piranha230

My predictions came true.

Could be a class 155 considering they were in Regional Railways wypte livery and that they operate in the Yorkshire area, and only a few liveries carried, original provincial livery, 2 versions of Regional wypte, and Northern rail / plain or picture liveries.

You probably wont need to worry about your bank card this weekend as none of them will be ready to sell just yet, you might see some grey ep test samples or maybe some fully painted ones , lets see if im right with my predictions for this Saturday 1st place class 142 2nd place class 156 3rd place class 175, the outsider class 180, and maybe Bachmann might unveil its test samples of the class 158 and class 90, 4 years now, and maybe it might announce its class 323 that it has supposedly been working on for at least 3 years now.

Edit, I meant to say class 180 dmu, not class 185, I think Bachmann will do the class 185 along with the class 323 they have supposedly been working on for at least 3 years now.

I predict , we will see a class 142 and class 156 by Realtrack but made by Rapido, and Rapido will have its own dmu on show at Warley this weekend which will be the class 175 or if they are brave will be the class 185, either way around they are all made by Rapido.

He has said before that he does current liveries 1st as they sell better .

Rapido are supposed to be announcing there own dmu, that is being done just by Rapido and not in partnership with anyone.

If you look at the Rapido Facebook page there is a photo of one of the Chinese design engineers looking at his pc screen , to his left on his desk is a blacked out bodyshell with censored written on it, the shape of the end of it looks like it could be a class 175 or even a class 185 , this is why I am thinking this new dmu done by Rapido and separate to the new dmu Realtrack are doing will probably be a class 175.

I think its going to be a class 142 from Realtrack as they already have the chassis and other bits, and a class 156 or class 175 from Rapido , I don't know why but I keep thinking the class 175 will be announced.

Don't forget that Rapido are also supposed to be unveiling a new dmu model , that is not being done in conjunction with Realtrack models.

This has gone very quiet for a long time, wonder if they are still going to do it ?. This has gone very quiet for a long time, wonder if they are still going to do it ?.

My point is, it makes no sense for them to raise prices, they are in financial trouble ! , they produce lots of old tooled models at ridiculous high prices, fair enough they do have some decent highly detailed models, but the majority of them are the old tooled models, ex Lima ect, which now look like a toy compared to the highly detailed models. Simple fact most people will not tolerate these price increases and will either buy less models or buy models from a competitor that are better detailed and with a more sensible price. Why should anyone be expected to pay circa £100, for example the class 142 for a model that was tooled nearly 30 years ago, does not have working lights, has never had its bodyshell modified with the later door style, has same old motor as it had , when you can buy a similar one from Realtrack although that's the class 143 and 144 for a similar price that has multiple separately fitted parts, accurate paint colours and complicated electronics to control the interior lighting ect. They make stupid mistakes with the wrong paint colours, as in the intercity executive mk3 coaches, people might pay the price increases for its models that are highly detailed with many separately fitted parts, but I don't think they will do when it comes to buying old ex Lima tooling or even old Hornby tooled models at ridiculous prices. How can they justify £229.99 for its Virgin east coast train pack, a class 91, 2 mk4 coaches and a dvt ?, these were around £27.50 for the class 91 and around £12.50 each for the mk4 coaches and dvt when they first came out, so that would of cost you £65.00 to buy all that when it first came out, and they have done nothing whatsoever to any of the tooling except to modify the class 91 chassis to fit a slightly better motor, add some extra wires to fit a dcc socket and stick a new livery on it, and tint the plastic on the windows on the coaches. No separately fitted parts, same old bulky pantograph, no working lights, toy train at highly detailed train prices. That tooling has remained the same since it came out in 1988/1989, except for the modification they did to the chassis to accept the new style motor, surely that old tooling has paid off for itself after more than a quarter of a century? Who remembers in about 2004 they said we are bringing out a totally new mk3 dvt ? , when it came out it was the old mk4 dvt tooling but in Virgin livery, then about 4 years after that they did bring out a proper newly tooled mk3 dvt, pity the paint shades were done wrong on the Intercity swallow version and they never made many, you don't see many of them pop up on Ebay.

I think they will have more profit warning worries now they have announced the prices are going up again.

They are EP samples, but you can see that they have lots of separately fitted parts, don't forget that 1st EP samples get lots of refinements before they are approved for production , but then again when the final thing gets released some weird rivet counter on here will say something is wrong with it.

My main point is that Bachmann and Hornby have massively increased prices over the last 3 years or so, blaming mainly Chinese labour costs, so if a new entrant can sell a highly detailed coach with many separately added parts, and Hornby are charging a similar amount for one that was first sold in 1989 and 1999 that has no separately fitted parts, I think we are being ripped off. Fair enough Hornby might have some highly detailed models in its range, but they also sell old tooled models at ridiculously high prices. Bachmann are less guilty for selling old tooled models, but are for ripping people off with price increases. And to the person who posted Hornby is not in financial trouble and will be here for a long time, I suggest you do a google search and read up about it !.

Maybe they will, but I doubt it, for example a Hornby mk4 coach was around £12.50 when it was released in around 1989, a Hornby retooled mk3 was around £13.99 when they were first released in 1999, now they are both around £30.00 for tooling that is now 27 and 17 years old. Oxford rail have a massive competitive edge if they can sell a highly detailed coach that is highly detailed, accurate, and with many small parts fitted for a similar price to the Hornby mk3 , I know which one I would go for. Hornby are virtually bankrupt, they sell models that were tooled by Lima years ago at ridiculous prices, models with the wrong paint colours and there own tooled old models. They have no innovation, they could of retooled the mk3 and captured that share of the market, they could do the mk3 dvt again in Intercity swallow livery, you rarely see that one on Ebay, they could do some AC electrics and multiple unit's, but no they just seem to concentrate on new steam train models, and put an old tooling ex Lima model into a new livery, they could just put a detailed underframe on the ex Lima class 156 and make a few alterations, wait I think another firm will announce this very soon, same again with its class 86 and 87, the last 2 are being done by another firm. If Oxford rail tools up models that are more accurate than Hornby and Bachmann , but at a lower price, I think Hornby would be finished, and Bachmann would start to worry, they both seem to think they are invincible, they seem to not bother what recent companies have up there sleaves, such as Rapido and Realtrack . People will not tolerate old tooled or innacurate models at highly raised prices, they simply wont buy them, or buy not as many as they used too. Hornby have missed out big time, the mk3 coaches, the class 142 and class 156, and class 86 and class 87, all models within their current range, that will now be I suspect will be announced by new entrants to the market.

This just goes to show how Bachmann have been ripping us off with massive price increases over the last 3 years or so, blaming rising Chinese labour cost's, for example a class 150 was around £69.00 when first released now its £165.00, you could buy a class 350 for £107.00 when they first came out, the class 450 will be £299.00 when that gets released. I personally think they were getting greedy as they had the lions share of the market, but with all these new companies, it's price rises will come back to bite them hard.

The RS CARTER MODEL RAILWAY CONSTRUCTOR PLANBOOK 3 BR ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES IN 4MM SCALE, has very good accurate drawings along with good photographs too. Judith edge kits, does the class 83 bodyside window frames and grilles in etched stainless steel.

I have no brand loyalty, the company who produces the more accurate model gets my pounds.

Heljan already have the correct length oo gauge chassis from the class 128 dpu, that they could use for the class 120.

It would be good of they do the class 120 in oo gauge.

I have a feeling it will be a class 156, as it only needs one bodyshell , if its not this, I think it will be a class 175 unless that is what Rapido are doing themselves.

I would like to see some ac electric loco's and units done, class 81,82,83,84 and class 304,305,308,309 and class 313,314,315.

I would also like to see a class 100, 103 and 104 dmu done.

I would love to see one of the rtr manufacturers do a class 100, 103 or 104 unit, i have been looking on the railcar website at photo's of the class 100 and class 103 when they were brand new and keep thinking to myself how nice they looked, i used to think the class 100 was a very ugly looking dmu, but looking at these photo's has changed my mind.