JR_P

OK, so curiosity got the better of me and I bought a couple of these [TSO]. I don’t really need them but I’m itching to take a closer look and I assume I’ll be able to dispose of them easily enough on a well known auction site in a month or two once the batch has sold out.... As an aside, The Model Centre Is offering free postage over £60, which is pretty sweet - and they still had a few TSO left....

You would think that after seven years of gestation that they could manage to design them with kinematic close-coupling.... feels like a very retrograde step.... On the other hand, if they have sorted out the overall height issue, that is great!.... looking at the photos online, I can’t help but feel they’ve just achieved this with a rather large gap between the bogies and coach body - there is a lot of clear daylight in side-on shots (RoS photos, for example).... That said, the glazing tint looks good; not too dark - I had been worried about that. Anyway, I’m only in for the blue-grey RFB (as preserved), which isn’t here yet, so I’ll reserve final judgement for when I have my hands on that!

I just happened to be on the KMRC website just now and noticed this.... made me chuckle having read your post earlier this evening....

This week has been like Christmas come early!.... in the space of 48hrs I received my KUAs (expected) followed 48hrs later by my IPAs (unexpected!).... these IPAs are absolutely delightful wagons - in fact, they might be my favourite Revolution product yet, perhaps even edging out my beloved KUA !!! This is the first I’d seen of the IPA in person and I must say the detail is fabulous and the weighting is spot-on - I’ve said this before but the weighting has been a somewhat self-limiting factor with other Revolution wagons; the HOA especially.... but these IPA are perfect - I have a rake of 26 of varying design (mainly covered though) and that is comfortably handled by a Farish 66 or 60 - so much so I reckon I’ll be in for another covered quad set ! .... now just waiting for my 92s to arrive to pull the IPAs!!!

Hi Arran, these are looking very nice - I’m especially pleased to hear there is a full length metal spar for rigidity and to keep the deck flat and true.... too many container flat wagons (from all manufacturers) suffer from either deck twist, or bowing at the ends - the Dapol spines are particularly notorious for the latter! Also looking forward to more containers - as mentioned above, regular 40ft containers are incredibly hard to come by at a reasonable price these days and it is purely a supply and demand scenario. I’d really like to see some of the more ‘drab’ liveries, ie, brown - Tex, Beacon, CAI, Chronos, etc. Another run of the 40ft HC would also be good - these also go at high prices on certain auction websites!

One thing I noticed regarding DCC - the OO gauge description for Caroline clearly states “DCC socket”, whereas the N gauge description entirely omits any mention of DCC.... I’m presuming this is a simple error of omission from the description, rather than the N gauge version being DC only....? Particularly in the case of the NR brunswick green variant, there is a plethora of front lights and it might be nice to have some DCC control over which of them are on at any time.... Regardless, it will make for an interesting train - personally I think I’ll run mine with the Farish Colas 37 but the wide selection of appropriate traction is a real bonus!

This was a ‘surprise’, but if you notice, there are a few BCKs due soon-ish, so I suspect that it is all the same batch and they needed to add a livery to make up MOQ.... I would guess that the charter FOs will follow the next time they do a production run of FOs. One question I have though - should the BCK have ‘intercity’ in swallow italics??? The only photo is can find online it does have the italic ‘intercity’, so does that mean the Farish BCK represents a very specific period in time, or is it just wrong ?!

It always does that even if both/all items are in stock.... always seemed silly to me, because in the past its meant I’ve actually spent less with them as I’ve just bought the loco with free postage, when I also wanted to add on some additional items (perhaps as much again as the loco in £ terms) to my order - thus they lose revenue overall in my opinion.... adding a decoder to the basket is an obvious item likely to be appended to a loco order. i don’t imagine the postage costs RoS an order of magnitude more if you add on more stuff.... since they are paying your postage anyway, you would think they would want to cash-in on that fact and encourage you to fill your basket !!!

Indeed - I only buy Farish 66s - it is the cab front lamp iron that is vastly over-scaled that killed the Dapol 66 in my eyes.... Annoyingly Dapol do churn out lots of re-numbers which is useful.... and Farish have yet to offer a 66 in EWS maroon/gold but with the cab side/front DB logo, which is probably the most wide-scale livery on the railway not yet produced by Farish.

What are people’s thoughts about the Class 17 - as I recall, those more knowledgeable than I had highlighted several flaws with the DJM 17.... I’m curious to know if this EFE / KMRC version is an improved version of the DJM one.... or did they just produce it ‘as was’....? Far too old for my modelling era, but I could be tempted with the Ribble Cement version to shunt around my Castle Cement PCAs (even though that may never have been the case; the internet certainly suggests not!).

Totally agree! I was in precisely the same position - I was never particularly into steam locos, but the Duchess of Hamilton looked fabulous and I saved hard to afford her! Remained my only steam loco until a few years ago when I bought Tornado (which is also fantastic albeit of a different generation of detail, so cannot be directly compared). To complete my line-up of childhood Farish locos, I also had a 91 and an 08 in BR green.... plus for rolling stock I had the classic Fyffes banana van, Terry’s [chocolate] van, plus some mk4s in Swallow livery, so it was a bit of an eclectic mix, but I was only ten years old (or so)....!

Nope, no mention of the 313/314 project, but as I recall a few other items also failed to garner a mention, such as the timber wagons.... I wouldn’t worry - as far as I know it’s broadly on-track....

Yes, Ben definitely said one end is super detailed - I was planning on double-heading my EWS/DB 92s.... here’s hoping there is a NEM socket hiding behind the detail.... I’m sure Ben and Mike will have considered this though.... Notwithstanding, they looked fantastic!!!

My comment about the GA mk3 sets was just a throw away comment and indeed it seems we are all clear why Dapol haven’t done that livery, ie. no appropriate traction to pull it - that much is clear. The somewhat off-topic discussion about the 90 (apologies for spawning that!) is an interesting one - at this point in time, I now feel Farish [Bachmann] is the natural candidate for a variety of reasons. About a year ago, I did try really hard to convince Ben and Mike at Revolution it could be done before Bachmann could even react!.... that was Spring 2019 and even then we concluded that whilst the reward could be huge, the risk was also substantial - since then, Bachmann have now moved to this new manner of announcing things once they are basically ready to release - as a consequence the risk factor for others is now overwhelming and I think any alternative manufacturer taking on a 90 exposes themselves financially because Bachmann could just swan along and drop a bombshell that they have a brand new 90 arriving in shops later that quarter.... Whilst the N gauge market could probably accommodate a duplicated model such as the 90 (mainly because of the livery varieties), both models’ total sales volume would be diminished so both manufacturers suffer. While I have no doubt that Dapol (to their 68 standard) and Revolution would do equally as good a job as Farish, it just seems almost implausible that Bachmann aren’t planning for it; they have the legacy model, they have CAD in OO and now they have this new ‘cards to their chest’ approach which gives them an edge - ‘will they, won’t they’....???! Bachmann's Achilles heel is the Kader production throughput.... but that can be mitigated by not announcing until it’s actually in production and meanwhile everyone else is still too wary to take on the 90. I would love a 90; many 90s in fact. Unfortunately I feel it is probably just a waiting game until Bachmann do it.... and it could be many years.... very annoying I know !!!

A good announcement - been wanting a NR DVT for ages. The DB management train will be nice too; presumably this will include the sleeper! As for the Chiltern slam-door set, this is an interesting offering, especially being presented as an eight item set - not one for me, but will potentially prove whether the apparent appetite for Chiltern mk3s is real.... I was always amazed that Wrexham and Shropshire proved so popular, so perhaps this shifts too.... nice that one of the more ‘niche’ [smaller] franchises is given a chance by a manufacturer, but i note still nothing for Greater Anglia, who had a large fleet of mk3+DVT.... just sayin’ (no skin in that game on my part)....

Might also encourage take-up of 314s in SPT orange as well. As for the Dapol 156 in Northern livery, yes, a little odd as a choice - perhaps the Northern [formerly] ‘by Arriva’ would have been more useful and/or desirable....

Hi both, thanks for your advice/suggestions ! .... presumably Hattons have got their facts right and they are not recommending a decoder that cannot immediately slot straight in ! To be honest, I never even thought to look at Hattons - since their spat with Bachmann began and they ceased getting new Farish arrivals (is that an oxymoron ?!), I’ve pretty much totally stopped shopping with them. In terms of compatibility, it should be a direct swap - the body fits directly onto the very latest Cl 57 (GWR livery) that I have, but the light arrangement is different; my old 57/0 was I believe in the first batch to have working lights - it must be circa 15yrs old, so has done well to last this long!

Hi - I had a very early Chinese production 57/0 (which I am very fond of) die over the weekend - I’m thinking the easiest thing is just re-body onto a chassis from the above mentioned donor 57/0.... in part, for two reasons.... .... please can anyone confirm if the PCB for 371-651A has a push-fit 6pin DCC socket, ie. no soldering involved (which I am rubbish at).... if so, ideal opportunity for me to upgrade this loco to DCC .... does it also have the new white nylon(?) gears (supposedly less prone to splitting) as per the very latest class 57 production run? thanks everyone for any advise you can provide !

Are you in a position to announce/advise what the new containers are?.... I think I have an idea, but I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder ! Frankly, even if it were just a standard 40ft in some modern liveries not yet done by Farish/Dapol, I’d be happy - there are some glaring omissions, because the container liveries ‘aren’t colourful enough’.... not my personal opinion; just what I’ve been told....

A fine way to spend your disposable income I’ve calculated I save £40 every Friday that we stay in lockdown - so on that basis four Fridays at home on lockdown (and not in a pub) easily pays for an early-bird KUA pair! Also got my eye on a fleet of EcoFrets.... guess we’ll have to stay locked down for a few months more! Stay safe everyone

You will all be wanting the 313 in OO next ! .... who would have thought that N gauge would be leading the game for RTR BREL EMUs.... and obscure nuclear flask wagons for that matter ! Stay safe everyone

Deco samples received according to http://www.revolutiontrains.com/top-secret-revolution-kuas-break-cover/ .... looking pretty awesome - I am really looking forward to seeing these in the flesh :-) !!! Also briefly featured in the latest Revolution Trains YouTube video.

The 319 front end is orders of magnitude better.... I’m glad they took note of the comments made on this forum (and probably elsewhere). With the way it is looking now, I think I’m almost certain to buy at least one example. Two comments though; 1) I’d still like to see actual handrails below the cab windows; 2) the rain gutter above the passenger sliding doors seems very pronounced - almost as prominent as the footstep, which surely cannot be correct. But otherwise looking much improved. still mystified as to why they are pursuing the 450 with such rigour.... I ride these all the time from my local station and I might get one for posterity, but I’m not sure that there will be a wider appetite for them.....

Spotted this latest news item this morning regarding the 313/314 project: http://www.revolutiontrains.com/pep-talk/ A visit to see Southern’s 313 for R&D purposes - I think these are the only active 313 (or 314) left on the national rail network now, bar the sole yellow NR example.

Spotted this latest news item this morning regarding mk5 coaches: http://www.revolutiontrains.com/dreamy-sleepers/ The CAD looks great and sounds like tooling has just commenced !