jonathan452

Actually this was mentioned in the 'Rail Express' review some three weeks ago. Along with the missing door handles on one side to the extra seating area on the refurbished version. Incidentally 'reading between the lines' in the 'Rail Express' review I got the impression that the first two releases were good for those with the skills (and hack saw!) to make the required corrections. For those of us who like a reasonably accurate model straight out the box subsequent 'corrected' batches (China permitting) may be a better proposition.

Having not known about this hybrid unit until then I remember looking up at the tungsten light bulbs in the ex 4TC coach as I was walking up the Victoria Embankment one night. Doesn't seem that long ago.

Yes was aware. But as Gwiwer has just pointed out 'they could have placed a Limby-style motor (which appears to be what the Veps are fitted with) on the inner end bogie where it would be out of sight on an as-built unit and less intrusive on the rebuilt ones'. Instead we seem to have gone for the least acceptable compromise.

Are they listening???????????? Did they take any comments on board at the pre-production/engineering sample stage? The position of the motor bogie was definately mentioned on this thread at the time. The first release models really do need to be sent back to China for rectification works now. Forgetting such issues as 'batch production' and having to reserve production slots/shipping well in advance etc.

Noted. But I would like to be a 'fly on the wall' both in Margate and China, taking in-to account my previous comment about the lines of communications between the two locations.

Further to my last post I have just found the below on Hornby's forum. Now if I was Hornby I would be sending the first batch back to China for urgent retification works.................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strange 4 Vep gelboy45 (1 posts) , 2 days ago 15:23 13 August 2011 I am so disappointed that this long awaited model has SOLID 1st Class compartment corridor walls. Why is this and will it be corrected? Gerry ;0((( Report Reply [*] PeterEm (1 posts) , 10 hours ago 10:55 15 August 2011 ....and a giant motor bogie at the passenger end of a brake coach? Agree, answers please because I fear this has the potential to be a real sales disaster unless something gets modified! Peter Report

Maybe, but the solid partition walls are in my opinion at best an unnaceptable production compromise, at worst a quality control blunder. I do wonder sometimes about the lines of communication between Margate and China. As Chris Leigh ('Dibber 25') pointed out in the 'Model Rail' review the fifty year old Triang Mk 1's were moulded with partition windows and doors, not to mention every side corridor coach since then. So as he asks 'why we have taken a step backwards here'? Although the 4VEP isn't on my definitive wish list, I may have been tempted to make an impulse purchase further down the line. However recent experience has finally drumed in-to me to avoid the first releases in the hope that the key corrections will be made in subsequent (blue/grey?) batches. Maybe common sense will then prevail in the positioning of the motor bogie and the correction of the partition walls.

I've just noticed on the ever so accurate Hornby website-: RailRoad BR 4-6-2 'Tornado' A1 Class Locomotive - http://www.Hornby.com/shop/locomotives/steam-locomotives/dcc-ready-steam-locomotives/r3060-railroad-br-4-6-2-tornado-a1-class-locomotive/ Peppercorn Class A1 4-6-2 "Tornado" Special Edition - http://www.Hornby.com/shop/locomotives/steam-locomotives/dcc-ready-steam-locomotives/r3070-peppercorn-class-a1-4-6-2-tornado-special-edition/ Tornado Express Train Pack - http://www.Hornby.com/shop/train-packs/r3059-tornado-express-train-pack/ that all of the three above versions include a Therefore was the change to 3 pole a late decision? Having bought the Bachmann version I won't lose too much sleep over this one.

By 1980 all the WR Class 253 sets (253001-27 and 253028-41 - the latter still being delivered) had already been reduced to one catering vehicle. This being either a TRSB or TRUB, the short lived WR TRUK's had long since been incorporated in-to the first twenty ER Class 254 sets (254001-20). From memory the TGS vehicles were progressively incoporated in-to the WR Class 253's from mid 1980 onwards. However these replaced an existing TS, not a TF. There may be some confusion here between the WR Class 253's and the eighteen sets (253042-59) built for the NE-SW services introduced in 1981/82. These had only one TF from the outset. Due to the intoduction of the TGS vehicles and the (late) decision to reduce the catering provsion from two to one vehicles resulted in a re-shuffle of the the coaches. Therefore not all the TS or TRSB coaches in the NE-SW sets would have been strictly new. Furthermore I believe several surplus prototype Mk3 vehicles were re-used in these sets. Of course over the years with successive reallocation(s) of the sets (particularly from the WR to the Midland Main Line in 1982/83) resulted in numerous conversions of TF to TS and visa versa. Several surplus TGS vehicles were converted to TS.

:) :) :) :) :) EDIT I thought I was the 'Grumpy Old Man'. Anyway Virgin Trains had an April Fool on their facebook site-: · Virgin Trains Don’t forget your dancing shoes as tonight we launch our first ever Disco carriages onboard selected Pendolino trains! Get your Friday night off to a great start - click the link to see if your train is going to be grooving to soulful sounds and funky beats this evening. http://bit.ly/e659Wb

Thankyou to 071 and 10000 for your kind advice. Seems relatively simple but I will wait until the morning to execute. You'll have to excuse me if I'm on a bit of a learning curve with 'kettles'.

Soryy if this is a bit of a basic one but any advice would be welcomed. Despite being in-to D&E I bought a Bachmann Tornado from my local model shop (Modelzone Holborn ) today. They only had one (display) sample in stock, therefore it wasn't until I got home that I saw the instructions on the box about the locomotive and tender being locked. Unfortunately this example was anything but locked. Therefore is it easy to re-lock the locomtive and tender (without breaking anythying). I do trust that they didn't break anything when they put this sample on display. Otherwise I will have to take it back. (Despite being a birthday present to myself after spending all Christmas in bed with a cold/high temperature and contributing towards the A1 locomotive trust.) Many thanks in adavance to anybody for your assistance in this matter. PS The gentleman on the counter had absolutely no idea what I was on about when I mentioned that Hornby are producing a version in 2011. Do their staff not keep up to speed on such matters?

Are Dapol producing a locomotive hauled RFM (to complete the Pretendolino) or an HST TRUB/TRSB/TRUK(?) or both? One recent magazine picture suggested an RFM though I may be wrong. Can someone please advise.

Including East Croydon for a while last year. (The third rail shoes had to be put back on some of the first batch for this one.)

The Hornby Class 87 is currently a Hattons bargain http://www.ehattons.....aspx?SID=23035 at £39.00 so you might want to go for it now. More problamatic however is the Inter City (Swallow) Livery Mk3 stock. Although Hornby have issued a fair number of these over recent years (with 1XXXX running numbers) they may be rather more difficult to obtain now unless you shop around. It might however be that the DVT was issued in the Inter City livery to allow those who already had the Mk3's to complete their WCML train formations. And who knows we might get the new RFM in Inter City livery next year?

I remember being on a Deltic + 6 on a Sunday afternoon York semi fast with 55004 circa 1980. (4 x Mk2d TSO, Mk2d FO, BG). Reaching over sixty well before the top of Holloway but unfortunately followed with a engineering diversion over the Hertford loop. But there is your prototypical inspiration for a shorter formation.

It's main claim to fame (in my view) was surviving a fall down the embankment south of Watford following the collision in early 1975. The Class 83 involved wasn't so foturnate.