Class 50 era 7 Digital Discontinued

[PeterM67]

Limited production runs is the way it works with an element of "you snooze you loose" thrown in for good measure. It's always best to keep an eye on stock levels if deferring a purchase because if you delay too long there is the risk of missing out. I think there is also an element of Hornby is learning as they go along. They clearly mis understood the demand for the TTA tankers and should have ordered a much bigger production run - may next time they will correct this, obviously with different numbering and hopefully new liveries.

I do get the impression that the DCC variants of the locomotives sell out a lot faster than the standard DC versions. I don't know if this is down to popularity or batch size but regardless if the DCC version is gone then best going for a DC version and fitting the decoder yourself as I would doubt the DCC version would get restocked. This I suspect even applies to the more "permanent" members of the line up - Mallard and Flying Scotsman. When the current variations sell out they can re-release in different liveries to represent these locomotives at a different stage of their life and possibly get a few repeat sales at the same time!

[Craig-803583]

15 hours ago, 47606 Odin said:

Remember, when Hornby continued to make the Jinty, and other locos of that era, they had their own factory, so if they wanted to top up supply in the field they would just do another run when it suited. However, it’s not so easy nowadays to continuously turn out models even with different numbers. Now you have to book a limited run slot in a factory queue, which could be a long wait for a rerun. We had a single run of TTA’s and then nothing. No idea if or when a rerun of a very popular wagon will be seen

My feeling is that they probably book the factory time well in advance then decide what they do with it a bit later on, though this is probably still a year in advance.

I'd imagine that this is why the Queen Adelaide coach was dropped, Era 1 lion and tiger sets have saturated the market and dropping the coach probably allows them to use the time for something more profitable / urgent.