SouthernMafia

Missed this... looking good and encouraging that the Railfreight red will be corrected, I hope the same for the yellow that's apparently Dutch?

The poor running of the first batch has been well documented and is a result of a poor pickup method. If you're willing to do a bit of modelling, an excellent solution by Temeraire is available which solves this problem. I have carried out this 20 minute mod to all my early batch 73s and they all run superbly without the need for a stay alive. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/121752-Dapol-class-73-pick-up-modification/

Spotted on Hornby's Instagram, the green looks much better here!

Update from Hornby https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/class-423-4-vep-emu SWT looking good, Southern/South Central hmmmm! Let's hope that green gets corrected for production

Snap !!

Hopefully we see a similar number of releases in EWS, Mainline, Triple grey etc as there have been DRS models, we're all waiting patiently! And having now received my first Accurascale 37 I'm definitely happy to be purchasing many more. I would put money on a 37/9 too...

Very pleased with my 607, the livery elements are superb, it just looks absolutely spot on, as do all the other locos I've seen. Would definitely agree on the sound volume concern, it is rather quiet even on max volume, a shame, hopefully a remedy to come from the Accurateam?

Heljan appear to have captured the wrong prototype loco - I didn't know this other than the NSE branding and placement, but the livery details between 73109/126 are different to 73129/136. Heljan have modelled 129/136s livery (almost correctly) and then numbered it 73126. The bit wrong for 73129 is the top white band is the thin version as on 73126. So it's a bit of a hybrid, but actually the model now has potential for a renumber to 73129/136, which is something I was considering anyway.

I suspect you're right and some discounting will be welcome, but equally would like to support Heljan in what is a great looking model, but only if the livery is right! Further interrogation of Flickr reveals the point is definitely wrong, I think the yellow extends round the bodyside a bit too far, and the vertex of the point is in the wrong place - it should be in the middle of the white gap, not in line with the blue/white transition. Unfortunately the cant rail is also wrong, being orange instead of red, easy enough to correct this though if remains the case in production.

The 73s aren't too far away, suggestions of end of October early November. Made me think about which one(s) I might like, between NSE and Dutch. Unfortunately the livery sample for NSE has a minor error, which is causing some other issues. The lower grey band is too far up the bodyside, it should be in line with the top of the kick plates. This means the red line is also too far up, which in turn makes the white gap between the red line and blue too small, and this is causing the Network SouthEast logo to also be too small, which is noticeable. The point on the cab ends may also be too pointy. Hopefully corrected on the finished models. Dutch looks pretty spot on, so will probably have that and wait to see how the NSE livery is finished. Pic courtesy KMRC Pic courtesy Richard Jones/Flickr

Are you suggesting here that the original blue Z218s would be ok to work with Caroline? Added benefit of a stay alive too. I have a few spare available so would be a good use for them when I receive my model... probably the only guy why doesn't want Revolution to post it as currently stranded abroad!

Looks great, what did you use to lift the original sector logo? Be interested to know if enamel thinners are still ok as on the previous versions of 37s and 47s

Judging by how well the new 37s and 47s have sold, (ie well but still hanging around/good supply from Bachmann), unless you're buying SFX I don't think there's a reason to be concerned about them selling out. You might just have to buy them from somewhere other than Hattons, plenty of choice these days.

Class 37 loco group on eBay have most variants up at £165 +P&P (DCC Ready), a much more palatable price point. Sound fitted also available but IMO not as good a discount.

Like others I'm very impressed with the pricing on these and will be ordering some...the question is which ones! Modelling the Solent area it transpires that I likely need at least the blue MAT ones for 90s Southampton Western Docks traffic, white STVA ones for late 90s/00s Southampton Eastern Docks traffic, and also perhaps the Silcox Express ones which, in a debranded and heavily weathered form, seemed to be in use with Freightliner into the 2000s, as seen here: Are we likely to see further releases such as the above in future?

Ouch, glad I have all I need now. Picked up the remaining stock of INTERCITY TSOs from AC Models in January which now seem to be very hard to find. Bachmann spares are doing spare bodyshells too, the first release of InterCity branded ones were £20 for a body, not bad to replace those cheap ScotRail ones TMC pushed out at £37.50! Still more than when the InterCity TSO ones were originally released, but they're also difficult to find.

Agree with the sentiments above, back when the new 37 was announced I said I wouldn't upgrade, but I've just sold a further three of my 90s Sector/Dutch/ReggieRail 37s for eventual replacement with new Bachy/Accurascale ones. Luckily custom versions still seem to be holding a decent price on eBay. I'm relatively happy with keeping my custom old style 47s, as they're pretty good and stand up well against the new 47. But the 37 is definitely a big improvement and shows up the issues with the older model. As you say Rich, like-for-like replacement is soon going to get expensive, trouble is I've already thought of 3 or 4 versions I could model with the new Dutch 37201! (odd bogies ignored - solution to work out on that... hopefully replacements appear as a spare at some stage)

I suppose the big moment will be if (when?) Bachmann announce their Version 2 of the 66, will it arrive before Accurascale can get theirs to market in 11/12 months time? As we saw from the 47 and 37, announcement to delivery was very very quick from what we've been used to, so they could well be sitting on one almost ready to go. It surely would be priced at least the same as the 37 I'd have thought, which I note had a £5 price rise on batch 2 this year (£250 RRP).

Time to stop dreaming! Nice tease @Lowlander I won't be moving on my Hattons ones as hinted in the Accurascale launch vid, they are superb models still with a bit of tinkering. The AS range will complement them nicely. Good to see the tooling back.

Excellent announcement, a couple of NSE TSOTs for me. Will also need some WCR ones for the 1990s Bristol Weymouth trains, but how close are they to this livery other than the WCR branding?

£111 is a bargain, I saw one go for £200 last year!

Would agree that I'd rather the detailing is fitted, and can then be removed by those who want to put a NEM in there. For me, similar to @dj_crisp I prefer to put Kadees in the buffer beam for 33/1s, and a wire loop protruding out from behind the buffer beam for 33/0s and 33/2s (and some of my 33/1s too). Best of both worlds because you can still couple an NEM coupler to the wire loop, and retain most if not all of the detailing. I get NEMs on locos serve a purpose, but they really don't look very good at all.

Also spotted this, and again was correctly coloured on previous releases, so why the backwards step?

Could just remove them? D6580 does look like it has something of a small rubbing plate but, it's definitely not what Heljan have put on it There's also the problem of the fuel tanks, it looks like the whole batch has the unmodified version with the recess. Previous releases have had the correct version depending on era: Pictures courtesy Heljan

The latest batch of 33/1s are due to arrive this week according to Rails. Unfortunately, the price has risen from £161.46 to £178.46, and £195.46 for a weathered one! I say it every time we get a new release but remember when they were £39 on Hattons, same tooling pretty much! We were on the lookout for a D6580 for our club layout but at that price it was prohibitively expensive, luckily managed to find an earlier release at Warley for the fair sum of £85!