Great review Ian thanks for sharing, this would be perfect for my new layout Im building. I agree the prices I seen are far to high but thats common now within the hobby. This is now on my to get list. My first video of my new build being uploaded within next few days so will defo be looking at all your videos for tips and advice. Cheers mate

The 08 is a popular locomotive and I was very tempted by the early crest BR green. But then I looked at my two little Jinty shunters and I couldn't do it to them. I would be like the arrival of Buzz Lightyear at the start of Toy Story. As for sound, I think the net difference in price is less than £100. It is true that the difference in the RRP between sound fitted and non-sound fitted (which is actually just no decoder fitted because the speaker is already there) is £100. On Rails site however it is about £80. But the non-sound doesn't have a DCC chip fitted either. That will set you back somewhere between £20 to £35 depending on make (hard to gauge at the moment as old stock is at old prices and newer decoder prices have increased markedly). So the added net cost is somewhere between £45 to £60 base on Rails prices. That is still more money of course and it is a judgment whether you want to spend it on getting sound, or more stock, or scenic materials etc. One thing a model railway certainly does, if allowed to, is soak up money. Stephen

Hi Ian, thank you for the shout out that was lovely👍, mine was just the same with regards to the weathered wheels that needed to be cleaned up. Along with this 08 there are other shall we say problematic shunting locos from Farish. The 03, 04 and the 14 all have very soft and not springy pickups. Its easy enough to tweek them back into shape with some tweezers but i find if you pick these locos up and squish the wheels sideways the pickups tend to move away from the backs of the wheels which always gives me not ideal running. Ive found the older Farish pickups on the likes of the poole models were of much better quality and spring out much better.. i think nowadays they use a less quality type of material for the pickups. Fantastic review 👍 Rich

This loco is absolutely on my shortlist. And after watching previous reviews it definitely needs a Stay Alive fitted AND the first thing I'll be doing is replacing those damn awful Rapido couplings for some more proto looking knuckle couplings.

Hi Ian, good to see the 08 running reliably. I've watched many of the videos over at TWW YT channel, lots of interesting stuff. Hopefully one day I will add a stayalive to my old 08 which I modified for DCC as it keeps stalling no matter what I do. Almost just chucked it in the bin! All the best John

Hi Ian, excellent review, I struggle with small locos, the slightest blemish in the track and the loco plays up. I have a small steam loco,a pannier tank that hesitates at one point on the layout, without fail every time. When every other engine runs fine. It's so annoying. The cost of sound fitted stuff is now becoming silly money . I fully appreciate the work involved in producing these gems, but it's now beyond many peoples pockets

Hi Ian, great review. As I mentioned in your problem vids with the 08, both my 08's (weathered BR and RES) were acting up exactly the same as yours. I have now sent them off to Lee at LS Rails to get stay alives fitted, as he also had the same experience with his. Completely agree re the lights, couldn't believe they weren't fitted. Yours does seem to have far better factory CV settings, mine take forever to stop when power is shut off and take a lot to get them going. Altered the CV's on the blue one and it's now a lot more realistic. Thanks for sharing, all the best.

Greetings, Shelfington, and hello Ian 👋 I have to agree about sound fitted locomotives 🚂 being hard to justify the extra cost 💰😝 Adding a Hunslet 😇 to a silent 08 is definitely a winner 🏆 Very best wishes from the Emerald Isle ☘️

Hi great review I have been thinking about getting one of those trains but just normal DC runner very informative thank you for sharing 👍

Have you tried the “cold start” sequence? I think this used to work for me originally, but it doesn’t seem to anymore. It was quite fun, it would take 30s or so to get up and going before it would move. I am suspicious that it may be since changing to a different DCC address.. but could just as easily be the decoder getting funny after so many sudden power losses with the bad running etc. - I don’t remember exactly when it stopped working, and it was put away in a drawer in frustration for a while!

very good Ian

Hi Ian! I’m not sure the running problems are due to weathering - I have a non-weathered one, and it’s terrible - the exact same issues you see. I do note that some of the pickups look like they don’t contact all the time, so I think that’s going to be the main solution for me, when I am brave enough to open it up. I have been trying to get the retailer to take it back and replace it with a tested good one, but they haven’t responded to emails in a while. I am in New Zealand and the retailer is in the UK, so, I suspect they don’t care. I’ve since bought several thousand pounds of locos and other bits from an other retailer - Hattons - who are excellent. Speaking with the wallet right!

Hi Ian, really good informative review, it is so annoying paying all that money that things do work right straight out of the box! It looks as though it’s running fine now though, I do need a shunter or three for Exehaven and may very well consider a non sound, non weathered version and shall be looking out for a bargain from somewhere after I have written this. I want to have a go at weathering a loco and this maybe the first, I have watched a few video’s over the past few years with simple techniques so we’ll see how we go. As for ThisWayWorks it’s an excellent channel although Rich makes it look doable I fear my skills may never be up to his!!!! Cheers for now mate, I’m still in the garden nothing done on the layout yet but I’m getting there, John

I have 2 of these models, GBRf and Network Rail. I also have a few other older ones which I converted to DCC. All my 08s are fitted with a stay-alive. I ordered my GBRf 08s and Network Rail 08 with a blanking chip and installed a decoder of my choice. For the Network Rail 08, I installed a Zimo sound decoder but am not too pleased with the result. The sound is fine, but when it runs and reaches peak speed, it fades away in the background. which yours does not do, I noticed this in your video. I could wish I could get that sorted but I have no idea where to start.

Brilliant update Ian would love to go dcc but can’t justify the price lol ATB Sion

Hi Ian, Hopefully your review will help others out there considering whether or not to get one of the many options for the 08 - it certainly gives a good overview :) Personally I really like mine, now that it works well, but you make a good point about if someone is just looking for a shunting loco of some sort - I'd never really considered that approach to choosing! I've got an 08 because I really like the way they look, so I'd never choose the Hunslet over it. In terms of sounds I can't remember if I got my hands on the 08 or the 9F first, but it's the sounds on the 08 that made me realise that's what I'd like on as many diesel locos as possible. As you noted, whether or not you think it's worth the extra 60% (or whatever) in cost is a personal one, but comparing sound-fitted with getting The Model Centre to fit sound, or possibly even with buying the necessary decoder to fit oneself (not that I'd dream of trying that on something this small myself!), I think £216 was a good price. The other thing about a shunting loco is that it'll often be accelerating and decelerating, so you get the associated engine sounds for that more often - I think sound on a shunter gives me more enjoyment than sound on a "big" diesel.

Hi Ian. I am not a great fan of weathering, although I am aware of it happening in real life. I bought my own Class 08 several years ago and, alas, is not even DCC-ready. I prefer the Class 08 over the N Gauge Society shunter, but the latest GF offerings are so expensive.

nice model. factory fitted stay alive and lights would have made it a great model. the ngs hunslet has them, so bachmann should be able to do it!

A great looking loco it is but quality check should be better without a doubt thank you for sharing 🙂

Evening Ian - good review! Just wait until you get the build up of fluff and the body has to come off....😅

Hi Ian how did you get your loco to run smoothly? Ive just bought one brand sound fitted. I popped it on the track and the running was very poor. After cleaning the wheels and track its made a massive improvement. My other locos where running fine before before i received the 08. Great video

If the factory can't fit the small parts how the hell am I supposed to do it with my eye sight? The one annoying thing about Farish is they don't include a spanner!

Mine runs like a Bag of spanners. Wobbles like mad. Ordered a replacement wheel set and chassis form Bachmann UK.. Wheel set did not come with the bearings. Did not fix it. Just got a Ivatt and same problem. No more graham Farsh for me. There QC sucks Will stick to Kato.