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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.

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Bachmann Europe PLC have a turnover if around £15 million. https://uk.globaldatabase.com/company/Bachmann-europe-plc Hattons are smaller https://uk.globaldatabase.com/company/hattons-model-railways-limited Both in profit.

Well, here is mine, it did come with the etched plates. It's the first modern diesel or electric loco I've owned so I can't really do a comparative review but here it is with my Fleischmann DB 103 Ho made in 1978 and 1998 Brawa DB 216 Ho. All run well on my Kato Unitrack, Trix C-track and Peco Streamline 100, all wide angle turn-outs and minimum R3 curves. The Brawa glides round the smoothest. The Dapol is good at all speeds but is quite noisy running on C-track. The Fleishmann is the fastest. Unlike the others it has only 1 bogie driven, but all 6 wheels have traction tyres. Th Brawa seems to have more torque and traction. Looking inside the Dapol is neatly made. The body comes off easily by removing the 4 screws. Just as well because running DC the cab lighting flickers at low speed but there are off switches on the board to switch the LEDs off ! I borrowed a new Trix 216 loco recently and the running light implementation is better. The lights come on before the loco moves off and don't flicker at all. One gripe is the Dapol buffers: they are sprung plastic and one promptly detached itself and needed gluing. The Fleishmann buffers are metal and part of the die-cast chassis that extends to the top of the maroon banding. The Brawa has a zinc die-cast chassis and body. All have mainly plastic bogies which are well done. Interesting the forthcoming Accurascale Deltic claims to have metal-fabricated bogies. Value for money: yes, mine is the base model and worth the £129 paid (re- release price). I would pay more if it had a zinc die-cast body like Brawa, ESU and Marklin-Trix. The machines do exist in China as Brawa and ESU are made there. Marklin-Trix Ho are made in their Hungarian factory.

Here he is in happier times...