mdvle

Tangent Scale Models - available now - 2nd July release NEW - Gunderson 50' 6089cf High Cube Boxcar - Southern Pacific "B-70-43 Delivery 1969", Cotton Belt "B-70-42 Repaint 1984+", D&RGW "Delivery 1969", Golden West GVSR "B-70-43 Repaint 1996+", Undecorated https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/gunderson-brothers-50-6089cf-high-cube-double-plug-door-box-car/

As a broad statement that is false - at least for many/most of the manufacturers involved in this hobby. Accurascale mentioned in their HAA announcement that they were avoiding immediate duplication of liveries with a competitor that was also doing the HAA. Rapido delayed announcing their Iron Mink when they became aware of the offering from Rails of Sheffield. The Dapol Class 68 complements the Mk5 coaches, and even without a license being an issue there isn't a market for 2 competing models so tooling a second 68 would have been foolish. Yes Dapol took advantage and rushed a new run of the 68 with an appropriate livery and made money - but that also would have helped Accurascale sell more Mk5 coaches. So a proverbial win-win. This hobby is a business where as much as the companies involved may compete with each other they also help each other because no one company can produce every model wanted/needed. So sometimes it means "stealing" a model by tooling a new version, but sometimes it means to form a complete train you are buying a loco from A, a coach from B, another coach from C. Or your loco fleet is rarely all from one company. etc. As for your specific example of Heljan and the 86 - Heljan is a niche player in this market without a range of goods wagons or passenger coaches to sell - thus they by definition depend on the other companies in this hobby to make their locos popular with buyers. So why wouldn't they do an Anglia 86/2? There probably is - but that is in part because the current supplier has refused to tool a modern detailed version of the HST/Mk3's. Thus the HST market, if they lose part of it to a competitor, is because they became complacent.

An interesting what-if and a first guess would be that the Class 90 wouldn't have happened and thus one could simply substitute the 89 into the history of the 90. If BR was able to still get the funding for the 90 in addition to the 89 then I would expect one of 2 possibilities: 1) scrap/sell the 87's - yes, newer than the 86 but a small class. 2) scrap/sell around half the 86's. There most likely would have been advantages to having a then relatively current loco with current for the time technology and spares vs older (even if simpler) locos. My guess is the 91/Mk4 would still have happened - the HST demonstrated all the advantages of fixed formation reversible without loco change intercity trains and eliminating the 2nd cab and going for a more complete train look would have been desirable from a marketing perspective. Then there is always the other alternate history variation - that BR got funding to do a lot more overhead electrification and thus they actually had a need for 50 additional electric locos. What happens if the western region electrification happens 30 years earlier...

I'm guessing it's the same story as what happened in HO with Athearn and their initial(*) SW1500 offering - they worked off some early EMD drawings that got changed before the SW1500 entered production and thus ended up with an incorrect model. Don't know if it is accurate but this website indicates the tooling is from 1971 and claims it is closer to an SW1200 https://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=134342 * - in HO Athearn eventually renamed their incorrect model to the closer/accurate SW-7 and tooled up a correct SW1500 - but there will still be a lot of older Blue Box incorrect SW1500's out there.

In most cases for North America the engineer can't see what they are coupling to and rely on hand/radio signals from a crew member on the ground at the coupling point. You can in fact see the narrow ledge for crew to stand on the front (picture left) of the loco - also note the poling pocket that locos and freight cars use to have. Both features were banned long ago.

About a year would be more normal. In the US Athearn announces product monthly with an order deadline on the last Friday of the month and the eta for delivery is a year later. Before the current shipping issues and other things of the last 2 years they were able to meet that schedule. I believe Rapido North America similarly was able until the current issues to generally ship within a year of an order deadline (for them it can seem longer as they announce earlier in the production process so the order deadline is often months after announcement). Longer than a year would really only happen if you announce early in the development process where research/tooling issues could cause unforeseen delays.

Possibly? But as manufacturers run out of locos to retool the more popular first generation dmu's might be tempting. The Bachmann is likely good enough for many but the lack of intermediate cars (if I recall correctly) could allow an opening for a competitor combined with how numerous and widespread the real things were. All three of Bachmann's first generation DMU's are potentially open for someone new to come along given the assorted lack of modern features/not doing related classes (Class 117/118) or the lack of intermediate vehicles.

Very interesting chart, thanks for posting it. It tells me Hornby management is asking for trouble in pissing off their retailer "partners" given that those partners are keeping Hornby alive. With direct sales numbers that low Hornby has no realistic chance of going direct only anytime in the next decade at a guess. While the nature of the model train hobby is such that it can be difficult to avoid a company if they make the model of a prototype you want/need the same can't be necessarily said for paint - hobby shops could potentially send a message by pushing competitor paints and the little hobby paints really aren't conductive to online buying...

The website has been updated and the most recent newsletters are now available. Newsletter 19 from July 15th - https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Titfield-Thunderbolt-tramcar---ready-to-order-.html?soid=1138500243749&aid=PiA9flmi1JI Link to the list of past newsletters available to read - https://rapidotrains.co.uk/rapido-news-uk/

It is readily apparent that Hornby are allocating production numbers prior to their big bang announcement - and the problem isn't that but rather that they are accepting more orders for item X than they have ordered from China. That is simple incompetence. Note that Bachmann is doing the same thing now - their policy of only announcing product every 3 months once it has been made and is in the shipping process is the same thing (just spread over 4 announcements a year). Yet Bachmann don't screw up their order numbers so badly and they don't allow dealers to order more product than has been made. So the problem isn't when the orders are placed with China - their are pros and cons to the 2 main options - but rather in Hornby's sales department.

You can either give every shop 1, or allocated based on the ratios of the order. But the key point is that while 3rd party retailers all had allocations cut Hornby.com didn't - and that is a deliberate decision made by someone at Hornby and that is what is causing much of this controversy.

Athearn did a Q&A session tonight with product designers Janek and Jon regarding the California Cars:

Rapido bi-level video. Important for DCC users - Josh demonstrates how to replace the DC chip with the included (in a bag) DCC chip to allow for cab lighting to be used (or alternately how to put a DCC decoder in).

Or maybe in the current times it comes down to who can actually provide the decoders when Bachmann needs them? I know some of Rapido's North American stuff has had locos sit at the factory waiting on decoders to arrive and that could potentially be an issue for Bachmann where they don't announce ahead of time so really need to ship the product. Except it doubles the DCC SKU's to handle, confuses the market (retailer A - which do I stock, maybe best to stock none...), creates support issues, etc.

The July update (from 2 weeks ago) - nice example of the unexpected that can cause issues with schedules when a gas line was discovered.

From ad in September MR, a holding page for a Facebook Live on August 2nd https://soundtraxx.com/blunami/ Ad states DC/DCC/wireless sound decoders This could shake things up.

Woodland Scenics Coming soon - traffic lights - 3 styles https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Coming-Soon-Traffic-Lights

Woodland Scenics Coming soon - traffic lights - 3 styles https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Coming-Soon-Traffic-Lights

Woodland Scenics Coming soon - traffic lights - 3 styles https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Coming-Soon-Traffic-Lights

Summit Customcuts - IHOP restaurant kit https://www.summit-customcuts.com/product/ih-001-ihop-restaurant-kit/ (listed in MR new products)

Walthers Modern Diesel Fueling Facility - can build the 3 track facility pictured on the website or a longer 2 track facility https://www.walthers.com/diesel-locomotive-fueling-facility-kit

Model Railroader July 2022 Better late than never - A new house and hobby led to this 25 x 38-foot HO scale layout A mill pond for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes - Part 1: Preparing the bridge abutments, pond bottom and banks Step by Step - Scratchbuild an abandoned house One room, two track plans - A look at the pluses and minuses of two design approaches for a small spare bedroom Blend a river into a backdrop - A Tainter gate dam hides the seam between the layout and the backdrop DCC Currents - Using mini and cell phone speakers Product Reviews - Bowser HO RS-3, Atlas N Dash 8-40C August 2022 A compact layout for railfanning - The Sierra Northern is an N scale layout built on a hollow-core door A Utah Belt progress report - Eric Brooman's popular freelance HO scale layout keeps up with changes in the railroad industry and economy A mill pond for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes - Part 2: adding foliage, water and ripples to the pond Model a wrapped locomotive - Combine prototype images and photoediting software to make decals for a one-of-a-kind locomotive Product Reviews - Rapido HO NH EP-4, Broadway Limited N 2-8-2 Mikado, Walthers HO 89' flatcar with bi-level autorack September 2022 All Aboard! - Discovery World's new train exhibit features an HO scale layout based on 20th-century Milwaukee Add a gated crossing to your layout - A simple way to protect lightly used junctions One night in Spokane - The O scale Pacific Railway & Navigation Co. comes alive after dark A fresh take on the Santa Fe - Noted modeler Chuck Hitchcock's 28 x 30-foot HO scale layout depicts branchline railroading in Kansas 30 minutes to better vision - Create "footlights" for your workbench with LED strip lights Product Reviews - Athearn HO SD70M-2, Bachmann N Pennsy streamlined K4s, Spring Mills HO DOD Flat cars

Trains July 2022 Surf's Up! - Southern California's passenger-oriented Surf Line along the Pacific Coast is worth a visit the greatest show on tracks - The South Shore Line's huge double-tracking project is changing the face of America's last interurban Gambling on the Es - A carefully calculated bet advances Baltimore & Ohio's storied dieselization Why we love the 4-6-2 - A few lucky operating steam locomotives continue to fly the flag of the Pacific type Boomer locomotives hustle - Lessons from a peripatetic GE unit built more than 30 years ago, and still going strong In My Own Words: "We need a railroad" - Remember the steam-powered Reader Railroad of Arkansas and "Mr. Tom" August 2022 Virginia is for (railroad) lovers - The rich history of the Old Dominion is reflected in its railroads Virginia's venerable places - These 32 locations are historic, mountainous, and stunning Commonwealth commitment - Virginia bets big on passenger rail Coal country revisited - Black diamonds still make the rails shine across Virginia, although not as brightly as before A tunnel runs through it - Take a walk through history inside the Blue Ridge Tunnel, once the longest U.S. railroad tunnel, built in the 1850s September 2022 Deeper than the river - The river bluffs and bottomlands of northeastern Missouri and west central Illinois host railroads that are rich in scenery and history A Reading steam revival - Thanks to Andy Muller and his Reading & Northern, No. 2102 is back to doing what it does best A short line like no other - Pacific Harbor Line keeps traffic moving at North America's biggest port complex Brightline's big build - New tracks to Orlando, upgrades to the Florida East Coast, and a maintenance facility take shape In My Own Words: "They were nice, white pants" - Remembering an unfortunate encounter with steam railroading at its finest

For the airline industry when it comes to heat there are definite issues that they face that buying equipment can't solve. If it gets too hot then it impacts the ability of the aircraft to take off - whether it be requiring a longer runway or making the aircraft lighter (fewer passengers/less freight) or even delaying the flight until temperatures cool down. The difference though is that it typically doesn't get the same press coverage. See this discussion - https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/1531/does-temperature-affect-takeoff-performance

Correct, if you are looking at satisfying the most critical/demanding modellers on RMweb - and have the capital available to spend. But if you are Hattons, looking at making 80% of the market happy and looking for a way to use existing assets to generate revenue with minimal additional costs and with the anniversary of the film coming up to potentially drive sales it may make sense (from a Hattons point of view). I'm not saying Hattons will or won't, nor am I saying that another party won't tool from scratch - just that unless there is confidence that Hattons won't update their model it would be a potentially risk investment.