Johan DC

The crane Will now include a match truck. Announced on IG.

I saw a pre-production of thé crane and three J26, and an announcement for a lines NER J26 version on Instagram. But not a lot of communication from Oxford themselves.

I don't have much experience with Heljan, only have a couple of the very fine NER Railcars they made for RoS. It's a steep price, but if you compared with £200 for a G5, very reasonable. Is there a EU stockist where I can pre order?

The feature is not new, but now it can be done with a much lower price tag.

It's free, but no discount. For that you'll have to join the (also free) Hornby rewards.

Don't need one, don't have a use for one, no idea what I would do with one. Anyway, I bought a couple... Can't wait for them to arrive here on the continent!

My money is on Paddington to Dover Priory by Hogsmeade Station.

Same here, they work fine in my large Pacifica and Mikados, but I needed a stay-alive for my A5.

It is mentioned in the Summer edition of the TT-club magazine that of all the lager steam engines of phase 4, only the Castle is confirmed. The 9F, Black 5, Peppercorn A1 and Princess Royals will be announced in due course. They also speek of additions to the 2024 range because of modellers demand, like an 0-6-0T to be announced in the next issue.

I don't know how 'close' Hornby and Arnold R&D deps are, but Arnold has an 0-4-0 diesel shunter, so they should be ready.

I follow your reasoning, but I'm afraid for Hornby, that if they didn't do the underframe detail, some might say that it's Design Clever all over again.

This is Hornby, damn if they do, damn if they don't!

I don't blame the photographer, I blame the trackwork!🙂

Looks to me that the pins on the PCB are fitted the wrong way around. The 'absent' pin should be so that you can fit your decoder the correct way up, as in the instructions. I don't have a new version 9F, but you can see it here: https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/installing-digital-sound-hornbys-new-br-9f-2-10-0

Last year, they were too late. So Imho, it's quite important to have enough in stock this time.

Nobody did.... 😉

Would lamps not in use be removed from the smokebox door/Running plate? Or just not lit?

If it's an express Loco, I prefer with. Safes me the time of fitting them myself.

Out of interest, (don't have one, won't buy one) were those pipes painted, or not? Or did this depend from shed to shed? I saw a picture of a green 2mt, with pollished pipes, but I think it was a preserved one?

The 2MT looks to be quite an ok model, if the biggest problem seems to be that the copper piping is copper coloured. I don't know the class, I don't think I ever saw a real one. But to me, it looks like it's easier to weather/paint it black than to paint it in copper.

Aren't Railroad loco's made over multiple badges?

There was a quite interesting vlog with with Sam, the developer of the Class 50, with some engineering samples, on FB and IG there were shots of some nice TT layouts, there was another video about TT120's first anniversary and the email about the TT-membership. No new announcements, but I think Hornby, for all their faults, is driving TT forwards. Two steam, one diesel, several coaches and wagons, tracks, buildings and we have seen testsamples of a lot more. But it seems that for some, it's never enough. I can't compare, but how did N ever start?

I have one, and if I would see one in a bargain bin, might consider a second. But it seems they sell. At Hattons there is a second hand one of the fictive liveries for £299. The latest one, the Fourth (!) in original dark grey, is sold out on pre-order. No idea how big the batches are. But I guess smaller than J15 ones...

For me, the difference is very clear. Railroad is more yellow than red, you can see inside the box, it's also clearly printed 'Railroad'. What Hornby put in the range vs. Regular however is less clear, for instance the class 66 should, but isn't.

Maybe they are in a transition? These ones were also a long time in the making.