bacon butty

Ah yes see what you mean - thanks for the reply. I'm sure that someone from Bachmann will enlighten us shortly. Stuart

The exclusive model is the SECR H class with number 263 - this is different to the standard issue which was number 308. This is the loco that Hornby took to Warley. If you join the club and get the model for 99.99 it's good value in my view. Stuart

It is mentioned at the bottom of the page with all the icons on - it is for re-runs with no change from previous runs. It's not really clear though. Hope this helps. Stuart

Hi Alan Like quite a few people on here I have the Rails of Sheffield Dynamometer Car on pre order. As Rapido are doing a very detailed interior that will be begging for a team of 1930's/40's technicians to be installed and there are some very good photos of the crew do you think there may be some scope in this? Hope so as I would be one of the first on the list! Thanks. Stuart

Looking at the Peckett and making more etc. I do wonder if profit margin may come into it - the loco is relatively low cost compared to some loco's to buy and the first releases especially Dodo and H&P had quite complex liveries to apply. The black livery this year will be easier to apply and less scrap will be produced when making these. It would be interesting to know how much longer it takes to make the H&P compared to this years black one and how much extra the cost of the printing plates are. As far as I can remember non of the RTR manufacturers charge more for different liveries no matter how complicated. As an example of this the class 50 diesel in BR blue is about £50 more to purchase than the Peckett was in H&P blue - I can guess which was hardy to manufacter. This applies to the Bachmann "C" class in SECR livery where people have wanted the original made again since it first sold out really quickly - if they made another batch tomorrow they would quickly sell out I'm sure. Interestingly a manufacturer will charge £10 more for weathering a loco. Stuart

The samples look great - good to see progress being made. One question is the model using the same coreless motor set-up as on the class 71? Stuart

They look great Andy - the Modelu Figures are fantastic aren't they. I have a number of them and couldn't praise Alan enough regarding quality and service. As far as eyes go my personal choice is to not even try - leave just flesh colour. To try to paint them can make the subject look frog eyed. An eye in 1/76 scale is less than half a mm long - if you look on a monitor at a general photo of a person and reduce to be about 20mm in height you cannot see the eyes at all. Not sure about the shunter - my guess would be how you've painted them as hi-vis etc. was not around back then. Stuart

This is a most interesting thread - I do get what everyone is saying but the harsh realities of the manufacturing process involved with producing RTR models is that I cannot see any mass production moving back to the UK. To make it economically possible you need to run machines at least 5 days a week 24 hours a day. The labour rates for anything to do with plastic moulding is sky high - 1 good toolmaker will cost you £35,000 a year, a mould technician will cost you about the same. If you are running 24 hours a day you need 3 of each... The number of models produced would need to be massive, my belief is that Dapol are making more items like the wagons or other low labour items. Sadly we do have a massive skills shortage in the UK for plastic moulding these days - I spent 16 years in a mould shop working in a factory that employed over 500 people as a trade moulder that also did tampo printing etc. the factory went bust 14 years ago. The toolroom had nearly 20 guys at its prime and we had a get together over Christmas - we have all moved on to other industries and the key thing is that all of us to a man said as much as we found the job interesting we would never go back to it as it was so tough to do and other industries paid more for less stress! Stuart

Large logo 47712 Lady Diana Spencer would have been good - 20 years this year since she past so I think it would possibly sell well. Used to see the 47 7's go through Lancaster quite often in the 1980's going to Crewe to be worked on. Stuart

Thanks Andy - it looks really tidy. I will look forward to reading the article - making sure that I pick up the correct magazine... Many thanks for the updates today (on a Sunday as well) regarding the Bachmann range - your hard work is much appreciated! Stuart

Doh! - it's with all of todays excitement! Sorry Andy - and thanks for the correction Tony! Stuart

Hi Andy, Have you managed to find time to complete this project - if you have what months Model Rail is the article going in? Thanks Stuart

Hi Dan, Many thanks for your help with this - it's really appreciated. Stuart

Hi All, Can anyone direct me to who has a decoder in stock for these - the Hornby X9659. I've had it on order for some time now and the delivery date that I have has slipped back... Many thanks in advance for anyone who can guide me in the right direction. Stuart

As I've checked on the Hornby website just now the MSC and Dodo are available to order now in time for Christmas - ignore the initial out of stock on Dodo, just search for R3427 and it's there in stock... unless there is a problem with the website!!! Hope someone gets what they want - in time for the man in the big red suit on Christmas day! Stuart

Hi Bertiedog, I do get your concerns regarding delivery - but as been suggested earlier the boat to Australia is going to arrive quicker than the one coming into the UK. Why send them to the UK from China to then send them back - it is added cost. Also if you have a one release date across the World where they become available at the same time it may be that someone in Australia is sat on stock for 1 month without it being able to sell the model and getting the cash in. Hornby website is currently saying 11/12/2016 for Dodo and 24/12/2016 for the Huntley and Palmers - these I suspect are worst case scenarios as if it gets stuck in customs it could be + 2 weeks! I'm 100% sure it will be worth the wait. For what it's worth I have Dodo on order and am getting sweaty palms now waiting for it! Stuart

Spot on there Mike, Totally agree with you. Stuart

There is the step as well of transposing the initial CAD drawings into the separate injection mould tool drawings - each mould tool will have a drawing for the general assembly, fixed half (the show faces), the moving half + slides, ejection system etc. These drawings are very complex and are mirror images of the initial CAD's, they will for example have maybe a hot runner system and certainly a cooling system. Incidentally I have not seen any manufacturer share these drawings in all my model railway time!! The tool maker will generally sort out electrodes to do the spark erosion bits (you never get separate drawings for electrodes)- this is because he is the best person who understands how to do that part. These electrodes are transposed back again to be a replica of what you are making... back and forward with transpositions!! My feeling on the wash out plugs is that the tool maker may have made a 1mm mistake when doing the set up of the spark erosion process - remember once its done its done. No one from quality comes and checks what his set up is and if he has put the correct dimensions in! Generally the tool maker will only become aware of a mistake when he's bollocked days or even weeks later once samples are assembled. To be honest it may have been picked up in China but it may not. What no one is going to do is say to us here are the samples and we have made mistakes here or there and get a white pen and mark on the models! The manufacturers are really under pressure to show samples at Warley - what would have been a better call not showing a sample or showing one with say a known error - remember just because Locomotion may not have been aware doesn't mean that the engineers in China aren't aware! Lets just wait and see what the next samples look like (these are after all EP's) - I'm sure there will be corrections, maybe not all but there will be some. Stuart

Osborn Models appear to have them in stock - £13.38 for the pack. I'm wondering if the recent figures that have been delivered from Europe are starting to go up in cost due to the exchange rate issues that are being widely talked about. Hope this helps - but as mentioned above by Roy the cost of the figures on the listing from Germany is low. I'm still waiting for the Maroon Wickham so I've not been able to do a trial fit on these. Stuart.

Is there any chance that one of you helpful guys could post a photo of the under side of the trailer load - it will help figuring out what needs to be removed to try to install a decoder. I'm waiting now for the maroon one so I'll have to be patient... Many thanks for any photos posted - and thanks to anyone who's posted other photos in the last day or so to help with how small the trolley is. Stuart

Well I've still kept my order for the maroon version but added a separated DCC Concepts Zen Nano decoder to the order - not sure yet how I'm going to fix it all together but I am sure with the expert advice always available on here that I'll get it to work on DCC! My crew are all ready to be fixed inside (the Preiser seated industrial workers) - just can't wait for it to become available. I'm now spending my spare hours practicing my solder skills... gulp!

I've had a notification off Hattons and now that they have the model they have decided not to offer this service. From the reply I have it's obvious that it requires a little more effort than soldering 2 wires! They we're using their own decoder for cost reasons - I notice that the DCC Concepts one is a little smaller but a little more costly. I'm wondering about attacking the wagon load with a dremel and then modelling a tarpaulin to go anything that is visible. Hope this helps to clarify the DCC conversion offered initially by Hattons. Stuart

Yes I too noticed this - I have it on pre-order for the maroon one with the option of Hattons soldering the decoder in. I emailed them at lunch time Monday regarding that the option has now been taken off the system. As soon as I hear off them I will post what they say - you never know it may be that they are getting too many orders for them to fit the decoder and it's a way to make sure that they don't get a back-log. I'm sure we will know on Tuesday. The model does look good! Stuart

There is a new Class 47 on their website... Look under the new arrivals!

Yes it was myself who suggested the Preiser HO scale figures (part no 10351 seated industrial workers) they will be good I think for the maroon one but not for the later ones due to what the figures are wearing. Gaugemaster do have these in stock at the moment (I have no connection with them) and I bought a set for the maroon Wickham I have on order. My feeling though is that as everything is so exposed that it won't be until you try the 2 items together that you will be able to check suitability. Generally the HO figures fit better inside a loco or vehicle but with the Wickham it may be different. Hope this information helps. Stuart