E100

Agreed that the Black 5 of 8F should be high on the list.

That does. Thank you for that info. I'm sure it'll help us who have to order the decoders to get it running properly! Anyway get back to putting it through it's paces

Personally I don't see Accurascale doing a HST just yet. Whilst the Hornby HST power cars are expensive they aren't a bad model per say. It's not exactly a railroad item but stranger things have happened. I think this may be on a long list and wouldn't be surprised if they do it in 5 years if there isn't any sign of Hornby doing it. It's probably a challenging project on the logistics front from the perspective of getting the right ratio of coaches to power cars. People will only buy one if they can buy the other generally and getting these correct in the right liveries would be really difficult to do IMO such that they don't end up with a load of stock sitting in a shed until they can do the next batch in that livery. The exceptions maybe the Scotrail and GWR castle formations where they could reasonably sell them as sets.

Yes I did start to think over the past hour this might be more the case that 3 decoders would be needed with then the coach lights picking up from DC/DCC. Somewhat disappointing with the articulated bogies it would have been nice to see something similar to the Rapido APT-E as these coaches will only ever run in this set. Feel's very much a 2000's rather than 2020's solution, especially when considering the functionality of modern decoders. Slightly off topic so feel free to split. Very new to DCC - is there such a thing as a cheap slave decoder for the end car purpose that play's nicely with the main decoder and doesn't include all the functionality such as motor control back EMF or is this basically just an accessory decoder?

Oh dear. This is starting to get mightily expensive if this is the case... ...£140 worth of decoders (based on £20 per chip) just to get lights working properly on the 7 car set. Edit: (He says still trying to justify the set to himself!) Edit 2: Replies below indicate 3 decoders needed i.e. 1 per driving car and 1 per motor car.

How many decoders does it need? I assumed it'd just be the one with electrical connections?

True though is this layout DCC and therefore may be function or just a production proof with a fault? I honestly can't believe they'd have missed this with everything else they've they gone through on this model.

Good point on the tooling variation. Yes it certainly seems so. If I'm honest that high end detail, though expensive is what's driven me to get back into the hobby.

Based on the recent Class 47 announcement, it makes me wonder what kind of detail they'll be going for on this. I'd certainly hope there's much technological/design progress and lessons learnt that can be transferred across.

Agreed this looks much better than the artwork for the 5 car pack (see the facebook page above for a pic)

Oh my goodness. This will look superb!

Just to double check. My understanding is there isn't an illuminated tail light coach for each set is there? Personally think this would be OTT but wanted to ask.

These look stunning. I really love the teal livery and I think you have it spot on to my eyes - the key being not too bright. Speaking of bright, the lighting looks fantastic. The detail is fantastic though slightly gutted the magnetic couplers are 3rd radius only - I may need to redesign the proposed layout / move to a bigger room... I'm over the moon that you have Fort William destinations on there. Out of interest would a plan be to have Fort William on one side / London Euston on the other? Agreed that it makes most sense to produce these alongside the TPE mk5's. I would highlight for those who aren't aware there is an ongoing expression of interest for the Class 73/9 required to go with these. Class 73/9 Accurascale and KMS Thread do sign yourself up for 1 or 2 PS Fran whats the current biggest order for these out of interest? Any complete highland / lowland rakes or even 2 of each?

Almost making me tempted to get into IR modelling...

Still got a couple of issues but going to wait until at least the end of the week before thinking about getting in touch as they'll likely resolve themselves. There's nothing massively urgent about it. Either way hope the new website helps them go from strength to strength PS Did notice that the 6 packs of decoders have gone missing - hope this isn't the end of quality sub £20 decoders

pahahaha - amazing ref Some nice footage with the two accurascale 92's (not mine)

Actually seen more 73's through Newcastle than in Scotland... ...that may be due to my office overlooking the station which wasn't the deciding factor in taking the job at all

Scottish modelling is very popular with the loco hauled trains generally being manageable for smaller layouts. I agree that personally I feel accurascale should be making the 73/9 regardless to go with the Mk5's as for most a Fort William/Aberdeen rake is manageable but not much bigger. It should be advertised alongside the Mk5 updates. i.e PS be sure to look at our class 92's xxx / xxx / xxx and express interest in KMS's class 73/9 for realistic traction options. I'd understand not going for the full suite of 73's at this stage as there are a number of differences. (look at the class 69 thread before Cavalex announced their class 56 as there was significant debate around whether it would actually be easy for Bachmann to go down the class 56 route) but the GBRF and NR ones do make sense as they are quite well travelled.

Can't wait to see the Caledonian colours on these and the 92!

Not wanting to derail the thread but the recent announcement on Hornby price rises is concerning, more so with expensive sets like this. 10% on a 7 car set is a couple coaches elsewhere. Sincerely hoping the price increase doesn't apply to this model or if it does it's considerably less than 10%. I've ordered through Hornby.com since I was late and that was the only place with reliable stock as far as I could tell so hoping they honour the current price.

I've decided to take the plunge (before the 1st July) with the Sound option. As I'm needing DCC anyway to step up to sound cost wise wasn't much... ...yes still trying to justify as needing to very much be a rule 1 train!

This survey is a great idea. Hoping to attend Warley for the first time in a decade but maybe that's somewhat naive given the current climate. Even as a young 29 year old. I'd certainly be wanting to take a fresh FFP3 mask as much for others as myself along with glasses desisting spray. I don't fancy long covid even though I'm unlikely to end up in hospital. There does seem to be very high effectiveness for them that could prevent a super spreader event https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57636360 I wonder if large exhibitions could provide a compulsory high quality mask FFP3 and glasses de-misting spray (because I assume well over 50% have glasses and even more only to see the detail on models). Obviously, it would add a couple of £ to entrance. Medical exemptions to masks requiring some form of evidence (far too much abuse of this currently IMO). With that in place events could probably take place even in a covid spike.

Thanks @Accurascale Fran. I look forward to it! I wonder if this means possible decorated samples / a new EP...

Just wondered what the latest dates were on these @Accurascale Fran. I assume these won't be Q3 but probably into Q4 / 2022 with all the difficulties facing manufactures currently. Either way all the more time for us to get our 73/9 EOI in. I sincerely hope that does come to fruition as I need it to haul the class 92 (rule 1 / they forgot to take it off!) and mk5's.

Hi Charlie, really glad to see how active you are on here. If I wanted to go on a waiting list for a Saltaire 156 what's the best way to do this. I assume these are planned for 2022/23? Cheers