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I believe the quoted tractive effort of a Victory was slightly less than an Austerity, but in the same general area.

Personally I'm going to keep one of each, but I guess those are special circumstances. For those who are on the fence we do expect to have some stock of all liveries once the pre-order allocation is cleared (although maroon is starting to look a bit low), however you will only be able to take advantage of the pre-order discount until Monday 9th August!

The decorated sample models are here... Back in April we showed you the first Engineering Prototype of our RTR Kerr, Stuart "Victory" in 00 gauge. Since then the factory has been working on our feedback and preparing new samples with the final livery decoration for sign off. We're excited to show these to you today, and we hope you agree that they're looking great! We made a couple of minor cosmetic changes to the body after the EP (let us know if you spot them!) but most tweaks have been in the chassis and mechanism to ensure optimal performance of the production models. Each of the decorated samples is a running model, so we've been track testing them as well as reviewing the livery detail. We're pleased to say that the Victory is a smooth, confident runner, with the gearing optimised to be controllable at slow speeds ideal for shunting and industrial use. Read on for details of each livery in turn... PI-001-A • Plain black Pre-order at Light Railway Stores The simplest of our liveries but perhaps the one with the most potential - black is a great base for detailing and weathering or modification into your own choice of livery. You could also use it as the basis for British Railways livery with suitable decals. PI-001-B • Lined grey, IW&D 12 Pre-order at Light Railway Stores We have to admit to an error here - the first paint colour we specified for the grey livery has an incorrect metallic finish! However, while we get that corrected we wanted to show you the sample anyway as it highlights the crisp detail of the white/black/white lining, the bold IW&D lettering suitable for the earliest operation of this class of loco during the First World War, and the extent to which the lining even extends to the chassis frames. This one is going to look superb in the final, corrected grey colour (and secretly we're quite excited about having a unique silver one in the display cabinet!) PI-001-C • Lined green Pre-order at Light Railway Stores The elegant lined green livery, complemented by lined cylinders and green wheels, is perfect for light railway applications as well as industrial use. In fact our livery is inspired in part by the Victory that ran on the East Kent Railway (although the prototype had the higher cab found on two of the class) and we will be offering an additional transfer set to add EKR lettering should you wish. PI-001-D • Lined maroon Pre-order at Light Railway Stores Our final livery, lined maroon with black wheels and brighter red motion, is inspired by "Francis", the Victory which ran at Astley Green colliery. Again this livery would be perfectly at home on any light railway. We'll also be including a set of etched name and works plates should you wish to complete your loco as Francis. What happens next? Once we have fully assessed these samples we'll give the go-ahead for production. On current timescales we're hopeful of delivering the first models to you during the Autumn - international shipping is still a bit of an unknown quantity as things get back to normal after Covid. So there are a few important things to note: 1 - If you want to take advantage of our discount pre-order offer, we will be closing this scheme after Monday 9th August. Any order placed after this date will be for the full price of the model. 2 - If you have already placed a pre-order with a £30 deposit we will soon be contacting you with an invoice for the balance payment, plus shipping. If you pre-ordered and paid in full you have nothing more to do, but we'll also be in touch to confirm delivery address prior to dispatch. 3 - Due to a slight rise in costs the full price for a DCC Sound model will be increasing to £245 from Tuesday 10th August. We have absorbed some of this price increase, and we will honour the original DCC Sound price for any order placed before this date, but this is your last chance to order at the original price. Pricing DCC Ready - pre-order from £115, rising to £130 after 9th August DCC Fitted - pre-order from £160, rising to £175 after 9th August DCC Sound - pre-order from £215, rising to £245 after 9th August Pre-order now at Light Railway Stores

Definitely a good question! The axle itself is shouldered and the end part with the gauge-setting shoulder is pressed on after the gears (rear axle only) and bearings are added. The inner circle you can see on the end of the axle is the smaller diameter of the complete axle. There is also a separate "hub cap" which fits on the outside once the wheel is on. Although our focus with the Victory is to produce a well-performing 00 gauge loco as our first attempt at RTR, we'll be interested to hear of any success or challenges in EM/P4 conversion in case we can make any passive provision on future projects.

No problem, will update this now and it should email you a confirmation.

Similarly, my time to browse the forum is constrained by family and day job duties. James is also on holiday at the moment, so I'm preparing the decorated sample update in the spare time I do have. My apologies to the Captain, a response to his initial query about the axle size slipped my mind, and this time around I have had to wait for an opportune moment to check the CAD and a model as I don't hold all of these details in my head. The axle diameter is 3mm and the design also features a shoulder to aid pressing the wheels to gauge - see attachment to this post. Regarding the sound project, the information I currently have is that it was a custom creation for Minerva by Paul Chetter. Chris Basten of Minerva is also on holiday (bad time of year for it) so any further updates will have to wait until I can catch up with him. Ownership of the project remains with Minerva and there is no intention to make it available separately. Happy to field any other questions, but please give me a chance to respond.

By kind permission of Minerva Models we are planning to use the sound project from their 7mm loco, resynchronised for the smaller scale. We'll be fitting Zimo chips in the Next18 socket, a speaker will be be pre-fitted to all models. An update on the decorated samples is imminent, hopefully around the end of next week. Our discounted pre-order scheme will close shortly after the reveal.

Hi Gordon, This can be seen in the video posted above, around the 1 minute mark. Will check up on this Cap'n, and get back to you.

Hi Paul, Our internal user industrial wagon pack has been produced within the parameters of the MDO tooling - we have taken inspiration from the Grimethorpe Coalite livery but they are not intended to be models of these exact wagons. As you note there are a number of detail differences, as these vehicles were modified, rebodied and patched up. Our hope is that they can find a home on any modelled industry where this type of wagon might end its days in industrial service, and should be a great base for serious weathering projects.

Just to join the party as Fran has kindly mentioned our special edition - the Planet Industrials internal user wagon pack is looking great, and I'm really pleased with our fashion collab style packaging! Pre-orders available at Light Railway Stores https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/products/pir-001

Great work. The Hairy Bikers' diet books are very good if you want a bloke-compatible approach to healthy cooking.

We use ours to stand our bins on.

Last month we showed you the completed EP (engineering prototype) of our Kerr, Stuart "Victory" in 00 gauge. We've carefully assessed this model and given our feedback to the factory, and at the same time we have been working to sign off the decoration artwork for all four of the livery variants. Based on our assessment and your feedback we have asked for the couplings to be moved inboard slightly (approx 1mm each end which is the maximum that could be accommodated without getting in the way of the body fixing screws) and also for the prominence of the panel join on the upper cab side to be reduced. The means that the decorated samples can now be produced, and once we've received and approved these we can give the go ahead for the Victory to be put into production. Please note that on all liveries, the wheel tyres, rods and motion will be blackened. The illustration style used by the factory indicates them in their raw material. PI-001-A • Plain Black An all-over black and otherwise undecorated livery intended to act as a base for your freelance industrial colour scheme. Of course it looks pretty good just as it is, too! PI-001-B • Lined grey, I W & D 12 This WWI-era livery is the most complicated of the variants, and we've closely studied period photos to get it right. Featuring white/black/white lining on a grey base, carefully recreated tank side and bufferbeam lettering, and a fully lined chassis. We think this one is going to look stunning! PI-001-C • Lined green Our second freelance livery, this smartly decorated grass green lined in straw would look the part in an industrial or light railway setting. The painted wheels and lined cylinders finish it off below the footplate. PI-001-D • Lined maroon Again lined in straw, our maroon livery is inspired by "Francis" which worked at Astley Green colliery. The flame red coupling and connecting rods add an extra pop of colour around the motion. ---- Just to remind you, we'll be closing our discount pre-order scheme once production starts so you only have a few more weeks to secure your model with this offer. Pre-order now at Light Railway Stores

It's something to do with Hermes, so interpret that as you will.

Yep, both of these are still on the radar.

Yes we will show the livery samples, although it will likely be a "last chance to pre-order" situation as we will want to sign off for production as soon as we can. The model will be available from stock afterwards but the pre-order discount will end. We can look at transfer packs for other numbers, perhaps you are aware that IW&D 11 was one of the locos built with a taller cab so not strictly correct for our tooling.

The specification for the loco is RP25-110 - I'll ask James to check what's in the video.

James has put together a short video of the EP in action on his colliery layout, Pont-y-Dulais

You need to work on your influencer marketing terminology. It's swag if it's free. If you're paying for it, it's merch.

If everything stays on schedule we are expecting decorated samples and then sign off around the end of May.

The sprung-ness of the buffers is one thing on our snagging list (they're currently a bit stiff) so we'll look at the overall size as well. The current coupling springing is a bit loose, the overall height is also possibly a bit low (or it droops forward) so we're looking at whether this is a design or assembly issue. The projection of the coupling looks a bit more exaggerated than reality in the photo from below due to the perspective, I agree there might be a little bit of space to move it back if we need to but the main body fixing screws are immediately behind the coupling so we need to leave enough room to access those around the brake rodding.

Thanks for sharing @Davidjsmith. We'll always keep this thread updated but we like to give our email subscribers the first look! Sign up at https://planetindustrials.co.uk/ In terms of additional liveries, we are close to signing off the decoration design for the four current liveries but further variants are possible. I would recommend keeping an eye open... As a reminder, you can still secure a discounted price with a £30 deposit (or pay in full) or reserve a model for free and pay the full price on delivery. We will close this pre-order scheme when we sign off decorated samples for production, so there won't be much more time to take advantage of this offer. Links are below to each livery version on the Light Railway Stores online marketplace: Pre-order in black at Light Railway Stores Pre-order in lined grey at Light Railway Stores Pre-order in lined green at Light Railway Stores Pre-order in lined maroon at Light Railway Stores

Do they have WiFi?

It's definitely flying!

We've just heard that the Victory engineering sample is ready and due to leave China tomorrow. Very excited to receive it and share updates with you all - more to come soon! Meanwhile pre-orders are still open at our introductory discount price (with deposit) https://www.lightrailwaystores.co.uk/collections/victory-variants