I paid two deposits with D.J. for Kings.

Paying by credit card I had the deposits repaid in full. I know others were not so lucky in getting their money back, if they paid by a different way.

I think the most likely to release a King would be Farish.

Dapol have dropped their controversial cardan shaft. I imagine many will be keen to see/try their Mogul and Manor with the new mechanisms. (I wonder who was responsible for the cardan shaft at Dapol?) A Grange with their new mechanism could be next from them?

Sonic could surprise us with a King. I understand their owner once worked for Bachmann, and designed the latest incarnation of the Coronation/Duchess loco.

Any of them may/or may not be working on a King in the background.

Quote from: Bigmac on <strong>Today</strong> at 06:15:48 PMRe the C Class: Maybe there was a tie up between Bachman and the Bluebell, sponsorship perhaps, otherwise it was a strange choice for n gauge. Was it a good seller ?

The C Class was part of their OO range, I don't think one needs to look any further than that for the reason it then became part of the Farish range along with the SECR "Birdcage" coaches. The loco is exquisite and included features never seen in a British outline 0-6-0 tender loco up to that point such as Next 18 socket and speaker. The ones in the intricate SE&CR livery sold out pretty quickly and there is nothing to suggest the loco was in anything but a success, with the likes of me (with no interest in matters "Southern") buying one just because it is such a lovely model, mine now being fitted with a sound chip.

As @thebrighton rightly points out, the fact there has recently been a second run including a "Collectors club" special and this time including a sound fitted option points to the first batch being popular otherwise they wouldn't have done it.

Roy

Quote from: trkilliman on <strong>Today</strong> at 07:18:54 PMDapol have dropped their controversial cardan shaft. ... ... ... (I wonder who was responsible for the cardan shaft at Dapol?)

Quote from: trkilliman on <strong>Today</strong> at 07:18:54 PMI paid two deposits with D.J. for Kings.

The very same DJ was Product Designer at Dapol through most of that period...
It was amusing that as soon as he parted ways with dapol, some of his most vocal supporters slated the very designs he was responsible for!

Theres nothing inherently wrong with the principle of the motor in the tender with a cardan shaft driving the loco wheels - it's the flavoured layout for 2mm finescale locos; just that to make it so locos would go around train-set corners, Dapols design had to have sufficient 'slop' in it that with rough handling the shafts were liable to pop out of the sockets.