QUOTE (dwilson9 @ 30 Sep 2008, 10:10)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>.. Who will win the battle of the 4MTs? I'd be surprised if there's a huge demand, ..
A poor choice to go 'head to head' on: Hornby have so many popular 'possibles' among numerically large long lived classes already in their range in need of renewal to current standard; the class 47, 28XX, Fowler 4F all leap to mind. But instead they go for a small short lived BR class; if they wanted a pop at Bachmann's BR steam standards the BR5 would have been a much better choice, as this model has been the subject of criticism for slow running, and incorrect cab roof shape, and was a considerably more common and widespread loco. I also cannot help but notice that online the Bachmann BR4 has evinced relatively little interest in terms of volume of comment compared to other recent loco releases.
Will there be a sudden outbreak of common sense at Margate? Hornby mention in their current shareholders annual report that getting timely production capacity has been a challenge. When production capacity is tight, you have to look at what will yield maximum profit from the available capacity. That means concentrating on the fastest selling lines, and if the HST, T9 and Schools (none of which have any competition) go really well, the business decision would be fairly obvious...