frobisher

30 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

The PCB on which the decoder sits is under the roof so it would have required a much bigger redesign. At least the body comes off very easily!

Mind you, the chassis is completely new being metal, but clearly Hornby wanted to stick with the power bogie they had rather than go for a low profile central drive to both bogies as they were needing to tool up a new interior anyway etc., A missed opportunity.

1 hour ago, natterjack said:

Err- if the rubber is in contact with the rail the wheel is isolated other than the rim and If the rubber is not in contact it is not doing anything useful..

But 12 - 2 ~= 8... Just saying...

5 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

After a few years, the LNER carriages gained a representation of Gresley bogies, and even got teak ends.

The GWR coaches eventually got Collet style bogies as well.

13 hours ago, fezza said:

Is it much of an upgrade on the old model? I have the 1980s refurbished version (which runs very well) and would like a blue/grey one. The old one is often available for around £50 online, so I am wondering if it's worth paying £130 for a new one?  I'm DC only.

I suspect the biggest improvement would be in the number of pickups (the original will have the one rail on one bogie and the other rail on the other setup of Hornby's whereas the new one will have all wheel pick up (including from the traction tyred wheels)), and the paint job will be better (though the 110 was around the start of where Hornby really started upping their game and minimal use of self coloured plastic and lots of printed details).

4 minutes ago, letterspider said:

Class 312

Class 313

Class 315

Class 317

If you're going to do any one of those, there are obvious bolt ons;

• 312 - 310
• 313 and 315 - 314, 507 and 508
• 317 - 318, 455, 456

19 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Yes. Note that Flying Scotsman, Mallard, Sir Nigel Gresley, Bittern (via LSL), Tornado and Prince Of Wales are also on that list.

 

https://uk.Hornby.com/terms-conditions/licensing

Particular locos are on the list; But it would seem that Dapol are able to produce (in N, can't find any details of their Black Label 00 models at the moment)

2S-011-008A3 Flying Scotsman 60103 BR Green Late Crest (As Preserved) 

2S-008-016A4 Valanced Mallard 4468 Garter Blue & 4 Gresley Teak Coaches 

2S-008-017A4 Sir Nigel Gresley 60007 BR Express Blue E/C as preserved 

Which might suggest the licences are not that exclusive (to a particular scale at best)

Also, Bachmann also produce;

32-550DLNER A1 60163 'Tornado' BR Lined Green (Late Crest)

And have previously done 5 versions of it, ditto Mallard, Sir Nigel Gresley and Bittern I'm suspecting many of those licences are non-exclusive.

2 hours ago, Standards_in_OO said:

Would it be financially viable for any manufacturer other than Hornby to retool an A3 or A4 considering they have the licence to make Flying Scotsman plus all the preserved A4s?

Do they though? And if they do, is it an exclusive license?

If Hornby can apparently sell A3s and A4s by the truck load (across several detail levels) then why wouldn't it behove another manufacturer to produce a "more definitive" version?  Bachmann's A4 did very well for a long time given the age of the tooling, so why not do a new one?

6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

DJM never did any work on the 74 and his 71 was amazingly low geared so would need a rework to make a saleable 74.

I was meaning the 71; The CAD from that could probably be used as a basis for 74 or modification of the 71 bodywork tooling, and an EFE rework on the drive chain as we have seen before as I understand it.

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

I'd hazard a guess that your dream is unlikely to be fulfilled unless by a manufacturer who already has a suitable chassis ........ er ...... as Simon says !

It might depend where the DJM tooling and CAD ended up, and which manufacturer/brand has reinvigorated some of that in the past already as to what relative chances might be.

9 hours ago, RFS said:

No, they won't as they're not rigid and will have the same issue as tension locks. You need a rigid coupling for stock with close-coupling mechanisms. I would suggest the Hunt magnetic couplings (which I use) as an alternative because they have couplings of various lengths so you can pick the one that gives the best effect.

This is where the Bachmann EZ-Mate NEM couplings score, though only available in one length.

5 hours ago, BoD said:

Kirkwall has a much greater number of cruise visitors than Lochaber

To be fair, yes, we have roughly 10-15 times the number of liners visiting Orkney than stop at Oban (though some of those are the same ones...).  I find it rather amusing when Amsterdam kicks off saying 15 liners a year is just too much for them to handle (Orkney has 270+ liner stops this summer scheduled).

5 hours ago, BoD said:

(Do you ever get more?)

Yes.  These year we have one occasion with 5 (admittedly these are all very small ones), 3 with 4 and 17 days with 3 arriving at the connected Mainland. and probably about 30 days with 2.

10 hours ago, Legend said:

Don’t think so . And I am a fully accredited cruiser although usually in Med or Caribbean . Maybe large volumes spending relatively little . Locally the same is also true of folks hiring motor homes , perhaps they need to fill up on route but they’ve bought all the groceries before they go . This is a big issue in area as they are contributing relatively little to the region but clogging roads and dumping rubbish . So these are big issues in the Highlands . Don’t think for one minute the disappearance of the Jacobite will just be accepted . 
 

In any case as I’ve said before the Lochaber tourist market is not cruisers . It’s people who come and book hotel nights specifically to see the Jacobite or “Harry Potter Train “ and so is very significant in the local area. Furthermore the Jacobite crossing Glenfinnan viaduct is frequently used in Tourism adverts , it was even used in the Hogmanay show up here in Scotland !  So it had a much wider symbolism . 

The situation you're listing in the second paragraph sounds an awful lot like the problems you're citing in the first, just saying.  Lochaber has a very limited carrying capacity itself for hotel accommodation so many of those coming down to see the Jacobite aren't staying locally in any case but are in the locality.

My experience with cruise liners is more concerned with the pro-active UK visitors who're organised enough to have booked private tours.  I know what value they bring into the local economy.  I also know that for every tour my company took last year we had to turn back 3 more turning up on foot and trying to book on the day, plus a similar quantity rebuffed beforehand due to being at capacity.

4 hours ago, vikingsmb said:

Hornby pls pls make motors you can service, how about reintroducing the lima pancake for the railroad models?. which will make it cheaper and give youngsters engineering experience from servicing it

Except it would likely put the manufacturing costs up, otherwise why would Hornby have dropped them in the first place.  As it is, the motors themselves these days really aren't that expensive.

21 hours ago, Legend said:

Cruisers descend in hordes , spend a few hours walking around if they couldn't get on a guided tour with one of the local taxi firms or the like who are fully booked months in advance, then get back on cruiseship for more food drink (because the local restaurants are swamped by the numbers ashore), not really spending that much each locally with the hotels, but then there's so many more of them so the footfall adds up for the larger numbers. Quite a different market.

Fixed that for you.  The fallacy is always to see the low volume higher value customers as the ones that are spending everything.

9 hours ago, Legend said:

Serious stuff for the Lochaber economy . Hope they get it sorted or one of the major draws for foreign visitors is going to impact on the credibility of the whole tourism industry in Scotland . Can’t even run a train! 

I think you may be overestimating the impact of those couple of hundred passengers have on the local economy compared to couple of thousand that come in on the cruise liners.

To my mind this announcement has almost the exact same feel as the first of Bachmann's now regime of "when it's nearly ready".  "Disappointingly" few actually new things (though here a batch of new things looking like really old things...) but a seemingly sincere message of clearing the decks of old announcements to come through the system.  This is, I think, a good thing.

We know we have an announcement in April for TT, so you never know if something will come in on those coat tails.

Quite happy about Locomotion No 1.

2 hours ago, simon b said:

DPD is my go to courier, never had an issue with them. I used to think evri was bad untill I had some dealings with parcel force....

These days Parcel Force seem to be subcontracting a bunch of their deliveries to evri and the like...

40 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

If anyone thinks the 14XX is still acceptable I would like to remind them it's coming up to it's fiftieth birthday! 🎂

 

I think everyone has forgotten the elephant in the room. When TT was announced they stated that everything available in TT would also be available in 00.

 

I'll just leave these here for those not paying attention to the TT range...

 

 

Both Ben Brooksbank via Wiki

So are we also getting updated Classes 66, 37, 47, 73 as well?

1 hour ago, Steamport Southport said:

However I don't really see these smaller scales/gauges taking custom from 00 Gauge. To me it seems the same and must still be viable as why would "newer" companies bother getting into the market if it wasn't?

The market has a level of saturation coupled with batch production that has opened that door  The big players are playing whack-a-mole with certain subjects and maintaining a hump of historical products that perhaps should be updated, and all the while the new players are building nice, broadening ranges focusing on items that will sell and complement each other in the main.

5 hours ago, rob D2 said:

True , but probably only within a few %. I wonder if Hornby get their act together will TT overtake N ?

You'd need at least one other manufacturer seriously in the mix for that to happen.  It took Dapol to stir up Bachmann/Farish to get things where things are today.

On 16/12/2023 at 11:11, billbedford said:

Has anyone else noticed how odd the numbers quoted in that article are?

 

This time -- X2.8

2017 -- X8.2

2003 -- X28

 

No info about the scale either. 

A quick google finds this which gives some explanation; The X28 is because the maximum the sensors could record was X28 and was probably X45, the recurrences of 8 and 2 are just coincidence.

What are X flares? Can they harm us? (earthsky.org)

solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/activities/flare.html Gives the actual scale...

4 hours ago, GenericRMWebUsername said:

Class 50 did not have as many varied liveries as Class 37s or 47s, but you're right a BR Blue Class 50 is a major hole in the releases. They could also release further Large Logo subtypes of the Class 50. There is still much more this tooling can give in the short-term! 

Given the tooling so far only covers the refurbished class members there's very little overlap between it and BR Blue (I think it was as low as 3 or 6 members of the class carried that livery when refurbished).

4 hours ago, Covkid said:

Thinking about it you are right - in terms of D&E releases.  In fact, by compiliing this list, it is only the abysmal Bagnall, the Sentinels and the class 67 which Hornby still "have to themselves"   

 

Ex Lima 20 recently revamped by Bachmann

"Early" class 25 announced by Bachmann and SLW

Ex Lima 26 and 27 done by Heljan

Class 29 covered by Dapol

Class 31 (Hornby and ex Lima) announced by Accurascale

Class 35 covered by Heljan

Class 37 recently revamped by Bachmann and released by Accurascale

Class 40 recentlly revamped by Bachmann but also announced by KR models

Class 47 covered by Heljan, Bachmann, VI trains and Rail Exclusives

Class 50 announced by Accurascale

Class 56 announced by Cavalex

Class 58 covered by Heljan and EFE

Class 59 covered by Dapol

Class 60 announced by Cavalex

Ex Lima 66 covered by Bachmann, Hattons and announced by Accurascale

Class 73 covered by Dapol

Class 86 covered by Heljan

Class 92 covered by Accurascale

You missed;

Class 06 - awful but they have that one to themselves

Class 87 - they have to themselves

Class 91 - they have to themselves

And

Class 08/09 covered by Bachmann (though I can't remember an 09 in a blue box?)

Class 33 (Ex Lima) covered by Heljan

Class 42 (Ex Lima) - Bachmann one is still better...

Class 52 (Hornby and ex-Lima (possibly)) covered by Heljan and then bettered by Dapol

Class 57 (Ex Lima cough!) - Heljan and Bachmann are waaay better

On 26/10/2023 at 11:43, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

That's the turd in the punchbowl of UK OO set track, it so needs a larger radius standard point that integrates into the geometry.

Erm the Express Point surely does this?

2 minutes ago, J-Lewis said:

 Seems to just be a case of some OO centric folks resenting the new scale.  Not clear why they don’t appear to hate on O gauge or N gauge in the same way.  It’s weird.

Redbox syndrome I suspect.  Those two don't come so attired...