Dixie Dean

Thanks Jamie for that wide range of options! Any livery you like then (well almost) but not red infilled "APT" on the front!

Does anyone have any photos of 003 actually running on the mainline with the front end painted as per the photo of it above in the Crewe Heritage Centre? It may be how it's been painted when there, and may not be as it was when in service.

I think that would have been very reasonable

Of course it all depends on what the ORR decide. Their proposals may come to nothing at all.

They have another livery for their planned Stirling to Euston service which I personally prefer: Again they state that the service will run wherever possible at 125 mph. It will be interesting to see where this is possible.

I see that Grand Union's website states that the trains from South Wales to London will be MK4s pulled by Class 91s at 125 mph. So maybe there is scope for a new livery on a Class 91!

Thanks for that Hilux5972, I haven't seen that before. TBQH it doesn't look half bad, but if it's the same pantograph as the 87 I'm not that impressed that it can't be posed.

I'm sorry FullRake but I'm not clear as to what the upper model in the photo is? Presumably the lower model is the current Hornby offering?

Sadly you only need to read back in this thread, there are a lot of modellers who are happy with only a little lighting, 8 pins instead of 21, no sound and no provision for it, despite the likely small additional costs of providing for these features, even if some don't use them!

Well quite badly, of course, but how badly I didn't exactly know.

From a lot of information I possess which is too extensive to explain here. Of course this is dependant on the extent of detailing Hornby go to (front & rear lights, cab lights, fine detailed servo pantograph, etc), but on past performance I am not expecting a great deal.

I must admit to never really looking at the Mk 4 coaches in any detail, I just knew the Cavalex one's would be the best that could reasonably be done. How do Hornby's existing Mk 4's standup?

Is that on this forum duff man? I'd be interested to "read all about it"!

Well with the demise of the Cavalex project people possibly need to start to apply pressure on Hornby from every side and at every opportunity to raise their standards. I for one felt very let down by the class 87 and in the end didn't bother buying any, and probably won't in the future if they don't pull their socks up a bit.

I guess everyone who still wants an Hornby one needs to start to put the pressure on them from every side and at any opportunity to up their game.

I shall wait until the Hornby model is produced, but if it's not up to scratch I just won't bother buying one.

Very sad news that. I just don't trust Hornby to produce the best version of anything! I agree it is not clear in the email whether they will still produce the coaches or DVT. They did say that they were still considering the N gauge version though.

I have been a bit of a lurker on a European (mainly German speaking) forum called https://stummiforum.de/ for a few years now. I can speak a bit of German and French but mainly I use Chrome as the browser and you can right click and select Translate to English, and mostly it makes it quite readable. There are a couple of really great HO gauge layouts on there and another which I found on YouTube which I thought I'd draw to your attention to. Two of these are large Swiss layouts based on the BLS Lötschberg route, one called BLS Nord- und Südrampe (literally BLS North and South Ramps) (ramp being a climb to a mountain pass) (https://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?t=72298) whose main YouTube page is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Suedrampe/videos, with the second layout by a YouTube user LaVueDesAlpes whose main page is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/LaVueDesAlpes/videos. There's also a great pair of overviews here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZNsl-mpO5o and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpvC9ZooPl0. The other is an Austrian layout based on the Semmering and its northern approaches, called Neustadt an der Südbahn (which literally means Newtown on the South Railway) https://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=125158. This layout is only 3m x 2x (i.e. a box room) but it is wrapped around the room about 5 times up to the ceiling space where there is a reversing loop. It truly is amazing how the builder has made what looks like an alpine pass layout with trains climbing up to the top of the pass, fit in such a small room. It reminds me in some ways of what the Hillside Central layout has achieved for OO gauge in a domestic garage. His main YouTube is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FlashbackAustria85/videos with a great cab ride over the layout here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZM-h-UIVY. This is the builder's (Michael Lang) first video with English subtitles (his others are just in German). I told him that I was sure that there a quite a few of us out there who would enjoy watching them, so please comment on YouTube if you find it interesting. To read the captions you just need to click on the subtitles/caption button in the bottom right corner of the screen next to the resolution settings cog wheel. When set to "on" it will have a red line under the symbol. I hope some of you find these layouts interesting!

My old Hornby APT (now 7 car) does have 3 decoders, albeit older ESU v 3.5 ones. One does the power car, others do the front/tail lights and compressor noises at each end.

My old Hornby 7 car APT has 3 chips (version 3.5) but works great with the Heljan 26/27/33 chassis modification

Is full lighting (front rear) too much to ask. And the ability to add the other stuff if you want it. We're way behind HO in all of this. What I don't want is no space for speakers and chips, rubbish wired in chips, and poor pantographs like the 86 and 92 and some others had.

I can understand your point of view, but I would at least like the space for chips and speakers, and full lighting is the minimum for most people these days I suspect. I strongly suspect there is no hope for a servo operated pantograph, but at least I'd like on which can be posed. If you don't ask you don't get.

I got an almost immediate reply

I just got one from customer services free of charge! Why not send them an email with your address on. Sadly although it looks great it can only sit on the roof folded down as it can't be posed. So looks a lot better than the ones on the 92 but not much use.

I'll be very surprised if the new Hornby APT will be as good as one done by Accurascale or Cavalex would have been, particularly around the lighting, front/rear/cab/carriages - will probably get front and rear but not much else, pantograph, which sat on a frame that came up through both sides of the body and not in the centre where the walkway was, and in respect of the pantograph itself - the Class 87 pantograph looks very realistic but sadly is completely unposable and is likely to break easily; sound and speakers, will there be space for a chip and speaker, front and rear and in the power car(s); and last but not least, the tilt mechanism. I do hope to be totally wrong, but am not holding my breath. All I can say to Hornby is, why not take this opportunity to raise your game a little and really impress, with full lighting, the space for full sound front rear and power car(s) (using 3 or 4 chips), a servo operated pantograph, modelled in the prototypical manner (with a choice of both types - I, myself would prefer the BWHS version), and tilt similar to the APT-E. You can do it!