New releases by Hornby are as follows:

R3021A Stanier 2-6-4T BRc weathered lined black as 42614

R3016A Standard 4-6-0 4MT BRb as 75071

R3050A Class 56 BRe blue as 56083

R4493A Hawksworth 1st Class BR carmine & cream as W8063W

R4467A Maunsell 'Van C' BR blue as S753

R4463A Mk2 Open Standard BR Intercity (swallow) as 5633

R4462A Mk2D 1st Class Intercity (swallow) as 3192

This issue of the magazine has a Scottish flavour, partly in celebration of the Association of Model Rail Societies in Scotland's plans to expand the Glasgow exhibition this year. This will be held 24th-26th February.

The magazine launches the Model Rail Model of the Year Poll, which we have already referred to in MREmag and hopefully our readers have already been online and voted for the best models produced during 2011. If not, go to www.rmweb.co.uk and cast your votes. The poll is run by Model Rail jointly with MREmag and RMweb and should not be confused with the MREmag & RMweb Wishlist Poll 2012 which will ‘go live’ on Monday 19 March and will run until Sunday 15 April. The latter is the poll held each year in which you vote for the new subjects you would most like manufacturers to produce models of - more of this later.

Back to March issue of Model Rail.

The magazine also contains the results of the RMweb/Model Rail 2011 Diorama Challenge.

Model reviews include the Hornby revised LMS Class 2P, their Scottish B1 (61243), the Gresley buffet car in blue and grey, the Network Rail measurement train, Gresley non-gangwayed coaches, weathered 8F and weathered sound fitted 'Black 5', the Bachmann upgraded A4 and Bachmann/Modelzone EPB 2-car EMU. There is also the first review of the Graham Farish/NGS Southern 'Queen Mary' brake vans. The supertest this month is 'rocks'.

Continuing the Scottish theme, layouts visited include David Harrison's highly scenic N gauge 'Loch Oran', Kev Pearson's 00 'Loch Dour' and 'New Mills' takes on a scene from the 1960s, The masterplan this month is 'Ardlui' which is West Highland inspired.

A 'reality' article looks at the borders Waverley Route and another looks at the operation of the Class A4 during the final days of steam in Scotland..

Simply Southern is a new company set up to supply unique specially commissioned wagons, primarily for the South East Area.

Ash Hammond (no relation) is a Southern modeller and is comparatively happy with the range of locomotives and coaches available in Southern outline. However, he feels that wagons for the local South East area are comparatively limited. Rodney Hammond, his father, had taken early retirement and, after research, Simply Southern was born, supplying unusual wagons. Some are rigidly authentic, but others are fictitious, but possible local companies. For example, they are planning molasses tankers from Polegate Treacle Mines, a well-known Sussex enterprise.

At present, they have a range consisting of 1 milk tanker, 3 box vans and 1 quarry truck, but this is being increased at the end of February with a further 3 milk tankers. Two of these will have extra running numbers for their very popular 'Kent and Sussex Dairy' milk tanker series and the third is a new design authorised by the CWS, running from their London depot. All models are available either weathered or pristine.

(Continued from Wednesday)

The following details are taken directly from the appropriate Yeadon's Register of LNER Locomotives, and demonstrate that NER J27 0-6-0 locomotives were based in sheds outside of NER territory, for considerable periods of operations:

J27 (Vol 47B):

No 917 (65788): Peterborough East (GER): Dec 1926 - Jul 1928.

No 1052 (65793): Peterborough East (GER) & New England (GNR): Dec 1926 - Dec 1928.

No 2341 (65863): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England (GNR): Aug 1926 - Apr 1940.

No 2350 (65872): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England & Ardsley (GNR): Dec 1926 - Apr 1942.

No 2354 (65876): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England (GNR), Ardsley (GNR), Retford (GCR) & Grantham (GNR): Dec 1926 - May 1940.

No 2357 (65879): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England (GNR), Ardsley (GNR) & Cambridge (GER): Aug 1926 - Mar 1940.

No 2358 (65880): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England (GNR), Ardsley (GNR) & Cambridge (GER): Dec 1926 - Mar 1940.

No 2359 (65881): March (GER), Peterborough East (GER), New England (GNR), Ardsley (GNR), Langwith Junction (GCR) & Grantham (GNR): Dec 1926 - Apr 1940.

No 2360 (65882): March (GER), Langwith Junction (GCR) & Grantham (GNR): Nov 1926 - Jun 1940, with nine years based at March Shed (1926-1935).

Mike Leonard

(To be continued on Monday)

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Have we fallen out with MROL regarding Wish Poll, or is this a new Poll or a different Poll, communication from MROL by e-mail, seems to indicate something, but what? is the question.

Maybe Brian can clear the confusion.

Regards to all for 2012

Alan Tewson

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You may remember with the last wish list, I asked about privacy and my personal details being kept secure. I was worried that my email address may be used by others. It is a concern for me that I received 2 emails today from a Graham Plowman notifying me of a new 2012 poll that MREmag was not included in.

Some of the content may also be thought to be slightly provocative regarding the blue/grey era.

Anyway I look forward to MREmag's own poll

Graham Higgins

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I received an Email today with the Wish List.

There's just too much there. Over the past few years we have been served fantastically by the manufacturers. If they take 3 years to produce a model as Mr Kohler says then this year's models are based on (partly) the wish list of 2009 which was very simple and obviously worked.

John Brien

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Last Friday Brian Macdermott indicated that this year's Wish list will go live on March 19th for one month. Today I received an e-mail from Graham Plowman indicating that a wish list goes live today for the month of February. He indicates that his wish
list is independent of MREmag for the first time. Has there been a parting of the waves, so that there are two separate wish lists for this year? This would seem to be a retrograde step. On the plus side, I guess I get two votes for an Adams Radial tank (as promised by Wren all those years ago).

David Temple

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An excellent poll as usual but I have one small gripe! As there are so many options to review before selecting a prototype to vote for, it takes a long time to do it justice. A save button would be useful for two reasons. My server crashed so I had to start again and as there are so many items to chose from it would be nice to take a break and return later. So next year please consider a save button.

The poll needed to be simplified. New knowledge and skills were required to produce clearer results and make it more user friendly and quicker to complete. I was therefore delighted when the group of MREmag readers who had been conducting a locomotive and rolling stock study, on behalf of MREmag, agreed to take it on. They kept Graham briefed on progress with the project but at some stage he decided he didn't agree with the improvements and wanted to run his own poll, independent of our set-up here. We therefore had to find someone else to handle the voting and Andy York of RMweb stepped into the breach.

The official MREmag poll, which I started nine years ago, is now much improved, simpler to use and in good hands. This year's round will be held as usual in March, after Bachmann and Dapol have announced their plans for the next 18 months. For the first time the official poll is backed by all the leading British model railway and relevant train collector magazines and they will be publishing the results. It is called the MREmag & RMweb Wishlist Poll 2012 and will open for voting on Monday 19 March.

New this year will be the inclusion of model railway clubs throughout the United Kingdom as well as retailers in promoting the poll. The idea is to involving modellers and collectors throughout the country, as well as abroad, with the biggest vote ever. There will be no restriction on the number of votes - you will be asked to tick all the items you would buy if they were made. There will also be a guide you can consult if you want further information about any of the items listed.

In reply to Ivan Forsdick, I can advise that my replacement bodies for the BR blue 2-EPB arrived last week. I asked Bachmann what to do (by email) when I saw that shops were selling them with the numbers corrected and was advised to email them with a scan (I sent a PDF file) of my itemised retailers receipt, which I did. I also understand from a web forum that someone else, who had a receipt but which was not itemised, was asked for additional proof of purchase in the form of a photograph.

Incidentally, I was also told by Bachmann that the correctly numbered units in the shops do not have new bodies but that the original ones have been corrected. Having seen one, I have to say you can't tell that the numbers have been changed.

So well done Bachmann - after all, this must be costing them quite a bit when you include postage.

Andrew Crawford

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Bachmann are now replacing the blue bodied 416 EPB which have the incorrect running numbers, but require a receipt dated before November 2011 and a short covering note with details of delivery address

John Bardsley

For as long as there has been a retail model rail industry, the modeller who cares about such things has had to buy stock with cartoonish detail predicated on the ability of the tool and die makers to reproduce it and the costs of doing better. Now, not before time, that segment of the modelling community is being well-served and complaints come thick and fast from the "good enough" modellers that they are breaking their new purchases.

I for one would rather take extraordinary measure to cope with my own lack of deftness than have to deal with it when I’m forced to file off surface cast detail and retro fit delicate, hard-to-find after-market parts. It is easier to figure out a safe way to get a model out of its box (most likely by modifying the box with a modelling knife) than to shave off grab-irons and pipework more at home on a toy than a scale model.

And yes, I’ve damaged an expensive model when removing it from the box but that was down to my own lack of acumen and dexterity, not an inherent evil in properly-proportioned N scale safety chains.

Steve Mann. NYC

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In response to today’s (Wednesday) posting I write in with the opposite view that detail does matter. If detail did not matter Hornby, Bachmann et al would struggle for a reasonable level of sales. The reason that there are models available of a great number of locomotive classes, including variants, coaching stock and wagons, a fact when considered 15 years ago would have been dismissed as fantasy, is proof of the demand from modellers for this high standard. With regard to sprung buffers they are essential for the many modellers who, for example, double head locos or close couple coach rakes and can still run them round fairly tight/average radius curves without fear of derailments due to buffer lock.

The handling and storage of the current high detail models is more in keeping with kit built stock and therefore has to be different from that of the more basic models of decades ago. However that should not be a reason for not producing them. Should Hornby and Bachmann start producing Super Detail/Blue Riband models with inferior detail, they would soon see sales fall as a decline in standards would not be acceptable. Hornby already have the Railroad range to cater for the lesser detail market.

Hornby and Bachmann are on the right track with their high standards in their top of the range models and provided they continue in such vein sales will provide commercial returns.

Eric Kidd