Looks like rule one for me too, an NSE 50 pulling a green CEP, under the wires next to a scotrail 320, while a voyager gets dragged by an EWS 73, exciting time ahead

Not my era but an early one in plain blue will be running under "Rule" 1.

Oh and is it time to change the title of this thread??!!

Roy

I can see Sir Edward and a late-NSE 50 getting purchased for railtour duties...simply Glorious :-)

Well good news and it was heartening to hear the relief at the Dapol club today! The "shelved production" time has allowed some more back room work so it will be worth the wait and I can see quite a few on my layouts ! At least time to save up for a bit longer.

OT the collectors club meet at Dapol today was great fun - I used Poldeen to showcase easyshunts and several shunting games ensued, got  a futher batch of Cube wagons having built a large part of 5 of them today, under the glare of the membership. Then "mugged by Tim" again for 3 more chemical tanks!

Was there any other N Gauge news from the Club day? Might we hope for a revival of other stalled projects such as the WC?

Whatever shiny BR blue hoover they bring out will begrudgingly run on 'Reading General' one day, alongside the last days of grubby and worn Westerns on freight duty, circa 1976.

Great news that this is going ahead at last.

The only obvious reason to fit 18/21 pin sockets into existing models would be to allow sound installation, but surely that would require major redesign?

Quote from: msr on September 30, 2017, 05:33:58 PM
For those who cannot wait, CJM already produce the Class 50. Here are two green versions to entice you:
50007 'Sir Edward Elgar'

and D444 'Exeter'

Exeter looks fantastic. Yeah, CJM models ain't cheap, but what you pay for's what you gets, for sure.

Whole other thread there, but I think some of his models aren't worth the price tag. The 50 certainly isn't one of those though!

Quote from: njee20 on October 01, 2017, 09:24:53 AM
Whole other thread there, but I think some of his models aren't worth the price tag. The 50 certainly isn't one of those though!

Base model is £555 (£625 for NSE livery), plus £70 to detail each end, plus £30-70+ for weathering. That's a lot of money.

At some point, in the UK probably around the £300 mark for a loco, we're slipping into what I call 'chequebook modelling'. Less about having an authentic model and more about owning a status symbol. Good old fashioned envy? Perhaps, but hear me out...

As good as the Saturn chassis might be, at a mere £205, it's presumably not five times better than a standard issue Kato chassis in terms of performance and reliability, but that's the sort of price differential we're dealing with. It's also heartening that Dapol can, at times, produce almost bespoke quality weathering for literally a few quid over the price of the base model loco or wagon. There surely is the potential for Dapol to produce a lovely model of the 50, with a Kato-quality chassis (just for once!) and a decent paint job.

In the meantime, sure, there's the CJM version. Each to their own, of course. But personally I'm more impressed by someone who has tweaked a Farish Class 50 using their own modelling skills than by someone showing me a handmade model someone else built for them for the best part of £600.

After all, at the end of the day it's still just a toy train buzzing around a train set, but if I can tell someone "I made that" then at least there's some point to what we do.

Cheers, NeMo

Quote from: NeMo on October 01, 2017, 11:25:16 AM

After all, at the end of the day it's still just a toy train buzzing around a train set, but if I can tell someone "I made that" then at least there's some point to what we do.

Cheers, NeMo

There's a whole other thread there, as well! 'The point' for some people is just to have as accurate a representation as possible, and they will pay someone else to do it.

I'm not a modeller, I just want to play trains. I'm not going to start hacking about an expensive loco with little prospect of ending up with what I want. But I might pay someone else to do it.

It takes all sorts.

Quote from: Yet_Another on October 01, 2017, 11:53:05 AM
I'm not a modeller, I just want to play trains. I'm not going to start hacking about an expensive loco with little prospect of ending up with what I want. But I might pay someone else to do it.

Fair point!

Quote from: Yet_Another on October 01, 2017, 11:53:05 AM
It takes all sorts.

Indeed. I guess the recent release from LEGO of a 'Millennium Falcon' for £650, while people around here are relying on food banks just to have a decent meal, has made me feel a bit more reflective about how I spend my money on my hobby.

Cheers, NeMo

Yep, I don't like pulling locos apart or fiddling with them, cos I worry I won't get them back together again.

To some, however, that's a major part of the hobby!

However, I'd love a CJM loco.

I haven't got one, and although I could probably afford one, I tend to spend my money on trips to Wigan and Blackpool to stir up certain forum members 

Quote from: longbow on October 01, 2017, 08:57:39 AM
The only obvious reason to fit 18/21 pin sockets into existing models would be to allow sound installation, but surely that would require major redesign?

Doesn't it allow better control of lighting, etc, because it has more available functions?