Some really nice purchases there. I was hoping they would do a DRS DBSO while they were at it, although I'm not sure that NR one looks quite right at the front end, could just be me though. Love the HST powercars.
You're not the only person to mention the shape of the front end, personally it looks absolutely fine from where I'm looking, certainly beats those kitbashed ones which used the old Lima tooling.
Those DBSOs are damn expensive, more than many locos!
The 68 is an outstanding loco, can haul serious loads
I have 2 HSTs, I find them a tad mediocre!
What's the APT like?
Yeah I will agree it is definitely expensive, but you musn't forget that this has DCC onboard, so essentially the price covers for the decoder inside of which (which I have no clue what it is) Personally I've been waiting for an RTR DBSO model for years now, the kit versions are just too much of a task for me as it's not my thing
The 68 is probably one of the best Dapol models I currently have, weighs an incredible amount and I'm in love with the sheer amount of detail on it too.
That Network Rail HST did not get off to a promising start, paid quite a sum of money for it and the lights in the powered unit were dead, upon opening the body one of the wires that goes into this harness or whatever was snapped which meant I had to very carefully solder it back on. The quality control on it was pretty poor and I was quite disappointed, has been fitted with TTS in both ends though.
As for the APT, it's just absolutely gorgeous, Rapido have done wonders with it and I just love the attention to detail and the fact it just looks like a spaceship from the 70s! (is also factory sound fitted too) it's probably my second most expensive model in my collection next to my Azuma 800, but I can definitely say it's definitely better value for money
My only big gripe with this is that coupling up is like trying to do surgery, it's an incredibly fiddly and delicate job, taking them apart is no easy task either (although the booklet does express that you really shouldn't couple and uncouple it up frequently) I did actually break one of the tension springs whilst trying to uncouple one of the Power Cars, thankfully Rapido have clearly thought of that and provided spares!
Thanks Gents, more pre-order excitement today as the final piece in the Caledonian Sleeper jigsaw arrived from Hornby. I've also ordered a Scotrail Mk2 rake. I would have preferred a DMU, but it was substantially cheaper to just order 3 Mk2's to run with a 67 as per the Fife Circle instead and I can just invoke Rule 1.
I can see that the new Cally Sleeper Liveried MK2E BUOs are out, it's on my wishlist atm, gotta be honest and say from the pics I've seen of it the green still is not dark enough but it's nowhere near as bad as an attempt on their 92s where the blue was completely incorrect shade.