The Class 91 scores high!!

[JeremiahBunyan]

The British Rail Class 91 has scored really high in the annual wishlist polls. I know Hornby we're considering doing the Class 91 last year and then decided to do the Class 87 as it would obviously cost lesser.

 

This year the Class 91 got 338 votes. That comes from a very small population of people online. Bear in mind that RMweb doesn't account for even 50% of the people who "play trains". 338 votes is a huge thing and infact it has beaten a lot of steam locomotives too.

 

I hope Hornby seriously consider and re-visit the opportunity to re-tool and produce the Class 91 again. I'm absolutely positive it will sell well.

 

The Class 91 can be done to the same spec as the Class 87. The Mk.4 DVT can be produced to the same spec as the Mk.3 DVT and the coaches can have slightly lesser detail and done to the same species as the IEP or Pendolino coaches. The prototypical Mk.4s currently in use on the network today don't have as much external detail as say a Mk.1 or a Mk.2 or all of the steam era coaches. So doing it to the same spec as the IEP coaches and/or Pendolino coaches, one can keep costs down. Also unlike other locomotives the Class 91, Mk.4 DVT and Mk.4 coaches never had any major external changes and therefore tooling will be limited to one type per vehicle.

 

You'll have a lot of liveries to do the Class 91, Mk.4 DVT and Mk.4 coaches in. I suspect if you can keep the loco in the £160, DVT in the £50 and coaches in the £30 mark you should be able to sell quite a bit. Also releasing the Class 91 and Mk.4 DVT as a train pack followed by the coaches a few weeks later, costs can be spread out a bit.

 

Some of the liveries the Class 91 carried are:-

- InterCity
- GNER
- National Express (ex-GNER)
- National Express
- East Coast
- Virgin Trains East Coast
- LNER (ex-Virgin Trains East Coast)
- LNER (possible new livery)
- 91101 East Coast "Flying Scotsman"
- 91101 Virgin Trains East Coast "Flying Scotsman"
- 91107 East Coast "Skyfall" 007 special livery
- 91110 "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight"
- 91111 "For the Fallen"
- 91114 Virgin Trains East Coast "Durham Cathedral" 
- 91119 LNER InterCity livery
- 91125 "Sky 1 HD"
- 91128 Virgin Trains East Coast "Claus 91"