'Natural Born Bugie'! - a song by 'Humble Pie' - I think I better eat some of the pie!
I think I've always been a bit of a sceptic about 'Accurascale'!
Nearly four years for folks to anticipate the class 92 (Mind - how long did I wait for an Ivatt 2-6-2T or how many years am I still waiting for a new class 25!) Then there was talk about ''bits' in the bottom of the boxes containing 'Deltic' models and more than 200 pages of 'hype' on the brilliant 'RMweb' forum about the Class 37 model!
I should probably explain that I am not and never will be a 'railway modeller', but I have spent a lot of time and money over the last 30+ years thinking about and buying model trains! A lot of that has been spent on Class 37 diesels, fortunately I never bought a Hornby one fitted with class 47 bogies - although it was a close run thing! A good friend fitted a lot of etched cab front windows and flush glazing to my Lima models as well as repainting many of them too! I joined a collectors club to obtain what was supposed to be the 'state of the art' model in green livery and even I could immediately see it was the wrong shape!
I've read every review published and over the years I have finally obtained a nice set of models depicted my favourite prototypes of the class, almost exclusively 'Celtic Fours'. Up until now I'd steered clear of 37/0s, mainly because of 'funny noses' - although now a 'nose job' has a last been done.
I'd looked with great interest at Accurascale's proposed 'Scottish Class 37/0' model, particularly the blue one with the white stripe. Should I / Shouldn't I? Why do I have to pre-order (What if the reviews say it's 'not right'!). Why do I have to put £30 down for something that might not live up to expectations?
So - when all the excellent reviews were published and satisfied customers started singing their praises - of course I'd 'missed the boat'!
Two weeks ago I read the review of Accurascale's 37027 in 'Rail Express' magazine, I've always felt that 'RE' published the most thorough reviews of models and never seemed to be afraid to draw attention to any shortcomings in accuracy or quality of the model being analysed. The review of 37027 was very positive and didn't highlight any areas of concern. The review prompted me to look at the Accurascale website (for the first time ever) later that night and remarkably there were two new 'Loch Eil' models for sale! I purchased one straight away - (Note this was completely out of character - I always like to look, check and test any model in the shop before I buy it!).
Ordering via the website was easy / confirmation of the payment immediate and confirmation of address details and despatch information were received the next morning. Tracking information for the package was excellent, even when I had to change the deliver point from my home address to a nearby DHL delivery point (necessary as my new grandson arrived on the day the package was due to arrive - confirming the meaning of 'delivery date'!).
Ordered late on Monday night, despatched on Tuesday, I collected it on Thursday and the delivery point had had it for 24 hours!
The packaging to protect the model against damage in the post was excellent as are the quality of the box and associated protection in which the model is presented. There were no 'bits' in the bottom of the box and nothing loose, bent or marked on the model. When put on the track, the model ran smoothly and silently straightaway and looks every bit as good as I dared to hope. Well done Accurascale - Thank You for great service and for producing such a good model - so much so that I've ordered a 'Deltic' (via C & M Models at Carlisle) - I'd never really contemplated buying a 'Deltic' before, it doesn't 'fit in' with my model railway 'plans' , but 'Nimbus' was the first one I saw, at Leeds back in 1976 and I only saw that one time.
I'm full of 'Humble Pie' now!
PS:- one question, my 37027 operates on DC, can I turn the red tail lights off whilst leaving the front marker and headlamps on when running?
