Foden

I thought the bogies were okay, just the bodies were underscale? I ended up keeping mine in the end, hoping something like this would happen, which thankfully it did/will.

Well that’s what I thought too. Well designed, well made, and looks really nice too. But honestly after my last experience I’d not bother with an Audi again.

My previous Audi done a very good job of getting from A - B, when B was the local dealership I bought it from, and A was the back of a recovery vehicle. Back on topic, I’ve been very tempted to grab a H&S infinity to add to my collection, a lot of good reviews from people I listen to.

In simple terms, what Mick has said above. Diving a little deeper, the answer is it depends what you’re doing. If you’re just putting primer, and base coats down, you’re unlikely to get much extra out of something more premium. Equally for general weathering of track and stock the Neo will do just fine. I’ve had a Neo in the past, and I now own a Badger Patriot 105 and an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS. The things I do with these that are better than the Neo include finer, crisper small intricate work, and more precise paint flow allowing for more subtle weathering, zenithal highlighting, and thinner layering of colour when required to preserve very intricate detail. The 105 has a larger needle fitted than the .5 in the Iwatta so are used for different tasks, but other than that they’re much of a muchness. They get used for painting and detailing tabletop wargaming miniatures as well as model railway uses.

I’ve got a couple of IC Oxford Mk3s, and to my eye they look lovely. Sadly though, where they fall short is in durability. Every time I breath in the same direction bits seem to fall off, and they just don’t feel very robust.

I make use of a special model lubricant set from a company called Nye. It has in it motor oil, gear oil, and hobby grease. I’ve had this set for around 5 years now, and judged on the quantities I’ve used, I’ll not need another for a further 50. Quite expensive set to buy, but very good quality stuff. I’ll also use an aerosol of electrical contact cleaner (Holts in my case) to remove any grub and old grease on servicing, before applying a suitably small amount of new lubricant back on.

Hi John. I’ve had some success in the past putting plastic models in the freezer to remove glazing. Also worth it to see the odd expression on the wife’s face when she reaches in for a Cornetto

Can I ask why you think plastic adhesive that bonds the material is not suitable? In my opinion this type of adhesive is infact the most suitable in the long run, as it effectively welds the material.

Unfortunate, I remember looking forward to seeing the finished project too, but what a commitment to see such a thing through. Huge respect to John Holden and the team for achieving what they have with Lime St., such huge representations must take a degree of dedication and enthusiasm I can barely grasp, leave alone aspire to. My apologies, it wasn’t my intention to wander off on a completely unrelated tangent.

Likewise, it'd be most impressive. If memory serves, someone on here was once modelling a true scale Birmingham New Street in P4, although I've no idea what happened to it. This would be going back around 10 years, if not more.

Impressive though it may be, I’m not sure a true scale ‘RTR’ model of York station will sell in the volumes Accurascale would hope...

Thankyou very much for the replies. I really didn't know it was as common as what it appears. From my memory of the Birmingham - Peterborough line through Hinckley, that was a reasonably used double track that retained semaphore signalling upto around 2005 between Nuneaton and Leicester as I recall, so I thought if a well used cross country route retained manual signalling (in sections), single lines probably would have more often than not. Seems I can start looking at colour lights then!

Why should they? There's no other competition for the class in this scale, other than Hornby's own ex Lima offering. Please understand, I'm not being deliberately obtuse to your point, but just because someone sees a particular model falling down the pecking order of most accurate model currently for sale, doesn't mean they would, or should start discounting it. My suspicion is they'll still sell plenty, and will continue to do so for the most they can until either people stop buying it, or direct competition for its sale arrives from another manufacturer.

Two new OO locos in one half, and you don't know what the 'other half' has to offer yet either. Add to that you can actually purchase these items within a reasonable timeframe of them being announced.

Looking forward to the swallow Mk2fs. Quite amusing people's reactions of being underwhelmed/disappointed to what amounts to just one quarter of an annual announcement.

A lot more common than I'd thought then it seems! Many thanks Phil

Hi guys. I've just taken ownership of a small branch layout that has a double track line going down to a single line that I'm looking to add signals to in the future. The layout will be set in the early 1990s until privatisation, and my preference is to use colour light signals, operated from a PSB. My question is, would this be prototypical for the time? My instinct tells me that most single line branches of the time would have been operated with semaphores from a manned box by the token system, the only exception that springs to mind is the Redditch branch, but this was part of a much busier cross city line, so may be an exception rather than something more common?

Glad I took a seat for that fifteen quid difference, heaven knows what would have happened.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled, but not seen anything other than preorders still as of yet.

The irony of missing the announcement at 10, because of starting work at 10...... in Barwell. Looking forward to the next schedule of releases no less, maybe there will be a new livery of something that catches my attention, a RES 90 would be very welcome.

Very happy to say that after a 400 mile round trip, I am the new custodian of Greenwood! I didn't start the week intending to take on another layout, but after seeing this thread, I really liked the layout, and upon noticing it was for sale, a plan started formulating. My work in progress yard layout isn't suitably sized (or intended) for my small collection of DMUs, so there was an idea of a second small terminus layout for the garage to make use of them, Greenwood will fill that role perfectly. It'll move forward in time again, to become an early 1990s Midlands region station, but will for the time being be largely unchanged from what James has created. Further plans might include 'upgrading' the point motors to slow action DCC operation, and continuing the single track into a second fiddle yard past the station, as originally designed by James. I'll start a new thread for progress under my ownership in due course, but would like to take this opportunity to thank James for entrusting me with the layout, and for helping me load it all into the car for its journey to its new home in Leicestershire, I hope I can do it justice going forward.

I’d love to see you guys dip a toe into permanent way equipment. Sadly Hattons halted progress on their crane, despite there seemingly being plenty of interest in it, and disappointment at it being frozen. Such models fit well into small formations, making them appealing to folk with large, and smaller layouts alike I would think.

Agree with the above, this is a fantastic little layout, full of character, and well modelled. I really enjoyed reading the thread on its progress. It’d be a huge shame to scrap it! This is just the sort of idea I had wandering round in my head for running my DMUs on too!

Liability with the manufacturer may have passed, but credibility stands to be damaged. Finely detailed scale models may indeed be toys in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of the purchaser will be somewhat different. ‘The law’ however doesn’t make future purchases. Mistakes, and unforeseen instances like this happen, the way the manufacturer deals with it is key. Hornby reacted quite well to their mazak issues in the past, I’m sure Dapol will do so accordingly. Perhapps in this hobby more than most, reputation matters, and customers largely vote with their wallets and purses, any sidestep of ‘not our problem’ may be financially good business now, but burn bridges that make it less so in the long term. As for stock sitting in boxes, I have literally thousands of pounds worth of wagons that can’t run on my small end to end layout, but like many in the hobby, I make purchases for ‘that one day’ for three main reasons. 1, it’s available now where it might not be going forward. 2, it’s cheaper now than it would be new in X years. And 3, even if it were available, if I bought all the stock I wanted at the moment I had a use for it, my wife would bury me under the patio. Sorry to read about the faults with your stock guys, I sincerely wish for a favourable outcome for you.

Can only really speak for the model, rather than most liveries, I'm only personally interested in the regional railways livery for myself (which is very well represented I might add).