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I'm surprised at even that I certainly never saw any MK2b on East Cost Services, maybe before the Air Con versions arrived, as all I remember were Mk2a, Mk2d, and Mk2f. I picked up a Bachmann Mk2a Blue/Grey TSO for a very reasonable price on the well know selling site yesterday in fact around half the price of the stupid prices they have been selling at and they seemed to be quite a few, are modelers selling their MK2a's for MK2b's?

I noticed these on the Rails website Yesterday, I can not say the pictures shown wowed me, and I'm not interested in liveries that were never applied to the Class 40. I might have been interested in 40 106 had it been last days of BR style green and without the nameplate, but overall I'm fairly happy with my Bachmann 40's.

So my MK2b TSO arrived yesterday my concern with detailed models is are they too fragile for a practical layout I think this is about on the limit for me, I don't think my Bachmann Mk2f is too far off detail wise compared to the Mk2b and probably about right for me. Colour wise the blue matches the Bachmann stock but the grey is a lot paler which is correct I don't know? While for Hornby MK2e aircons the blue is too dark for both the Bachmann and Accurascale. The Grey doesn't match the Bachmanns either but its closer than Accurascale.

Well I just bought TSO, we will see as always with Accurascale products I have concern's of Detail verses Fragility, so whether I keep it or it ends up on a well know selling site, like the Deltics's remains to be seen. In fact I'm only considering it because the prices of Bachmann MK2 TSO's on the well known selling site are just stupid.

Thanks for that clarification I will have to look at the second run Deltic when it arrives before deciding whether or not to purchase a 50.

Well they are not dissimilar, the issue with the Deltic for me was that you have effectively disconnect the the chains from the body in order to remove the body and re-attach with glue. That to me is bad design and OK you can argue that the need to remove the body is reduced with opening roof but there are still times you might want to remove the body. I gather the reworked Deltic will have a push fit which while better I'm not totally convinced will be ideal. For me the only satisfactory solution is to connect to the chassis so you can remove the body without touching the chains. So for me before I considered a 50 I would need to know more about the chains and body removal.

So the model looks great but then so did the Deltic. So the issues for me with the Deltic were the were the bogie chains and the flimseyness of the nose steps. So my questions would be are the bogie chains connected to the body or chassis? How robust are the front steps? I notice on my Bachmann Class 20 the steps seem to be a much more plyable plastic than the Deltic which wouldnt easily break

I have one of the last 21pin versions and the latest plux22 version. Annoyingly on the 21pin version under DCC you cannot individually turn off the tail lights, so i will probably just switch off perm the tail lights with the switch underneath. On the plux22 version you can individually turn off the tail lights. Color wise my two Blue class 40 match but then they are both fairly new and match reasonably with my other Bachmann Loco's which are also new. My Heljen 25 is a bit darker but not too bad unlike the Heljen 45 which was so dark it had to go. I prefer not to weather my Loco's so too much color variation is difficult to hide and given the period I'm modeling they are mostly Blue.

So got my V2 model today exterior wise not much different fortunately the same color as V1 some cabling picked out in orange on V2 the door handles still not quite right but a little better than V1. V2 is on the left in the photo. Although they have put less pipework on the beam I think you may still have to remove what they have put on for a standard coupling to work properly. The underside air tanks still potentially restrict bogie movement and may have to remove them. Having put in my DCC sound Decoder I can confirm the lighting can now be individually switched which is the main improvement for me.

I have a V1 model and overall its very good the main issue is the cab lighting which you have to have on all the time when having the lighting on, so the train train moves around the layout with the cab lighting on which is not ideal. I have just ordered a V2 model and I gather this is now fixed and you can turn off the cab light and tail lights individually. the SLW 25 may well be the ultimate Class 25 but with hopefully the lighting fixes on the v2 model I think I will be happy with the Heljen model I'm not a rivet counter as long as the model looks reasonably good I'm happy.

Agreed, it seems to me that for BR era models at least any manufacturer can make any model they want but obviously they need to look at the current and future market place and assess what's viable for them. I don't see many complaints about Heljen going up against Bachmann with their latest 47 but because the 31 is against Accurascale it seems to have sparked a particular dislike. I imagine Bachmann do see Accurascale as a significant threat to their business given how quickly they are growing and the number of models they are releasing, hopefully there room for both to exist otherwise that will be to the detriment to the hobby.

Well I'm probably not going to get the sound version anyway, 31 435 is a better fit for my layout than Accurascale eth versions, and after my experience with the Accurascale Deltic which was an underdeveloped model in view, ok I know they attempting to fix the issues in the next run, I think its fair to say I have more confidence in Bachmann products than Accurascale.

Just seen the street prices from one of the major retailers the prices will be very competative with Accurascale for the DCC version and Sound version obviously the deluxe version will be more expensive, and you only get the fan on the deluxe model unlike Accurascsle but i will still be buying Bachmann.

Well i can see why some would find it a bit of a let down, i will be buying a 31 and blue/grey MK1 TSO, but even i was slighly disappointed overall.

Well just watched the Batman update as it says on the subtitles yes 31 435 is perfect for my proposed layout so I will be purchasing one of those.

Well OK i'm not a rivet counter but I have the latest version of the Bachmann 40 and while its not perfect i'm reasonably happy with it. The biggest improvement for me was the ability to individually turn off the Tail lights, plus the the 40 doesn't have the multitude of liveries and variations the 31 has. But as commented Bachmann may have an updated version in the pipeline, and possibly of course other manufacturers.

I was never a massive of the Class 31 in real life, but for the time and period i'm modelling I should really have at least one on my layout. Also I guess an update detailed model makes it more likely I will purchase. Also of course the 30/31 has a wide range of variations and color schemes, that it probably stand duplication by a number of manufacturers like the 37 and 47.

Seriously interested in one of these after my experience with the accurascale Deltic i tend to avoid accurascale stuff

Some Mk2f TSO's in Blue/Grey as per usual a certain website is selling a couple today for stupid money. A Class 101 in Plain Blue with 1st class, I believe the last Plain Blue 101 they did was a Newcastle set with no 1st class as the Newcastle units got rid of 1st class quite a number of years before the rest of what became regional railways. A retooled and substancially improved Deltic, with either no Bogie Chains or ones that are substancially better and more reliable than the Accurascale ones and where you don't have to remove them to take the body off. OK I expect this is very unlikely it will happen, I think Accurascale have largely cornered the available Deltic market, I'm not sure the Deltic market is as big as the 37 market which can likely support highly detailed models from 2 manufacturers.

So supposing you decide to sell your Accurascale model on such as ebay after say a couple of months from purchase what warranty if any will the new owner get?

I thought about buying one of these but looks like a better motor and a DCC Socket is the limit of improvement. The 110 is perfect for the period and area I am modelling, but I would need to buy a second hand centre car and reinstate 1st class. But when I compare to my Bachmann DMU's with internal and external lighting I find it difficult to justify really, especially when I had this model 30 years ago and there really very little improvement.

I guess we have to see what the street prices are, It looks a very nice model but then its up against a very good Bachmann model, and clearly many will be waiting to see how the 2 compare. If they offer a version I'm looking for that Bachmann doesn't offer then yes I may buy. I was disappointed with the Heljen Class 45, the Rail Blue was too dark to a point it just looked odd amongst my fleet of other Blue Diesels, and hence it had to go, I hope the Rail Blue versions of the 47 are better.

I was potentially interested until he gave the price LOL!

So just got the latest version of the model 32-489SF in Rail Blue, I currently have a split headcode version but was keen for a disc headcode version. I wasn't keen on the price however but after a lot of searching I managed to get a sound one significantly cheaper than the current street price of the well know suppliers. I take on board about some of the criticism of this model but overall I am happy enough with it, i'm always prepared to forgo a bit of accuracy and detail in favor of praticality and robustness. Obviously the nose seam isn't an issue with a standard rail blue version. The most obvious improvement for me is the ability to individually turn the tail lights off, when I returned to modelling around 18 months ago I was very surprised to find that only some the very latest models had this feature, to me this should be a basic feature. Anyway overall its sounds great and think its a great model.

Having recently bought a new disc headcode class 20, the lights tend to shine through the the yellow half disks is it the same for this?