April
2020
COVID-19
and Model Train Production
|
As
the effects of this virus were taking hold in China, and at
about the same time as their New Years celebrations were
commencing, many workers were displaced. Bans on travel made it
impossible for the annual New Years' migration, back to their family homes, for the impending
celebrations. Many workers left stranded in February 2020 have
now taken time to travel home, many have not yet returned to the
Dongguan area.
Of
the four companies we presently do business with, all are saying
that they are open and ready for business. However they are all
affected by staff shortages and this will impact delivery times
for some while.
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SDS
NR Class
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DCC
Motherboards are due to arrive later this month and reassembly
will commence thereafter, delivery will be Qtr 3 2020. The
Great Southern and Real Trains Not Road Trains models are in the
paint and decorating phase but delivery has been pushed back.
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81
Class
Locomotive
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All
the plastic parts were moulded late last year and they have
commenced painting the Series 1 and 2 bodies. We are waiting on
tampo printing and the supply of metal parts from
sub-contractors. Hopefully we'll have fully decorated running
samples shortly and we can proceed to production soon.
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South
Australian Railways
800 Class
Locomotive
|
The
DC versions of these SAR locomotives are due to ship from Hong
Kong in early June 2020. The DCC sounds are in development and
will be available soon, we need to thank the NRM at Port Dock
for allowing us to record their locomotive earlier this year.
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Victorian
Railways PL
Series Passenger Carriages
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These
will
be shipped from Hong Kong in early June and available around the
first week of July. Last week we were fortunate to be able to
buy Kadee couplers again, as they had been closed since late
March.
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PL Smooth Sided Swing Door Cars and Improved LHG Brakevans
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The
newly tooled and retooled engineering samples of these are due
mid June with production TBA.
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Victorian
Railways
T Class Locomotive
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We
expect some painted and running samples shortly, delivery is
still slated for late 2020.
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Victorian
Railways
Y Class Locomotive
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Tooling
modifications to a small number of body and chassis parts to
accommodate DCC/Sound and LED lighting is underway and we'll
also produce a spoked driving wheel for 'as delivered' models.
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Victorian
Railways D3
Class Locomotive
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Development
of the model is complete and we expect painted production
samples to leave China later next week. We have a production
slot booked for June/July/August and should receive stock in Qtr4 2020.
Steamrail Victoria had set aside time for us to record the
necessary sounds we required back in April but due to
restrictions this didn't occur. Hopefully in the not to distant
future we can take up the opportunity to complete the sound
recordings and develop our own authentic sounds.
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Victorian
Railways K
Class Locomotive
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Producing
some running samples has been affected by reduced staffing
levels, however once the D3 samples are shipped they'll
concentrate on the K class.
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NSWR
End Platform cars
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To
assist one of our vendors in some reasonably simple production
we have commissioned some very limited quantities of models for
later this year. The proposed new cars to form the sets: VUB 75,
DUB 63 and the RG (greyhound car), have been pushed back until
2021.
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Older
News
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