bmthtrains - David

Thanks everyone! It has been a while since I’ve set the layout up but as I had time this morning some new stock has been given a run in: two new NR mk2s and the Dapol 68/Revolution mk5 set. I was pleasantly surprised to find the latter ran perfectly fine on my outermost loop despite it pinching to well under the recommended minimum radius. David

A useful comparison image. Unless you get a magnifying glass out there is very little difference between the two, although Revolution’s is slightly more detailed. For me, it will always be livery allocation and running qualities that matter most. Neither colour blue looks right me in these photos but it might be the lighting doing it. I have to say that of the two GBRF liveried ones out the Dapol one looks closer to the real thing, Revolution’s orange looks too dark to me, but again hard to be certain in photos. Similarly the Dapol DB grey looks far too light. I have the Hanson Revolution 59 on order so will be looking forward to it arriving, but for the 66 I’ll be holding off to see which has the most accurate colours of each livery before purchasing. I suspect I will end up with at least one of each manufacturer…and then of course Farish will inevitably have a new 66 out soon as well… David

Interesting views so far. There won’t be a single definition for either as it’s a very subjective question, but I’d offer two thoughts. On a technical level a train set to me is something you buy as a kit of parts while a model railway is something you build independently - a bit like baking a cake using separate ingredients or buying a box of cake mix. A model railway can of course contain a train set within it though, if the parts are used and expanded beyond what the box suggests. I think what the OP was more referring to is an aesthetic difference between the two, which for me is a simple as hiding the return curves. If I can see the train go all the way round it’s a train set but if it has an illusion of going off scene before returning then that’s a model railway to me. Both are wonderful whatever their differences! David

Hunters Lane is featured in the Spring issue of BRM which is out now. Thanks to all on the team for pulling the article together, and to Jamie Warne for the gorgeous photography! David

The Twins look gorgeous. Not my era at all but bound to be popular. As others have said, an odd choice to bring the Mk3s back. David

Thanks Ben, I have just noticed there are red lights on the ‘front’ end of the coach behind the loco, should these be on when moving forward on DC? The odd lighting set up is more annoying due to only a couple of the coaches randomly turning on again, if it was they all reset and came on that would be less confusing. Watching it run again over lunch and the running is getting even smoother. David

My set arrived this morning so it had a quick run in on my Kato test track over breakfast. Initial impressions are very good. The 68 is also new to me so I was very impressed with both the detailing and smoothness of that as well. The coaches are about as free wheeling as I expected, similar to the Farish Voyager, and while I needed to really ramp up the power to the loco, so far they have run very well. Pushing is a bit more of a struggle and I needed to put the longer coupling on but again no problems. The detailing and livery is exceptional and the coaches feel solid and well built. The interior detail is very nicely done and the fit of all the parts is good, something that really let down the 321. The DVT has a slight lean to one side and doesn't always sit fully upright which is a little distracting and while I am not a fan of internal coach lights, these are actually pretty good. Which is handy as they don’t switch off! The switching of these is bizarre, no doubt designed for DCC users, as whenever I use the wand to turn them off, once the set stops moving, one or two coaches randomly turn back on. If you turn them off again the same ones come back on next time, and if you turn them all on then off and then stop, different ones turn on! As the lighting effect when on is probably the most effective I’ve seen, this thankfully won’t be too big an issue as to my surprise I am likely to run these lit. The biggest thumbs up to Revolution I can give is for the couplings. The close coupling is very impressive, though I suspect they won’t like some of the hidden curves on Hunters Lane, but I knew this and these were really bought with a future layout in mind that will have more generous curves. But best of all, they just have normal couplings! No rolling them on their back and squeezing crumbling through-power connectors together and then trying to roll a fully coupled train upright again without scratching it to bits. Keep it simple chaps, it works! Overall, a stunning set that I hope to give a proper run on my layout as soon as I can. David

That’s really useful to know. My 68 arrived today, a stunning model, and the Mk5s look to be driving with Kernow shortly so later this week I’m hoping to give them a test run as well. David

I have succumbed and ordered both a class 68 and the TPE coaching set from Kernow as they only showed having one left of Felix and in contrast to the MK5 sleepers I’m only seeing positive reviews of the TPE coaches. That is really pleasing as the model certainly looks lovely. Felix will no doubt arrive first as I suspect it will be another week before retailers get their stock of the coaching sets. David

Nick at N Brass Locos has announced he is retiring at the end of February so it’s a last chance to order. After 32 years his etched parts will be greatly missed, especially the OHLE portals. It will make modelling modern electrified lines much harder in future. A well earned retirement though. David

The media will always take a lightweight approach to stories like this by grabbing a fun headline for clickbait rather than digging deeper for the truth, but then actually isn’t that partly because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter? On the scale of newsworthy events happening in the world, the (misguided) idea that a hobby is seeing a slump due to an aging demographic is frankly not worth the time of any serious journalistic investigation even if it were true given what else is wrong in the world. The internet frenzy, which as Andy has noted is very tame on here compared to Facebook/Twitter, etc., is like any fandom, in that there is no group that hates something more than its own fans. In this hobby I suspect this is due in part to a huge audience of armchair railway modellers who just like to read and complain rather than actually take part in the hobby, but also an ugly element of the hobby that also creeps in to RMWeb on occasion where the hobby is reduced to pure consumption - shopping and collecting, wish listing and despair at every new non-announcement of their dream loco, and displaying vast collections of rolling stock to show how much money they’ve spent, with the creative part, the modelmaking, forgotten. While the closure of Hatton’s and the end of Warley are both sad to hear, will it in anyway affect how I partake in the hobby? Not one bit. For some overseas I appreciated Hatton’s will have an impact, but for most of us life and the hobby goes on. I for one am grateful for the past 15 of engagement on RMWeb that means I get to avoid most of the horrors of other social media platforms. That all of this has been discussed with relative calm and informed thinking is a huge relief. Haters gonna hate as they say. David

Now picked up by the Guardian as well: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/14/an-aged-hobby-enthusiasts-struggle-to-keep-model-railway-industry-on-track Time to roll of the celebrity modellers to counter the doom and gloom I think… David

Both the Warley news and Hatton’s announcements have naturally stoked a lot of worry as it is very tempting to extrapolate two specific events as evidence of a trend. The three main worries seem to be cost (is the hobby too expensive), an ageing demographic, and a reticence of the young to get involved with exhibitions etc. These are not just recent concerns and have been around for at least the three decades I’ve been involved in the hobby. In terms of Warley all we can really say is that this specific club feels it hasn’t got enough younger members to pass on its enormous workload. Other clubs may be in exactly the opposite position, so any generalising is really being done blind. As for costs, yes, some people are finding it very expensive and have no doubt cut back. I certainly balk at the cost of new releases, and yet Facebook is full of much younger modellers than myself proudly showing off the £800 rake of wagons they’ve just received. The point I am trying to make is that there likely isn’t one single trend in the hobby at the moment and there will always be a huge range of different experiences. RMWeb is very much an echo chamber of a relatively elite and proportionally very small element of those actively involved in the hobby, and model railway clubs will be an even smaller group, so I would encourage anyone worrying for the health of shows, the hobby, etc, to remember that all of this is only a tiny part of a much wider, diverse, and robust pastime. David

Given this was a club running it with volunteers I can’t say I’m hugely surprised. It is an awfully big undertaking when people have less time/money/enthusiasm to get involved. I think I went to Warley about ten times and it was always an impressive undertaking if sometimes a little overwhelming. Pleased that the club is considering other options, and a huge thanks for them for organising this for so long. David

Those accounts clearly show why Hattons came to this very sad but sensible (and frankly pretty honourable) decision to wind down with a 35% decline in sales over three years and a profit margin of 0.2%. Everyone there must have worked very hard to keep it in the black and despite the unhappy outcome the story of this business really is quite inspirational. Adapting to market changes across nine different decades, embracing the internet early on and dominating that market, commissioning exclusive models, the trunk system…There must be a book to be written about it all eventually. I do hope the name continues in some form. David

As requested, photos of my old N gauge layout Cross Street, which was based on the Oxford road area in Manchester. David

Very sad and I wish everyone at the company the very best for the future. A staggering loss to the hobby and as Andy already said, this will create massive shockwaves. David

Very sad and quite surprising news, I wish all the best to everyone at the company during what must be a very difficult time. David

It really does look stunning! David

This seems a little like asking why there aren’t many history books written about last Tuesday. It is too recent to judge what is important, lasting, or of interest. The hobby has for decades had a lean towards the past and anyway can never be complete - it just isn’t a big enough market to make RTR models of everything. The hobby is surely about more than ticking a box of having every possible class/unit on tap anyway. David

More evidence for Holden - the only underground models made by John Thorp were this one and a model of Holden’s Piccadilly Circus. Thorp also made the model of Senate House, so at least 3 models for Holden. He of course never worked for LU or its predecessors so whereas Heap’s models would have been made in-house, Holden would have been more likely to go to his regular modelmaker. A nice theory but onwards with finding evidence - still odd he was doing Hendon so close to it being built. David

Crikey, I hadn’t thought of that. Holden seems to arrive in 1923 so the timing would be right for this to be a Holden alternative. If evidence for that were to turn up that would make this a remarkably important model! David

If the actual station opened on 1923 that leaves quite a short period for the design to change so radically. I wonder if Heaps was proposing a different style that was showcased in this model but the company encouraged him in a different direction afterwards. David

Marvellous! Thanks for the contact details. David

The TfL archive is a good idea, thanks - and it could have been speculative, which would have been interesting as their resident architect would have had competition. David