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Dear All fellow modellers, In the O gauge and 1 gauge worlds - is there any hope of raising the bar in quality and detail of the Ready-To-Run UK prototype offerings out there? Is anyone else standing by hoping for more? i have a small collection of Gauge 1 RTR German stock from companies such as Wunder, KM-1 and Kiss. I would dearly love a similar level of quality on offer for British stock. I tolerate the two ‚big‘ names in the o gauge RTR market - simply because there isn't anyone else out there and I love British trains too much not to have any models. i get very sad when I am looking at my astonishingly detailed Wunder DRG passenger coaches and think what could be possible for a BR Mark 1 coach. I would do anything to see what Wunder could do with a Mark 1 coach model! I, for one, would be an enthusiastic supporter of any new enterprise. What is on the market now isn’t good enough to my eyes. Yes I know a direct comparison of o gauge and 1 gauge isn’t totally on the level but still - it’s clear the quality is way off. O gauge is big enough to get A LOT more detail in there and a lot less plastic than the guys are currently putting in. I cannot believe that there isn’t a chance of at least a bit of a higher level/price Point. Im sure any other fellow German Spur 1 guys who also love British trains will have noticed the shocking difference. give me a Wunder Class 31, or a Dingler K2 class, and I’ll give you all my current German stock happily! Haha.

Hi Keith, thanks for showing your 2m Swiss lok - it looks great. I’d love a separate 2m layout, but I don’t have the space. 2m is such a great and impressive size. I spent a lot of time in Ticino, Switzerland in earlier times, where my Father had a house, but that was still only the 1990s-2000s, so i didn’t see any steam. here are a couple of quick photos of the BR 120 - initial impressions are very positive. The photos don’t make it look like much, but in reality in gauge 1, it has real grace and huge presence. Now I must fight off the urge to preorder Wunder‘s forthcoming BR 111!

Hi John, thanks, yes it should have a great deal of presence on my limited space layout. Suitable coaching stock of high quality in late Epoch IV / V is tricky to find I think. Not the biggest fan of Kiss’ coaches either. I’ve been on a bit of an Epoch II kick lately (for German Steam, I’m a DRG man) - I’ve had some incredibly beautiful coaches from Wunder recently in (nothing else comes close to their quality I’ve found). So, for now the BR 120 will be traveling light engine only.

Hi All, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of one of the new Gauge 1 Kiss BR 120s! I've ordered one of the Orientrot production series versions. Frankly I can't wait, it's been many years since the new model was first announced. Anyone else gone for one? kind regards, Thomas.

Hi everyone, Has anyone bought the new KM-1 Einheitsabteilwagen? What do you think of them? I'm sorry to say 2 of the 3 I ordered arrived with completely bent running boards. I've had quite a good spell lately of undamaged new arrivals, but this is a letdown. Aside from that they are really nice I think. regards, Thomas.

Thank you Bernard for the encouragement. Don't worry, I'm not too sad. I wish everyone well with their modelling, regardless of scale. I only hoped that there were a few more people here in England actively buying, and running Gauge 1 rolling stock. But yes, it is strange to me personally how enthusiastic HO gauge is here when there is not even a hint of enthusiasm for 1 Gauge. The newer tooling of Märklin's P8 is excellent value for money, and there are now so many different variants available. I'm getting the new DRG version that's just come out. I like Kiss' closed cab version too (It's also on my list!). I'm hopefully soon moving to a larger home where I will plan a new layout.

Thanks guys. Well I’ve been reliably informed by several private messages that this is not the place for Gauge 1. I think that’s sad, and surprising, as someone who has personally modelled in z, n, ho, OO, O, G and 1 at various times in my life I can only recommend 1 gauge as the ultimate for German/continental modeling. It’s a shame there isn’t more of a market for it here. Since approx 2010, the whole market changed for the better - much higher quality models at better prices. It’s not like it was in the 1980s.... But hey guys that’s cool - leaves more for me! Haha. Good luck and Viel Spaß! T.

Hi All, I can't see much gauge 1 discussion going on - anyone else here in England into continental gauge 1 modelling? Märklin, KM1, Dingler etc? I'm looking for a place where people discuss the latest models etc. I'm in the process of expanding my layout and collection. I find it surprising how little people discuss all the great German Gauge 1 models. Right now, I'm about to order Märklin 55413, anyone here have it? regards, Thomas

Hi there, In the end they sent me a Full List of CV numbers to control all the obvious sound volumes. I’ve got all the Dapol Locos covered now (full cv sets from the factory) except the 64/74xx which has a horrendous factory set of cvs. I so far haven’t managed to turn down one particular ‚noise’ which I think is an attempt at auto coal shoveling and injection at the same time. It makes it unusable actually. No one seems no know what cv controls that. But the 8750 is good now. Try changing cv584 way down. It worked for me.

That would be great if true.

The attitude of more than one of the big name o gauge retailers is shocking when it comes to issues like this - in similar cases I’ve had in the past they simply don’t want to take responsibility- even though you are buying retail and they are the retailer. I’ve been told to get replacement parts ‚by my own means‘, I’ve been laughed at when I’ve told the retailer that items have arrived damaged, them saying ‚best just to glue the bits back on‘. I was furious. It seems to be unique to the uk o gauge market. If I compare the service I get from German 1 gauge retailers, it’s ridiculous. The uk guys should be embarrassed- but I love English trains too much not to suffer them!

Definitely Ian, can’t believe the numbers they chose either - will definitely be more of a sell to choose our own.

Awesome. Bon Voyage. T.

Hi All, 2 questions please - the order page for the Class 22 has a ‘personalized decoration’ option - is that just for numbering or are there other things on offer? Can we preorder one and pay when it’s released or do we have to pay now? Looking at the PayPal option it looked like I had to pay now. Thank you.

Hi all, For anyone who has the factory fitted sound version of the 6409/7400 class - you know that automatic periodically repeating coal shoveling + injector sound? What cv can I set to turn it down - or preferably off. It’s so loud as delivered and much too frequent. Thanks.

That’s great - thanks for the info and links - thought there would have to be some that made it through to getting the late crest.

Hi All, Im looking for any photos of the original batch of 5700 class panniers (with numbers also starting 57xx) with the late BR crest. So far I’m only seeing examples with the early crest. Does anyone please have a photo? Thank you. Thomas.

Hi All, Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent retailer who will offer the Large Prairie with a dcc sound fitting service? I’m not a DIY kind of guy, I rather pay to have it done well for me. So far I’m struggling to find a retailer who will be offering the service. Looks like it’s going to be considerably cheaper in this instance to first just buy the basic dc version from a big retailer and then go through the hassle of using a third party for the dcc fitting service.

Sorry if I’ve missed something, but has there been a delay on the dcc sound version of 6439? Seems to be taking much longer than expected, given all the other variants have been released for a while.

I can’t wait, I’ve got two A3s and an A4 pre-ordered. I wouldn’t be surprised if I add more. It’s just too hard to narrow down the options. I do think the choices of the specific locos is odd to say the least with all those preserved examples. I much rather have more of the humbler numbers and names long sadly scrapped to pick from. Who the hell would choose a preserved loco?

Thanks for the tip Tim! I’ll try cv584. I think that’s the only real issue I have. I don’t particularly mind the other issues - even that strange mess of noise on F11.

I’ve reported this all to Dapol - it is apparently news to them, they will be getting back to me....

I just received a factory sound fitted 8750 ‚3716‘ - i have found the very same sound functions as yourself. I guess their paperwork is inaccurate. And yes - how loud is the draincock sound! Haven’t managed to turn it down yet. I programmed the chuff sync value to 85 - and now I’m getting a perfect 4 chuffs per rotation. The factory value was giving me 5. All that aside - I’m loving it - it’s a fantastic model for the price. I’d love to figure out how to tame the draincocks though.

Please stop being so melodramatic- it’s too early to judge Heljan‘s forthcoming model. With support like this it’s a wonder they bother. We should be cheering them on and encouraging them to get it right rather than just saying we‘re not going to buy the model already!