I just been n face book and there is a few pics and review of Dapols new liverys due out in. They will be reviewed in Model Rail in July, so if your N gauge it may be of interest.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Model-Rail-magazine/176420418206

Phill

Cheers for that Phill,
    I've got one of the OLD Farish Black Fives….not in the same league as that l'il beauty!!

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

I have just noticed that plans are afoot to produce a blue pullman, class 76, EM2 and now a class 28. I suppose if I wait long enough they might produce a class 83 electric ! :roll: 

who reckons they are building a Blue Pullman every couple of years somebody says they are thinking of making it but nobody ever seems to take the plunge.

Brian

The Class 28 is by Hattons, manufactured by Heljan.

The Blue Pullman, Class 76 (EM1) and Class 77 (EM2) are by Olivias Trains, manufactured by Heljan.

There is also another prototype diesel coming from Bachmann for a model shop which at the moment I cannot give details of as  it has not been announced (it is not us!).

I forsee problems here, as Heljan already have a very full plan with Class 23 Baby Deltics, AEC Railbuses, Lion and other O Gauge projects such as the Deltic, Class 33 etc.  The research needed for the Olivias Trains projects alone will be massive and I seriously doubt Heljan will be able to deliver it all in a reasonable timescale.

Olivias are also asking for a £50 deposit up front for the Class 76.  I am not sure how many people will commit to that without having seen the model, or even knowing when it will be produced.  It is clear it is their intention that the deposits will pay for their tooling up costs.  Problem with that is it may take them more than 12 months just to get enough orders to achieve this before they can even start any development.

The tooling for a Blue Pullman will cost around £0.5m.   I predict now that it will not happen!

The Class 28 is a much safer bet as Hattons are long established and have a very big bank balance.

All the projects are a little risky in that they are relying on Heljan to produce something proper.  Past experience suggests that even when they get the model the correct shape, their quality control is highly suspect and personally I would not risk the sort of investment that these projects need with them.

Chris

I think you are certainly right about the Blue Pullman i cant see any manufacturer taking the financial risk with it

Its one of those models that appears to have a lot of people who say they would love to have one but the trouble is would the masses buy it that is where the risk is

in the 60`s when the triang one was made it was the state of the art train in this country so every boy wanted one as part of his train set. Now of course its a vintage train so really only appeals to enthusiasts although it was the forerunner to todays HST`s and voyagers.

Olivias £50 deposit idea is similar to what the firm on the south coast tried to do with the bullied leader as far as i am aware that project has gone nowhere because people arent prepared to part with money on a idea of a model which may never appear.

As differant companys start to make or retailers commision to make these more less known models there will come a point where unfortunately somebody will get their fingers really burnt which when it occurs will suddenly stop a lot of models being commisioned in this way without a great deal of market research before they commit.

Also you mention the Heljan quality control yes you are right on a number of models over the last few years they have made a number of serious blunders which cost them and retailers money relplacing things plus the time wasted sorting the problems.

Brian

The same could be said about the APT Brian as when it was in production by hornby it was a state of the art train too. I would still like to see a newer version of it produced however with the intermedite coaches and a better power car. :thumbs