steven156

I managed to nab one of the GBRF 66789s. One had one of the battery boxes sheared off and cabstep handrails badly bent and the other three or four had the usual chips on the handrails etc. All at very reasonable prices considering that it's a popular livery. Managed to get one with the chips on the handrails at £122. Not even a 5 minute job with a toothpick to touch up the cab step handrails and putting a bit of paper underneath the chipped handrail to touch up the paint to avoid getting white paint into the handrail recess. Runs perfectly fine, no wobble or other issues. Very happy with the result, not even "real" modelling skills were required, its only my 8th Hattons Class 66.

Hattons own pictures really don’t do the loco any favours, their own pictures make it look very pale compared to this one.

I have bitten the bullet and bought the 14 pack of wagons, all the variations. When you first see the cost of £469 it is a bit eye watering. But when you think about it, it works out at £33.50 a wagon, which in the hobby's current financial climate is an absolute steal. The whole rake can be legitimately hauled by my various Bachy and Hattons 66s in First GBRF, GBRF europorte, 2x Royal Scotsmans and Fastline liveries and 14 wagons is long enough to portray the real things presence of 20 wagons. Still didnt help much when I confirmed the payment and the money left my paypal account mind you! I also dont think I can justify stretching out the rake to 20 wagons! If we can have EWS HTAs next that would be great, the prices the Bachy models are for sale on ebay are eyewatering!

While not being a chartered accountant and having basic math skills, I used to work for Sainsburys in their produce deparment and my job was to mark down the short dated produce as part of my duties and being forced to attend team talks every week about how much the department lost due to waste and short life reductions, I would say I have a little bit of knowledge.

Putting a Sainsburys outlet into a Garden Centre when theres a Sainsburys Supermarket 500 yards away, and having to reduce significant amounts of fresh produce daily because they are not selling much of it before it comes close to its expiry date wont be paying many bills either.

Yes that happened at my local branch of Dobbies at Braehead in Renfrewshire, they ripped out the specialist food shopping mall and replaced it with a Sainsburys concession and they got shot down in flames on Social Media when they announced it- thinking that people would like it, and of course they didn't. The irony is that there is a branch of Sainsburys, and a very large branch at that, not even 500 yards away in the retail park opposite.

I remember that day well. The email came out at work a week before inviting everyone who hadn't been on a Inter7City HST yet to go across and have a good look around, it would have been rude not to!

More from Platform 0. I just wish I got more shots of the coaches exteriors. The set was fresh off Haymarket Depot for a staff only event on Platform 0 that day.

Talking about Haymarket Platform 0.......

Hmm I would side with Eddie on this one, he drives them everyday. Colour is so subjective, just look at Invercity Executive livery, Who would have thought a shade of grey would be so controversial? I recon the only thing we can do is hold a model up to the real thing in perfect daylight to see.

I've opened up the coach that has a decent paint finish that I am keeping. The other one is going back to Hattons (thanks again to them for their excellent service) I'm really torn over these coaches. It's nice Hornby have made them, but I just wish they were better with lights- but ponder how much this would add to the price which is very decent. The Bogies are very decent repesentations. They have pips in the frame which are presumably for fitting pickups like on the recent Mark 2s. It is very ironic that on the Hornby HSTs the driver is getting a suntan in the cab as the train is moving and the passengers in the coaches are in tinted window darkness. The Brake Discs in the wheels are very nice- blackened. The Orange ETH is in bare orange plastic which looks terrible. The printing on the underframe is really excellent along the equipment cabinets. Some of the mouldings are very nice. One piece underframe that feels very much like the existing Mark 3 coaches in the range. Coach interior also harks back to the existing mark 3 coaches. It's a blue plastic one piece coloured moulding. However there is a bit more finesse to them than before. it's been cleverly moulded to look very decent. Tables are also in blue which takes away from the realism when looking from outside. A dab of creamy/white paint will help them stand out a little. As mentioned the body moulding is very glossy. As Eddie R has mentioned there is issues with the colours, maybe its because its so glossy and that is causing the issues but I'm not totally convinced. The gangway ends and the roof vents are seperately fitted. The toilet hatches handles are moulded on. The coach moulding inside is in grey plastic, but Im not able to tell if this is the same grey as the exterior or if they have sprayed the grey because of the heavy glossy finish, There is a teeny tiny chip in the black surrounds under one of the windows, but that can be easily remedied with some paint on a toothpick or a very fine permanent market. For the price point it is very good but still a bit "design clever", Everard Junction on youtube has shown with a bit of work, you can jazz interiors up with lights for very modest sums of money and I recon once the rest of them have arrived they will be checked for paint finish and improved without a huge amount of work and I'll fit some cheap lights. I recon from general discussion on here and my own experience- Hornby have a very decent value for money coach that just about hits the price sweetspot, but it's the paintwork thats really lacking.

This was the TSD, R4891.

Mines arrived today, coaches are very glossy and the existing powercars are very matt. On one coach is a distorted roof rib, chipped black window surrounds and a distorted print on the Saltire logo. Very meh.

A couple of years ago on the Neilston line when I was a Ticket Examiner they had a block on for Engineering works that had trains run from Neilston to Glasgow via Newton- a long way for a short cut but it kept trains running. Was a nightmare to diagram drivers for as essentially it had to be only Motherwell Drivers as they signed the West Coast Mainline between Glasgow Central and Newton and both the entire Cathcart Circle and Branches as part of their more extensive route knowledge. A select few more senior Glasgow Central drivers used to sign the WCML to Newton for empty coach moves, but its not a route taught to new Shields or Glasgow Central Drivers as the empty coach moves now run to Motherwell for stabling overnight. The better compromise is for Neilston to have an extra shuttle bus to Barrhead and the customers for Glasgow are not having to go on a mystery tour to get to Patterton, Whitecraigs, Williamwood, Muirend and Cathcart as generally most Neilston customers are going to Glasgow anyway.

My SpotRail one arrived today and the squint nameplate was the first thing I noticed and the first thing my girlfriend noticed. Its subtle but very noticeable due to the blue spots providing a datum point . Disappointing as otherwise its a fantastic model. Returning it to Hattons and their usual excellent customer services have emailed me a printed label to return it.

Well I would like to think the Transpennine Express 185 livery is very pretty, but I am probably way off the mark and leaving myself open to questions about requiring an eye test........

I work with the Class 313's relative the ScotRail Class 314 and I have to agree that the bodyshell looks very off. Cab windscreens are far too small for a start unfortunately.

I think we have to put into context PhilS that Charlie as usual is working like a trojan as usual to get these fantastic models to us. He hasn't got the luxury of sauntering into a factory and saying make me 1000 of these, pronto. Bachmann and Hornby when they produce models in their factories don't even have this luxury. He hasn't got the luxury of being at the factory at the other side of the work to ensure the work made by the factory is right. This is why he takes the time to ensure the product is right. Bachmann and Hornby have proved this with some of the howlers that have reached the shops. Remember the Hornby Coal Sector Class 56 with the logos the wrong way round? The Bachmann Class 66's in DRS livery where the factory mis-printed the white lettering? The Bachmann EPB where the coach numbers were transposed on both coaches? He hasn't got what Hornby and Bachmann have which is a full production team of staff or their distribution networks and methods. The FGW livery with all the place names on it has still to be produced by Hornby and Bachmann, indeed they have went for the easy way out and done them in the plain livery. These place names are tiny and will require several passes on a printing machine to put onto the model that is not smooth by virtue of the fact the body side represents a prototype that is full of rivets. He is providing a product that is extremely well priced for what it is and to an extremely high specification. I have a Northern Rail Class 144 that is the absolute business and to put it beside a Hornby Class 155 in Northern Rail livery in a box that has the cheek to say "super detail" still makes me chuckle. He is personally testing the sets to check you don't get a lemon. As Simon Kohler said himself on his "Simon Says" blog you could buy a Hornby loco years ago and there was no guarantee it would actually work! All the meanwhile he is running a business, attending shows and god knows what else! I have to admit from first seeing the first moulds of the 144, to a prepainted sample to getting a production one felt like a long time, and indeed to Charlie it must have felt like an eternity but the wait was well worth it. Give the guy a chance!

This video shows how a DVT, Mark 3 and Class 90 set is dispatched from London. While it's mark 2 stock and class 37's the gist of it applies.

It might be to do with extended dwell times at each station due to the use of slam door stock- central door locking and dispatch that goes with the use of loco hauled trains. Just takes one customer at coach one at the front of the train to get off the train, walk away without shutting the door behind them, conductor has to run all the way to the front to shut the door and that's how delays accumulate.

I've just dug out my nearly finished class 303 kit, I say nearly finished its been in white undercoat for nearly two years, a house move and a baby seem to delay things! This is the second I have built, generally the kit goes together really well, once you get over all the bits of plastic thats in them and you follow the instructions its quite suprising how quickly and easily it comes together. One day, it will be painted, but because I have a bit of a Northern Rail obsession just now, that day wont be soon!

Not sure. hopefully a Loksound Decoder's wires are long enough as I can't be bothered with using a Soldering Iron myself at the best of times.

The old Bachmann Class 150 was an ordeal to fit DCC Sound into, you needed to dismantle the chassis to almost its constituent parts. The New Bachmann Class 150's instructions I have found are a cut and paste job when it comes to fitting a Sound Decoder- they are not correct for the new chassis to fit sound! You take off the bodyshell, the three black clips on top of the lighting unit for the interior come off quite easily, this allows the lighting unit to come away. On the interior seating unit there is a black screw that when removed allows a cavity in the seating unit to be revealed that will allow a speaker to be fitted, in the cavity is the SP1 and SP2 solder contacts to allow a speaker to be fitted. As can be seen with a spare speaker - it just fits in and allows the seating unit to be replaced. All I need is an actual sound decoder for the 150! Hope this is of help to everyone.

Bachmann's instructions on fitting a DCC decoder seem to be cut and pasted from the first versions of Class 150/1 and 150/2s where the fitting of DCC sound was a hair tearing experience. Take the shell off the unit. Unclip the three black clips across the lighting unit. Slip out the interior lighting units. There is a screw in the seating unit which releases a chunk in the floor, and then you will find a nice space for a standard speaker where the SP1 and SP2 contacts are. The seating unit just fits over the top. All i need is an actual Class 150 sound decoder, next payday I think

A good point about the model is that because the leading bogie at the driving cab is a trailing bogie and the middle bogie is the motorised one, my Class 150 is on my old Hornby Rolling Road getting run in. Very useful as i only have a 6 foot plank layout!