Oakydoke

Much better if that "controlling mind" was 15 to 20 year franchises and a transfer of more of the "risk" to the TOC's. A move to centralised government control (Civil Service, Treasury etc) can only lead to more bad decision making and covering of ar*es when it all goes wrong.

N or O The answer is the sum of those letters. NO !

For the smoke chuffing effect, a fan assisted smoke generator is needed, preferably operated by a sound decoder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nROHdtha1Vs

Keep your eyes peeled And your ears to the ground. DLR train drawing. Potatoes Wheat, or flour Articulated stock, operates to the east of London. East Anglia Class 755 Stadler FLIRT. Just a wild guess.

Complete with a 40 mph PSR on electrickery.

Once the Class 800/801/802 fleets currently ordered, are all delivered and in service, will there be any remaining, or redeployed HST services running at 125 mph? Any over 100 mph?

The CEO's message that they've turning the corner, can see light at the end of the tunnel, are continuing restructuring and streamlining etc, etc; is the same message that various Hornby CEO's have been trotting out for nearly 10 years. Nothing new here, as far as I can see. Thankfully Barclays are not pulling the plug this time (same as last year), but if this new investment doesn't materialise, it could be curtains for the company. Sadly, I can't see any new investor getting their money back, never mind a return on their investment. Maybe Phoenix will sell to Chinese or Indian buyers.

....or maybe he does ?

That's a cynical and lame response from whoever at Hornby, if you don't mind me saying so.At £400 this is hardly a kiddies toy, to be chucked around the lounge carpet. Regardless that some of the problems may stem from poor assembly or quality control at the factory, the design team must be culpable for some of the issues affecting this model. Inadequate DCC decoder provision, cheap moulded pantograph (note: some continental models at half the price have fairly accurate and realistic pantos made from more durable materials, i.e. metal), poor inflexible coupling arrangements, not to mention the bogie clearance issue. These are all design issues. Am I being too harsh? I don't think I am.

The press release isn't very clear on this and is slightly contradictory. A dedicated new fleet....but converted......from? New trains aren't converted. They're built as required.

I find it quite astonishing that some people have attempted to fettle or modify their faulty new Class 800 models. Equally baffling that people are hanging on to them, waiting for Hornby to deliver parts to enable a fix. Why on earth have all these models not been returned back to the retailers, as faulty products, for a full refund?

How are they "completely different"? During development, Hitachi said the unpowered trailers would have the same body shell with the raised floor, to provide commonality across the fleet and to simplify and reduce the cost of design and construction. If need be, the generator power packs under the powered cars can be removed to turn them into all electric units. The IEP specification required easy conversion of the trains from bi-mode to electric. If it's the presence or not of traction motors, does the modular nature of the design not allow traction motors to be retro fitted to unpowered cars?

Is this a clever move by Heathrow Airport Ltd. ? HAL had a licence to run HEX until 2023 and had indicated that they wished to continue running the service beyond that date. However, with the prospect of Crossrail taking a big chunk of their HEX passenger traffic and a desire in some quarters (e.g. NR) to reallocate the HEX mainline paths to allow much needed, additional long distance services, the odds were looking increasingly stacked against them being able to continue beyond 2023. Add to that the expense of building and relocating maintenance to the proposed new Langley depot. By getting GWR onboard, HAL are no longer on their own against NR and the incumbent TOC (currently GWR), with regards to retaining the service and the valuable main line paths. There is also no need to build the new Langley depot, which must be saving quite a bit of money too. In addition, HEX is guaranteed another 5 years operation beyond 2023. Some clever footwork has gone on here, methinks.

There are 2 unpowered intermediate trailer cars in the 9 car units.i.e. 5 diesel powered cars and 4 unpowered trailers (including the driving cars). Both unpowered intermediate trailers would need to be replaced with diesel powered cars to get the 7 power cars you mention.

...or H0/4

The answer is 42

The irony is that you have posted this in the wrong section, as it is a discussion. As already said, the DCC area was divided to declutter and provide a dedicated space where people could find help and advice. It couldn't be any clearer as far as I can see. It's written on the tin. Please keep these sections separate.

See post no. 2 on page 1.

Remind me again. How is Dapol pronounced? ;/

Oh dear! Has word got out that the Christmas sales period was poor for Hornby?

Released around the same time, over just a couple of years, when they also released the Class 08/09, 31 and 56. IIRC the 60 was released the same year as the 08/09, or was it one of the others? Hornby's first D&E models built to modern standards were received with deserved high praise and the company declared their commitment to doing modern prototypes, saying they'd be releasing similarly high quality new D&E models, every year from that point on. That didn't last long.

I swore when I saw the price.

That's with a £140 discount.The m.r.p. is £950

I've just seen this monster sized ship this afternoon. Docked in Rotterdam, which I suspect is its home port, or base.

Only listed as a digital train set, complete with a Dynamis Ultima DCC system and RailController software package. Manufacture's recommended retail price £949.45. I can see box shifters and individuals doing split sets, just like what happens on the continent with the MultiMaus and z21 train sets. If the Dynamis can be sold for around £200+ after a box shifter price of around £810, that still leaves the Pullman costing around £600.