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Mine Mount Models has released their 16th kit, McGuirk Coal, a small town coal dealer https://minemountmodels.com/shop/ols/products/mcguirk-coal-ho-scale

For those modeling the transition era and earlier, your model railroad can generate some additional revenue with its fleet of stock cars - shipping watermelons. Images at link (from Rock Island mailing list) showing watermelons being loaded into a stock car. https://groups.io/g/RockIslandLines/message/7790

One does have to wonder what his thought process was... I'm also sure there are a lot of older people who are grateful that the abundance of cameras today weren't around 30+ years ago to capture their stupidity for eternity.

There is potential for anyone involved who wants to make things better to get some stuff done in the next several months while focus is on the turmoil around selecting a new leader. It all depends on if there is someone with the desire and ability to take advantage of circumstances.

It is, though that is a bit misleading. Brightline appears to be partially a real estate play, but also relies on government funding to exist - whether it be the government interest-free bonds or other benefits (like payments to allow a commuter rail service to use their infrastructure. Maybe. The Nevada-LA service - under previous ownership - was supposed to start construction around a decade ago so we will see if it actually happens this time. Potential recession being predicted for next year might delay things again. But Brightline West is also dependent on government support, whether bonds or a very affordable lease agreement for the right of way.

Since there was some discussion on the thread about the recent Amtrak incident and how the trains deal with road collisions some may find this video interesting as the person filming it walked to the front of the train and shows how the Siemens Charger took the collision. Ignore the hyping by the video poster - not a massive car crash or a train wreck. (note that if the comments about the truck being stuck for 4 minutes prior to the collision are true then the collision likely could have been avoided if the truck driver had immediately gotten out and called the phone number located on the crossing gates at almost every grade crossing in North America. I myself have actually put the relevant phone numbers for around me into my phone so that I have them quickly accessible should I ever witness an issue).

I will just note that none of the above is unique to government - the computer industry is full of tales from private companies where some executive is sold on something by a flashy presentation and then the poor IT folks are left trying to clean up the mess the executive has created. And I am sure it isn't confined to the IT departments. Another thing in common with the private sector. Google has become famous for abandoning projects - because the Google corporate system is set up to reward executives who "delivery shiny new things" and ignore executives who simply maintain or gradually improve existing products. So if you want to advance your career you keep inventing new things while abandoning last year's "thing"

With the 319 and 350 being of different generation and different manufacturer there would likely be enough differences and gotchas that if converting the 350/2 fleet was your ultimate goal you simply accept the cost of taking 1 or 2 350/2 units out of service early and use those to create prototypes for a rebuild. But it likely still wouldn't have been a good idea - it is simply better to accept the higher cost and design from a digital equivalent of a blank sheet of paper - or of course better yet simply do the right thing and pay for more overhead electrification.

Rapido Trains - July 2022 NEW - NSC 73' Centerbeam - BC Rail, BNSF, CN, CP, Mississippi Delta, Northwestern Oklahoma, Trailer Train PDF - https://files.constantcontact.com/b02e8bb6001/2822a48a-ee1b-4ffc-89bf-1b1f68e3f542.pdf Website - https://rapidotrains.com/n-scale/freight-cars/nsc-centerbeam-flatcar.html

Rapido Trains - July 2022 NEW - NSC 73' Centerbeam (early version and mid-version) - BC Rail, BNSF, CN, CP, Mississippi Delta, Northwestern Oklahoma, Trailer Train PDF - https://files.constantcontact.com/b02e8bb6001/2ed56c98-f292-41cd-950a-ef44d7fde60a.pdf Website - https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/freight-car/nsc-centerbeam-flatcar.html

Would the current majority owners have bought and continue to put the amount of money that they have so far into a model train company without the Hornby name? I think that is reasonably good proof that some people really do value the name, otherwise the company and it's assets would have been split up and sold off by now. The value of the name of course is an entirely different question as to whether current management has a grasp on how the hobby has changed over the last 5 or so years and thus whether they are running the company in the best way to ensure its future...

Rapido has been more open about it (for their North American operation) where it has been stated multiple times that the purchase order to the factory for the product goes in about 2 weeks after the order deadline (allows time for the dealer orders to get in and be processed and at a guess a company discussion on how much inventory to carry as Rapido has over the last couple of years to order some extra stock). Others in the US (Atlas, Athearn) appear to operate the same way.

I generally agree with what you are saying, but in light of the other current thread about Hornby annoying their retailers by failing to supply stock I wonder how many retailers will take orders for the new Hornby Lion product let alone promote it to their customers - if you as a retailer can't rely on Hornby to satisfy your customer orders you are going to instead guide those customers to Rapido's offerings which the retailer will have faith in getting what they order. So I think the proverbial jury will be out as to whether this will be a good move - Lion is a very niche interest product to have 2 competing products and with Hornby hurting their chances by playing games with their retailers.

If it eventually arrives, no. No, per the thread title and the original post we are talking (again) about Hornby notifying retailers months after orders were confirmed that the retailer won't be getting what they ordered - specifically in this case about how the retailer whose message to the customer started this where their confirmed order of 37 items has been cut to just 1. That isn't a delay - that is a you simply aren't getting the stock you ordered. Or note the report of another retailer who has had "over £88,000 of cuts from his preorders" by Hornby (top post on 2nd page). Again, not delays.

If you are the Chinese factory you simply (which their is abundant circumstantial evidence for) delay delivery dates to reflect the extra time required to fulfill the order with the capacity you have. And note that the "37 confirmed items cut to just 1" isn't a 10% reduction... So no, this isn't something that can be blamed on China.

Except we aren't talking about delays - we are talking about an inability to actually supply sufficient product to cover retailer orders. Hornby is indeed unique in the inability to supply their retailers with product that was confirmed orders only months ago.

Note that no other model manufacturer is having an issue supplying what has been ordered, and no one in the US hobby is having problems supplying what has been ordered. That is a pretty good indication that the problem isn't China supplying too few product. This is a uniquely Hornby issue and isn't (as noted by others) unique to this year.

Has Amazon impacted the retail environment? Absolutely. But Amazon has also become a convenient scapegoat to blame for every retailer that fails and every high street that turns into a ghost town thus avoiding uncomfortable truths from needing to be dealt with. Despite what it appears physical retail is still quite strong - but they frequently aren't located on the high street anymore. High rents, high local taxes, costly parking fees, failures to modernize the business, etc. are all just as much to blame as Amazon.

But that extra bit of space also allows a bit more room for a speaker (and slightly bigger one) and electronics, extra space to make wiring all the lights a bit easier - DCC and DCC/sound may not appeal to those who like steam and early BR but it does appeal (in general) to younger modellers. As for a modern 4 coach emu, the advantage goes to whatever scale actually gets that model. N is struggling to get N tooled items (Revolution doing an admirable job of stepping up where others have stepped back) and so a TT:120 which potentially attracts people from both OO and N might well get those 4 car emu models...

Looking very good.

I think it's about time that Swedish company sponsored him...

Tangent Scale Models - July 2022 - available now PS-2CD 4750 Covered Hoppers - ATSF "delivery gray 10-1979", IC "death star gray repaint 1997+", LN Family Lines "original 12-1980", SCL Family Lines "original 7-1980", SLSF "delivery gray 6-1977", SOO "original 1-1980", NAHX "Lapeyrouse 6-78", PLCX "gray lease 3-1979" https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/pullman-standard-ps-2cd-4750-covered-hopper/

For those that didn't see it or now might be interested having seen the photos above Rapido announced the GP9RM in HO earlier this month - both with and without a slug.

The images that have been posted show there isn't a lot left of the truck - the most common image is the frame with nothing attached to it plus an image of an axle separated from the rest of the truck. By comparison look at the videos show the loco with minimal damage and it stayed upright and on the tracks. See the video above posted by brynna79 for a track level pictures, or the video below of helicopter/drone footage from a news station - somewhere around the 8:30 mark they show a good image of the front of the train. Note the relatively minimal damage and that the crew cabin was not compromised and that the lead engine remained on the tracks. (also, the deaths were the driver of the truck and 3 Amtrak passengers - the most dangerous part of this crash from a train perspective was from accounts the passengers being thrown around (along with anything else in the cabin)). There isn't a lot more than can be done to build US locos stronger than they already are. (they also provide coverage of the crossing in question and it does appear based to be something of a hill to get over the railroad tracks - don't know how accurate it is by news reports have quoted a local as it being 6') The new Siemens Chargers locos I believe have a cosmetic fibreglass nose to make them easier to fix after grade crossing incidents - that fact that is necessary tells a lot of the story. The NTSB in the US, and the TSB in Canada, both are frustrated with a lack of action on items of safety that they believe are necessary that the respective governments have failed to act on and thus both can be quite forward when things like this happen. That said while I think it would be nice to eliminate all the unprotected grade crossings the size of the problem make it financially difficult - and in addition to the numbers I quoted above consider that there are likely protected crossings that really should be grade separated which costs a lot more and is competing for the same funding...

From media reports of the latest NTSB briefing no mechanical faults have been found with the train. The train was doing 89mph a quarter mile prior to the crash and 87mph at time of collision.