mdvle

My feeling is that they should do whatever they think they can bring their talents and capabilities to that will allow them to make enough profit to continue in operation, and part of that can be spreading out the product line either to various regions of the UK or to various eras. This will allow them, as they build up the business, to bring out multiple items a year without running into the risk that customers end up having to choose based on budget what not to purchase, thus resulting in reduced sales and profit.

Athearn announced in late June their version of 4014 with a non-sound list price of $679.98, which based on an online currency convertor comes to £562.38, add in some VAT and you get £675. The Athearn model is in their Genesis line (so highly detailed) and will be much newer tooling. Not a surprise - Hornby's US competition didn't announce their version until June 28th with delivery not until June 2020, so a lower price and likely earlier delivery would have made the Hornby offering attractive. http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/062819/01_GEN_4-8-8-4_BigBoy_062819.pdf

The FLIRT's have apparently had issues to, which isn't necessarily a reason to rule them out - it certainly seems all the new trains have struggled to enter service and that would be another reason to go with one of the 3 current new items rather than something different. Against the FLIRT might just simply be that no one in First Group have experience, the idea that an 800 or 397 could allow transfer of knowledge between First franchise employees easier. Perhaps from a modeller perspective we should hope for either the 397 or FLIRT in the hope that the additional operator makes a model version more viable.

Given the tight time frame (supposedly introduction in 2022) it might to a large extent come down to who can deliver, and Hitachi may have a head start given they already have bi-mode trains in service. Even if it goes to CAF, they will (like Hitachi) have had another 2 years to work out the issues with the designs hopefully leading to an easier introduction for the new franchise.

Given the current amount of uncertainty (not just in the UK) I suspect DafT were forced by the reality that no bidders would have been willing to commit to high premiums.

Not wanting to be the Grinch, a small number of items including toys have had their 10% tariffs delayed until December 15th https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49287494

Mine Mount Models has a new craftsman lasercut kit, Palzer's Plumbing Supply, as well as the offering the industrial storage racking that is included in the kit as a separate product. https://minemountmodels.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fpalzers-plumbing-supply-ho-scale-kit-advanced-ordering-starts-april-3 https://minemountmodels.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Findustrial-storage-racking-ho-scale

Containers. Company offering a variety of containers, including 20' tank containers https://jtcmodeltrains.com/ https://jtcmodeltrains.com/blogs/news/tank-containers-schemes

Milwaukee Road Thrall built caboose kit is now available https://lineswestproducts.com/product/milwaukee-road-thrall-built-caboose-ho-scale/ Parts are 3D printed.

No website - if interested the providers email is shown in the video - but this video shows an extensive line of cast resin vehicles that might interest some, the segment starts at the 30 second point

Won't argue that Serco doesn't deserve a lot of blame, but a lot of this would be a non-issue if the new equipment wasn't consistently having faults. And while I haven't followed this closely enough I wouldn't be surprised if the Scottish Government can share some of the blame with pressure / lack of flexibility in the franchise agreement to get the new stock in service before it has been shown to be reliable.

Suspect "guests" being used because it's sleeper service, the hotel industry has long used guests to describe their customers.

Don't know if there is much interest in brass, but given only 13 of the real thing made I suspect it is unlikely to see this in plastic. Division Point has announced the EMD NW5 https://www.divisionpoint.com/site/hot-off-the-wire-7aug-19/

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Rapido-News-114---New-videos-and-order-deadlines-.html?soid=1101318906379&aid=-nyiJylWsx0

How was I ignoring retailers like Kernow? I specifically mentioned that it was in part a warning to other retailers who deal or want to deal directly with China - like Kernow does - and while not said directly my implication was that the warning was not to take on models that Bachmann currently has in their catalog (like the Class 66), with perhaps a more subtle warning about models in general. While I wouldn't directly imply a relationship as there are lots of reasons, not least of which stuff in development might not yet be ready to go public, but note that Kernow don't appear to have done any more direct with China stuff since the Hattons/Bachmann dispute became known (the China Clay wagons were announced just over a year ago, but were obviously well along in development by that point).

Why would this be of concern? Have people been concerned about the future of announced models every time a hobby shop has gone out of business? There are still a large number of other retailers who would expect to get product from Bachmann to sell, and the 94xx would be included in that expectation. This has been discussed in the past, a number of years ago it was the reverse - Bachmann was getting stuff onto retailers shelves within announced time scales and Hornby was struggling to get anything made. Like Hornby did, Bachmann will eventually get things sorted out. As for the Dapol large prairie, there was much speculation at the time of the Dapol announcement - just before Christmas and hence a matter of weeks before the Hornby annual announcement, and with CAD drawings that had a lot of issues - that Dapol was attempting to stake a claim and persuade either Hornby or Bachmann from starting/continuing a large prairie. With the benefit of hindsight we can now guess that Dapol was correct that there was a competing product in development, and that Hornby was productive in the 12 months between their announcement and the Dapol one while Dapol made little to no progress.

If nothing else it should provide greater clarity on how to approach bids given the events that are currently unfolding in the political world.

I believe he was converting the N dimensions into OO given that most people are in OO, and so they would have a better idea as to what to suggest for an N layout. 1mx3m is 3'3"x9'10" in N, or equivalent to 6'6" x 19'8" in OO. (or put another way, a bit smaller than the N scale equivalent of Hannet Purney).

The Hattons / Bachmann issue was created (it appears) because Bachmann didn't like Hattons creating a new Class 66 model, and in an apparent attempt to reduce consumer choice Bachmann has/is attempting to not just make Hattons reconsider making models but indirectly any other retailers from directly working with China to make models. Regardless of who is in the right / wrong regarding legal agreements or anything else, any attempt at reducing consumer choice is normally considered bad for the consumer. It is also, as pointed out to the message you were replying to, if anything an added incentive for Hattons to choose future models that will not only generate a profit for Hattons but also replace existing Bachmann models that are a) overdue for new tooling and b) now missing from the Hattons shelves. I will also point out that what Hattons did is not unique - many retailers, particularly in the food sector, tend to have their own brand of products that compete with outside suppliers and one doesn't see those outside suppliers refuse to supply stock to those retailers.

Take a tour of Rapido's new Dining Car:

ScaleTrains Gunderson 5188 Hopper

Latest North American newsletter (email only so far) states they are planning a UK newsletter for later this month in addition to the news that the UK Guy Arab bus is in production an expected at Warley.

Latest Rapido North American newsletter (currently only available to email subscribers, not publicly posted yet) mentions that the Birmingham Guy Arab is in production with it planned to be in stock at Warley this year.

Trump today announced a 10% tariff on all remaining imports from China effective September 1st, this presumably will include model trains. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump-china-tariffs-1.5233295

Given that it was fully finished it would be N as a model in any other scale wouldn't have progressed that far without being announced. Also Rapido is apparently taking a bit of a wait and see approach to the UK market for any Rapido branded stuff at the moment and focusing on the UK items they are do for others (Revolution, Realtrack, Model Rail).