Flying Snail

Santa is going to be broke!

Hatton's have just announced details of the upcoming 141/181s now too .... due sometime between Nov and Feb apparently (and the pictures are from previous runs too )

Following hot on the heals of the Mk2D announcement, hattons have post up details of the upcoming 141/181 models: https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/article?id=1406

Welcome Stuart - love the weathering, especially on the U class!

I'm not aware of any decorated samples having been shown off to the public so I'd go with the livery descriptions for now. Those photos on Hattons are of previous runs (Yes the photos are supertrain livery)

I like this. Nice to see the mods you've made to this kit to enhance it! Also, they don't seem too difficult for anyone willing to roll their sleeves up, get the glue out and build a kit in the first place

The cream and green looks very well - a freshly painted station would have looked very smart indeed back in the day.

Yes, please do continue to share your sketches!!!

They're doing a rerun of the earlier batch ... and they've re-opened orders for the 'Z' boiler ones too

Great to see that they're happy with the level of interest they're getting in the J15 - they've done a few Irish locos to date and hopefully will do more in future. I've put an order in for 186

I agree .. would love to see more Irish narrow gauge in general too. Not sure that it currently makes business-sense for them (or will for a long time yet), but we can dream

Thats very reasonable - I know I'd probably get a couple of each at that money.

It's nice to see a positive report, but we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. This is a (still only a draft) 'strategic review' that makes recommendations, there's been no decision yet to implement any of it.

... and breathe! Phew, I was worried there for a little while. Good to see all's still on track

Thanks @BosKonay, email signed up and fingers crossed ... its a particularly attractive livery, I'd say they'll fly out the door!

Now that the Large Logo 37s have landed, any word on how long you think before you've completed sending out pre-orders and stock to shops? Hoping to pounce on one of these if there's surplus stock ...

Don't, we all been there - banging our head against a brick wall trying to solve something that's turned out to be relatively simple in the end. If it wasn't for your question, the rest of us wouldn't have gotten such a great list of things to check for when something like that inevitably happens to someone else in future

According to ESU's website 'LEDs mounted on the boogies facilitate realistic flicker during braking'. Apparently the smoke generator will generate different amounts of smoke depending on the load too. So definitely some interesting features, but still a lot of money Some more details here: https://www.esu.eu/en/products/former-locomotives/engineering-edition/class-77-in-h0/

Thats true, DJ its a well specced loco to be fair, but I still can't get away from the price ... €444 is a big step up in price from Accurascale's pricing. Even if I do get to send Mrs. Snail into a panic with thoughts that my models are going on fire and about to burn down the house, is it really money well spent? (actually, its a good job she can't see any of my wiring)

To be fair to Hattons, they're VAT registered for Ireland so purchasing from them is at lot more hassle-free than many other UK retailers. https://www.hattons.co.uk/list/eventdetails?eventid=113

My comparison only got as far as the price ... which to my eyes has Accurascale well out in front

Beautiful looking loco. As others have said, the lining looks especially good! Thanks for sharing the highs and lows of the build with us too!

hmmm ... not sure I agree that Kilkenny is a coastal county. Despite ships being able to sail up the Suir to Belview, I think the presence of Wexford and Waterford on either side of the mouth of the Barrow rules that out. Another fun fact on Laois: The Vikings sailed all the way up the Barrow to Vicarstown in Laois and built a longphort at Dunrally ... but that doesn't make Laois a coastal county either Edit: I'll concede Kilkenny has an estuarine or tidal coastline, but I still contend thats its not touching the sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_counties_by_coastline Anyhow, I think Ernie (and everyone else not from Laois) would probably rather we move on and let the thread get back on track

which is ironic as its the most land-locked county in Ireland because (fun fact) Laois is the only county that has two counties between it and the sea in every direction!

The plate starting with ZP is a Donegal one and the one starting with ID is a Cavan license plate