Gulliver

Bought mine at Warley today and they look superb. The only finger prints on mine were the ones I made when I took it out of the box and they just rub off again. Not sure why you would be surprised to find them identical? There was nothing to suggest they would all be unique and they have had the pre-production pictures on their website for weeks now. As far as I can see the final one is identical to the pictures on their website? When I asked on their stand they said these would be the last because of the price increases making them too expensive. They also had very few left so this batch looks like it may sell out as quickly as the previous ones.

That is what I do not understand as well! Must have it collected, so how did Bachmann get it to everyone? Personal hand deliveries to all the shops? I think not! As long as the shop concerned is packing them properly there should be no problem.

My history is a bit ropey, but I think the Channel Tunnel was still being built when the silver bullets were first introduced?

Need to slightly amend that list - the Kernow 4 later pristine should be 2 pristine and 2 weathered. With Kernow also doing two other clay tanks we are getting a decent range of these type of wagons.

There is a great collection of pictures here: - http://wagons.fotopic.net/c1496117.html Shows them working services into Cornwall with and without ECC logo, and also on West Coast Main Line services to Wembley and on to Dollands Moor, presumably to work onwards through the Channel Tunnel.

Blue and Grey three car is certainly my preferred choice, but in the meantime a 2 car all blue is on order to show support for the venture! I think relations with Dapol must be OK - Kernow have plenty of other projects on the go with them. Having had a chance to think about this surprise a bit it does make sense, with Bachmann making the CEP, EPB etc there have to be advantages of scale of production for all concerned.

I do not think there is any question of influence needed! Kernow have always said they will do three car versions but the costs of tooling in one hit mean the models have to be staged. If people do not buy two car versions at all then presumably they will not recover their investment to be able to do the three car version. It is actually no different to Bachmann doing a 2 car 108 first and then following with a 3 car surely.

The Kernow website shows this page as being updated on my screen but does show Bachmann as the manufacturer, although the individual items still show Dapol. As Gwiwer says their newsletter generally goes out on a Saturday so my guess is the Bachmann site has been updated a little early! It sounds like something that would perhaps be announced at Ally Pally, assuming Kernow go to that?

They really look the business and will certainly appear on my layout. Given the weathering has been applied onto chrome, I wonder if it may be possible to remove patches of weathering around the logo etc to look like the ones that had a partial clean to reveal data panels etc, but the rest of the wagon was still filthy. I am sure I saw some where one panel was cleaned for some reason but the rest of tank remained lagged. Looking forward to getting one and having a play.

Looking pretty good to me - I would be happy with that!