cornelius

I noticed after posting the above photos that you can see in the side view that the slide bars appear loose - this must have escaped my attention during the photoshoot! This is one of the most common QC issues we've experienced so far with the Victory and is very easily rectified by easing the etched motion bracket forwards to form the correct right angle relative to the slide bars, this locates and holds everything together. The rear 3/4 view shows what it should look like. We have been testing all direct customer orders prior to dispatch, and fixing this when we spot it.

PI-001-B Lined grey, IW&D 12 Although perhaps the least practical livery for prototypical use on a light railway, the IW&D lined grey is my personal favourite as the intricacy of the lining really makes the model look special. We're particularly pleased with how the lining is even applied on the frames and wheels for those additional detail touches. Some photo evidence shows the East Kent Railway's Victory with extremely dirty and faded IW&D lining and lettering, prior to it's repaint to green, so this is also an option if you want to really go for it with the weathering. Available NOW for £130 from Light Railway Stores and Rails of Sheffield. https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/products/pi-001-b https://railsofsheffield.com/products/planet-industrials-pi-001-b-kerr-stuart-victory-0-6-0t-locomotive-in-lined-grey-iw-d-12

We're going to post the results of our recent Victory photoshoot daily this week, starting with... PI-001-A Plain black Although fairly plain in appearance, the unadorned black finish is typical for an industrial locos and also acts as a great base for your own custom livery. It also looks fantastic weathered down to represent a loco worked hard at a colliery or other industrial setting. Available NOW for £130 from Light Railway Stores and Rails of Sheffield. https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/products/pi-001-a https://railsofsheffield.com/products/planet-industrials-pi-001-a-kerr-stuart-victory-0-6-0t-locomotive-in-plain-black

@Phil Parker of this parish has been unboxing his grey Victory this morning - no video or carpets though I'm afraid http://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2022/10/unboxing-victory.html

We were going to share the final production photography through the coming week, but I thought I'd just slip this one in early.

Really looking forward to hearing what you think of them! Victories will be occurring around the country in a limited way over the weekend before the brunt of the shipment begins next week. Rails have theirs now, so if you pre-ordered from them you also shouldn't have long to wait. https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/victory-variants https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/planet-industrials

If you've given us your preference to ship sound fitted models in advance and follow up with the decoders it might be quicker than you think... If you haven't and you would like to do this please drop us a line asap!

In a break between weathering custom models, James outlined what the plan is for this week in a bit more detail...

Yes it's true, we have a stock room full of Victories! James is down from Wales this week to help sort and test the shipment and we're aiming for customer orders to start dispatching around the end of this week. We are QC testing every customer loco to ensure you get the best experience (although I have to say the ones we've done so far are fantastic) so please bear with us while we get ready. Our plan is to dispatch by livery to make things simpler for our team, with any combined orders at the end, and everyone will receive an email confirmation when their order ships. We'd appreciate it if you don't email regarding the status of individual orders for the time being as this will only slow us down. If you haven't yet paid the balance on your model we would recommend doing this as soon as possible to ensure smooth delivery! If you paid a deposit but haven't received one our email updates with instructions on how to pay your balance please do get in touch. We're planning to show a bit of the behind the scenes effort in how this gets done on our Facebook page so give us a follow if you haven't already. https://www.facebook.com/planetindustrials/

Is it the TT A3?

We're really pleased with the pre-order reaction to the Victory, I think it remains to be seen if a pure industrial focus is sustainable long term but we're hopeful! Meanwhile @AY Mod gives his first view here, with a full review expected in the January 2023 BRM. https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/reviews/planet-industrials-kerr-stuart-victory-0-6-0t/

A great show as ever - Old Parrock was really exceptional.

Busy day today!

Photoshoot is on Monday all going well or you can come and see them for yourself at the Uckfield MRC show this weekend!

Yep this did come up before! Unfortunately whatever screenshot I took of the CAD disappeared in the forum image outage but I can go back and grab something again if it would be useful. The axles are a multi-part construction to aid assembly, including a shoulder on the outer ends to set the gauge - I wonder if the easiest way to attempt a conversion might be to create new, longer outer ends that replicate the design to the wider gauge. This is purely speculation, by the way, I haven't tried it (and likely won't!) myself.

Go hard or go home I guess. Makes sense in a way, clear of (most) competition, also appears to be only available from Hornby so further move to a direct sales model.

If anyone else has a large box of Mk1s (or equivalent) that need hauling, all liveries are still available to order in DC/DCC ready flavour via Light Railway Stores or Rails of Sheffield https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/victory-variants https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/planet-industrials Production samples will also be on display with LRS at the Uckfield MRC show next weekend and hopefully Rails will have their ROD exclusive edition at GETS this weekend as well.

Ah great, I can breathe out now :D

We made it! Slightly less than two years after announcing our Victory project, I'm delighted to report that the models have left the factory and are now on their way to the UK. It's a been a long and "interesting" journey realising our first RTR project during a pandemic, and we've learned a lot for the future. Production samples were shipped in advance and have just been delivered today (typically on a day when I'm working in London so I won't get to look at them until later) but these will be on display along with new kits from PI range on the Light Railway Stores stand at the Uckfield MRC show on the 15th/16th October - and then of course the whole shebang at Warley. Looking forward to getting your models out to you!

Two screws underneath, detach some pipework, body lifts straight off. Next18 socket. You'll be done in minutes.

Because it's a Bachmann USA product announced during product announcements by Bachmann USA.

We're working on a full newsletter update, but the headline is that assembly is due to conclude soon and then we "just" need to get them to the UK. Fortunately our shipping agent is also a customer so hopefully this will go as smoothly as you can hope in the current climate. Glad to hear you got there! My hope was that the "self service" settlement process would be less admin than manually raising an invoice for everyone and so it has proved so far. Not particularly a meaningful update, but we still intend to do them and they should be on sale from the time the loco is delivered. James has had one of the prototypes in bits recently working out how best to do this and the Lambton cab so watch this space... If anyone has paid a deposit for a pre-order and NOT received an email this week explaining what to do next please either check your spam folder, or get in touch at info@planetindustrials.co.uk and we can sort you out.

The specification is for the buffers to be blackened - this is not applied on the decorated sample as it's not practical to set up the process for a handful of components. Meanwhile here are some cab/tank assemblies for the grey IW&D livery having their lining applied.

Since the last time we sent an update on our Kerr, Stuart "Victory" in 00 gauge, our factory has been busy producing all the parts that will go into the models. Really this is a two (or three) stage process - parts are made en masse to create a kit of parts in die-cast metal and injection moulded plastic, the paint and liveries are applied to the individual parts, and then the models are batch assembled and tested ready for shipment. In the UK we've also created the box artwork and data sheet that will give the Victory's packaging its distinctive Planet Industrials branding (Stephen secretly thinks this is the most exciting part). Now that production is moving into the assembly phase we have some photos to share from the factory - take a look if you want to play "guess the component". The Victory is still available to pre-order at Light Railway Stores and Rails of Sheffield. Delivery expected during the summer! https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/victory-variants https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/planet-industrials

Sorry that was a typo on my part - the lower figure is correct.