SouthernMafia

I take it this is not ok with a V4?

Yes what he said. I'm likely going to get one anyway but always nice to 'hear before you buy'. I actually wasn't that impressed by the Bachmann sound, but I guess it's more TTS quality than full blown Biffo quality.

Likewise. A video would be nice, imagine Roads and Rails will have one up soon?

Enjoying the updates on this project, very interesting to follow. Felt Donnington Road's excellent video needed a little soundtrack upgrade though...

Can you confirm if this is the latest tooling of the Heljan 33/0? I cannot understand how the RRP is £120 when the previous 2 batches and forthcoming batches of 33/0s have been RRP at £139/£149, and they're not limited editions.

Ref colours, I'd agree the beige is a little dark, although the photograph in the above post actually looks better. I've had a quick look at mine and it is very nice, not run it yet though. Bit worried about the NSE 159 colours as well with the silver grey looking very dark on the pre-production shots. Anyone know the Railmatch/Phoenix equivalent for RR beige? Is it Executive Light Grey?Looks an easy enough job to respray the band if I can't live with it. Or perhaps a bit of fading with a light wash of something.

The 1C92/1Z92 incident this evening was a farce. Train crew delayed on inward, then there was some door problem which couldn't be resolved. Solution was to split sets and recouple. That didn't work either. Eventually the whole rigmarole went on for so long they cancelled it, not before the 19:05 had left. So another solution was to split the sets again and run as 1Z92 to Exeter for the punters. They then couldn't split the sets. Cancelled and ECS to North Pole. Doh!

Good to see some priority regulation for a change at Reading even if it is by a slightly slower route. Platforms 10 and 11 both had services in, with 1H40 non-stop approaching, the Signaller has routed through Platform 9 in the Up direction around 1A23. 1H40 is about 12 late so might just make PPM with a good run to London. Normally it's wait your place in the queue, although I did see the 1532 Basingstoke go out in front of an on time 1529 1C86...

So the apparently Dawlish proof IETs are not so Dawlish proof...both 1A82 and 1C75 lost all GUs earlier after being struck by waves. 1A82 managed to coast to Starcross where it was rescued by the front set off 1C76, 1C75 was at Dawlish and got going again running ECS. Oh dear.

Be interesting to see Paul Clifton's report this evening, hopefully he explains it correctly, ie timetable not at fault. I think the reality is they still need to move people and stopping nothing isn't an option, both Twyford and Maidenhead were overcrowded this morning to the extent of NR having to allow something to stop. Having worked at both stations I can only sympathise for the front line staff who have to deal with the angry punters, who really don't understand why their train has been cancelled, only for it to go flying through non-stop. The contingency plan may have been altered now that TfL run, but this morning's plan just didn't work, on both fronts of keeping Up services moving (I've never seen so many trains stacked up between Twyford and Maidenhead, the 3 aspect signalling doesn't help), and on providing a service to several busy, and vocal passenger stations. I'm sure Mrs May will have had a few texts today !

Timetable change, big day today,was all going well until an axle counter failure at Slough about 06:30, UM shut from Twyford. All the lovely new GWR semi fasts to Padd are not stopping at Twyford and Maidenhead, and Crossrail reduced to half-hourly, lucky punters! Why does it always happen on an important day!? Media at Reading so no doubt we'll have a report about how badly it's gone for GWR, even thought it's not their timetable that's the problem and it's NR at fault. Sigh.

Yes I would agree, the EWS gold colour also looks too light. Let's hope both are right on the final versions. It's strange that the number appears to be correct but the EWS is wrong, you'd think they'd both be the same! On the other video, the GBRf orange looks a lot better than previously shown, which is good news.

It's interesting watching passenger flows at stations at the moment. With platform extensions now in use at Slough and West Drayton, 8-car 387s now stop right at the London end of nearly all stations from Reading, with the main entrance/exit being towards the rear of the train. Made worse at West Drayton where the SDO hasn't been updated so it's still front 7. Luckily Crossrail platform staff do a good job of moving everybody up, but because most people get off at Ealing Broadway for the tube, the connectional exit being roughly in line with coach 6 and 7, you can only tell people to move so far before they look at you with a hate filled expression, and the result is often a completely full and standing rear 4, with a decently loaded but mostly seated passengers in the front 4. When Crossrail start running into Paddington underground and onwards, I wonder if this will change. It will help with dwell times for sure, certainly the mass exodus at Ealing for every train in the Peak should be reduced.

That GBRf orange still looks too dark, it will change in different lighting conditions I'm sure, but I'm not convinced it looks right, even if it is the correct shade. Also, one end has a big gap in the front for the NEM coupling, if the front is one part, how does the lower valence bit get swapped over, if at all, for the correct solid piece?

They look nice, any standard GBRf 66s to show us though? I think a lot of us are keen to see what the orange looks like, which was previously a questionable shade.

YEEEESSSS! Should've placed a bet on this... Also excellent in the sense of announcing the new 37/6 variant first rather than flooding the market with a complete replacement for the Bachmann model, gives us a chance to shift those over the next year as this is gonna be absolutely superb!

Very big - could it be HOBC wagons? Run to very long formations...if we're taking that clue literally. But I'd also love to see a new high spec 37. Or a 377/387 etc (also quite big)

There's me thinking this is a 442 story...

Apparently 345 operation is due to be extended from Hayes to Maidenhead on Monday 25th November. A soft launch before the big timetable change?

Route brief received saying 387s are now cleared for 110mph running between Paddington and Stockley Bridge Jnc from today. Presumably with the introduction of 387s on Heathrow Express this will create a small amount of extra capacity for the timetable change.

As I mentioned earlier this week, 66705 in the video looks a lot more accurate in terms of orange. Who knows about the later models though.

Yes, but I took from the video that you have to turn the function on, it won't do it automatically (which is a shame)

Excellent video from Hattons. Also pleased to see it looks like the GBRf orange has been corrected on 66705 to a more prototypical colour. Sounds from Biffo are excellent as are the lighting control. One query, function 14 doing the radar hiss, is there a way to make this happen randomly rather than having to select the function each time? Or is the chip clever enough to remember that it's on and will leave it on. Certainly on NCE gear, when you go to select another loco if it's not in your recall stack (of which there's only 6 spaces) all the functions return to off, rather annoying. Edit - same query for the random reving up that's going to happen every 2 minutes, doesn't mention which function key but again can CVs be tweaked so it happens automatically?

It is a lovely model and a certain Cornwall based retailer is doing it for £99 at the moment... Although I was a little disappointed with mine in that there are a few decoration issues, I might be able to live with them though.

Loadhaul 37710 due shortly. Oh the temptation but should really finish my (much cheaper) 37513 project instead!