearse version, which I was not expecting until the Autumn. I assume that is still the case?

Looking good. I think that the cab door handrails on the green version should be slightly longer though - they should reach almost to the mid point of the cab window.

Dapol have not done a Collett cab version yet.

As no one else seems to have said it, I will say that this is another excellent book. The venn diagram of the railway modelling community includes a hard core of true historical scholarship, which deserves to be revered for what it is. Playing trains is good fun, but the potential for scholarship adds something else. Most of us can contribute in some way - by researching a particular line for example, or modelling a particular era. Or by making our stock - including wagons - as historically accurate as possible.

So far as 6336 is concerned, no suitability - 9303 is one of the final batch built with more modern Collett cab. Hopefully Dapol will do this version eventually.

Curious that they offer the gears as spares then - suggests that it should be straightforward (even if not easy) to replace them.

The spare parts list includes a 'gear set' - 2 gears that connect the worm on the motor shaft and the gear on the lead driving wheel. There is also a gear box cover which (?) might have to be amended in the dimensions of the gears changed.

An excellent development. And I hope that, in the same spirit, they will do the final Collett 93xx/73xx version in due course.

Is that right? In one way I am not surprised. But manufacturers do not appear to be driven by those stats if it is the case, given the continuous improvement in mechanisms and other features such as lights and sound - or even 'firebox glow', gimic though it may be. Those things require some sort of layout to appreciate, DC or DCC. As an aside it is interesting to note that even Accurascale appear to have baulked at making their Manor easily convertible, though (i think i am right in saying) they have done that with all their wagons. I think that it would help if there were more sources of 'drop in' finescale wheel sets to make RTR conversions easier. I have been a happy customer of Ultrascale. But having to wait months to get up and running, not to mention the cost, must put a lot of people off, particularly if they have an existing 'fleet' of any size to convert.

Someone posted a spreadsheet of photos earlier in this thread and it includes 3 refs to 6364. One is with a lined tender, as depicted by Dapol - 5/5/57, freshly painted at Swindon - p76 In Andrews Churchward 2-6-0s. The caption says that fender lining was discontinued 2 months later.

The maps are correct in the 1979 edition (which appears to be the first edition of Volume 2)

My 1668 also arrived today. A slight kink in the left hand running plate but i am sure that will fettle away. Smooth, slow running straight from the box - and the seams/bunker joins less of an issue in the flesh at normal distances. Plus a first for me - firebox glow that actually works on DC!!!!

I confess that I had not come across 'economy green' before. It does explain how some previously lined green engines appear to lose their lining in the final years of their life - i.e. it is not just that they are filthier.

Don't forget that if Dapol follow the Mogul precedent then the whole locomotive will be available as spare parts, covering all the variants. That may or may not be a good thing, but it will differentiate them from anyone else.

I imagine that they have spotted the opportunity to get ahead of the opposition by doing it in EM and P4 rather than 00.

And different slidebars? If all these things are true then that is a pretty fast response to the feedback on the mogul.

Of course the elephant in the room is that an excellent late 1930s GWR locomotive needs some equally excellent mid-late 1930s GWR coaches to pull.....

There is also personal preference, as with weathering, rusting etc. One person's highly realistic set of ripples will be a disfiguring blemish in the model to others.

That is a bit unfair. The Dapol Manor is slated for 2021 release. The Mogul only took 3 years in gestation, the last year being the Covid disrupted 2020. If they learn from the feedback on the mogul then their manor could be excellent - it may still be 'inferior' in specification to Accurascale's, but inferior doesn't necessarily equate to no good.

So if Bachmann do announce their retool next week will Hornby finally have to reveal the one they have been working on for 2 years?

So why are people rude about Facebook....

The motion bracket is hybrid on the 93xx/73xx - both tall and thin and short and wide components in the same moulding. Presumably the tooling would not allow an accurate representation? And so to a hobbyhorse. In military modelling any new release is followed by a slew of after market providers with components to improve, or correct, the new offering. I am sure that there is similar scope for RTR railway modelling.

Another consideration is that Dapol's mogul has late, i.e. 63xx features, whereas the Mainline/Bachmann version has the earlier 43xx-53xx features. Not a huge difference but may be material to your choice. Given that Dapol sell virtually all of their mogul as spare parts it may be possible to contrive a combination of Mainline/Bachmann body with Dapol chassis components. The same would be true of the final 93xx/73xx Collett version (although I think the Mainline/Bachmann body is actually a 43xx/73xx hybrid). This is only a thought - I have not explored the practicalities, so it could be a lemon! Indeed, it may be easier to modify a Dapol mogul body (which is a long way from your original question!)

Is this the biggest 'unforced error' since the Oxford LNER cattle wagon? (The Hornby Toad with a painted rather than moulded stanchion was an error of judgement.) They do look good, so I can imagine some folk suspending their disbelief and living with the error. Particularly if they were sold off at a fire sale price?

There is an RMWeb thread on 'Banana Vans' which, amongst other things, says that: In 1931 Elders & Fyffes moved the import of bananas from Hull to Southampton. In view of the LNER's loss of traffic requiring specialist vans and to assist the SR some 200+ ex NER, ex GCR and ex GER banana vans were hired to the SR. In return the SR loaned the LNER the same number of covered goods vans. The LNER bananas kept their LNER numbers but had large SR branding added! Having not been built by the Southern I doubt they would have been allocated any diagram numbers. Of the 325 vans involved, 60-70 were lost in a fire on 5 June 1936 and the LNER requested the return of the others in November the following year. This prompted the Southern to build a large batch of its own.