Revolution Ben

Agree with you about BART though along with the Class 180 Revolution are also offering the Electrostar Class 375/9 units... cheers Ben A.

Hi Jim, Like many I suspect I don't often post here but just wanted to say thanks for all the images you upload, and the insight it gives to those of us who don't work on the 'real' railway. And for obvious reasons I particularly enjoyed the Drax hopper and Dee Marsh steel carrier pics! cheers Ben A.

Hello all, Revolution has attended Warley, in some form or another, for all ten years of our existence. We will miss it, as while other shows in the calendar that we attend (Model Rail Scotland, London Festival of Railway Modelling, DEMU Showcase, The International N Gauge Show and the Great Electric Train Show) are all special in their own way, Warley was at a level of its own in terms of sheer scale and influence. Back in 2009 it was my privilege to open the show, and while I suspect over time another show will come to take on the mantle of 'English national show'; for now I'd just like to record my thanks for the incredible efforts and sterling work carried out by the Warley MRC members, and in particular Paul Jones, in bringing us so much enjoyment for so many years. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, Without checking specific numbers the colour is usually the best indicator. VTG has JNA wagons in two different blues - a very dark navy and a medium royal blue. Photographs should be able to help you work out which wagons are on which traffic; the navy from Revolution and other retailers. The Royal blue versions are the ones being offered through Hornby Magazine. cheers Ben A.

Have you met and chatted to Francis? I have on a couple of occasions- he's genuinely enthusiastic about railways, real and model, and his enthuisiasm is infectious. How he presents, with the reversed go-pro camera etc, may not be to your taste but he is certainly not 'fake.' I'd also say it's quite likely that his social media presence (2.2 million followers on Instagram alone) has probably done more to promote and 'normalise' an interest in railways and railway modelling than all the published magazines and web forums put together. On the Class 313 farewell tour I went on there were dozens of young men and women - ie younger than 25 - queueing up at each stop to meet him and grab a selfie, along with some not-so-young enthusiasts! Whereas your post suggests that he, and other young people like him with an unashamed intereset in railways, are to be derided as 'loonies.' And we wonder why young people are put off the hobby! cheers Ben A.

Hi Colin, It looks to me like those wagons are the Ultramarine VTG blue versions, which are among those being offered by Hornby mag, but I would have to check the individual numbers to be certain. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, Not right now. In practical terms the only common parts would be the bogies and, possibly, the buffers. If the Arbel versions we are offering do well we may look at them in the future but we have several other wagons ahead on the queue. And other than some very early flows I am not aware of any trains that use the blue versions to the exclusion of all other types. Cheers Ben A.

Hi there, Yes, further to Brian's post above they are slighty different. Other than the colour, the most obvious spotting point is that our versions have a platform at one end, the GERS/Touax wagons do not. Also, the newer wagons have an angled profile across the top of the wagon end, whereas the Arbel IHAs are a smooth curve. In this image linked from Flickr the first wagon is the one we are offering, and the second is the later version and the difference in roof profiles is fairly clear. There are other differences but those are the main ones. cheers Ben A.

Hi all, Hopefully that will encourage Kato to fund whatever additional tooling may be needed for the Class 80X units in TPE, Hull Trains, Lumo and Avanti colours. cheers Ben A.

Hi Kev, Great photo of loco 6 - wish I had had that when designing the liveries for the NGS model! Out of interest, is the footplate/footstep section black or a darker blue than the bonnets and cab? And without the dirt are the wheels grey or yellow, like the coupling rod? cheers Ben A.

Hi all, Just for clarity, the walkways are photo-etched metal, not plastic. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, The pair of Sellafield CBD-80 locos nos. 1 and 2 are being offered by Revolution Trains and are available to reserve from Rails of Sheffield, with delivery expected next year. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, The latest news is usually on our Projects page, but as a rule of thumb we won't usually close any order books until we have been able to show EPs, or ideally decorated samples. We've so far received the EPs in N (with 00 EPs expected very soon) but no decorated samples, so we are a good few weeks away yet. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, The ladders are plastic, along with the small support frame for the associated etched platform. The main walkways along the top are etched. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, As I said, please contact your retailer or, if you purchased from us, use the email address in the instructions to get in touch with our customer services manager who can assist. cheers Ben A.

Hello there, I hope they are better too. Other than the paint versions and printed numbers these models are identical to the first run. The catwalks are photo-etched metal. In transit, especially if they pass through hotter climates, it can be that the metal expands, and may flex slightly. Almost all of the time as the models cool they self straighten. As ever we would kindly ask anyone having trouble to give us the opportunity to sort it (either via your retailer, or direct if you purchased from us) first. cheers Ben A.

The catwalks are photo-etched. There may be the odd very slight undulation (as I have occasionally observed on the prototype) but that is all - if you are unhappy and/or they offend the eye please contact your retailer (or, if you purchased direct, the email address in the instructions) and we will look into this for you. cheers Ben A.

Hi all, I picked up a couple of these. I think they are very nicely done with a good combination of robustness and detail. My model is numbered 33 87 4906 046-7, which according to my notes makes it one of a batch built in 2002-3 and coded IFA under TOPS. There are plenty of searchable photos on flickr of wagons in this number series in use in the UK. For example here at Peterborough in 2020: cheers Ben A.

Hi there, For clarity, Revolution assisted with the first Sonic model, which was the air-braked VEA, which represented the converted wagons post (I think) 1978. This release does include some of the long sold-out Railfreight red/grey VEAs but is predominantly of the original vacuum braked vanwides, which have not been available before now. cheers Ben A.

Hi all, There is no right or wrong answer when you are talking about speculative purchases on non-essential luxury goods of any kind. Revolution is still a young company (though it is our tenth birthday next year!) so while we have some experience now we don't pretend to be perfect. But we learned with the N 321 that offering too many options, then cancelling some, will cause disappointment and a little backlash. This was not an enjoyable experience for us personally - we are only human after all. So our approach now is to manage expectations early and only offer options for sale that we fully intend to produce. At the moment, as one person said accurately to us at Warley, the early privatisation sector seems to be somewhat overlooked. I thinik this is probably a generational thing - retailers tell us that BR blue has superceded BR steam/diesel transition as the most popular modelling period, and NSE/sectorisation is coming up fast. Present day is always popular to a significant proportion of the demographic too. But I imagine that early privatisation will become more popular in another five years or so, so if we cannot make it happen this time then we may well revisit it in future. In the meantime, as others have said, repainting is always an option. At least the train is being manufactured! cheers Ben A.

Hi there, We are exploring other options - such as involving retailers. If that works we will obviously confirm that on our website etc but right now FNW isn't in the mix. cheers Ben A.

Hi there, Nice job. I have no empirical evidence for this, and don't even consider myself much of a Deltic afficionado, however the cab windscreens look a fraction too deep to me, and the top of the nose slightly too flat. I suspect increasing the curvature over the front of the nose would at the same time raise the lower edge of the windows just the right amount. Great job though! cheers Ben A.

Hi Nick, It seems a common misapprehension among 4mm modellers that the market scales. We have found with many of our projects that the 2mm version sells at least as well as 4mm. This may be because fewer customers seem to individually buy more of most things, probably relfecting that their layouts tend to feature scale length trains rather than truncated ones. I appreciate that some customers may have missed the expressions of interest but it was widely publicised on our website and on here and is the only hard data we have. cheers Ben A.

Hi nickb4141, We were unsure of demand for FNW so we carried out an expression of interest exercise over the summer. The response was minimal, so at the moment it isn't one we are offering. You will understand of course that different livery versions have to reach an MOQ (minimum order quantity) to be viable. We would rather not take your money than take it and then have to refund it as we are unable to fulfil your expectation. It may be one we revisit later. cheers Ben A.

Hello all, I'd just like to thank the organisers of the Warley show for putting on a great exhibition and for everything they do for the wider hobby. In terms of cost, there is, on offer, a complete day out with a huge variety of layouts, demonstrators, retailers, manufacturers and other traders under one (warm) roof. Considering the costs of comparable leisure activities (e.g playing golf, going to a football match, visiting a theme park) I think for the duration of entertainment on offer the pricing represents good value. It is also worth bearing in mind that Warley, for the last three decades, has turned into *the* national exhibition in England/Wales. For a variety of reasons I think that for any mainstream hobby or pastime it is existentially important to have such significant annual events. cheers Ben A.