I agree with their usefulness in tight situations like that  crossover. That is why I invested in the jigs to make my own. My new layout will have 8 of them, including one in a crossover as you described. Another place they come in handy is extending a passing track into a curve. When you have a single track mainline, you live and die by the length of your passing tracks. If using curved switches gains you an extra carlength or two it's worth the investment.

I honestly thought the cancellation of Duncan back in Oct '24 was a one-off. But, it is slowly becoming frequent as the months go on. Learning that Knapford station will not happen did come as a surprise even though the Bachmann webpage still has it listed. I do share the same feelings that it is never a good idea to announce items without committing to it. This make me concerned about future new toolings not materializing due to these factors. If it becomes a habit, then it begins to alienate certain consumers. To this day, I still find it hard to understand the reasons for releasing Rebecca, a product with a $300 msrp. I think the new timeline of releasing products will happen 3 years following its announcement, rather than the 24-27 months from past releases.

I'm trying to stay positive upon these revelations, but I cannot become numb to the bad news. Let us hope the implementation of quarterly announcements put some of our disappointment to rest by a degree.

Update 1/31: The listing of Knapford Station has been removed.

Gotta agree with the tender lining still; it was such a glaring error in the show and the fandom was not fond of it. Him having normal square tender lining would make the model look so much nicer and consistent with well... Every other appearance he's ever had. It's an even 50/50 chance if Bachmann does or doesn't do it though, I feel.

Quote from: RailsByRick on January 25, 2026, 04:15:27 PMVery disappointed to hear that Knapford has been cancelled. It's becoming a very bad habit of Bachmann's to announce a highly anticipated item only to cancel it a few months later.

Bachmann, please stop announcing new items unless you are 100% certain they'll be arriving to market. It is very tiring to constantly get our hopes up and then get let down shortly after. You are damaging your customers' faith.

Considering the amount of products Bachmann has cancelled in the Thomas range's entire 20+ year history can be counted with one's fingers, combined with all the outstandingly high quality products they've been outputting lately such as Ryan, Daisy, Stanley and Sir Handel, I think they're doing pretty decent in terms of customer satisfaction. Bachmann is a business, and sometimes things just don't line up the way they hope they would for a product. Things have been especially volatile in terms of manufacturing and exporting this decade so far. A lot of it is simply beyond Bachmann's control.

Well, I guess this post can be relegated to history with the knowledge that curved turnout switches were rare from the start, and companies are dropping (curtailing mass production) of curved switches and definitely eliminating the ballasted versions.  I will state that the ballasted curved track switches I have work great with sectional EZ track, they are 18-radius, and do not require the flexible track unless that's what one uses.

What the curved switches allow is the transition to parallel track right in the curve and not at the curve ends.  This makes it easier to get the longest straight parallel track on a 4x8 section. 

Products getting cancelled is really starting to become an issue for Bachmann. It's not making the company look good. Instead of announcing products, getting everyone hyped up for them, just for them to be cancelled, maybe it's better they don't announce it unless they are CERTAIN it will be out. Better that something doesn't get announced for several months, and have it released, than to wait a year or two for it to be cancelled.

Many are really disappointed that the Knapford Station reintroduction was cancelled, yet they still got Rebecca out there, despite having such a high price.

On the more positive side, it may only be a few more months before they have an unpainted sample of Flying Scotsman to show. Don't know if he'll be out by the end of this year though.

So the 20-Ton Brake Van from the cancelled 80th Anniversary set is what celebrates 80 years of Thomas as a character, and is being released as a separate product. Would've liked to have seen the dark gray van or the orange wagon with coal load as well. Maybe they'll get separate releases at some point.

Given that Bachmann is willing to go into Railway Series rolling stock, first with the China Clay Wagon and now the Ffarquhar Quarry Wagon, maybe they would be more willing to recolor Donald and Douglas into Blue Donald and Blue Douglas.

Its good to see that Bachmann is releasing the 20-ton Brake Van from the canceled Anniversary set. I would hope that they would also release more variants of it like the gray livery that was previously intended for the brakevan from the anniversary set, so that way they we have more options than just a variant of the Spiteful Brakevan.

With the upcoming 77410 Milk Tank and 77422 Fuel Tank being based on the CGI series designs of the tankers, something I really appreciate Bachmann doing is releasing them as separate items than the already existing 77048 Tidmouth Milk Tank and 77039 Sodor Fuel Tank, which have the Model Series design of the Tankers. That way, both the Model Series and CGI Series versions of the Milk Tanker and the Fuel Tanker are available at the same time, so modelers can choose which versions they prefer: Model, CGI or Both!

Another idea for Rolling Stock I would like to see in the future would be Blue Gordon's Special Composite Coach and Gordon's Special Brake Coach, repainted from 76034 Gordon's Express Composite Coach and the 76035 Gordon's Express Brake Coach, with the corridors on both ends so that they can fit seamlessly into already existing Bachmann Gordon's Express. I know it is not screen accurate, but I would prefer that they match up. I will even admit that I prefer the Corridors on Bachmann and Hornby Thomas Express Coaches.

Something else I would hope that Bachmann do is update their 76044 Annie and 76055 Clarabel to rectify their gray chassis with a correct black chassis, like the UK Annie and Clarabel have. As well as update the gray lamps irons, dummy coupling hooks, and tender chassis on their Henry, Gordon, and Toby to the correct black. They have already done this with the Thomas, James, and Percy, with Percy recently now also having a his incorrect gray coal bunker updated to the correct black color as well.

Pulled this out of production kit from a box of stuff that had been in storage for some time. Looks like an interesting kit, but I'm curious if anyone who has built this in the past can give me a heads up on any pitfalls to avoid. Things like construction going smoother if certain steps are done in a different order than shown in the instructions.

This is the kit:



Len

Hello, I have old loco with "DCC on board" decoder - 2012 Santa Fe nr.3501, item nr.60302.
It has on board DCC decoder inside board H601X-PCB01 rev-c.
When I started with it, lights were working (flickering), when running the engine. I then had to change address and speed and now I cannot switch on the lights. Do you have manual for this decoder with list of CVs?
Or any idea, how to reset this decoder back to factory settings? Thanks.

Quote from: RailsByRick on January 25, 2026, 04:15:27 PMVery disappointed to hear that Knapford has been cancelled. It's becoming a very bad habit of Bachmann's to announce a highly anticipated item only to cancel it a few months later.

Bachmann, please stop announcing new items unless you are 100% certain they'll be arriving to market. It is very tiring to constantly get our hopes up and then get let down shortly after. You are damaging your customers' faith.

Indeed.

I was about to post something similar - I am ok with a quiet year of announcements to allow the backlog to clear; I don't want another Duncan situation whereby everyone gets excited just for it to be cancelled due to technical issues. Do the R&D, make sure a product is feasible, commit to manufacture, then announce it. I would rather wait 6 months for something that is certainly going to happen, than 2 years for a nope!