Class 205 in Conjunction with Kernow Model Shop

[Geep7]

5 hours ago, jools1959 said:

 Any idea when it was painted into blue and grey?  I assume it would about the same time it gained a centre coach.

Yes, it only gained blue and grey once it became a 3-car Class 204. I'm pretty sure the 204's were first outshopped in blue anyway.

 

*just checked bloodandcustard.com, the 3T/Class 204's weren't repainted into blue & grey until 1986. And confirmed they became 3T's in 1979.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Geep7
verified my facts :-)

[Flood]

7 hours ago, Geep7 said:

Yes, it only gained blue and grey once it became a 3-car Class 204. I'm pretty sure the 204's were first outshopped in blue anyway.

 

*just checked bloodandcustard.com, the 3T/Class 204's weren't repainted into blue & grey until 1986. And confirmed they became 3T's in 1979.

Bloodandcustard sets out the two tables for blue and grey and renumbering incorrectly.

 

They should state the dates to blue and grey as 1401 c. Nov 81, 1402 Jun 82, 1403 Mar 82 and 1404 Oct 82. The dates to 204xxx as 204001 Oct 86, 204002 May 86, 204003 May 86 and 204004 Jun 86.

 

The correct dates for initial formation are stated further down the page: 1401 c19 Jul 79, 1402 c Sep 79, 1403 Mar 80 and 1404 17 Sep 79.

 

1401 July 13 1984 in blue and grey from Bruce Galloway for example.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Flood

[Dogmatix]

I am also augmenting a 2H with a 2EPB trailer car to make a 3T.

 

Having swapped the collector bogie for a non-collector bogie, and painted the end black (I take it the end windows were not painted over?), and removed the double-arrow symbols, I still have to fit a close-coupling mechanism because Bachmann (or Kernow) decided that units should have big gaps when connected to other units. But my question is, what about the 'normal' buffers at the driving end? Were they left in situ, or removed? This is one detail I have not been able to find out.

[pete_mcfarlane]

1 hour ago, Dogmatix said:

But my question is, what about the 'normal' buffers at the driving end? Were they left in situ, or removed? This is one detail I have not been able to find out.

A bit of both - the heads were removed but the rest of the buffer was left in place. There's a photo here: https://www.47soton.co.uk/2012/10/thumper-demu-retrospective.html

[Dogmatix]

4 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

A bit of both - the heads were removed but the rest of the buffer was left in place. There's a photo here: https://www.47soton.co.uk/2012/10/thumper-demu-retrospective.html

Thanks for that; very helpful!

[Wickham Green too]

On 02/12/2021 at 16:49, Dogmatix said:

...... painted the end black  ......

Shouldn't the inner ends all be Rail Blue ?

[Gwiwer]

19 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Shouldn't the inner ends all be Rail Blue ?

Depends which year is being represented.

[Downendian]

Superb conversion of a 2H to 3H by Richard at Everard junction - top drawer modelling. Based around the sacrifice of a Bachmann 2-EPB to make the centre car. Richard’s air brushing tips are on their own worth watching this YouTube video for. Unfortunately I missed out on cheap 2-EPBs, but will keep an eye out, thank goodness though mine will be plain blue. Richard’s model is NSE livery, and his patience in getting those stripes looking right is exemplary.

I’m keeping a watchful eye on the forthcoming Bachmann announcement, a main range 3H with possibly providing centre cars separately would be very popular with us that own 2Hs.

neil 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Downendian
Typos

[Wickham Green too]

....... and once they've done the centre car, it can only be a matter of time before a 4EPB appears ........................... can't it ??!?

[Budgie]

On 10/02/2022 at 08:57, Wickham Green too said:

....... and once they've done the centre car, it can only be a matter of time before a 4EPB appears ........................... can't it ??!?

We can but hope.

[RateTheFreight]

Evening all,

 

Given obtaining a 205 (particularly green ones - yes, there’s currently 2 x on eBay for a hefty price) is a challenge, is it likely we’ll ever see these appear in Bachmann or EFE’s main range post any exclusivity period or do Kernow own the rights to the model thus rendering any production re-run unlikely? 
 

G 

[Roy Langridge]

7 minutes ago, RateTheFreight said:

Evening all,

 

Given obtaining a 205 (particularly green ones - yes, there’s currently 2 x on eBay for a hefty price) is a challenge, is it likely we’ll ever see these appear in Bachmann or EFE’s main range post any exclusivity period or do Kernow own the rights to the model thus rendering any production re-run unlikely? 
 

G 

 

Nobody knows really, but keep in mind other Kernow specials are now released under the EFE banner, so it is possible. Smart move would be to add the centre coach.

 

Roy 

[Geep7]

I thought Bachmann had already released a run of it's own in Green and Blue a couple of years ago?

[RFS]

9 minutes ago, RateTheFreight said:

Evening all,

 

Given obtaining a 205 (particularly green ones - yes, there’s currently 2 x on eBay for a hefty price) is a challenge, is it likely we’ll ever see these appear in Bachmann or EFE’s main range post any exclusivity period or do Kernow own the rights to the model thus rendering any production re-run unlikely? 
 

G 

As you say there are a couple on Ebay. One is brand-new for £250 from a business seller. If there is ever a rerun,  I very much doubt it would be for less than that these days.

[Ncarter2]

1 hour ago, RFS said:

As you say there are a couple on Ebay. One is brand-new for £250 from a business seller. If there is ever a rerun,  I very much doubt it would be for less than that these days.

Have to agree with you, I was looking for a NSE one and outside of eBay, I could only find one retailer offering them, also at £250. Was just about to bite when a Connex one came up on here for £150, so snapped it up. 

[RFS]

7 hours ago, Ncarter2 said:

Have to agree with you, I was looking for a NSE one and outside of eBay, I could only find one retailer offering them, also at £250. Was just about to bite when a Connex one came up on here for £150, so snapped it up. 

 

Just looked at my records and was amazed to see that next Wednesday is the 10th anniversary of the delivery of my two green ones from Kernow. And I think they'd been on pre-order for 2-3 years before that. Cost at the time was £130 each. And a couple of months later, Hatton's were selling off 4-CEPs for £69 each and I bought another pair for my railway. RRP for 4-CEPs today is now £465 which is why there'll never be a 4-BUF on my layout!

[Ian J.]

Any new release would probably need a decent upgrade for lights, details, sound, etc, to fit to current and future standards. It obviously should also have the centre car. That was the big 'mistake' of the original release.

[Gwiwer]

51 minutes ago, Ian J. said:

Any new release would probably need a decent upgrade for lights, details, sound, etc, to fit to current and future standards. It obviously should also have the centre car. That was the big 'mistake' of the original release.

Whilst I appreciate that you have placed “mistake” in quotes it would have been a commercial decision at the time based upon strength of business and market. 
 

Yes sales might have been stronger with a three-car unit but equally we should bear in mind that these units all began life as two-car, the blue and Connex ones correctly represented later two-car variants (so were not missing trailers which should have been there) and that there will always be those who complain about price, accuracy, details and other points. 
 

I would have had a three-car unit had one been available. I was happy with the two-car. 
 

Given that the global situation might bring Chinese manufacture to an abrupt end and costs elsewhere are still rather higherI fear the hobby is not going to become any more affordable. If EFE Rail is able to offer a 3H DEMU in the near future I would expect a price in the region of £450 with DCC and sound extra. Personally I don’t need interior lighting but working front and rear markers / headcodes are a must.
 

If a unit was offered at that price in a suitable livery I would have one. I know others would be priced-out. And there’s a major limiting factor. Would there be enough interest at that price to justify a release?  Especially with an all-new centre trailer. 

[AY Mod]

2 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

If EFE Rail is able to offer a 3H DEMU in the near future

 

It won't appear in that guise as it was manufactured by Kader. EFE is for products from other sources.

[ted633]

12 hours ago, Ncarter2 said:

Have to agree with you, I was looking for a NSE one and outside of eBay, I could only find one retailer offering them, also at £250. Was just about to bite when a Connex one came up on here for £150, so snapped it up. 

£150 for a Connex, you got a bargain there. Witnessed one go for £310 on eBay a couple of weeks ago!

[Ncarter2]

25 minutes ago, ted633 said:

£150 for a Connex, you got a bargain there. Witnessed one go for £310 on eBay a couple of weeks ago!

Yeah I did see that one on eBay.  
It was purely chance I looked at the classified section on here and there it was. 

[brushman47544]

17 hours ago, Geep7 said:

I thought Bachmann had already released a run of its own in Green and Blue a couple of years ago?

There was a long (years) gap between the original Kernow releases and the second batch with the missing liveries including green SYP and BR blue. The price rose quite a bit as a result and it wouldn’t surprise me if quite a number of pre-orders were cancelled. Whatever happened, Bachmann made some of that batch available to other retailers as weathered versions of the same models. The weathering wasn’t bad for a production model either.

[Ian J.]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Whilst I appreciate that you have placed “mistake” in quotes it would have been a commercial decision at the time based upon strength of business and market. 
 

Yes sales might have been stronger with a three-car unit but equally we should bear in mind that these units all began life as two-car, the blue and Connex ones correctly represented later two-car variants (so were not missing trailers which should have been there) and that there will always be those who complain about price, accuracy, details and other points. 
 

I would have had a three-car unit had one been available. I was happy with the two-car. 
 

Given that the global situation might bring Chinese manufacture to an abrupt end and costs elsewhere are still rather higherI fear the hobby is not going to become any more affordable. If EFE Rail is able to offer a 3H DEMU in the near future I would expect a price in the region of £450 with DCC and sound extra. Personally I don’t need interior lighting but working front and rear markers / headcodes are a must.
 

If a unit was offered at that price in a suitable livery I would have one. I know others would be priced-out. And there’s a major limiting factor. Would there be enough interest at that price to justify a release?  Especially with an all-new centre trailer. 

 

I seem to remember, sometime after the release, a comment from Chris at Kernow (though I am really not sure about it) that he felt that the three car should have been done, even though there were reasons not to (possibly financial in being able to afford the tooling). I gather that sales weren't as good as hoped, at least at the time, and that the three car was a missed opportunity to capitalize on the interest. I am sure if I'm wrong (and I may be) that Chris would correct me. Of course, any new run, especially in three car form, would not be cheap. But then, what in RTR in our hobby is these days?

[Roy Langridge]

1 hour ago, brushman47544 said:

There was a long (years) gap between the original Kernow releases and the second batch with the missing liveries including green SYP and BR blue. The price rose quite a bit as a result and it wouldn’t surprise me if quite a number of pre-orders were cancelled. Whatever happened, Bachmann made some of that batch available to other retailers as weathered versions of the same models. The weathering wasn’t bad for a production model either.

 

The gap was not that long between the two batches, a few months, not years. I remember the wait - I have two sound fitted all-blue 205s, one as the released 1122 and the other with a modified EPB trailer as 1402.

 

Roy

[Geep7]

1 hour ago, brushman47544 said:

There was a long (years) gap between the original Kernow releases and the second batch with the missing liveries including green SYP and BR blue. The price rose quite a bit as a result and it wouldn’t surprise me if quite a number of pre-orders were cancelled. Whatever happened, Bachmann made some of that batch available to other retailers as weathered versions of the same models. The weathering wasn’t bad for a production model either.

 

I have one from the second batch in Blue. There was a change to the LegomanBiffo sound project for these, and I think this really sounds good.

 

I wasn't sure if the Bachmann release was those left-over at Kernow or not, but not being privy to that sort of info. I assumed they were a new run.