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I know the great Brummagen bunfight hasn't even started yet, but there are two already in OO.

Accurascale, class 50

Heljan, Newton Chambers car transporters.

And Hornby have announced an announcement. Possibly an open day at Margate for offended retailers to make their views known?

 

[34C]

Rapido to make the NER's H 0-4-0T, LNER and BR Y7.

https://rapidotrains.co.uk/lner-y7-ner-h/

And just how small is this? LNER Encyclopedia: The T.W. Worsdell Y7 (NER Class H) 0-4-0 Shunters

 

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...Seems a bit of a change of direction where they have gone for one offs (or near one offs) previously.

And also for subjects with no existing competition in RTR, unless I have missed something?

(Bachmann's v1 EE type 4 is good enough for me; even with the side detail slipped 2mm downwards, it still has all the appearance of EE's lumbering lump. And Bachmann have since corrected this defect with their v2 - and I think its now getting lights? Drive is 'the usual' from centre motor mechanisms, smooth and quiet throughout the speed range, and will make scale for maximum rated speed with more than double a prototype load behind.

Wait and see if the expressions of interest = viable... My money's on 'Nul points'.

Hornby's 'announcement'...Can't say I'll be falling over exclusive club people for that one personally....

Fixed that for you.

 

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Also from Rapido;
... B-Set: https://rapidotrains.co.uk/gwr-b-set-coaches/
Even if the B-sets are to the same high standard as the LNER dynamometer (minus the electrical issues!), £170/pair (£85/each) is veeeery steep....

How do feel about the LMS' first design of general merchandise open wagon, estimated price £33...

https://rapidotrains.co.uk/lms-d1666-open/

This extremely numerous wagon design (and its successors) went 'everywhere' on the steam operated network (Thurso, Dover, Penzance, Mallaig: look at photos and find them!) but has never had a RTR model. (For some weird reason the nearly as numerous LNER wood and LNER/BR steel equivalent 'general merchandise wagon' designs have had all the RTR attention, Oxford's 6 plank, Bachmann's hi-steel.)

 

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...My response is that it isn't an accident that nearly all of my stock is kit-built... That said, I realise that kit-building isn't for everyone, but £30 for a fairly plain open...

Happily there were very good kit options in the past for this essential vehicle, from ABS and 3H.

When the 3H kit was released (1976ish) it was rather expensive, possibly 95p, compared to the more usual 60-70p for injection moulded wagons, but then it did have high grade pinpoint axle MGW wheelsets with steel tyres and brass bearing inserts. I stashed these for the future, as railway modelling was being displaced by career etc..

All assembled now of course, and a particularly welcome feature of the 3H models is that the side sheeting was deliberately made somewhat rough, for a representation of a wagon that had been in traffic a decade or more. Useful for someone modelling toward the end of steam, when they were decidedly rough and the big white X or 'Cond' was about to appear on the sides.

 

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Price is good, so presumably it’s ('Coronation') a Railroad model?

It's not 'Railroad', it's a 'Club Exclusive' model. What that actually means in terms of content, only the exclusive club members that buy one find out.

In the same vein, the metal bodied pacifics in 'nostalgia market' replica H-D packaging. Only those that buy get to assess the product*.

Two distinct product lines that are sold directly by Hornby in a quantity to fulfill the orders taken, are largely insulated from the baying critics online; and as the owners never take them out of the box, there's no returns for defects.

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they extend the idea to an Italian nostalgiafest for the Limatics...

*If the 'H-D' A4 is offered in Kylchap exhaust form and BR late crest, I am 'in': and it won't stay in the box - I'll sell that - but will go into regular service on the layout and I will report. (All the recent metal bodied locos I have had from Hornby (B12/3, D16/3, J15, J36) are very good: and given the choice I would have nothing but metal bodied steam models for the weight this provides, because the brands various are inconsistent in provision of sufficient weight in steam models.)

 

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Is it (Y7 0-4-0T) any different to the Industrials that the manufacturers have realised their is market for. At least a couple of Y7s still exist and the loco is apt for a colliery scene using the Accurscale chaldron wagons...

It's all about small, is the bottom line. Plenty of UK OO layouts now awash with RTR models, but something small might just be fitted in. And not only are there a couple of Y7's, they are operated too, which gives them extra exposure.

I haven't been following closely just how many 0-4-0T have been produced or announced since the MR Sentinel or Hornby Peckett started the current run of good quality 0-4-0T's, Hattons Barclay, Dapol B4 and Hawthorn-Leslie announced, so this Rapido announcement makes it six? I am a little surprised that Hornby haven't yet renewed their Neilson 'Smokey Joe', as this was used by both the CR and NBR in some numbers, and modern tooling practise could effectively cover the necessary variations.

Noticeably absent from among the usual suspects, Bachmann have 'done different' in small OO steam, and gone for OO9 instead.

... A missing loco that no one to date has announced is the K4 2-6-0 with the preserved The Great Marquess enhancing the scope for sales...

It's an attractive subject for sure, but has limited application, and although the K1 supplies the basis of a good mechanism for Hornby, that's all. Everything else is different where the main cost in current practise in model production is concerned, which is the research, design, tooling and build of the visible exterior parts. An all new tender is required, and the devil is in the detail on the loco: similar overall outline for sure, but almost everything subtly different, apart from the Ross pop safety and superheater anti vacuum valves ...

Now, if Hornby did have a proper go at broadening the choice in Scottish models, then from those built by the LNER there is a spread the cost opportunity, if they are prepared to 'steal' from Bachmann and offer the J39 alongside the closely related J38 which spent its working life in the Fife coalfield. The LNER 3,500 gallon tender required for the K4 has parts in common with the earlier LNER 3,500 gallon tender - never previously available in RTR OO - required for the J38 and some J39s. And the J39 is another missing loco, now that Bachmann have decided not to renew it, and there must be a lot of folk whose old split chassis J39 is wearing or worn out, and could use a new all singing and dancing 0-6-0 in the style which Hornby have recently demonstrated to good effect.

 

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...Should a manufacturer take a gamble on my say so? Definitely. Would they be profitable choices? Pass me the crystal ball ...

That genuinely wrung a laugh out of this old cynic.

Put your orders in says I. The pretty little GER designs should do OK. I'd favour the J17 or J67/69 group, but you are probably right in leading with the E4 as likely to succeed.

OO Wishlist poll returns for 2022

Just seen this on the LNER forum: https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14497 Welcome return after an absence of a few years. J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6, J6.

www.modelrailforum.com

 

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From 'next door' the gaping hole is a small long lived GN design tender loco; the Doncaster big engine array seems to drive all thoughts of something much smaller out of RTR brand managers thoughts: my prime choice would be a Gresley J6. I can knock one together from body parts, a spare whitemetal GN tender and a RTR mechanism if nothing shows up, but am much spoiled by the present RTR bounty, which has supplied so much in the way of relevant pre-group origin designs which ran pretty much until steam departed the KX area: (B12/3, D16/3, J11, J15, J50, K3, N2, N7, O2, O4, and next to arrive an A5) come on one of you brand managers, pull your finger out.

Equally welcome, any further GER design 0-6-0, (J17 my preference) and the J67/J69 as they were numerous and regularly seen in the KX area; some J69 did go to Scotland, and one at least got a tender to reduce axleload by leaving the loco tanks empty. One of the NER design B16 would also be an instant purchase as they were regular visitors to the KX area, also a GCR N5, one of which spent 2 months at Hatfield shed (BR 34C).

...mistakes are still made as in the case of the front cab windows of the Oxford N7 round top boiler version which were not altered from the Belpaire boiler version. This may have been a cost saving exercise...

I have looked at this and decided it doesn't offend me, and the RTR model is overall vastly superior to my old Wills kitbuilds. Though the fix should be relatively simple, because the Oxford N7 cab is a clip in plastic moulding. I would suggest cost saving wasn't the cause, the round boiler cab must be a different moulding from the Belpaire cab, as it has a working cab roof vent, absent from the cab roof of the Belpaire boiler versions.

(Of course the Oxford N7 does make the old Airfix GMR origin N2 moulding look soft and lacking in detail, but that helps achieve the 'worst for wear' appearance by the second half of the 1950s. And if you want a real laugh, the N2 cab roof is also a clip in, and thus a more thoroughly 'Doncasterised' round top boiler N7 can be easily mocked up.)

 

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I also run some MR locos and a couple of stray SR and WR types sometimes seen in the area I model. And yes there are also some diseasels!!

Likewise for my KX inner suburban area interest. I cycle through time from all steam to the appearance of the first Brush type 4 at KX in 1962, and then reset back to 1956ish. The variety of regularly seen traction and stock, with the slowly shifting mixture as older items are withdrawn and substitutes various appear is very entertaining.

My original intention had been to stop with the Deltic demonstrator 'appearing' to replace the W1 in 1959; and not to go as far forward as 1962, but then the brands between them hit me with every one of the problematic diesel classes that plagued KX suburban services, models which work far better than their protoypes.Who could resist an eight car formation of Cravens DMU's, or the crazy wail of the Baby Deltic? This is a sustained attack, now with Heljan waving the Newton chambers car carriers, Accurascale threatening Brush type 2 and mk1 non gangwayed, and Hornby with Coronation articulated sets...

I should very much like an excuse to get a Southern S15 to visit my Ferme Park, but the best I can do is Bulleid's Q1, which definitely visited once. The definitive peak accomplishment* of GW design in the form of a 57xx trots in, (*it must be, they built so many of them), and naturally multiple LMR types. A small sampling of BR standards beside the large scale allocation of BR1F equipped 9F's completes the traction charivari. Incredible to think that alongside each other designs from the 1880s were to be seen with designs still operating today: there was an EE type 3 in WGC yard this afternoon...We'll never see the like again.

 

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... also have a few LTS section locos that stray my way, especially 2-6-4 tanks of Fowler, Stanier and Riddles design.
I love variety!!!

Don't miss out on the Fairburn! The Bachmann model is very good, just lacks a few vulnerable details such as steps that would restrict small radius curve negotiation. The construction and mechanism access is simple and straightforward, unlike on their BR Riddles 2-6-4T which notably wasn't.