cs233

Interesting Alan, is this universal throughout the Farish range generally that 3 pole motors are used? Quite sure some of the old Farish locos had 5 pole motors advertised on the box. Is this down to cost that the 150 had a 3 pole unit?

This is the front cowling I am referring to. Class 150 units were modified due to corrosion issues resulting from the cheap poor quality steel that BREL used. The modification alters the front appearance of the unit quite significantly

Purchased 150135 in Provincial livery despite its accuracy issues, certainly nosier than earlier Farish 150 units, the cog wheels at the base of the powered bogie are white plastic and on earlier units were black plastic, so something has been changed. Interestingly the documentation supplied with this unit states it has a three pole motor, thought it would have been a five pole unit, was it on earlier releases? 150135 is modelled without CAB roof mounted aerial and with 'cutaway' front cowling which I am not convinced it ever carried and there is no photographic evidence it did. 150135 was amongst 150137 in that these units were some of the last to carry this livery until around late 1992 but it had the aerial when the cowling was modified. Another issue is the grey seating this is a work of fiction when Class 150\1 units were built the seating was multi coloured stripes and no Class 150 unit was built with grey seating like the 155 and 156 units were. Overall despite the accuracy issues to the prototype and noisy operation it is aside of these a nice model. Anyone else have noisy operation?

Sorry to say when the retailer tried to increase the preorder price I cancelled my multiple sets after looking at the online reviews. Not acceptable for a new model in my opinion with that ridiculous join line. The coupling gap is also quite comical for a brand new tooling. Best to vote with your feet. The pantograph is the icing on the cake! May seem a little harsh the comments but this is a brand new tooling it should mirror other recent releases in terms of the end product and spec.

Class 755 is an interesting selection, at least Hornby have a place to hide the motor on this style of unit, lots of livery variations and options also

DMU's seem to sell, especially second generation and later ones, look at Bachmann with a completely outdated 150 with part of the coach filled with the motor and underframe errors on the 150\2 variant. Not to mention Realtrack seem to have sold a huge amount of 156 units. Cannot help think that due to people having modest size layouts that DMU vehicles of 2\3 coaches seem to make the most commercial sense especially if selecting a Class of unit that had many livery variations. My suggestion would be: 153 150 158 (Still think the latest Bachmann release can be improved with its fairly modest interior) 185 For older units a 101 is sure to be a knockout seller.

Indeed it is true the image is not in daylight but then we have considerations what type of daylight is acceptable? Whilst the below image is in a daylight setting on a 150\2 series unit the livery specification is the same. The unit is reasonably clean not ex works but certainly wearing a livery applied for less than 12 months so would not expect significant fading. Of course it comes down to many factors I can only say with my human eye without technical analysis the colour does not seem to be a reasonable match, although then it comes down to what is reasonable?

Will let people come to their own conclusions on the colour, this is an ex works GMPTE livered unit. It still has original cowling something the units only carried for months in this colour scheme before the lower cowling element was removed:

I think these pictures mentioned earlier sum up how inaccurate the colour is: There also can be no doubting that the GMPTE logo simply does not represent the prototype, the actual shape is wrong and furthermore Bachmann have also managed to get the colour of this wrong also. The main issue though is the upper body colour look how prominent the white stripe is on the model which simply does not represent the prototype.

Held the GMPTE unit at the weekend, the comments about the errors are very evident and valid but what hit me is how much the white stripe stands out. On the prototype it almost blends to some degree to the upper body colour and is not severe on the eye. Due to the upper body being the wrong colour the white stripe stands out significantly and it should not. Was excited when first announced but not tempted unless Bachmann were to supply replacement bodies that resemble the prototype correctly.

Well spotted indeed more errors in addition to the already substantial list. It is a personal choice and not due to the price but based on the long list of errors I will not be purchasing the GMPTE version. The interior also is a let down, the prototype units had dark blue material on the seats with white dots with a dark brown backrest the inside of the unit is a real disappointment and when you add the motor block it simply becomes overwhelming. The underbody having the technical error concerning the radiator area also is not ideal. Back on the subject of the interior the Provincial 150\2 has the wrong coloured seats they never came from the factory with grey seats. The 150\1 came from the Derby build line with awful multi coloured striped seats. The 150\2 emerged from BREL York on the other hand and had purple seats with a dark coloured back rest. Do not mean to be critical but the person that signed off the decoration for the models seems to have not done substantial due diligence and seems to have minimal knowledge of the prototype which is unusual for Bachmann.

Everything is subjective in this world, for 32-930 I make the following an issue: Radiator area incorrect based on the 150\2 series (minor, unless you know the class in detail) GMPTE logo square, clearly the wrong shape (moderate) GMPTE logo too light in colour (minor) Grey used for the upper body looks incorrect in every single picture against the prototype (significant)

After further inspection seems to be two livery errors the grey on the model is far too dark and the GMPTE logo has square edges whilst the prototype was very rounded. The colour looks way off to me.

The GMPTE livered units did travel quite a bit. Being allocated to NH depot it is quite possible they worked the Calder Valley services at sometime? They certainly made it to Barrow, Morecambe and North Wales. In the early 90's the workings from Holyhead and other North Wales destinations worked through to Wakefield Westgate. Not impressed with the blue seats, these seats were indeed dark blue with white dots but the minimalist interior does not capture the feel of the units. Sadly the underframe error on the 150\1 also seems to remain at the radiator area.

Not too concerned about the price of the APT, have two seven cars and one five car on order. Will keep one of each and perhaps sell the second seven car unit after a number of years of it being unused. The only concern I have is the join line when comparing to images of the prototype. Surprised more people have not raised it. When studying images of the prototype and the model it really detracts in respect of the appearance and in my opinion stops it from being the absolute knockout model it should be.

See that 32-929 is in stock at least at Kernow and elsewhere very soon priced at £271.99. That is certainly some price for a tooling based on a 2009 release that has had some 'tweaks'. The model remains incorrect on the following counts: 1, Seats were not grey on the 150\1 build series they originally were an awful blue and red stripe mix, if they had the seats dark blue that would be more realistic. 2, Model represented with cutaway cowling, 150115 had original cowling whilst in Central green livery so it is a work of fiction that the unit had a revised cowling whilst in the original livery. They should have modelled 150137 then it would have been accurate. 3, Underframe based around the 150\2 series units especially around the radiator area. Each to the own though at least it is Class 150 a shame they do not seem to have used the coupler from the newly released Class 158 units, the working representation of the BSI.

Thanks for the input, replaced the gears and the models are working well again. Will be putting them back in storage over the weekend so hopefully history will not be repeated!

As a 00 gauge modeller and not using N gauge stock very often I wanted to ask if there was any advice as to how to store them in the future to minimise the risk of split gears on the Farish stock? Back in 2014 I stored the following items (all working perfectly before storage) and a number have split gears: Farish Class 150\1 Provincial - split gears Farish Class 150\2 Regional - split gears Farish Class 101 Regional - ok Farish Class 101 blue grey - ok Farish HST - split gears Farish Class 108 blue grey -split gears Farish Class 47 x4 - 1 has split gears Not a good failure rate although I appreciate they have been stored for 7 years although this is in a store cupboard in a warm house and not in a garage or loft etc. I should also mention that Dapol stock mainly consisting of DMU's are all ok. Will acquire the gears and do the repairs although as I plan to store them for a period of time again after repair looking for any assistance as to how this could potentially be mitigated moving forward?

As mentioned in the post above from early 2020 the pending Provincial release is wrong. Livery sample shows modified cowling on the Bachmann site although 150115 never did run in Provincial livery in this condition. Evidence in the previous posted message shows the unit in Central livery still with as built cowling so the model is not accurate.

Indeed I understand any opinion which lacks standardisation and is not following herd mentality could be seen as moaning. Having differing opinions could equally with an alternative mindset be seen as healthy. I recall back in the early 2000’s many ‘glowing’ reviews of the original Bachmann 37 with incorrect tumblehome and if you was brave enough to raise this issue in a forum you were sentenced to receive sharp and direct comments by the herd of the day. A definition of a forum and its purpose is detailed below: "meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.” It should be expected that views might not always be the same and perhaps in some circles that would be considered healthy....

The sooner we get a sample with at least some attempted livery application the better. It may put the concerns with the gap and overall tolerances to bed and make it a non-issue? The gaps still are a major issue for me at least on the body and I remain disappointed with what has been shown. Please Hornby let's see some livery samples.

Indeed this was the former Intercity Cross Country fleet that passed to Virgin. When they were in the original Express livery they had a different interior with purple seats in standard class and a first class section that was very comfortable in fact superior to most first class seats currently on the network. A release of one of these four units in the original Express livery would be interesting as they got far and wide. I even recall in the mid 90's one operating a service from Liverpool to Portsmouth.

This seems to have been factored in as the GWR release has the deflector style fitted to Scottish units. Technically when the very early 158 units were built such as 158702 they did carry standard deflectors when leaving BREL Derby after construction although within months did receive the revised deflector.

Absolutely not judging the final product. Merely saying that what has been shown so far has been below expectations and is a disappointment. Still have a set on order plus the additional coaches, for now at least.

Capacity at Man Vic is the reason apparently why two services were joined up that resulted in a Leeds to Southport offering. Chester differs as that was a franchise commitment. Perhaps reducing the size of Man Vic in 1992 was not the smartest of decisions....