With this new direction of no longer announcing products unless it's certain that they will be out, waiting times between announcement and release could also be reduced. Bachmann tends to announce products much too early, long before they even know the cost before going into production, so we end up waiting years for them to be released, with some being cancelled. It literally took five years for DCC Sound Thomas and Percy to be released in HO Scale.

The biggest cancellations that disappointed me were Duncan, and the 80th Anniversary set. Thankfully, that's not going to happen anymore going forward. No more announcing a product unless it's guaranteed to be coming, that it's economically feasible to get into production. Many bullets will be dodged. No more being disappointed that a certain product isn't coming. As of right now, the only announcements will be products that will be released. Avoiding more cancellations in future.

It may not be until the unpainted sample gets shown off once Flying Scotsman does go up for preorder on Trainworld. Might be sometime before. Hopefully sometime soon, Flying Scotsman will be available for preorder. I need to really save up. Once the price does get revealed, this model will not be cheap. I'll also have to invest in three red express coaches, with one being a brake coach.

Flying Scotsman already has the design ready, and should be within a few months before the unpainted sample does come in. It's not certain he will be out by the end of this year, but fingers crossed, especially if the painted sample does come in by summer. If not, then early 2027. He needs to have the tender lining to match the shape, and not the Fowler tender lining.

I appreciate Bachmann taking the time to publicly acknowledge the concern surrounding Knapford, as well as explaining in detail what happened during production and how they plan to avoid the recent pattern moving forward. Considering that all the new and upcoming products, (besides Flying Scotsman), have prices listed, it does check out that Bachmann is including prices first before publicly announcing said products. Hopefully, Flying Scotsman will have his price listed soon too.

Quote from: Yard Master on January 27, 2026, 09:49:02 AMHi Awesometrain,

I was told that the licensor at the time (HiT) told Bachmann that we were not allowed to make models of these characters, I believe due to a potential legal issue. I don't think any prototypes were made or still exist.

Yeah, I think Rickety was a Learning Curve creation, and I don't think Bachmann had rights on that truck.

I know it's over two decades, but was it possible that the Blue and Brown open wagons were originally meant for Rickety and Fred, considering their colors are close to those wagons?

I saw the font, and all I see is Comic Sans. XD

Regardless, I'm glad Bachmann's reusing the paint drum tooling for the flatbeds.

They gave us such a bombshell of an announcement with Flying Scotsman back in July that I'm not really disappointed with this year's catalog, at least in the HO scale range. As Bachmann have eluded to, this allows the team to catch up on previous announcements, and we're all more than aware of the turbulent economic times we're currently living in. I'm happy to see that the 20 ton brakevan tooling from the cancelled 80th anniversary set is still getting a separate release as I've been wanting a new brakevan for sometime. It's also nice to see the introduction of FQC wagons as well. I do however find it interesting that the blue wagon got announced in N scale when its HO counterpart hasn't been active for sometime.

Overall though, I'm content with this year's catalog.

Quote from: Yard Master on January 27, 2026, 09:59:24 AMHi everyone,

We want to apologize for the cancellation of Knapford Station and other items- it's just as disappointing to us as it is to the fans.

In trying to keep up the rate of new product announcements and releases from years past, our engineering team and factory were not able to keep pace and over the past few years, the length of time for them to study a project and submit a tooling cost and retail price increased. Compounded by tariffs and the general state of the economy, when we did receive costs, they came back higher than expected.

To elaborate more on Knapford Station: We made the new version half the size and half the number of parts as the first release with the goal of reducing the price. The cost we were given by the factory was higher than the last time we sold it, for a kit that was half the size- It wouldn't be economically feasible for us, nor would it be fair to the consumer to raise the price that much.

We think that this year the production delays have stabilized, and that we will be able to get costs much faster than we have the last 2-3 years. And we are no longer going to announce products until we receive a final cost from the factory, so that we are not announcing projects only to cancel them when they are not feasible.

Good to know for future reference. Now we know why the Knapford Station reintroduction was cancelled. Being half the size, it was actually going to cost more than it did before, which just simply was not economical. We've had several products being cancelled over the past few years, so to prevent this from happening again, it's best that you're no longer going to announce products unless it's certain they will be out.

The days of product cancellations will now be in the past. That way, we no longer have to worry about being hyped for a product, only for it to be cancelled.

Hi everyone,

We want to apologize for the cancellation of Knapford Station and other items- it's just as disappointing to us as it is to the fans.

In trying to keep up the rate of new product announcements and releases from years past, our engineering team and factory were not able to keep pace and over the past few years, the length of time for them to study a project and submit a tooling cost and retail price increased. Compounded by tariffs and the general state of the economy, when we did receive costs, they came back higher than expected.

To elaborate more on Knapford Station: We made the new version half the size and half the number of parts as the first release with the goal of reducing the price. The cost we were given by the factory was higher than the last time we sold it, for a kit that was half the size- It wouldn't be economically feasible for us, nor would it be fair to the consumer to raise the price that much.

We think that this year the production delays have stabilized, and that we will be able to get costs much faster than we have the last 2-3 years. And we are no longer going to announce products until we receive a final cost from the factory, so that we are not announcing projects only to cancel them when they are not feasible.

Hi Awesometrain,

I was told that the licensor at the time (HiT) told Bachmann that we were not allowed to make models of these characters, I believe due to a potential legal issue. I don't think any prototypes were made or still exist.

I will also say the prototype (which was photoshopped) looked better and didn't have these problems.



Might be a dumb comparison, but If the green Talyllyn model was able to get a different color sample then I'd like to see it happen here as well.