mdvle

Westerfield, maker of resin kits, has just announced three new ATSF 50' sectional sheathed automobile boxcars, the Fe-Q, Fe_R, and Fe-V. http://www.westerfieldmodels.com/

Total speculation on my part, but 1) the current CEO of Hornby owns 51% of LCD Enterprises (owner of Oxford) 2) Hornby owns 49% of Oxford. 3) Hornby have some new tooling for Mk3 coaches (the slide door rebuilds). 4) I suspect, much like the Terrier, Hornby view the HST as "theirs" I would be surprised if the new Hornby Mk3 tooling did not allow for the older versions to be made, as it would seem to be an obvious next step. Given the ownership of Oxford, and that Oxford have apparently backed away from their original plans to do Mk3 variations, it would seem that the way has been made for Hornby to proceed with further Mk3 versions from new tooling. I would guess the HST Mk3 first, with M3ka's possibly in the future. The only real question is what level of effort/quality Hornby put into the model.

On the assumption you are looking for a station(s) to model, some generalities. Exeter St. D to Newton Abbot is obviously a busy route that in addition to Paignton trains carries all the stuff to Plymouth and Cornwall. Exeter St. Thomas, Starcross and Dawlish Warren are only served by local trains, and it is possible some Plymouth/Cornwall trains may not stop at Dawlish or Teignmouth. Newton Abbot -> Paignton is quieter, though still has (per gwr.com) 2 direct services to Paddington m-f which I assume at this point are Class 80x, though would have been HST in the past. Also in summer get the steam specials running to Kingswear via the Dartmouth Steam Railway. London trains don't stop at Torre. Also, there are plans (currently shelved) for a new station between Torre and Newton Abbot (called Edginswell) if you want something more modern looking/simple and willing to speculate. There are drawings around but the station has no funding to be built currently. Exeter Central (on Exeter St. D -> Exmouth get the Waterloo - Exeter Trains, I would guess Exmouth Jct to Exmouth is all just the local services. Exeter St. D to Barnstaple is mainly going to be local services with perhaps still some freight(?).

Simply go to gwr.com and select Exeter to any of the endpoints, choose an available train, and then you can list all the calling points. Wikipedia can also be useful, it will often have an entry for each line. Though from memory I can tell you Exeter -> Paignton is Exter St. Davids, Exeter St. Thomas, Starcross, Dawlish Warren, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, Torre, Torquay, Paignton. Suspect it will be best to make notes from a timetable, though note big changes are coming December 15th. Then compare with photos and video to see what actually was used vs what was planned.

Given that the 68s in non-TPE livery are currently quite abundant at retailers almost a year after release I wouldn't expect to see another batch until 2021 at the earliest.

Likely a reflection of what has more inventory, thus more need to shift...

I'm not saying various running numbers in same livery don't sell (in fact it is long past time Bachmann and Hornby move to what their competitors are doing and offering a choice of numbers with each release). But it needs to be done either at the same time, or spaced out at least 2 years between releases. History has amply demonstrated to anyone paying attention that quick second releases do not sell, and the manufacturer and retailers end up attempting to sell off excess inventory with significant discounts (which while certainly some consumers like, isn't good for the manufacturer). The new coupler issue is also a non-issue - 80%+ of the market aren't going to use it as they have no interest in running multiple units together. For those who do want to use it, it was always going to be a 3 to 5 year project to get sufficient numbers of new models out there with the new coupler (unless the modeller is willing to ignore the number issue, or change the numbers themselves).

Because without a complete trainset you don't get valid results - you don't have the extra mass behind pushing and reacting to whatever test you decide to implement. For example, you could have tested a 800 cab car crashing into an HST power car and decided great, everything is fine, the noise takes the damage - but you wouldn't have gotten what we saw where a low speed collision resulted in intermediate carriages going sideways at one end.

Except history has shown that often a second run within a year of the first run results in lots of models collecting dust on shelves. Manufacturers tend to need to allow at least 2 years between runs for demand to return for an item, particularly if they are going to repeat a livery.

Generally speaking anyone looking for information on a specific railroad, particularly the fallen flags, will be better off looking at groups.io (an email list hosting service) where a lot of email lists on specific railroads can be found. While there is no guarantee anyone will have what you want, there is a better chance (as well as a better chance at getting pointers to other sources). For the CNW maybe check out https://groups.io/g/cnw

All older items that have already paid off their tooling. And sadly tooling costs are rarely proportional to the size of the models given how relatively little different there is in model form. Again, older item, and arguably Hornby are failing to make enough profit on it given the rather large losses Hornby keeps posting year after year. And also currently lists for £94 on Hornby's website. Also note last year's Peckett B2 at £110

Won't say it won't happen, but it would be dangerous to announce a Flirt at the moment given the uncertainty around future versions and any modifications they may need. Far better to wait a short period before doing tooling so you can accommodate all the variations that appear and thus get a better return on the tooling costs. With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't already come to agreement behind the scenes to do the Flirts at some point. Possibly/likely to have external changes to accommodate the batteries, the most obvious change being to make space for the batteries (whether it be underneath or a longer power pack). Large battery packs also tend to need cooling/ventilation, which may require changes to the shell depending on where the batteries (and the associated electronics/equipment for charging) are located.

That would be because they are different. Crandon was served by the CNW (bought by UP) and by Wisconsin Central (bought by CN). note: likely to get more responses asking in the North American focused subsection at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/155-usa-canadian-railroads/

Both GE and EMD have an option for those (GE offers the A1A-A1A while EMD offers B1-1B), but they aren't popular. I don't believe the EMD version went beyond 2 demonstrator units, and the GE offering only amounts to 299 units (275 to BNSF, 24 to FEC) out of thousands of regular C-C units.

Actually, with the Terrier Hornby did. Hornby ignored it for years despite requests for an updated version so eventually Rails of Sheffield stepped up and announced one and proceeded. Hornby then reacted to that, and rushed a new Terrier into production, because Hornby viewed the Terrier as "theirs", hence its last minute announcement earlier this year. The problem for Bachmann (and Hornby) is that we currently are, thanks to the abundance of manufacturers and retailers doing models in the UK market, experiencing a rapid retooling of models to a modern standard. So far in just over the last 12 months we have seen the 37, 45, 47, 55, 86, 91, 92 picked off with the Hornby announcement just over a month away. Some of those models could perhaps support a second entry in the new tooling category, but most really can't (though they will support a lower priced option is someone can meet the price points). How many more models will be taken if Bachmann waits until 2021 to announce anything new? With a few exceptions, duplication will mean that 2 or more passed a financial point of no return before the competitors product became public with the result that all involved will suffer lower financial returns on their investment (and depending on the model perhaps a loss). Yes, some models can perhaps support 2 newly tooled versions and still generate reasonable profits (perhaps the 47/57), but a 55 or 92 likely can't because there just wouldn't be sufficient demand, particularly when older lower cost models are also available. But product is now finally moving through their new product development/production pipeline. Given that your typical new tooled model takes 2 to 3 years from start to delivery Bachmann is at the stage where they need to have stuff in the pipeline for 2021 (and perhaps late 2020) or they won't have anything new available, and they may find they need to insert something into the middle of the queue in order to stake a claim to a model before someone else does.

All depends on where you live. Many places in the US and Canada you say bus and people will think of a transit bus, and in fairness to the Pacers the interior was very much comparable to the transit buses in use at the time (think the GM new look bus) which had a poor (by today's standards) interior with a lot of rattling sounds after a few years of bounding down the curb lanes of urban streets.

I guess this is where local knowledge helps - in this case anyone living in Mississauga is well aware that there are no subways in Mississauga (and any Mississauga bus going to the subway states Islington, which is the name of the TTC Subway station served). As for train stations, they are all referred to by suffixing GO onto the name I think - Lisgar GO, Meadowvale GO, Cooksville GO, Port Credit GO, Long Branch GO, Clarkson GO - covers all that have regular bus service (there is also Dixie and Cooksville stations but don't think they get regular bus route service except as a passing by). Which sort of makes sense when it is a Mississauga bus. (and for those not familiar with Mississauga, the "City Centre Transit Terminal" is at Square One Shopping Mall, which is right next door to Mississauga City Hall and the Central Library). Well, it's a compromise - Mississauga doesn't (yet) have the population density to support a LRT/Streetcar along that corridor let alone a subway or other train service (Mississauga is, assuming no changes by the province, getting at some point in the next 10 years a LRT up Hurontario Street from Port Credit to just inside the edge of Brampton but that really is the only place with sufficient density to be viable - and side note, it could have gone 1/3 of the way through Brampton to Brampton GO/VIA but Brampton council said no). Haven't been there for a while, but I believe there are Mississauga (Miway) system maps on the upper level of the transitway stations. Renforth is a bit unusual in that the TTC also uses it so I don't know what if anything the TTC does, though I will forward your comments to the Miway email account as that is perhaps the one station where a maps down at bus level could make sense with people possibly transferring from the TTC.

Not YouTube and COPPA specific, but rather it is interesting times from a legal perspective as many jurisdictions (not just the US - see the EU and GDPR) attempt to enforce laws outside their own borders. As such, I would suggest anytime anything like this comes up give the issue careful consideration and don't just assume because you aren't in a given country that it doesn't apply, and that it won't apply in the future. The reach of some of these laws, particularly given the multi-nation spread of many of these companies we use, may not be as limited as assumed or there may be other undesirable consequences (such as account deletion - so make sure you have backup copies of everything).

Most of this hobby aren't that specific, and it is more of a "if I like the looks of it I will buy it" type of mindset. But what if there were 2 models, different prototypes, that were appropriate for what you are modelling and you didn't have the budget for both? Would the cheaper product get your choice, as it would allow money to either put into next year's budget or on some other smaller items you need? Or perhaps the one with the greater discount gets chosen, on the basis that the limited discount model might be available at a greater discount next year? And even if you are more sensible in your decision making, do you think all the other customers would be?

For reason that only Athearn know, they didn't announce their Big Boy until June 28th of this year, with availability June 2020. So that effectively knocked them out of the race. Broadway Limited did offer one (they still have stock on their website), but they have an iffy quality reputation apparently and are on the expensive side ($750). Hornby came in with a product that was priced much more competitively and was available at the right time, so yes Hornby did well on this.

Mississauga and Brampton at least have never posted schedules except at bus terminals and some random stops - the assumption was that you would use the bus stop number to get bus times in the past. But with hindsight being wonderful, in addition to the very useful Google Maps should have thought to mention the smartphone app Transit (though it does assume you have data). Provides stop schedules for routes that are nearby to where you are, and better yet for transit systems that support you get real time bus/streetcar/train info so you can tell if the bus might be running late (or sometimes early) as well as trip scheduling. Better yet, the app works with various transit system around the world so you can check their website to see if it helps where you are visiting - https://transitapp.com/ And at least with Mississauga/Miway, the "Stations/Transit stations" aren't simply bus stations but rather bus stations on the purpose built transitway that put the buses on a bus only roadway that is grade separated from surrounding streets.

The problem for Hornby though is that they aren't just trying to keep the retailers in business, but also sell models. Which means their prices need to reflect the prices of the competition, and the pricing policies of the competition. And while there are people out there who will buy based on the name of the box, for most of us a budget can't purchase everything in a year we want. So if Hornby limits the discount because they don't want to offer as good terms to the stores as their competitors, then the competitors might end up getting the larger amount of spending. Like it or not, and whether it is a bargain or not, we like the idea of getting a bargain. If Bachmann and Hornby both end up with a model out in any given month, psychologically we are far more likely to buy the model that is 20% or 30% off than the model that is only 10% off (on the assumption we either need or want both models). And the retailers now this as well, so they are more likely stock an item that they can entice people to buy with a larger discount.

While we obviously don't know what Hornby's plans were (or are), getting either/both of the Princess and the Large Prairie into shops prior to Christmas was going to need everything to go right given that Christmas last year they were only at a CAD stage. We also don't know how Hornby are planning for their anniversary year, or reacting to some of the other announcements that both have been made or the rumours in China indicate are coming. It is possible that if those models have been delayed it may be the result of getting some of their 2020 announcements to a closer to release stage than they otherwise might have been. It's easy to look at a single year of announcements and make judgements, but a wise company will also be juggling the following several years of plans and the UK market is in a way getting very competitive and crowded. Thus Hornby possibly decided a delay in either of those (and there is speculation the Large Prairie got somewhat delayed by the Terrier) might be justified by staking a claim to another model before someone else can grab it.

I haven't been following the Hornby story closely, but is this the first time the relationship between Hornby and Oxford has been spelled out clearly?

Fully agree with this. My issue is with this quote: and this: So there is a great deal of irony that the previous management had already partially/largely solved this issue, and that one of the first major policies undertaken by current management was to return to the "good old days" that the CEO is now saying is unacceptable.