Sam would do to remember that although some modellers may well aim for gentle curves on the scenic areas of their layouts, in many case the track work in hidden areas (e.g. into fiddle yards) can be considerably tighter. As such the ability to have close coupling on straight sections while simultaneously allowing the coaches to cope with curves down to 2nd radius is a valuable ‘feature’ and of far more use than a di-cast chassis which could well cause issues for some locos due to the extra weight. Yes, a CCM which is poorly assembled and sticks should not be ignored - but it should be treated for what it is, a manufacturing defect and not an excuse to rubbish the concept which has successfully been employed for over a decade now by many manufacturers. And seeing as Sam says he will be reviewing more coaches in future - ALL super detailed* bogie stock from any RTR manufacturer WILL have a close coupling mechanism as standard because just as with DCC sockets on locos it’s what real railway modellers expect these days. * Over the past few years Hornby have released some ‘Railroad standard with a main range paint job’ Mk1s which do have bogie mounted couplers - however this is very much the exception to the norm.

The short couplings are actually from the German/Austrian manufacturer ROCO, I had them on my H0 models in the late 90ies/early 2000s. To uncouple, you push the loop up below the couplets and done. Super simple. They are smooth and easy to couple, unless of course the couplers arent in line (like in a curve). I've always wondered why UK manufacturers don't implement short couplers which also work on R2 curves... So behind the rest of the world! 😅 Even like Hush Hush having both rear axles in the frame without the flanges and non-moving...

At 30 quid each I'd be happy with those coaches based on the pricing we suffer these days, but at twice that RRP - no way! Bachmann and Hornby seem to be pricing everything at collector prices these days. Thank heaven's we have Dapol and other smaller manufacturers still selling to the hobbyist.

Nice coaches, though I do agree with you about the price, and those couplings... One small point, and probably a nit-pick, but shouldn't the composites be marshalled with the 1st class sections together in the middle of the train?

In a book on GWR Locomotives I saw the following comment about, C.B. Collett... "He didn't suffer fools gladly and he wasn't particular who he considered to be a fool..." Just love it! He instantly became a hero of mine.

I wonder if Hornby should consider looking for a different factory… one that delivers on what they are paid for

Hi Sam, The couplers you showed in the pack are Hornby copies of the Roco close couplers. They are actually better than tension locks as you can simply lift a coach & they will separate. The other reason Hornby used that design is that they have a delayed uncoupling system you push them over an uncoupling ramp then push them into a siding. You can then pull away without them recoupling again.

The long grey strips of plastic are the name board’s. The holes underneath are speaker holes. I have a set of GWR 3 coaches very nice I had to wait until they dropped in price. Concur with your comments. I have some derailment issues on one point due to the radius. However on the main line layout no issues at all.

Hi Sam, yes they are always a great colour and one of my favourite. Although I am a southerner, these were always my favourite spots on holidays and travel out and about in my younger days. Now these new emu and dmu trains are so uncomfortable and far too expensive. Maybe Hornby are using the same pricing system as the real thing. Lol . The reduction could be classed as off peak, or cheap day returns. Note the return comment. But they are still running in , don’t you have to run the carriages 30 mins each way !!! 🤣. Good review. Yes Hornby again fubar a simple job. Keep safe and healthy and like the videos, always watch even though don’t model in 00 anymore, not that N is any cheaper or better, but then we don’t have Hornby. Lol 😝

I did a review of these and some of the "handed" corridor coaches some time ago. The Left/Right Hand does refer to the side that the roof vents are located, and generally - particularly with corridor coaches the reason for the "handedness" was to ensure the classes were kept together, 3rd class coaches were generally not classed as left or right hand. Although it seems the true origins of the handed designation are shrouded in the mists of time.

Gorgeous coaches definitely going to look at these as need more for my layout excellent rake great review as always!!

These couplings were fitted to my old Flieschman N gauge coaches. They gave close coupling,unlike the hornby ones, and they actually worked 🤣🤣🤣

Just bought one of these in GWR chocolate and cream (brake). Never owned a Hornby product before. Super excited!

Great video Sam they look very nice, I definitely need to look into some collett coaches, some I do have my eye on right now would probably go perfectly with my Rails 18000 gas turbine locomotive.

I got a set of these some months ago when they first went on discount at Hattons, and a Large Prairie (the Dapol one...) to pull them. Generally I agree with your conclusions- especially that the RRP for these is ludicrous, but isn't that just how it is with Hornby these days? I think, in my case, I might eliminate the kinematic coupling entirely and go for a drawbar arrangement between coaches, and a more standard coupler mount for the ends of the brake coaches. The real coaches tended to run in fixed formations (without standard couplings between them) during my period of interest anyway.

Hi Sam, another nice review. I have a rake of Hornby BR ex-Southern Maumsell and Bulleid coaches (green). These too have the Kinematic couplings, but I haven't had any problems with them. A big difference between these coaches and your ex-Great Western coaches is that the bogies on the Southern coaches aren't as close to the end of the coaches as on the Great Western coaches. As a result these is more room between the bogies and the couplings. My coaches also came with the special close coupling pieces, which I don't use because I converted all of my BR trains to Kadee NEM couplings. Since I run on a club layout with wide curves I can get the coaches nicely close coupled together. They run very nicely together. Another thing is that only the Maunsell coaches came with the plastic strips in the parts bags. There is no information in the instructions as to what purpose they serve. One final thing I have found is that the gauge of all of my Hornby coaches is too tight according to the NMRA standards gauge. I have adjusted them so they run better. EDIT: As for the level of detail these are about the same as your Great Western coaches.

I’ve had the same coupling problem with some Hornby Pullmans too. Drove me mad. The solution was to use ROCO couplings that lock together to form a solid beam between vehicles. In this way the over-complex mechanism is compelled to operate as it should. Hornby tension lock couplings just don’t work as they allow the kinematic mechanism to jam up. Often I’ve found it happens most with the second to last or last vehicle in the rake as that’s the one with less drawbar tension from hauling the rest of the train. On second thoughts - print yourself a solid NEM to NEM socket beam coupling which will delete the tension locks. It’ll look more realistic anyway.

hi sam. a beautiful colour for coaches makes a nice running set.. thanks to you when you did the un packing review i went and ordered a whole bunch of coaches skipped out on buying the B12s thankfully. am planning in stripping them apart and fit interior lighting and passengers. give them a little more weight as well as making them more attractive to look at as they pass by.

Impeccable timing,just looking into coaches and freight vans for my trains thanks for this one most helpful as always cheers.

Your amazing Sam you are an absolute legend I would be lost without you

Sam, would you consider starting a OO9 Gauge Layout? Because the stuff for that range is quite interesting

I have 2x sets of LNER Hornby Coaches, one the Thompson Non Corridor and the other the Gresley Non Corridor - and have similar derailment issues with the coaches if i set them up in a certain fashion. I changed the couplings between the coaches to the "close coupling" types supplied in the boxes, and figured out the best way of coupling them together. They now stay on the track!

The couplings look like Roco couplings, which are great And the close coupling looks great and works great to on even very thight curves with 360mm radius although normaly the cinemativ is not combined with the bogie

I got a composite and brake coach which are now my RWS Annie & Clarabel. They both look amazing in my opinion, but they do occasionally derail due to the weird coupling design. definitely prefer to run the repainted Railroad LNER teak express coaches. Thanks for the review - Dan

I had the same stupid coupling problems with my super expensive, super detail hornby pullmans, but found that a dab of vasaline on the sliding components fixed the issues!

Dear Sam, although I agree with everything and everyone of your comments, ever since the 80's that kind of close coupling mechanism has been a standard in almost all European manufacturers. (Roco, Fleischmann, Marklin, Lilliput, Rivarossi, Lima....) Removing the straight to bogie type. I do believe that the fact that Hornby have moved to a Nem362 coupling system is a needed improvement, although I will agree that if they do, they ought to do it right, in tolerance and clearances. I would suggest that you get your hands on a LS Models CIWL for a high-end as a comparison. Other European high ends would be REE Models or ACME. Keep well! D.

I received a Hornby pullman coach with interior lights for my birthday. Lovely looking coach. Interesting to see what you thought of that. Great review as standard Sam 👍🏻

I have six of these in GW livery and I love them. I love the close coupling feature too. I have some necessary tight curves, but I like the way they are close when on the long straights. I checked your comments about tight running. From my experiments, the reduction in free running happens as each bogie enters the curve, but when on the curve, it frees up again. So, only one or two bogies at any time are tighter than usual. Apart from that, they are extremely free running, better than some vehicles I have fitted with brass axle boxes. Admittedly I got them before the price went up...

I recently bought a 12 wheel restaurant coach from hattons, for £25(£60 from Hornby), which had a decently detailed interior for the price. Definitely money well spent. :)

These look nice, and only just about worth the reduced price. My local shop has these and the LMS suburbans in at a reduced rate, so I'm considering either a 4-car rake of these or a 5-car rake of the LMS ones. Completely agree about the bogies being too complicated, and the ends needing separately fitted parts for the money, and also lights with better painted interiors. But I like the coupling design, because it's a standard feature on modern coaches, and if you use couplings like those supplied in the detail bag or even closer ones, the kinematic system really helps. And yeah, sometimes needs a bit of oil to make it work properly (as I found with my Pullmans). I'd say the coaches, being BR Crimson, would suit an early crest loco better than a late crest one, since they switched to lined Maroon later on (at the same time they switched between Crimson & Cream and Maroon/Green/Chocolate & Cream). And after a bit of research, I'm pretty sure these just ran as 4-coach sets (doubling to 8-coach sets sometimes), the 2-coach B-sets being a different diagram (although I'm not 100% sure).

I know this has nothing to do with the video but here’s a fun fact about Thomas's creator Wilbert Awdry is he made models of his characters you can see them in the Awdry Study part of the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum located at the Talyllyn Railway and behind the scenes portion of the Thomas wiki

Wow! For that kind of money I expect O scale.

City of Truro would’ve looked good with those

Hi mukka... hope this finds you well. The boxes under the coach frames are battery boxes, not tool boxes. You were right about the dynamo near the bogie. Cheers for the review though. Too dammed expensive thats for sure. Could you do a review between a Hornby and Accurascale MGR hopper. Should be interesting. Cheers from Oz. Gaz

They are nice coaches at Hattons price, I've thought about getting myself another of those packs as I got the Hawksworth blood & custard pack a while ago. If you want some expensive coaches try the Bachmann birdcage ones.

Try some Bachmann DMUs or Hunt couplings so that the couplings are more rigid so should be guided more easily. You'll get close coupling too & they will go around 1st radius corners (if you use bachmann DMUs). In fact further to that i think you should investigate different coupling types, there's a big audience for that!

I have a couple of ex LMS Suburban coaches from Hornby. They look very similar. I haven'y had them on the track yet.

I picked a couple of the brakes of these from Kernow a couple months back for I think it was 27/28 quid in the Chocolate/Cream livery. Decent coaches as you say for the right price. As others have said the couplers are standard practice across Hornby/Bachmann coaches/multiple units and I too am not a fan of them. The grey boards in the accessories pack I think are destination boards that you can fit on either side of the roof, at least that's what I guessed when I got the coaches. Cheers

I like the dark red color for these coaches! I also like the details on it!

Ooooohhh Sam I have 16 list of suggestions of locomotives to pull these coaches may be one day can add one of them in your next request videos i would love to see it. Cheers mate and have a good one! List: 1. Bulleid Pacifics 2. LMS Princess Royal Class 3. Bachmann Duck 4. Bachmann Oliver 5. Hornby James 6. Hornby Tornado 7. Hornby Thomas 8. Hornby Henry 9. Hornby Gordon 10. Hornby Edward 11. Flying Scotsman 12. LMS black 5 13. Hornby 4f 14. Hornby 9f 15. Hornby 8f 16. Hornby Pannier Tanks

These are beastly, I might have to get some

26:56 oops Sam has summoned Satan

i have coaches with this type of kinematic coupling in ho and n gauge and they work fine. i think it's the execution not the desgn. i think these coaches look v nice.

I bought one of the two Great Western sets not too long after they came out, RRP was around £50 then but by picking and choosing each from various sellers I three of them for between £28 - £30 and the last for £35. That said we were in the process of moving at the time and there is still no layout to test them on😋. Still looking forward to trying them eventually, maybe buy a dapol large prairie to go with them.

I totally agree that they're well priced at around £30 considering the lack of fitted detail and lights. Great models still. If you want to know how much they are in Australia. First 3 results (from large well known hobby shops) was AUD$89.99 $109.99 and $129. Which works out around £52 £63 and "wait for it! You might want to be sitting down folks" £74.24 .... Like... seriously?

Hi Sam really nice coaches but them Dapol blue coaches are the ones to get. I am off to London on the 24th May to check out the New Elizebeth Line not got a purple t shirt so i am going to wear my Sam's train t shirt on the day. heheh.

Hi Sam, again a very good review 🤩👍 Hornby is not the only one using these terrible kinematic couplings. I don’t understand it, simple old bogie mounted couplings are much better. Nice coaches though, but quite expensive, I would rather estimate their value at 25 euros. Greetings from Belgium 🙋‍♂️ Erik

I got the crimson and cream when they had the sale on them. I didn’t even know they had that coupling design 😂 being new to the hobby good to know I’m checking things over properly 😐. Ive ordered the 12 wheel ex lms diner now they have on sale. Hopefully that turns out to be alright. Also my couplings all worked on mine thankfully.

My Bachmann corridor EMU from a decade ago had similar sprung couplings. One kept sticking causing derailments. I kept gently fiddling with it until, accidentally, the spring went AWOL into the dinnign room carpet, never to be traced. Although Bachmann sent me a replacement I have never fitted the new spring.

On the subject of the couplings - a similar design is used by the more recent stuff in the Farish N gauge range. It's astonishing the visual difference it can make at that scale (especially with corridor stock). Re coach reviews - I'd love to see you do a comparison review between the Lionheart (Dapol) and Heljan MK 1 coaches in O gauge. Not certain they'd be able to make it 'round some of your curves though...

Hi Sam, I did notice that the "faulty" bogie on the last coach derailed when you were hauling Bully. My Bachman Mk.1s, approximately 15 years old, are all fitted with "close coupling" devices, but I have never had any derailing problems with them in either direction, even on 2nd radius points, even when my grandchildren "have a go." Regards, Alan.

Hornby's coaches as usually very good, I know I've got quite a number of rakes of various types. The kinematic coupling has always seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem; the worst examples I have are the Gresley and Thomson suburban coaches. Not especially close coupled on straight track, the gap expands enormously on curves and looks unrealistic. The standard arrangement on their Railroad MK1s works just fine.

“The Great Western Way, and the Better Way, it’s PADDINGTON.” - Montague aka. /Duck

XD very punny 10:40 regarding glue spots "hope they're not too widespread" Gotta love a happy accident!

I have 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th radius track and run a majority of Hornby coaches kinematic couplings like these in rakes of 4, 5, 6 & 7 as well as multiple points but don't have any issues with them negotiating the track in either direction so feel the issue you have had with 1 coach is due to a defect instead of design.

I have the corridor versions (a mix of BR Maroon and Crimson/Cream) and think they are brilliant coaches, if only they weren't £60 now I would have more! Regards the LH/RH the 2 1st class compartments would be back to back so the 1st class portion of the train was in the middle. It is more obvious with the corridors as when assembled correctly (LH-LH-RH-RH) all the internal corridors line up on one side of the train to improve passenger experience (during GWR service) though by BR times the sets were all mixed up/put in mixed rakes so the LH/RH became basically obsolete

In theory these coaches should each be weighted to about 225-230g. This might give them better momentum down Gordon's Hill -- or it might not -- and could possibly also encourage that 'sticky' bogie to sit more firmly on the track around tight curves. complexityPerhaps Hornby should consider subcontracting all their design and production work to Dapol... Back in the day when I modelled in 00, I used to give each dynamo-equipped coach a little hairgrip-shaped piece of bent wire to represent the belt to the axle pulley. It seemed to really improve the apparent detail on the underframe for only a few seconds' work. Overall a good and fair review, as always. Thanks for keeping all your viewers up to speed.

Nice Unboxing

I honestly really like newer hornby coaches, especially the newer mk1s I have eight of their newer mk1 coaches which I’ve never found any glue marks or problems with them anyway. Yes it’s pretty much all plastic but they are actually really robust and don’t feel at all like it would break. Even though hornby keeps increasing prices the one thing that I’ve actually found beneficial because of that is the items are actually around longer. If your not able to buy all of the ones you want at that moment I’ve found that your still able to get them later because they are still around With other manufacturers like for example bachmann, yes the detail is better but they sell super quickly so if you aren’t able to get any right when they come out then your pretty much out of luck because everything has sold meaning you can’t find any even on places like eBay Hornby though you are still able to find them even if it is like a year or two after release The dapol coaches I have a feeling will be the same case as bachmann where unless you have enough money to essentially preorder to make sure otherwise your likely gonna be out of luck And on the case of lights, it sounds nice but it is honestly it can be annoying because if it’s done well it can look great but a lot of manufacturers put lights in but do it cheaply making them flicker on dirty track or even have a completely wrong tone of light So I’d rather buy coaches without lights and then if I decide I want lights later either do it myself or use a kit or something similar And as a side note, take a modern hornby coach like the mk1s I mentioned earlier which right now are about 50 pounds Now compare that to what we have in the US where most passengers cars are gonna cost you (in pounds) which is about 70 pounds and depending on manufacturer you might have metal trucks or you might not but you still gonna have a lot of plastic Yes the prices hornby has are high, but at the same time if you compare what is offered in the US with the UK then it doesn’t look to bad. I absolutely love the model I can buy in the US but I have also found that when ignoring shipping. UK models give about the same or sometimes better quality but for less money than most nice quality US models

OMG. Hornby 'Pull Ya Socks up..!' How many years have you been Producing Coaches..? Now you cant even Sort a Set of Carriges out..! Shame, at those prices..! Another Great review Sam. Cheers kim in Oz 😎

I got 4 of these as well when a shop did a bargain sale similar to Hattons at $57/coach- deal of the century- and they look great behind my second hand black Hornby (ex Airfix) Large Prairie. I haven't had any running issues with them yet, but one had a door handle missing. I also don't know why couplers these days have to swivel instead of being a proper bogie-mounted affair; it's a regression in design philosophy that causes accidents.

Collet coaches are SO EXPENSIVE here in New Zealand. The GWR liveried ones, which I really wanted, retail for ~$130 EACH. Thats ~£66. I ended up not getting them and bought some BR maroon ex LMS coaches for $85 each. (~£43). Edit: I just got home and checked my LMS coaches, they have the same type of coupling, but Ive never had a problem with them myself. Though my only second radius curves are on points so maybe thats why.

Have you heard of Sm32 narrow gauge trains? They run on 0 gauge track but are to a scale of 16mm to 1 foot.

you might as well put a little tail lamp or disc on the one brake coach so you know to keep it at the back for it to work properly

Just a thought with your one coach derailing, would it be worth putting a lamp on the back or taking the coupling off so you can't put it on the wrong end?

Remind me of the triang ones of years ago, nowhere near the level of detail and they roll like a slug, but still great fun.

29 quid is still expensive. Either buy the old tooling ones or give it a few years and hopefully they'll be less. Nice review and coaches sam, like seeing them with a small prarie.

Those are beautiful coaches, might have to buy them

I bought a brake end and composite to run as a pair and both seem to run in a satisfactory manner. The cost just over £30 each but they are a nice model. I will be interested in your review of coaching stock in the future. In my opinion Hornby upped the game with their coaching stock ever since they stopped using the big D couplings (except in railroad range). It started with the Maunsell stock. A comparison of Hornby's LMS coaches against Bachmann ex LMS porthole stock would be interesting to do. What I object to, is paying £50 + for a coach which has no interior. I am not worried about lighting. Internal light can be an issue in that it is often too bright and more like strip lighting (think about gas lit coaches and the 24 V lights in older stock) and it shows up that there are no passengers.

I like it when you do coach review can you do more and can you do thumper class 205 and the hasting dmu. Thank you

Great video as always Sam! I have a question for you: I recently received a bunch of second hand wagons I got, and a few of them had some issues with their couplings. That isn't unexpected, but on one of them both couplings were missing completely. It's a Dapol flat car with one of the old curved roof BR containers on it. It still has the bit that locks the couplers in place, but not the couplers themselves. Do you have any tips for disassembling the couplers on a Dapol wagon and/or 3d printing replacements?

I inherited a batch of 5 of these from my grandad 😄

I rarely mix a Bachmann loco with Hornby stock. The couplings are at a slightly different height.

The short couplings are Roco, but I don't know if it is legal to put something of another manufacturer inside a product not produced by roco ?

nice vid thanks lee

If you want to make a set of these do you need 2 left and 2 right? Saw these on the Hattons sale and one to make a rake but not sure if I should just go with 2 right brakes and 2 right standard or like you have here

Great coaches! Love the livery sam can i ask you is it possible to make 15+ year old steel track useable for a few months untill i can get the nickel silver track? Keep up the great work -TC5

These don't feel very great western but still look amazing!

In my experience the mounting of couplings to pockets separate from the bogies themselves is pretty much standard on all remotely modern bogie coaches from all manufacturers, so it's hardly surprising that Hornby do it on these coaches, and I'm a bit surprised you'd be calling for them to go back to the practice of 20 years or so ago of mounting the couplings directly on the bogies. Not that there aren't some advantages to be said for mounting the couplings directly on the bogies. I have the LMS coaches that are more or less parallel to these (both suburban and mainline versions) - latest tooling, with window decals etc. They are quite nice, and I'm pretty happy with them, though, as you say, the RRP is getting a bit ridiculous. I did use the special couplings that came in the detail bags to link the coaches. They're pretty simply to use, and I do think that they make a rake of these coaches look better, so I believe they're worth the trouble.

Awesome video today Sam beautiful modle would you get the Bachmann diseal to review

Hi Sam. It’s the patronising ol’ git here. 😀 When you held up the two brake coaches together, I immediately noticed an extra window near the guard’s door on the top coach. I also noticed a slightly different arrangement of the vents on their roofs. In GWR days, these coaches were mainly pulled by 61xx large prairies in and out of Paddington station for suburban traffic use. They were also used in the west of England, but these areas were mainly served by Suburban ‘B’ coaches and Autocoaches. Nice review ‘young man’! 😀 👍 Paul.

Hi Sam, Yes good review, nice lot , shame Hornby couldn't do it for the same price??, All the best Brian 😃

The color on those is beautiful. Pennsylvania railroad did their. Coaches in maroon color as well. Reminds me of Hogwarts express type.

Hi Sam I love your videos and I have a question could you do a review on a Australian railway models NSWGR C38 class 462 pacific express steam locomotive you can get number 3803 from hattons

Would you be able to replace them with replace the couplers with american-style couplers

Thay did something similar with the Northumberland at train pack and thay work better but haveing sed that I have found that the quality of track work must be perfect the concept is a good one and I am all for it just done by a manufacturer that actually knows what thay are doing

Hello I’m a big fan of your work

Nit picking Sam but these coaches are Crimson. Crimson was used for suburban coaches and is a pinker , lighter colour than Maroon which was used on Mainline coaches .

Hi Sam they look great need to pick some up for myself also have you seen the the new mallard record breaker set on hornby for pre order

Right quick, what’s the difference between 3 and 5 pole motors, and how can you tell the difference? Is it the size, weight or something else?

Boy do I feel old sometimes. Over £30 for a coach seems insane. It’s the price I’d have paid for a loco back in the day - and an expensive one (i saved my picket money for weeks for a Wrenn Clun Castle at £25!!) Oh bugger, I sound like my parents « 15 shillings, that’s ridiculous » Oh dear…

I got the Hornby M version and the body fell off, couldn't even get it replaced because we went back to London a few hours later when I opened the box, and I live in Canada

Lovely coaches, personally I think they are very much over priced . The massive price reduction may make them more accessible to the likes of myself. I'm very pleased with my Dapol set that cost me £12 each. Although I had to change the wheels, and they don't de-rail very often. Keep up the good work! Regards Mike

I am lucky enough to have Collett coaches in choc n cream and blood n custard and they are my favourite coaches in my collection.

Your a friend to me from across the pond Cheers Jasper & Willow

Great Review! I think I'll stick to Hornby's overpriced "plastic wheeled" mk1 coaches.😂 Hornby always fudge up something so simple.😄

Bullman at the end! 30:07 :'D

i love bargains! sadly i havent been able to locate any in 3 years or so. too many bargain hunters out there :))

Not sure about England but this was a common combination of suburban train in the last few years of steam beginning of Diesel. The Locomotive was moved to the front and the Guard had another space at the back. Sadly it meant that almost half the train was empty. On a positive note model it right and you don't have to put passengers in one coach and only half fill the rest. And Finally I think new modellers would not notice the things wrong with the set and the experienced modeller would have no trouble adding lights, passengers and weathering the carriages. Sadly by the time I saw these they were covered in engine grime. Lastly the horrible couplings look good on the curve, the footage shows how the carriages move apart and then come back together again. A similar movement to the real thing and noticeable enough for the young to find exciting. However I do agree with the rating on price alone this is an expensive gift and there is not engine to go with them.

What's wrong with the couplings? It's no different to Bachmann's mk1s and I think they work pretty well.