Josiah

Would appear Rails are stocking Hornby again

23 hours ago, TomE said:

N Gauge EPs on show at TINGS and looking excellent. More pics will be up on NGN tomorrow evening. 
 

 

Tom. 

They look fantastic, nice to see the hazard lights modelled separately also, will these light up ? 

They've certainly captured the essence of the 58 well, but is that warning panel yellow still wrong? 

So the question is, is it worth buying an "old" rake (prices seem quite good) or getting a new rake? 

1 hour ago, Ravenser said:

 

It all reinforces my sense that 4mm is nearly mined out in terms of new subjects with decent commercial prospects. 

Strong disagree sorry, many many multiple unit types left un-touched over all sorts of eras, great for "space saving" layouts as well, likewise with modern infrastructure wagons . Lots of low hanging fruit left. There is the claim there is "no new blood" often touted around here yet how much of the real railway today can one realistically purchase in model form?  I can't be the only one to think a "simplistic" Electrostar, right shape with head and tail lights but a stripped out interior / dark windows -  would be a good money earner? 

Rather more on topic, these are great looking vehicles, perhaps slightly crisper than Heljans around the end door hinges - lettering may not have been straight on their sample photographs, I suspect it would have been hand painted originally in real life so perhaps more authentic.. 

On 18/05/2023 at 15:35, Sir TophamHatt said:

 

I found another thread that says Hornby set all their projects to this date until they'd sorted out what was happening with them all.

I'm sure they had an engineering prototype a few months back so would be surprised if it'll be 2024.

I had heard on the grapevine (maybe here somewhere) that there was issues with the articulation part and motors? Might be wrong though. 

On 04/02/2023 at 23:42, adb968008 said:

Welcome to the forum.

 

Dapol has made 5 TPE class 68’s…

 

Brutus (2018)

Destroyer, Achilles (2020)

Felix, Splendid (2022)*

 

Brutus was initially a shelf sticker, until the mk5’s were announced and then it became very rare. Destroyer and Achilles leaped from the shelves and raised in price. However Felix and Enterprise seem to be hanging around, maybe everyones got enough now. Aside of Destroyer, prices on the early ones seem to have normalised…

 

A quick glance on ebay and other retailer sites that show stock levels, I very quickly soon found over 100 TPE 68’s on sale (mostly Felix and Splendid), so theres plenty of TPE68’s around.

i would imagine several people may own more than 1 TPE class 68, but not very many would own TPE mk5’s without a TPE 68.

 

on that guess i’d assume more TPE 68’s demand exist than mk5 sets, but demand for coaches wouldnt really exceed TPE68’s, and probably lags a little way behind.
 

i myself have more TPE68’s than mk5 sets, and couldn't imagine buying more sets unless the livery changes… indeed being lucky enough to see two sets at the same place / time out on the rail network is a bit of a challenge! .. Art seems to be mimicking reality too!

 

* produced without front handrails fitted in error.

 

 

They did indeed produce 5 running numbers, but actually 10 catalogue numbers (DCC and non DCC). 

38 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Has Dapol made that many TPE class 68’s ?

I think this depends,  7500 individual coaches makes 1500 sets - if that's 1500 sets total then perhaps 750 of each pack - reasonable to assume given Dapol have (by Hattons database) produced 10 catalogue numbers worth then perhaps at least 1500 68s exist. 

Although given how long the dispatch process has gone on, given my experience in picking and packing, unless something is very wrong, packing circa 150 a day seems slightly off, our operation has the ability to pack that an hour with similar sized cartons (albeit not models sadly!) and we employ 3 members of staff in that department currently.