Rhydgaled

Are these price reductions, for the purpose of clearing warehouse stock, going to be limited to the Hornby website or will they also be selling some of their stock off to retailers (as in model shops like Hattons, TMC, Derails etc.) cheaper than previously - in which case we may see (more) special offers from retailers too? Or is it only the Play Trains range that they have surplus warehouse stock in anyway?

Good point regarding already having a non-powered chassis for the 156, but for the 153 couldn't they just put two unpowered bogies on? I just had a quick look at one of my 153s and the only detail difference I noticed between the two bogies is that the unpowered one has a set of cab steps attached to it - not sure if that's a seperate peice that could be left off at the other end (if used in place of the powered bogie) or not. I've also never had mine apart so perhaps the two bogies mount onto the chassis differently.

I think running a 'Highland Explorer' class 153 by itself, unless as an ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) move, might be stretching even Rule 1 a little. If I'm not mistaken, ScotRail have retained the original (non-wheelchair accessible) toilet and, unlike Transport for Wales' class 153/9 units, have not locked the toilet out of use. ScotRail are therefore legally prohibited from using the class 153s in passenger service (unless coupled to a unit with a wheelchair-accessible toilet) as this would be discrimination against disabled persons (since they would be providing a toilet for able-bodied passengers but not for wheelchair users). Depending on exactly how you apply Rule 1, you might not want to run one of these 153s on its own. Running it with a Bachmann 158 however wouldn't be too big a stretch of the imagination, as I think using 158s on the West Highland and adding a 153 to the 158s on the Far North and/or Kyle Line have both been proposed previously (and one or both of these may yet happen). Whether somebody would want more than one model of these very much depends on their layout and how they choose to run it. Somebody with a train-set oval probably doesn't want more than one of any DMU. Years back, I'm not sure I even cared very much if more than one coach in a train on my layout had the same running number. I certainly remember considering buying a 3-car Bachmann Regional Railways class 158 and sometimes running it without the middle coach to represent a 2-car unit, even though the running number would not be correct for a 2-car unit, so that I would be able to sometimes run a 3-car set without the cost of buying two seperate models (I didn't end up buying a 3-car one - apparently the motor is under the middle coach). However, if you are after a strictly accurate model of somewhere on the Oban-Glasgow line, set sometime around now, and go and sit yourself down at the real location for a day writing down the numbers of each unit you see, you will probably see multiple 153s over the course of the day. You're highly unlikey to have more than one in view at the same time, unless you choose one of the passing loops, but depending on the exact location you're probably also highly unlikely to see the same one on the next service. It was the same for me trainspotting along the route between Swansea and Pembroke Dock on summer Saturdays before the class 800s came in - once a given 'celebrity' HST power car had headed off to Paddington it was unlikely to be seen again in somewhere like Tenby or Whitland for a very long time. Of course, buying a model of every item of rolling stock in the real-life fleet would be prohibitively expensive, so a compromise is needed. How far you go depends on how you choose to do your railway modelling. For example, in my case, I have decided that I will try to make my HSTs appear different by having 6 or more power cars but only one or two rakes of coaching stock (swapping the locos in the fiddle yard). Technically, a train pack with a non-powered ScotRail 'Highland Explorer' 153 with a powered Saltire 156 would be more-accurate I think as the 156s can be used on their own - as noted above I believe the Highland 153s are limited to ECS if not coupled to anything else. I have one of those, and wouldn't mind a Wales & West (not in the later Arriva-branded guise) Heart Of Wales orange one to go with it, but... ... it sounds like Rainbow Railways is likely to do a better job than Hornby.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't realise tampo print variations were cheaper than paint mask changes (not surprising as I know next to nothing about how models are manufactured*) - do I take it that changing the paint colours but not the shape of mask (to switch from the First Group version of Barbie livery to the Serco-Abellio version) is also relatively cheap? Or would the model just be sprayed the base blue colour and all the swirly stuff (pink & white for First Group and purple and white for Serco-Abellio (Northern)) be tampo-printed? * tampo-printing for example is a process have zero understanding/knowledge of, other than have heard of it on this forum.

It's so obvious when you put it that way, but I completely overlooked that the models would almost certainly have to be individually packed for shipping to the UK. It's not that I actually want a 180*, but I'm still intrigued by the request for expressions of interest for a class 180 in "First Barbie (North Western (not shown) and Great Western)". Is 'North Western' an error and they mean 'Northern' as pictured above? And why don't they "need to know which variation at this stage" given the impracticality of ordering the two different specs as a single product from China? * I am rather tempted by a 3-car 175 at the 'early bird' price, but technically they are out-of-era for my collection so I probably won't end up getting one so haven't submitted an expression of interest.

Isn't that Serco-Abellio Northern, not First North Western? I did wonder whether the text on the website is an error and they mean 'Northern' rather than 'First North Western' but if that's the case why are they saying they don't need to know which variation of 'Barbie' at this expression of interest stage? Thanks for the quick response. The way you have 'class 180 in First Barbie' listed as a single item suggested to me that the 'Great Western' and what your website refers to as 'North Western' (do you actually mean the Serco-Abellio Northern livery, which seems too dissimilar from the FirstGW one?) are virtually indentical and would be ordered as a single batch from China with the final branding differences applied by yourselves once the models reach the UK. This is why I wondered whether you might be able to produce a 175 in debranded First North Western - I completely understand that it would probably be too niche otherwise.

The expressions of interest form mentions a Class 180 in First North Western Barbie livery (not shown), but a quick Google does nothing to dispel the notion I had that First North Western never operated the 180s. IF they did indeed run in First North Western livery, any chance of a picture? Also, any chance of you producing models class 175s in debranded First North Western livery (as seen here - as used in the early days of ATW use), or even completely unpainted? I'm interested in having a model of a 175 but not in ATW, TfW or fully-branded FNW.

Yes, that looks like it, specifically this one (single image from the page you linked).

I have a .jpg file downloaded from the internet (can't remember where I got it from, so not sure if I should post it due to copywrite) which shows diagrams of interior layout for the mark 4 TO (Tourist Open), TOD (Tourist Open Disabled), PO (Pullman Open) and SV (Service Vehicle) coaches. Interesting that there was a TOD (standard class with wheelchair space) but no POD (first class with wheelchair space). The same JPEG also shows the formations for 8-coach sets: The standard formation (29 sets) would have been: TOE, 3x TO, TOD, SV, 2x PO The Pullman formation (2 sets) would have been: TOE, TO, TOD, SV, 2x PO, SV, PO So, not only would the Pullman formations have had an extra PO (for a total of three), they also would have had an extra SV, meaning they would have had just 3 standard class vehicles (1 each of TOE, TO and TOD) and five first class vehicles (3 Pullman Opens and 2 Buffets). Where would the 31 extra coaches needed to increase the rakes to 9 coaches have come from if it was a late change? I had always assumed the image was showing the initial plans but BR later increased the order (before all coaches had been delivered) to allow all the sets to be lengthened to nine coaches soon after introduction (if not sooner). However, that could easily be an incorrect assumption.

According to this Rail UK topic, no mark 2 BSK vehicles were built, yet I am seeing some pre-owned Hornby mark 2 BSK models advertised for sale. This archived RMWeb topic suggests that Hornby's mark 2 was actually more dimensionally-accurate than Bachmann's mark 2a (so, side-question, why does Bachmann's look right to me in photos and Hornby's looks wrong - is it just the paint job (eg. awful chrome window frames on Hornby's)?), with the Bachmann BFK also having incorrect roof vents while Hornby, apparently, got it right. However, I'm struggling to 'spot the difference' between the exteriors of the BFK/BSK/BSO coach diagrams in the diagram book I stumbled across (BRB Vehicle Diagram Book 200, I think from this page). So, somebody please let me know if there are any physical external differences between those coaches? I'm most interested in the Mark 2 BFK vs BSK question, since if they were the same the Hornby (fictious?) BSK could be made into an (accurate) BFK simply by repainting with a yellow stripe to indicate first class.

A while back fiftyfour fiftyfour posted some pictures of a mark 3 TRBF created by moving windows around on some Lima coaches. While a project like that is still way beyond my skill level it is something I would like to work towards. I've also been thinking more-ambiously at whether it would be possible to use the two corridor windows left over from the above conversion to convert the doner TF/TS into one of Chiltern's GFW coaches (Galley First Wheelchair, although some sites seem to list them as RFM). However: some of the window sizes on the GFW seem to only be found on TGS or SLE/SLEP vehicles (which were only made by Lima) the mark 3a type roof (for Chiltern coaches) can only be had from Hornby's sliding-door coaches or Oxford Rail etc. models which have body/underframe issues I have one Hornby-tooled mark 3 TS (from the GWR train set I bought mainly to get the new Railroad motor rather than an old preowned Lima pancake one) which I've decided is probably going to have to be a mark 3b given that it has Central Door Locking lights moulded on and other differences from my otherwise Lima/Limby IC125 sets So, my question is whether the bodyshell/windows/rooves from the three sets of mark 3 tooling (Lima, Hornby 1999 scale-length and Hornby 2020 sliding-door) are sufficiently similar (depth of window frames etc. and equal sizes of windows which should be the same) that a window from a Hornby TS could be used to convert a Lima TRFB to TRBF? Or a window from a Lima buffet in a sliding-door Hornby TSD to make a GFW (with incorrect doors admittedly, but I'm wondering if a push-in insert could be made for the XC/ScotRail/GWR sliding-door model to resemble the Chiltern plug doors)?

Presumably Accurascale know who has commissioned models, or is it only the factory who knows? If Accurascale know, then just saying "there are X retailer exclusives/commissions still to be annouced" (without saying which retailer(s) or giving any details of the models) would be helpful - at least we would then know how many more announcements are forthcoming and can wait for them if we want to see the full picture before. Would that breach any NDAs?

Thanks both for the replies - I have renumbered one of the Model Rail 16xx pannier tanks but I am not particularly confident and certainly not willing to risk using any form of paint stripper to remove factory-applied nameplates/numbers on such an expensive model. Removing the old numbers wasn't necessary with the 16xx since the new 3D numberplates just went over the original 2D printed ones. None of the models currently listed on the Accurascale website seem to fit the bill for me so I'm expecting to wait for a second batch but I just thought I'd better check there are no more retailer-exclusive ones (such as the Rails of Sheffield 50020 'Revenge' announced above) for this first batch.

So, they're the same on both sides now then (they always looked like that on one side I think, or is there a change I'm missing)?

Well, don't think I've ever noticed that before. In my defence though, it seems to be that the livery changed at some point since my 2002 Hornby catalouge has some photos which show the full width of the door in white (there was still the fade-to-blue on the lower half of the door). I think you're right - it's hard to see but the door at the far end of 42360 also has only part of the door in white on the picture I was referring to - so I think that confirms it had four normal doors when running as a TS. But did it have the guard's doors during its previous life as the TCSD?

Ah, I was going to ask whether there were any retailler exclusives in addition to the 'general sale' and Accurascale-exclusive models. Any others planned or is that it for now? I've been meaning to grab a Hornby class 50 in large logo blue - once I'd worked out which name/number I wanted. However, I still haven't worked that out so I still don't have a class 50 model, but since the Accurascale one is expected to be better value for money and rather limited in supply I think I better get on and decide - although the locos I think I've narrowed it down to* don't seem to be available from Accurascale so far. * It's got to be either whichever one I saw on a heritage railway (Paignton & Dartmouth I think) when I was about 5** or one of the (three?) preserved 50s used by Arriva Trains Wales (and previous operators in South Wales) on Rhymney, Fishguard and various special (eg. for the Royal Welsh Show) services. Two of the three(?) 50s used in South Wales are 50031 and 50049, at least one of which seems to have spent some of its time in Wales carrying the name (and sometimes also the number) of a scrapped classmate on one side. On that basis, I think what I'd want is 50049 named "Defiance" on one side and something else on the other*** - but still not 100% decided. ** but could but several years either side of that - I'm waiting for my mother to have time to fish out her photo albums and figure out exactly when that holiday was *** it can be "Defiance" on both sides as long as the plates on the model as-supplied can be covered by seperately purchased new plates for one side - hopefully Railtec do them.

A whole load of conversions which haven't been mentioned here are the various vehicles which have had wheelchair-accessible toilets fitted, many of which have had changes to their window layout as a result (although some appear to just have half a window blanked off on the inside, the full window frame still being visible externally on those examples). I read somewhere (probably this forum, but I can't find the right topic now if so) that on the Western Region / (First) Great Western (Trains) IC125 sets the TS(D) was at first added in the coach E position (between the buffet car (coach F) and the rest of the standard class accomodation) but later moved nearer the TGS and became coach C (why?). I was wondering when the first of these wheelchair-accessible conversions happened (and whether the Lima and Hornby coach C / coach E models of a TS in GWT and Swallow liveries are correct or should have been TSD) - photo of GWT set (power car and first six coaches in shot) on Flickr appears to show the half blanked off window (inside only) on the coach next to the buffet car but it is rather far away.

According to this page (Rail Express), the TCSD started life as TGS 44084 and was later converted to TS 42360. I have found a couple of pictures of it carrying the latter identity here. Interestingly, in the earlier of these two photos (showing the coach in 'Barbie' livery) the door nearest the camera appears to be painted plain blue. That suggests it was a staff door not-for-public-use; however it is labeled as coach D which should be a normal TS with four public doors shoudn't it? The blue door doesn't appear to have the extra openning panel that the guard's door on the TGSs and BFOs have though. The other photo shows it in dynamic lines livery with a normal bright pink contrasting door at both ends. Therefore, assuming that 44084 started life as a normal TGS (with the special guard's doors), the guard's doors have been replaced/converted to standard doors at some point. My question is, did they do that when it was converted from TGS to TCSD or later during the convertion from TCSD to TS? The model shown on the Rail Express link above appears to have normal TS-style doors, but another model seen here (https://rtc-derby-london-road.weebly.com/rev-intercity-era.html) appears to have an extra-long footstep under the door at the far end - suggesting it may have a TGS style guard's door (unfortunately the image isn't clear enough to tell for sure).

I thought the engines in the GWR and LNER class 800 sets were actually the same but with the software set to limit power output on LNER units to improve reliability (further to this, I was under the impression that should 1 engine on an LNER unit fail the remaining engines would automaticlly uprate to the higher GWR rating). What I don't know is whether things like the brake resistors (and possibly larger fuel tanks) on the class 802s (some of the features of which were later adopted on the GWR 800s due to the electrification cutbacks) are actually visible or hidden behind identical panels (just like how most of the underframe equipment on mark 3 coaches is behind panels, which I've always assumed are identical on all coaches though I've never actually bothered to check).

I don't understand how the NRM have managed to keep the level of interest on the full-size lineside so high since surely the famed locomotive that so many non-enthusiasts know is in Alan Pegler style LNER Apple Green without those sideplate thingies that make it look a little bit like a rebuilt Bulleid pacific. Certainly I'm far less interested to go out and see it in BR green. Even without a decoder, I've wondered for ages whether an electro-magnet could be made to look like a scale BSI coupling with the polarity linked with the directional head/tail lights on stuff like the old Bachmann class 158s. So, when running a pair of units together in the same direction they would couple, but if you carefully parked a pair of units either side of a rail joint with isolating fishplates and set the power to run in opposite directions, they'd uncouple. Presumably with DCC you wouldn't need the isolating fishplates or the accurate 'parking'.

Yes and no. On the one hand you have the two mark 4 coaches in the 1990s INTERCITY 225 train set - these are missing the orange cantrail line and probably the coach-end data panels etc. but they look the part (at least until you mix them with coaches that have the cantrail line). My tender drive, train set, Flying Scotsman loco is also fine livery wise but at least some versions of the Railroad model went too far in terms of livery simplification (just a single colour for the letters LNER and numbers 4472 which should really be several colours giving a 3D effect) and the end product looks wrong as a result. How about these mark 2s at Fishguard Harbour behind a class 37? Not sure if they are the exact same coaches (as in vehicle numbers) and there's only four of them but it looks to be the same EWS livery. Is this just speculation or do you know something? Perhaps not even speculation. I have zero 'inside knowledge'. I don't even know what external visible differences (other than livery and number of coaches) there are between the various existing class 80x units and/or Hornby's models of them. For example, I got the impression that after the GW electrification scope was cut back the GWR class 800/0 and 800/3 units ended up having more in common with the class 802 fleets (eg. larger fuel tanks possibly?) than they do with LNER's class 800/1 and 800/2 units but I'm not even sure of that. This is exactly the sort of thing I was wondering - had Hornby assumed that they could get away with using the class 800 tooling as-is for the 802s and 805s but have now been told that there are visible differences with the real thing and are having to make a new tooling for the 805s to include these differences? Yes, that's another possibility. I was really just wondering whether the differences between the various 80x were actually visible externally.

Are the equipment boxes etc. on the underframe very different between the class 142, 143 and 144? If not, could they possibly tool up new basic class 142 and 143/144 bodys (two bodies representing the three classes) to fit their existing class 142 chassis as a 'Railroad' model for the modeller on a budget. Or is it just not econmic to produce new toolings for 'budget range' products and only super-detail models are worth the manufacture's while?

Could it be significant, I wonder, that the Realtrack website has been advertising class 143s in GWR and Regional Railways liveries (presumably sans sewage) for some time? Despite what I wrote here on Sunday, I've not been able to bring myself to send the e-mail to Rails Of Sheffield requesting a refund-return - I've had a ValleyLines Pacer on my model railway 'wants list' for years so I'm finding it hard to part with this one. So perhaps you can help me out by answering a couple of questions: are those coreless motors (in the EFE and Realtrack class 143s)? can the interior (and destination blind) lights on the EFE class 143 easily be disconnected/turned off/disabled without breaking them or going DCC?

Not for long in this case for me - the big nasty world outside came crashing down onto my layout as soon as I tried to couple the DMS and DMSL of my shiny new ValleyLines Pacer. The 8-pin electrical coupling is angled upwards and therefore doesn't line up with the 8 little holes on the other carriage - so the two won't go together. I showed my mechanically-minded brother who said that, even if I'd received one which wasn't broken, he didn't think the coupling was very robust and would soon break if one was to couple/uncouple it often. I've not had a model with an electrical coupling between coaches before, so I don't know if the lights on the dummy car are supposed to work when not coupled to the motor car (the head/tail lights on the old-tool Bachmann 158s are certainly supposed to work on both cars without being coupled, but then they don't have an electrical connection). If they are supposed to work without being coupled to the motor car, then the dummy car lights are another thing that is broken on mine. For something that cost me £212.45 I expected to have knocked off or broken several tiny seperately fitted detail parts by now, but the only thing that fell off is the hook from one of the tension lock couplers - which I have put back on ready to return the model. This Pacer is very disapointing for the price, the fact you get a full interior / the motor is hidden being the one big win I can see. That aside, it seems we are being asked to pay for things like sound (I think I read that there is a speaker in the thing somewhere) and interior lighting which cannot be taken advantage of without futher expense converting to DCC (or a stayalive of some sort for the lights). I tried to turn the lights off with the switch underneath but that only took out the directional lighting - the interior lighting still flashed on and off as I turned the power dial... Maybe I'd keep it if it had been sold at the £170 price tag of the FirstGW-liveried example on the RealTrack website, since nobody is likely to do a ValleyLines Pacer in 00 again, but even that would be a bit expensive for me.

I'm in agreement with those who are questioning the rather large number of premium, special-edition, models. At least one other person has already pointed out that there are two blue Mallards. I suppose one is era 10 and one era 3, and one is die-cast and the other not, but surely it would make more sense to do one this year and save the other for next year? The same with the die-cast 'Great Gathering' and 'Flying Scotsman' collections - do the six 'Scotsmans' this year (for the 100th anniversary of the loco appearing) as the die-cast offering for steam this year and save the 'Dublo' A4s for future releases - perhaps one a year for the next six years instead of all at once. I thought it was the other way round - apart perhaps from train sets and some steam-era items in the Railroad range - all 00 model rolling stock was produced as a limited production run. I would guess that the number of units produced for some products is closer to 10,000 than the 2,500-3,000 made in the case of a limited edition, but I probably could do with being educated on this topic. Personally I might (big if) have been tempted by a model of Sir Nigel Gresley in BR dull blue as seen in preservation (and this image from Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2011-04-24_SirNigelGresley.jpg) if it was issued as a normal release and not with a limited/special/die-cast edition premium price tag. Has Hornby ever done it as regular release or only as some kind of special edition? Turning now to the hand we have been dealt, I think the steam product that interests me the most this year is the GWR 14xx; did Hornby ever make these into reliable runners? Also, while I wouldn't be in the market for one anyway, what's with the wheels on the 1924 edition of Flying Scotsman (the one with something like a coat of arms on the cabside and both 'LNER' and '4472' on the non-corridor tender)? The leading bogie in particular looks somewhat toy-like compared to all the other versions in this release.