Well ,Windsor Lad arrived yesterday & I can report that it is well & truly up to expectations. A visit to the club layout proved that it's performance matches that of the A4,as you'd expect, same chassis and so on. Detail is excellent and Hornby have been kind enough to do all the work so you can just take it out of the box and play. Unlike the A4 it doesn't look miles better than the model it replaces, I guess that means the old A3's weren't that bad a model, the level of detail is far better but the shape is still basically the same (the new A4's have a noticable shape improvement, put old & new A3's & A4's together and you'll get the point) . The main points score for the new A3 are the Fixed Cartazzi truck, motor in the loco (yay), tender is far superior. As for the fantastic cab detail, well it's great if you take the time to look at it but I would be happy with a simplified cab if it meant the exta cost could be sunk into an even better motor or something like that,(only my opinion, quite happy to accept others will see differently).
I'll wind up by saying I think the A3 is a job well done, looking foreward to Great Northern now and I expect a few more to follow as other options become available.
Thanks to Hornby