LittleRedTrain

Centre headlight does not illuminate at the rear in either direction, which is I believe correct for SR slam-door units (the red blinds acting as the tail lamp).

Yes both centre headlight and the headcode blinds illuminate correctly at the front, regardless of direction. It's just the rear blinds that don't illuminate.

Thanks, nice to know it probably isn't a fault with just my model then. I'm assuming that there's only a single LED behind the blinds, as you have to swap the door if you want reds at the rear, so it can probably be fixed with a bit of function re-mapping on the decoder if required.

Nothing obvious that I can see, and nothing quoted in the manual.

Had a chance to test my newly arrived sound-fitted South West Trains 3-CEP today. All seems to be good, except the rear 'blinds' don't appear to illuminate in either direction. Front blinds, centre headlight and saloon lighting all seem to be behaving fine. Does anyone else have one, and if so, are yours working? Am I missing something obvious? I couldn't see any mention in the manual of turning the rear lights on/off separately via a decoder function.

I do wonder if we're overdue an updated Royal Scot in original condition, as the old split chassis version is difficult to fit with DCC. Still keeping fingers crossed for a Regional Railways 101 or 117. In 009, I wonder if Russell is an option (given it's the Welsh Highland centenary, though that might have been better produced in time for the celebration events in June).

Looks like the order book is now open for the class 11s (with Class 12s to follow). http://www.modelrailoffers.co.uk/pg/167/Project-Class-11-12 Estimated delivery is December this year. Just placed an order for my LMS black one!

Would definitely be interested in Regional Express. Also one to consider might be Regional Railways NW 'green stripe' livery. http://members.madasafish.com/~dysgraphyk/156/class156_liv-nw.htm

Hattons stated that there's no RRP yet so I suspect the 'sold out on pre-order' just means that they've listed the item in their system but it isn't available to pre-order yet because they don't know the price.

Peco have announced the liveries and variants for the Bowsider coaches, prices still TBC. https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/article?id=699 Release expected later this year.

The Brill Tramway had a couple of Manning Wardle locos, which would just about overlap with the already-announced Metropolitan E Class... ;-) https://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/getobject?rnum=L1062 https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs/item/1998-87678

Finally managed to order one (I hope). Both versions still shown in stock when I placed it. I'd normally expect an experience like this trying to buy concert tickets... not a model train!

Still down, hope there's still some in stock once I can finally get through to order!

Would have preferred a 4-CEP rather than 3-CEP, but either way it'll go nicely with the upcoming Hornby SWT 4-VEP. Can't quite justify the SWT 158, as it's slightly too late to go with my other SWT liveried stock, but maybe if it comes up in sales later on. With some slate wagons and Linda (if I can actually get onto the BCC site to buy it), it'll be an expensive month!

My Regional Railways 37414 arrived from Rails on Friday. Sadly, the idiot delivery driver from DPD decided to throw the parcel over the 6ft front gate rather than open it using the clearly marked handle! Not to mention the fact it was raining heavily at the time. (I caught him before he left and 'words were had') Thankfully Rails had packaged it well, and nothing fell off when I got it out the box. However, my excitement was short lived. Put it on the test track, lots of sound, no movement! Turns out one of the bogies was completely seized up! I know I should probably have just packaged it up and sent it back at that point, but my inner engineer (and probably the current dose of Covid I'm suffering) made me decide to try and fix it first! After a strip down of the loco and opening up the bogie, I discovered that the gears were seized solid. However, after a bit of wiggling around, a bit of white plastic swarf fell out and everything started moving again. I'm hoping it wasn't a bit of gear dislodged by the drop, but couldn't see any obvious damage to any of them! Re-assembling was a real pain, had to try and get the Cardan Shaft for the bogie drive back into the motor, very fiddly and required just the right angle. Once done and the bogie retaining screw back in, I gave it a run on the test track and all seemed to be running smoothly with both bogies powering. Next incredibly fiddly task was trying to get the bogie retaining chains back onto their clips! In the end, I managed to get one link on each (but not the end link) and that'll do for now to stop them dragging, and I'll sort it out properly later! Finally, with the body back on and all 4 electrical connectors plugged back in, a quick check and all seemed to be in order, thankfully! It's a lovely model, and will look great on my North Wales Coast set of Regional Railways Mk2/Mk1s (with a random chocolate & cream Mk1 thrown in for good measure, as was prototypical for the mid-90s).

Received Alice and Dorothea back from Bachmann (via Rails of Sheffield) a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have a chance to check them until today due to holidays. The service report for both from Bachmann was 'No fault found.' It's hard to tell but the running seemed marginally better after they'd been looked at, however, still not up to the standard I'd hope for from a 2023 model. Dorothea still worse then Alice. No suggestion from Bachmann that they accept that there's a fundamental flaw somewhere in the design or have any plans to improve it, despite the widespread reports of problems. In an ideal word they'd be issuing a recall and supplying replacement chassis, but somehow I can't see that happening so I guess we'll just have to live with it! Unfortunately Britomart (the worst performing of the three) was found to have an additional motor fault, but neither Rails nor Bachmann had a replacement in stock, so I've had to accept a refund and keep a lookout for another one elsewhere! Thanks go to Rails, who did their best to resolve this for me and kept me well informed. It's just a shame what should have been a real triumph from Bachmann has turned out into a bit of a disappointment.

Thanks Mike, I'd gone straight to the pre-order pages after the posts on here and missed the news article with this info. Will submit my EOI now, keeping fingers crossed that others are also interested, as this was the livery I remember them in when I was travelling on them every week!

No First 'Barbie' livery option for the 4mm 180s? Or has it just not been added yet?

For me it'll have to be FGW purple, as that's how I remember them when traveling to and from Oxford almond every weekend in the early 2000s. Compared to the ubiquitous Thames Turbos they were quite a step up in comfort and speed!

Thanks for this, it's nice to see that these locos can run nicely. Out of interest, which decoder are you using, and have you changed any of the CV settings from the defaults? Rails called me yesterday about the three I'd returned. Unfortunately the replacement Alice and Dorothea they were going to send me exhibited exactly the same 'sticking' issues as mine (and they didn't have a Britomart in stock). They've agreed to send them on to Bachmann's service department to hopefully beat into shape! Fingers crossed they are able to sort them out.

Having now given mine an initial test run, I can now answer my own question. It's a lovely looking loco but, sadly, out of the box it still has a noticeable 'tight spot' whilst running slowly. However, it doesn't seem as bad as my other three, so I'm keeping fingers crossed that it might improve with lubrication and running in, rather than this one having to go back as well. I am a bit disappointed overall with these. For what is a fairly simple 0-4-0 chassis without complex valve gear, you'd expect a manufacturer like Bachmann to have them running like a Swiss watch every single time!

Mine was dispatched on Tuesday and arrived here this morning. Having to wait until after work to get it out and test it!

Just had the dispatch notification for mine from the BLR shop. At the time of writing, only 16 shown left in stock (though don't know if that includes any unsold from the weekend or if they're keeping any back for in-store sales). Did anyone pick up one of these at the weekend? If so, how's the running at slow speeds. Any obvious changes to the previous models? Sadly my original 3 have all gone back to Rails for repair/replacement as I could never get them to run satisfactorily at slow speed, and DCC fitting made them even worse!

I still think Regional Railways 101 and 117 should be an open goal... and would finally allow me to retire my Lima versions!

An attractive colour scheme on this loco, and one I've actually travelled behind, duly ordered! Hopefully this will be a nice little earner for the BLR, and will be a positive after their recent planning application disappointment. Now to see if I can fit in a trip to the BLR during my visit to Wales later this year. I wonder if Bachmann will be doing additional Quality Control checks on these after the reported running problems with some of the original batch. (I'm guessing it probably came out of the factory in the same run, so unlikely there will have been any changes to the chassis design). FYI @AY Mod the shop link in the original post didn't work for me, I think it has an extra '.' at the end.