maico

A number of companies were listed in the article: Refined, Talent, Zindart, kader and Sanda, do you happen to know who Dapol uses ?

Are Hornby in profit again ? Last time I looked Roco-Fleischmann made a significant 30 million euro loss and there were no buyers for the company... Marklin-Trix made a small profit on a large turnover that was almost 3 times that of Hornby. Nikon Imaging made an enormous loss 2 years ago but the company restructured and is back to a small profit, however their market share is shrinking as is the overall camera market. Medical equipment and other specialist areas keep them afloat. Diversification is clearly important.

Presumably Bachmann's process is different because it's an in-house process. As I understand it, Hornby is commissioning, amongst others, Sanda Kan which Kader acquired in 2008 but remains a separate plant.

You make it sound like it's going to Antarctica or something ! A while back I went to Japan in connection with a photographic business I ran as a sole trader. The bucket shop ticket was £480 and tax deductible. I stayed with a friend in Tokyo gratis.

It's noticeable that the factory Piko own in China is more labour intensive and has less modern CNC machinery than Marklin -Trix and Roco. It employs 450 people

Have you asked them ? The marketing departments of camera companies, for example, fly magazine staff and youtube creators all over the World for product launches. Kader is also a large multinational

The audience for a logistics video is small indeed

So, Bachmann UK is a box moving and QC exercise. Why not book a flight to Kader Industries in Dongguan and film the actual production process ? Roco's factory in Romania shows the sort of thing . The German Marklin and Chinese Piko factory tours are also on the Youtube for comparison.

Here's a plastic bodied Piko Expert I got a couple of weeks ago for 104 euro new. The chassis bellow the 221 147-2 is die-cast. I can't see any difference in detail between that and the upper plastic shell. Remember these are Ho so smaller than OO.

This is 1998 die-cast zinc. Good enough in my book

I haven't seen one in person but what is the difference between the v320 model and prototype ?

Personally, I am prepared to pay a bit more for a die-cast zinc body shell. Brawa, ESU and Marklin-Trix offer that but I can only afford to buy them used...

That's what the animation seems to show....https://www.maerklin.de/de/produkte/details/article/39320/24/?tx_torrpdb_pi1[backlink]=24&tx_torrpdb_pi1 Isn't the airflow reversed going backwards ? =2&tx_torrpdb_pi1[perpage]=10&tx_torrpdb_pi1[era]=&tx_torrpdb_pi1[newonly]=0&tx_torrpdb_pi1[gaugechoice]=2&tx_torrpdb_pi1[groupchoice]=1&tx_torrpdb_pi1[subgroupchoice]=2&tx_torrpdb_pi1[filter]=1&tx_torrpdb_pi1[pagesort]=artnrasc&tx_torrpdb_pi1[brandId]=1&tx_torrpdb_pi1[noPaging]=

The expensive Marklin Trix use powered fans and they are directional but I suppose there is a limit to what is achievable for £160.

I stand corrected, I wonder why ?

I've got a mixture of Ho Unitrack and Trix C-track. The Trix turnouts are all live frog as are the electric Kato standard turnouts and work well with everything. The Kato wide angle turnouts though have very long plastic frogs that cause stalls on vintage 2 rail Hornby Dublo and some modern short wheelbase locos. Seems a real design error. Fleischmann Profi track and Peco Streamline turnouts also work better. For some reason Kato don't even make curved turnouts or double slips in Ho which really limits the system compared to their extensive N gauge track IMHO

The large motor with very long Cardan shafts reminds me of the V320 https://www.maerklin.de/service/produktservice/listengenerator.php?brand=1&artikelnummer=39320&lang=1

So, in the Roco factory video there is a shot showing cogs being set into a solid alloy gearbox casing. Are these straight cut spur type gears ?

Fran, you posted up some pictures of the CIE A/001 chassis and motor details, do you any for the Deltic we could salivate over...?

It's interesting that in all 3 factories painting the banding on top of the base livery is sprayed on by hand.

For cheaper plastic bodies they have 3D printing machines. Not shown in the video, so I assume they are at their plant in Györ / Hungary where around 500 people are employed. The German company Piko, known for good value models at Hornby type pricing, have their own plant in China. This video is well worth watching

It's clear the company have made recent investments in automation in their German plant in Goppingen. The Mk.1 human hand is also still in evidence with paint brush and file on zinc diecast body parts...

What's the idea behind that thin yellow line on a few of the green versions ?

They are metal springs. The unit is attached to the plastic bogie and gearbox housing. The front pipes running over the wheel are also metal as are the brake caliper retaining springs. The axles run in proper metal sleeves and there is a external gear oiling point. Unlike Trix , Brawa and the Accurascale Deltic the gearbox housing isn't metal though, probably on cost grounds.

It seems to be the convention in the model world that matte or satin is used not gloss. The originals are clearly more on the glossy side. My 1970's cream DB 103 actually is gloss. The Brawa more satin, similar to metal bodied Wrenns. I think these metal bodied model locos might be stove enamelled.