dogbox321

Don't forget to let us know well in advance, just incase anyone wishes to order any additional Class 92's. Also, as per APT refunds on first payments and then re-sending via the new system. Will that be the same for Class 92 orders? Thanks, C.

Hi Dave, This is going to be a superb model. Two things though (and I'm sorry if they have been covered before): 1). Will the nem coupling on these, fit into a hole in the locos front valence, with a plug provided (will leave a square visible), or will there be separate valences for the modeller to fit with a choice of ones with a hole for the nem coupling, and another containing screwlink/buckeyes as appropriate? 2). On the pipe that is split between the body and bogie, would there be any chance of looking into making this of a flexible material, so it could be of one part, connected to the body and bogie. I know in the grand scheme of things it is nothing, but every time I look, I think it would be an improvement, if you could look into it and see if it were feasible. Plus thin plastic detail like that, particularly on the bogie, is very likely to get knocked off/broken on platform edgers etc., especially when the locomotive is on a curve. Congratulations on what is sure to be a fantastic model, that you and your team at Hattons can be rightly proud of. Best Wishes, C.

Its been over a month and Bachmann have not announced a Reps Ltd Edition........

Perhaps, but Gaugemaster had Bachmann make 504 47406 "Railriders". (Shame in the photo its not named) Lots of opportunity........ Anyone got a photo of a Class 50 or Class 55 working Cemflo's?????? Regards, C.

Hi - only just got around to testing a couple of Bachmann Sound Fitted Locos that I bought a few months ago (Brand New). 47346 and 66040. Not had any Bachmann sound locomotives since 66022, 37057 and 47404, but must say pretty they are quite disappointing! If memory serves me correct the originals came with a reasonable suite of sounds that could be played. These later ones have gaps in the function listings where sounds have been removed..... Progress for locomotives with a SRP of £250+ eh? Personally, I find Hornby's 08 with TTS is more impressive than these sound locos from Bachmann. Afterwards, and to end on something positive - I then tried my first SLW Class 24 and it just knocks the socks off everything I have herd before....literally! Its totally fantastic....Its like going from the first Black and White TV, to a 4K TV with home cinema! Outstanding!!! Cannot wait for SLW to get the 25 done and move on to Class 33's..... Surely with Mr.Sutton's background the "Crompton", has got to be a target! Only problem is, using a Hornby Elite, I cannot use all the Class 24's functions...... Sob! Sob! Sob! It may force me to get a better controller! Regards, C.

....well to be fair, if you look at past models you can make your own mind up, about my philosophy..... Looking at past and present sources: N gauge TEA £26.00, OO gauge TEA £37.00 N gauge IZA £36.00, OO gauge £99.99, or £89.99 if you pay now. Don't think I need to say any more!

Its because the law in this country is a complete and total a**. There is no "Criminal Justice System" left, just a joke that's been created by do-gooders and exploited by criminals..... Some examples - the first is a classic - based on the current surge in Knife Crime: A person carrying 2 knifes up his sleeves in a public place, admitting he would use them, and then fails to turn up to court....eventually when they catch him, gets 2 six month suspended sentences. The penalty is more for doing 35 in a 30! Hardly a deterrent to carry knives is it??? Some police officers have been told not to tazer people carrying acid, incase the person with the acid spills it on themselves. Moped thefts and muggings - some officers wont give chase in case the moped driver injures themselves. The whole system is so annoying. Regards, C.

Yes, its a shame they are so pricey - think KMRC are looking at as they are two wagons, so selling them at the price of 2 wagons. Plus with selling Turbots at £29.99 with less detail, probably think they can get away with charging more for a premium product. Whilst "OO" is always a little more expensive than "N" Gauge, Revolutions "N" Gauge are very reasonably priced, and you can compare the difference in price between the N Gauge TEA and the OO Gauge one. I too would have had a few, but like you say, not at that price - plus I am lucky enough to have a fleet of Roco ones, so will manage with just those. They are HO, but because they are to a large loading gauge, pass for "OO", but just don't have the anchor logo on the side. Regards, C.

Hi Dave, Glad you are sorting your website/invoicing out, but regarding refunding and re-placing orders how is that going to work. For example - I paid via a Credit Card using paypal. If that gets refunded - does that just go onto pay pal, and then I somehow have to re-credit it to the card? And then when its credited back to the card, do we then need to spend that amount to get the APT Money effectively back? Does Lloyds click-safe allow the use of creditcards, without classing it as a cash transaction? Just asking because for some of us it may take months to get the money back to ourselves in the first place, if what I have outlined may be the case - ultimately it may take people a while to get the money back to you, as £200+ is hardly small change. Best Regards, C.

Ye Yeah, thats fair enough. We all do it to enjoy it. The Evening Star wooden box set is actually pretty good value. I recall the 70th anniversary Gold Pated Mallard A4, which I have one of. Will the 70th Gold Pate edition be worth much now theres an 80th etc. There seems to be a theme - 70th, 80th etc. Just wondering what makes it special this time around. OR are you better to wait for Mallards 100th? Regards, C.

So for £369.99, you get a £189.99 A4 and a £125.00 Coach - Apart from a Cardboard box, is there anything else to make it worth the extra notes???? Regards, C.

I've not had much luck either....class 05 with a broken front rail (last blue one in stock.....). Luckily it were repairable with a tad of super glue, a Sarah Siddons with a crumled box and a Bachmann Class 57 thats broke,,,,, Regards, C.

It needs "Cloning" then......

The things people will do for the chance to win a 3 pack they can use in anger......

To be honest - running a business is not easy. Dave passing these details on is quite possibly a little embarrasing for him too, but at least he his being honest. If again, I am being totally honest - Organisation is a key art in running a successful business, and whilst I am sure that Dave is doing his best, and is good at at the creation of models - most deadlines/timescales appear to come and go. We all have weaknesses - but we have to work to our strong points and address our weaknesses. So what I am saying is Dave, you need either some form of Help, if organizing is not your strongest point, or you need to focus and pay some attention in to how you organize your business affairs, to ensure you meet deadlines. Likewise, we all want the APT to be a success, and we know you can produce a good model - Class 71 being a notable example. The main risks would appear to be two things - 1). Crowdfunders loosing faith due to deadlines falling apart (reading this, some are already having doubts, and ultimately people are investing large sums of money in this venture!) 2). Delays causing manufacturers to loose confidence, get fed up of waiting and increase prices, the longer the model takes to come to fruition. Regarding Manufacturers loosing confidence - read Hornby CEO's synopsis of Chineese manufacturers - they like to be kept busy. So if you miss the production slots they give you - firstly they will be annoyed at lost production time and will look to others to fill production capacity, and then your products will get pushed to the back of the queue again. Plus, there is the risks presented by price increases the longer production takes, plus possible changes in currency variations etc. Meant in the nicest possible way - you need to get yourself organised and if you fall behind, try your best to get schedules back on track. Not keep adding delays, delays and more delays. As they say, if you don't plan, you plan to fail. Constructively - Looking forward to "positive" and timely development of the APT. You have the money coming in from Crowdfunders, experience in production and design to make a great model so ultimately you have the ideal opportunity to make this model a case study, for how DJ Models can produce a "World Class" model within a reasonable timescale. (But yes, we don't want quality to be compromised and should look at some delays "Sympathetically" - Look at Rapidos delays with the APT-E, TEA, Sterling Single, Pendolino etc. - but not all the time with everything). Best Regards, C.

To be honest - running a business is not easy. Dave passing these details on is quite possibly a little embarrasing for him too, but at least he his being honest. If again, I am being totally honest - Organisation is a key art in running a successful business, and whilst I am sure that Dave is doing his best, and is good at at the creation of models - most deadlines/timescales appear to come and go. We all have weaknesses - but we have to work to our strong points and address our weaknesses. So what I am saying is Dave, you need either some form of Help, if organizing is not your strongest point, or you need to focus and pay some attention in to how you organize your business affairs, to ensure you meet deadlines. Meant in the nicest possible way, Best Regards, C.

Hornby's offering has a "resonable" shape, but as stated, shows its age a little and mechanism isn't that powerful. You could possibly add to adhesion by increasing the weight, but I think as well you need to get that to transfer to the powered bogie better, so it pushes onto the motor bogie, rather than being a dead weight to haul. I don't think the lkes of a Dyna-drive chassis were made for a Class 58, and anything "bashed" may be hard to add because of the Class 58's "Bone" shaped body. The other idea is to replace with an Heljan model, available from a certain Liverpool retailer for between £96 and £99 (although original Railfreight I believe has sold out). The shape is better, although not faultless, and I believe you also get both bogie types included! Powerwise - I find that they are pretty good too. Regards, C.

Think this whole thread brings in some interesting points....... Haggling in shops - That does not really happen in real life - people shop around before going into the supermarkets, hence the increase in the fortunes of the likes of discount supermarkets (but they are often only cheap on own brands and not the big brands!). Likewise, there are usually deals to be had on many products. If you go to only one, some you will win, some you will loose on. People can try to “win” by shopping around. Some retailers and markets are notorious for what can only really be called dubious pricing- Electricals, Double Glazing being too great examples. The other week our washer broke down, in a certain shop the one we wanted was £450 – with 10%, so £405, the next week 599.99! I actually picked one up elsewhere, after checking other websites and got one for £390! We were going to buy one, but at £599.99 looked elsewhere because of the rise, I got it even cheaper, by shopping around, and the original retailer lost out. Likewise some Double Glazing sales people with their catalogue of prices, then they have to work out the correct price, give a discount and if you don't wish to buy something, they ask you how much you are prepared to pay, and ring their manager, to see what they can do! Model Railways are a good price comparative market, in that you can actually hunt around for some good deals if you wish, based on SRP. However, in many cases I am not sure that the SRP/manufacturers pricing is so good. A classic example would be the variation with two manufacturers manufacturing Seacows, and the price variation of the two manufacturers! Likewise because of how the market is built on only a few manufacturers, pricing has become I fear rather "exploitative". Is there really that much work and many components in a 4mm VDA to warrant its price? Look at the 4mm TEA tanks on the market, whilst it were a great model - is two plastic bogies, a barrel, with a few bits of detail really worth an SRP of £40+? And to add objectivity - I think the same can be said of the much older TEA. Likewise a 3 pack of wagons in a "budget range" were £24.99 in 2017, but in 2018 went t a SRP of 49.99. We have been told so many times about price rises, and yes things do go up, but if wages rise 5% thats a 5% rise on that cost, not the whole product, although an allowance is required for this rise regards logisitics, suppliers etc. Ditto, when metals and plastics went up in price and then stabilised, prices never came down!. As I always say - a percentage is relative - 50% of not alot, is still not alot! I think the internet has also fuelled manufacturers price rises too - Manufacturers are savvy - if a manufacturer in China sees a Loco they produce sell for £200 on ebay, then they are going to say, well if thats what people will pay, thats the price the model should be priced towards at RRP, why should I sell it for say £40, the distributor sell it for £80 and the retailer sell it for £120? If the customer is prepared to pay £200? The rise in prices is Exactly the reason that I believe we have seen so many manufacturers enter the market in recent years - the escalation of prices and the opportunity to make money. As my old Economics professor used to say - The highest monopoly profit leads to the quietest life - Model Railways have left this realm, and so other manufacturers have entered the market, and making products, and now what used to be the big 2-3, have very little control, because of the new entrants, and more worryingly for them, fewer sales as people spend some of their modelling budget with competitors. Regarding the minimum prices that certain Distributors are now policing the market with, by saying you wont get stock if you discount by more than 15% in X weeks. Personally, I do not believe it should be happening, and should be against competition laws to mandate a price. Secondly, its actually driven up manufacturing costs. In the past I pre-ordered many items - now I do not. So, if the box shifters are not selling as much, when a product first hits the shelves - two things are happening, firstly production quantities are going down which is perhaps making manufacturers have smaller production runs which are costing more per unit, plus there is then the storage, warehousing and storage issue. As a manufacturer, you want to produce a batch at its most efficient - if sales are not sufficient, and orders are lower, prices go up. You could actually argue, that the "box shifters" actually subsidised the hobby, or at least had an impact on keeping SRP prices lower for all shops! And actually, when the box shifters have sold theirs, the small model shop who may be less competitive, firstly sells some to his regular customers and the rest are then snapped up those who missed out. If box shifters are still holding stock for long periods of time, then the market for some model shops pretty much falls on its face! Thirdly, how can some manufacturers say the minimum price its to help small model shops survive. When in the next breath they are supplying box shifters with clearance stock…… Regarding manufacturers putting price rises up – then with products that are “keep in stock” items such as track, then it makes sense for the prices to rise at a certain point. If however, it’s a batch production like a locomotive, if the supplier has a loco in stock and has not sold it based on an RRP of £139.99, then raising this price to £159.99, to me makes no sense, apart from to possibly make the odd person panic buy “bargains” at retailers with old stock! But from a retailers perspective – if you couldn’t sell it in a reasonable timescale based on a £139.99 retail price, would you really want to buy any more, based on an RRP of £159.99, or count yourself lucky thay you flogged a locomotive that were sitting on the shelves. And to be honest Lima did limited editions to raise prices and enhance collectability, and more recent Limited Editions actually seem to be about shifting a few lots of 512 locos, and whilst the supplier has possibly sold out, there seems to be quite a few sitting on retailers shelves. Likewise – in perspective – why does something such as a “Newly Tooled” Class 68 have an SRP of circa £145, whilst a good few year old Class 37 or 47 with many fewer components have an SRP of £159.99? Surely post since the announcement of a new Class 66 for £150, the Class 47 and 37 is ripe for another manufacturer to produce..... Bottom line is, Cost and Price have little correlation, it is purely what the market will bare, what the seller is happy to sell the product for and what a person is prepared to pay. Also perhaps as a last point, as once again to quote my economics professor “Caveat Emptor – Let the buyer beware”. Nothing in this world is ever free, so if it seems to good to be true it probably is, but likewise, if you are happy to spend time searching (particularly with the internet) you probably will manage to save a few pounds, but do it too much and you’ll loose all your modelling time too! A bargain, or good price is subjective to us all, depending upon how we view customer service, the product, possible lead times to having items posted, time and costs associated with possible faulty returns etc.. Potentially, and it may be infrequent, but as an example - what I am saying is, you could buy a locomotive for £10 cheaper, but have to send it back, the retailer then be out of stock and then have to purchase it somewhere else! Whilst the guy down the road, went to his local model shop, got one for a few pounds extra, saw it working, bought it and had it working within minutes. I think the real question for us all, is what is a “Fair price” and "value", but likewise, needs to be in the context of the what the different manufacturers offer and their respective prices. Regards, C.

Thanks for the info. Shame they don't put 4 plugs in so you can cover the holes over if required. Best Regards, C.

Hi, so if people have a LLoyds Account, will we be basically be able to go into a LLoyds Branch and make a payment, once the system is live. Thanks, C.

Hi, having looked at Oxford containers, there are 4 T-shaped holes adjacent to the twist-lock openings on the container. Is this some form of mechanism so the Oxford Reach Stackers can pick them up or what? I think they look really unsightly on the top! Thanks, C.

Thinking Laterally-----Wonder what Hattons will be announcing on the 3rd of July then..................

As my Economics Professor used to say "The Highest monopoly profit, leads to the quietest life!" Unfortunately, whether due to "genuine" actual cost rises, pure greed, or a combination of both - the fact is that Bachmann and Hornby are loosing market share and sales, to the newbies in the market. The prices now being charged have allowed others to enter the market and offer new products. Whether price rises have been voluntary or because the suppliers are demanding a bigger cut, they have both been complacent, in believing that they could charge what they like. This has opened the flood gates to a considerable amount of competition and ultimately regards choice, the modeller, collector, or whateverr they want to call themselves, has never had it so good. However for anyone wishing to model a train, then costs have jumped astronomically! - A considerable barrier to entry and to new blood entering the hobby - and in all honest to anyone starting out now, unless they were loaded, I'd recommend choosing another hobby! The other issue that no one seems to have picked up on is the internet and E-bay - I think this has had a very significant part to play too - those manufacturing model trains have been able to see "EXACTLY" what people have been prepared to pay for model railways, and ultimately, I feel the Chinese manufacturers have wanted to cash in on this scenario, by increasing prices.. People have been predicting that the "bubble" will burst for many a year, but as time as progressed, more new entrants have entered the market. I think its going to become more "Survival of the fittest", with technological innovation key to delivering products at the highest quality and price, whilst most products will have shorter and shorter lifecycles, as choice becomes greater and greater. On a positive note for Hornby, and perhaps its greatest strength is, that when it wants to, it can produce models with the highest levels of finesse. When Hornby are on the ball, I don't believe any other manufacturer can quite get to the standard that Hornby can attain. There is just a certain quality. Regards, C.

What Lyndon appears to be saying, seems pretty true. The real question is, whether what he is proposing is desirable enough, that enough people will purchase it, at the price Hornby want to sell it at, and leave enough "in the bank" for Hornby to make a profit and ultimately give its investors confidence in the business. The problem of course is, Hornby are stuck between a Rock (Suppliers wanting to maximise their revenue off a product) and Hard Place (Customers [Modellers] wanting models at the best possible price) Regards, C.

Hi, 9 cars would be a large box and expensive. If they did it to sell individual coaches some people would probably not buy 9. A good number of people seem to be running two-five car units. Its like anything - we don't know what will happen in the future. Its really down to you to decide what you want to do. At the rate that Hornby are producing Class 800's at the moment, it would appear that they will be available for a good while yet, with various numbers. Its really for you to risk assess. Would you prefer to know you have the 9 car you want, but with the odd comprimise, or wait and chance it. The other option is to run two five car sets, as quite a few people seem to be already doing, and they look impressive. Just a shame you have to couple hem with something like a paper clip to couple them to go around curves. Regards, C.