Tim Allen

I’ve created this thread from the Class 50 one as the idea of new coaches and liveries seemed quite popular. In order to simplify things I’m sticking with the Mk1 coaches and the liveries will be for Era 4 & 5 and 7 & 8 only. This is because as much as we all want every coach in every livery I’m thinking sticking to simple batches will more likely get noticed and taken on by Hornby. Era 4 – BR Carmine and Cream (Blood & Custard) Era 5 – BR Maroon Era 7 – BR Blue and Grey Era 8 – BR Executive / Swallow / Grey Mk1 & Mk2 coaches were mixed together in rakes and from what I’ve seen on various pages had the same top speed of 100mph. As we currently have Mk2f due any day with First / Standard open in era 7 & 8 and Mk2e next year, I’ve left FO / SO era 7 & 8 off for now as not to have a too long a list. The poll will close on 9th June.

What are they? lol sorry I'm not too familiar with the abbreviations. Edit: found a guide on wikipedia so SK - Second Corridor, SO - Second Open, Restaurant / Buffet. Would like to see First Class and Sleeper coaches (Mk1 and Mk2) too.

The era is just the livery they wear when it comes to coaches. The era 7's are generally blue and grey of the 70's & early 80's with era 8 the swallow / executive livery of the mid-late 80s. There were multiple versions of the Mk2 coaches, for TT the Mk2f are being released first for reasons unknown. I don't know why the website shows mk2e as era 8 because the blue grey should be era 7. A similar era livery exists for the Mk1 coaches with era 4 being blood and custard and era 5 the red version. Hornby could produce Mk1 era 7 if they wanted as it would be the same coach as the era 4 & 5 but in the blue & grey.

Thanks, I think George Lucas once said movies are never finished you just abandon them. I suppose same goes with model railway layouts. I’ve now added some buildings and rolling stock so we’re now sometime in the late 80s.

lol same here! I have them grouped by expected dates. I’ve got the era 8 mk2f’s for the class 50.

Just like network rail I decided to wait to the bank holiday weekend to do track maintenance (actually fastening it down) on my 6’ x 4’ (1.83m x 1.22m) layout. Finally painted the plywood board, bit darker than I wanted but I can work with that. It’s also way over budget just like HS2 (just ment to be a starter set and a bit of extra track on a small board) and more complicated than I originally planned. it’s my first attempt so I’m sticking with plain flat at the moment with a view to changing this later. It’s a DC layout as my experience with DCC was not a good one. This may change in the future also. The three loops are R4, 3 & 2 and I’ve isolated the fish plates on the points that lead from one circuit to the other to help prevent shorts. The outer large loops are for large rake express trains and the inner small is for short local passenger and slow freight. I know it’s not much compared to some of the amazing layouts I’ve seen on here but this is just the start and hopefully it will evolve along the way.

What size background scene do you use? I’ve seen gaugemaster have N and OO. They say N and smaller or OO and O gauge.

I should be ok, My main loops are R3 &4 for fast express trains and the slow goods loop is R2 (it's May the 4th R2-D2!). I can see a Princess Coronation pulling a goods rake, well not on my layout anyway!🤣 I do have a small R1 curve to access sidings but this should be ok for smaller shunter locos. I need to get the layout finished in time for the releases.

Not sure, the stock level is -64 which generally would be pre-orders. I wouldn't say that it's sold out unless 3rd party sellers have got a ridiculous amount on pre-order. Incidentally the TT6015 21T Mineral Wagon had -245. Either it's a website fault and we should be able to order it or for some reason they have stopped accepting pre-orders. Strange that the other wagon is still accepting pre-orders, wonder if it's down to a licence issue with Shell / BP. EDIT - I've emailed customer service asking them if it actually is unavailable or a website fault. The reply was the item has sold out of pre-orders.

I think there are a few editorial issues with the mag. It lists the era 8 HSTs as being available in DCC but it is not, the dates for the LMS locos did move back to mid and late June but have since moved forward again to end of may and mid June for DC & DCC versions. With the 57' coaches it seems strange they have 3rd in the mag but 30th on the website, they also fail to mention the era 5 versions in the list. It could be someone has mis-read 30 as 3 (easily done) and gone ahead writing about the incorrect date. We'll see tomorrow if they are released, be good if they are.

I think that's a typo personally, they have 30th on the web site

A Princess Coronation would do 😀

The latest from the website for the LMS locos and coaches: 29th May - Era 3 LMS Princess Coronation (Atholl) DC 30th May - Era 3 LMS 57' Coaches, Era 4 BR 57' & Era 5 BR 57' coaches. The DCC version is in June along with era 4 & 5 locos. A few weeks away but closer than this time last month.

Just checked the website and the current release date (subject to change) is the 17th May. This includes: Era 7 BR Blue Class 50 (DC & DCC) Era 8 BR Green Class 50 (DC & DCC) Era 7 BR Mk2f Coaches Era 8 BR Mk2f Coaches The HAA Hopper wagons are now June.

They did say during an interview (think it was peachy) they are looking at chipsets that can do both but with the chip supplier they are not as high value customer as say phone manufacturers.

We need a R8696 Police Box in TT scale 🤣

Initially it applied but at the payment screen it wouldn't give any payment options. I tried again a little later and all went through ok.

I do like the era 8 BR livery, I got the BR blue HST as it was the one I always wanted as a kid.

Looks good.

When I saw it I thought it was the TT version and not the OO as it was on top of the TT display case.

Any dates for 2025 are just place holder dates, they can and do more back & forth as stuff alters. You could make your goods yard depot DC for shunting purposes and once the 08 is locked away on a siding use DCC by opening the points up to allow current through.

I've seen comments about folk only wanting to model in certain eras etc so I wondered what rules you have for your railway and do you stick to them? My Rules : Era 3 LMS only No Modern Day Liveries Only 1 of Each Class (have Blink Bonny & Flying Scotsman, HST in era 7 & 8, Both Class 50's on order) Only Classes that have either been used in the local area or are currently used in the local area. No More than 2 of Each Class. Only LMS & LNER for steam loco's, no BR era 4 or 5. Only modern passenger liveries that stop at the local station or freight that can be seen passing through.

After seeing both last week I've added the Sir Edward Elgar to the Leviathan order. Both are in DC, I've decided that the green will be passenger only with 4 x Mk2f in era 8 livery and the other will be more for freight. I know they can do both but in my mind that's how I justify having both and not just one.

I might be tempted to buy say the Class 170 DMU, 222 or 810 in EMR livery just because that's the local train company (at the moment) and they are the classes they use. In all fairness I've noticed they don't do that many different modern liveries in OO.

They weren't on the floor plan that I could see, I think Andy from Modeloco said something about it too.