D9020 Nimbus

Ah — I'm not on Facebook, I was going by the YouTube presentation by the Airfix Head of Brand. There he clearly mentioned that it was the first time Airfix had produced it in their own right.

As for the layout name, I believe you must be a reader of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct stories? ISTR the imaginary city in them — though clearly based on New York — is called Isola.

Actually, they did specifically say that it had not been manufactured by Airfix in their own right before. Now I know why!

Bachmann already had the licence — just not for the U.K. The models already existed. To market them here, they would need to be put through the certification process to prove that they are safe for the intended market.

Not quite true. iOS/iPadOS only runs applications downloaded from the App Store; some are free (as in beer). However it's only recently that you’ve been able to select an alternative browser as the default — and it is a condition for a browser to be accepted on the App Store that it must use the same rendering engine as Safari, so alternative browsers aren’t the same as on other systems. Intermediate Mac OS updates are much more painful than Windows ones — they are equivalent to a full OS upgrade every time, and take about 2 hours. Intermediate Windows upgrades take typically less than five minutes.

You need TWO Accurascale ones to take the place of ONE Mainline one? 😀

You might be wrong — the email suggests there will be an announcement on the website followed by a Q&A on YouTube — nothing to say it is live. Perhaps the new people don't enjoy the limelight as much as SK seemed to do…

Bachmann did make that claim — giving the V1/V3 as an example "outline" they might produce. But they have included in the range models of locos which are not produced by them in OO: 8F, Stanier 5MT and class 31, for example. What Hornby said was that everything in TT:120 would be something they did in OO — but they may well find there are locos they do in TT which aren't viable in OO. In the days of Triang TT there were not that many common types — both had a Britannia, but OO had "Winston Churchill" while TT had a "Merchant Navy", the DMUs were of different types and so on (the non-inclusion of the "Castle" in the OO range is understandable, that of the GW "large Prairie" less so).

The V23 is not actually that far out. There was an article on Rennsteig in Eisenbahn Journal back in about 1983 which mentioned the real Frauenwald. In its latter years V15s were used; almost identical to the V23 but less powerful. V36 0-6-0 diesels were also used. In earlier years T3s were indeed used but services appear to have been dominated by the BR98.62 0-4-0Ts. Dostos were used on the line to Rennsteig — there is a photo in the article of a 94 hauling a set, but immediately behind the loco is a four-wheeled luggage van, and there are a couple of wagons on the rear. The line from Rennsteig to Frauenwald saw various coaches, in the last year a pair of Donnerbüchsen saw use in a mixed train.

The Hornby decoder probably draws more power than average due to its Bluetooth support. And if the Dapol has a complex installation, that suggests that it too will be more demanding than average.

One reason why double slips (and three-way points, for that matter) are included in the track ranges of German manufacturers is that these are considerably more common in real German track layouts than in the UK. You don't tend to find them in US track ranges — but then these include 90° crossings…

Not true. In Europe Germany does, but French trains drive on the left (except in Alsace-Lorraine). Italian trains also keep left. It's worth knowing that pre-WW2, many more countries than today drove on the left, including Austria and Norway, and were forcibly changed over after invasion by Germany. This was on the roads; railways are far more difficult to change over. In the US, almost all drove on the right, except for the C&NW.

Not surprising — as was pointed out when the Heljan 009 L&B locos were introduced, they're actually longer than a standard gauge "Terrier" in real life. I do wish that someone would tackle the W&L though…

Well, I've used Fleischmann points including 3-way and double slip. The route through the points is never as smooth as it should be even with European stock, but stock from the main manufacturers — Arnold, Fleischmann, Minitrix, etc. — doesn't derail. These points are set to accept NEM standard wheels, whereas most — if not all — U.K. outline manufacturers use NMRA standards, which are somewhat finer. I haven't got a U.K. prototype N gauge layout yet, although one is planned, but I have run U.K. stock on the Fleischmann track. I have encountered no problems with any Farish stock — from Poole era to the latest models, nor with Minitrix, Peco, Rapido Trains U.K. or Revolution Trains or Sonic Models. The only issues I've had are with Dapol. I had a GW 2-6-2T which derailed every time on points. I had that fixed at a model railway exhibition many years ago now by Bob from BR Lines. I also have a test track of Kato Unitrack. Generally good running is achieved with that too. There is an issue with my Dapol 14xx locos though. I have three — one derails every time on Kato but is fine on Fleischmann, the other two are the opposite way round. I've had no issues with newer Dapol models, 0-6-0s, or diesels. The Fleischmann tracked is pinned down using either Peco or Fleischmann track pins. No underlay—plywood baseboard.

A number of layouts, especially in Germany, have the "shadow station" (staging yard) underneath the layout and connected via a helix. This may be a factor.

You can uncouple Dapol easi-shunts with the Rix Products uncoupling pick intended for N gauge Microtrains couplers. Might be hard to find in the U.K. — though N Scale American Trains may have stocks: https://www.nscaleamericantrains.co.uk/en/

And @TomE has created an N gauge wish list — thus far for diesel locos only; I believe a steam equivalent is planned for the future. I suspect it is the collector market that makes a lot of OO models viable.

How warm does the motor get?

How about the GWR 74xx (and the later 64xx too)? It was more widespread in use than the 64xx and would use the same chassis.

The rakes are even worse as you often have several identical wagons grouped together. Rails have lost a lot of sales to me due to that policy.

The tracking provided by eBay is, at best, somewhat behind reality, but you can — after a lot of fiddling — get the tracking number which you can use on RM's website. In my area I've found that it usually is shown as "out for delivery" when it is out for delivery, although on one occasion an item was indicated as being "out for delivery" at two different times on the same day. The best from my POV has been DPD. They email you on the delivery day when the van with your parcel leaves the depot, giving you a one hour window — and the tracking information on the website includes a live map showing your house and the van's positions, and a line saying "(Driver's name) is currently making delivery XX. Your delivery is YY. Estimated time to delivery is (time).”

Part of the problem with Hornby, IMHO, is that they have had too many changes — they no sooner settle on a strategy than they're preparing for another change — a bit like a football team which is always changing the manager or "head coach" without having an overall plan in mind. And as Gerard Fiennes said, "when you reorganise, you bleed".

The top right view in the OP shows a triangular front face to the tank which looks wrong to me and doesn't appear to match the drawings.

I think he means that Rails should have had single wagons as well as triples to sell—not to break up existing triple sets. These are exclusive to Rails, so I assume it is their decision rather than Sonic's to offer only triples.

Evri does depend on the local courier — but when I've ever had a problem with an Evri delivery, the parcel never even got as far as the courier (who is excellent). You don't need a printer to use RM's online service if you're booking a collection — you can opt to get the postman to bring a pre-printed label — no extra charge for this.