E100

Just in case any body like me was on the fence I've just made my one of these my first purchase from Bure Valley Models. Don't have any affiliation but at £172 for 78054 with a Scottish shed plate and painted timken roller bearings it's hard to say no. The first batch are at £164.

The hole is a bit more negative than I meant that to come across in fairness. That being said, currently there is a significant investment of many millions that a return has yet to be made on by the recent financial results (which are granted probably now out of date). This is obviously understandable as this was never meant to make a return over 1 year but several years so it hasn't failed, since it's far to early to determine that and there is plenty more models on the way. However, I do think it's fair to say it's been a heck of risk and one that has yet to fully pay off, as there are significant questions around the long term viability that cannot yet be answered to the positive or negative in the same way that DCC sound models were a risk and it's only in the past few years gaining significant market share. The point I was really trying to make is that one way I can see them mitigating against this risk is by looking towards models that have a broader market appeal into the European TT:120 market such as IWA Cargowagons or other types of wagons that made it here from the continent on train ferries during the 70's/80's for example.

I thought playtrains was being discontinued unless I dreamt this?

I do think a way for Hornby to try and dig themselves out of a TT120 shaped hole is to swing some focus towards those cross European models such as 87's but also wagons used on both sides of the channel to bolster their European brands at the same time. To be fair they are obviously doing the 66 though arguably more from a UK perspective that more lateral thinking. I do understand the need for the phase 1/2/3 models but beyond that I can certainly see more broad appeal models coming to the fore even if that comes at the slight detriment to the UK range. I would also be interested to understand if models such as the Flying Scotsman are selling well on European layouts in the same way that the HO models seem to have gone down well.

Spoke with DCC Train Automation at Model Rail Scotland. They basically said Yamorc is perfect for smaller/medium layouts with Lodi ideal for medium/larger layouts, especially those looking to utilise railcom which can swamp the other bus systems.

It's simple a case of two options to me. If you want you can put in pretty much any DCC decoder and it will do all the basic functions. If you want to unlock all the advanced lighting features you buy an ESU lokpilot decoder from a retailer (such as roads and rails for example but pretty much any ESU retailer would do I'm sure) who can blow the decoder (likely for free) with the file from the ESU website which is freely available or use your lokprogrammer or find a nice person who has one at your club or on here / a friend etc. I don't think that's unreasonable to me based on the size of outfit Cavalex are and the functionality we are asking these decoders to do and this is really maxing out the capabilities of the highest specification on the market. All that being said I would welcome a single DCC standard for the 21pin interface that would ensure that these issues don't occur but that isn't the world we live in yet.

It is an identical SKU between Rails and Locomotion

I have resolved to do two days next year. Whilst not as huge as Warley, everything is so interesting and I found the traders much more accessible due to less crowds especially towards the end of the day. A really cracking day out for the 3rd but certainly not final MRS I go to. Excellent organisation as ever.

Those are stunning. Well done. I would suggest some photos of those would go very well on the realistic modelling thread! Look forward to seeing this tomorrow!

I also hope we may get an update soon on the project as it is slated for release at the end of the year.

Well as someone who was there when it was announced and not checking Facebook it was definitely a surprise to me and I'll be sure to stay off facebook before for a nice surprise. Any idea when you are doing it or are preferring not to say? Either look forward to a natter tomorrow.

I have but not had a reply.

Buckjumpers were March 2023 and the partial retool class 66 was at Model Rail Scotland last year.

Can't wait!

It certainly could be though I suspect they might want to make more of big bang new tooled announcement welcome as those are. The most recent loco has been the pannier (excluding the Hatton's announcements) which would be around 3 months ago. Alternatively a raft of Scottish 37's inc. 37/4's would go down very well.

Is the MRS announcement at the show again? The reason I ask is I'll make a beeline for the stand otherwise I'll head to the back of the show!

The simple answer is no unless you like yours with a white stripe and a westie (37027). They definitely plan to at some point but when is who knows.

I think it's fair to assume they (all or some of them) may have been produced but haven't left the factory i.e are sitting on pallets waiting for their brethren to reach a similar stage before being dispatched in one large group. Obviously, tens of thousands of models don't immediately go from having been completed to on a ship. They also need to wait for a ship to be allocated to be sent to the port from the factory one would presume. Just a couple of reasons for a 'purgatory' of sorts between the two stages. Short of putting a tracker on the containers themselves I don't think we can reasonably expect anymore from Accurascale in terms of updates from what they already do. It's leagues ahead of many others and I think we've been somewhat spoiled by the detailed tracking information provided by many couriers when ordering from overseas that whilst nice to have and often interesting doesn't change from the fact they'll be here roughly in the next few months and the old phrase 'they'll be here when they are here'. The SLW class 25 experience is certainly a lesson in patience with orders for one SKU alone spreading out over a month due to the small team but as they, like these, will be excellent I don't really mind at all!

It wouldn't surprise me if this batch is an order of magnitude bigger than the 24's.

Well I've long wanted Scottish pre-grouping loco's and stock in RTR so I'll put my money where my mouth is and I'll be pre-ordering every CR and BR example of these. A cheeky ask is any chance of a sliding door on these! I suspect not but could be worth a try as you got it right on your VIX wagons even though I know it was a pain. I could see some nice cameos of people loading crates of Cadbury into them or just an excuse someone needed to get one that had made it that bit further afield! It could inspire a Cadbury's layout or two as well!

A lovely pic at the end in the latest newsletter suggests these will be on show in Glasgow next week!

Good news about the rerun. I've mentioned up thread that a pack of a couple of sleeping coaches with all the destinations would be useful to help strengthen peoples rakes as a simple SKU that can be somewhat of a one size fits most approach. Accurascale were going to do a commission for KMS Railtech but it went south before anything got started, as I think Accurascale got a bit too busy and terms couldn't be agreed for whatever reason. KMS are still saying they will commission someone to do it but they are taking their time to do so as that was a couple of years ago now that they promised some news and there's been nothing since. I spoke to the one who was apparently in charge of the project at Warley and it was very non-committal from KMS. I can't help but feel that the EOI is now quite out of date. Anyway here's the topic that has been locked for further info.

I'd be very surprised if there wasn't an intermediate batch between the ones due now and the recently announced 37403. Maybe a series of 37/7 heavyweights to go with the 37714 commission? There could even be a batch of 80's/90's 37/4's between these and then 37403 could be a rerun of the initial ones e.g. modern 37/4's and some EPS 37/6's etc.

I do remember pointing out the odd pricing on these when first announced. Obviously, it's their prerogative as to what price they put them at and I presume they are simply their because a few people will buy them at RRP and then they can be heavily discounted. For me they would become viable at 40% off. They've had recent A3's sold at a heavier discount so I would expect these will end in up the bargain bins.

Sorry, could you please elaborate what is meant by 'TTS function profiles'. I presume this isn't simply a straight transfer of TTS profile's?