APT-E with Til in OO

NB: Made To Order, IOW, if you don't reserve one, you may not get one. I suspect that the NRM and Locomotion have guaranteed a block purchase large enough to make the project viable. But I would still pre-order if I were you. I have a soft spot for early British Rail, so I'll order one. ;-)

A brief note on pre-order: this is becoming the rule, especially for special projects such as these. Back in the 80s and 90s, when the Chinese began to offer high-quality at reasonable cost, US importers ordered massive numbers of models. The market quickly became saturated, and prices were cut to move the inventory. That created an expectation that prices would come down on any new models, and modellers delayed buying. You can see what that did to the importers' cash flow and hence to working capital. One way out was consolidation of the industry, the other was bespoke manufacturing, ie, pre-orders.

Pre-orders create a comfort zone for the manufacturer: nothing will be made until there are enough orders to make the project viable. If there's enough interest, a second run will be offered. But that also means that if there aren't enough orders, there won't be any production.

Importers back then also overestimated demand for specialty items, such as models decorated for regional lines. Data point: LifeLike offered rail diesel cars (Budd RDCs) decorated for CN, CP, BCR, and VIA, in all variations. IIRC, they imported 288 of each variation. Within a year or so, they were being offered at half price. Seems there weren't enough modellers of 1950s/60s/70s Canadian railways to warrant such a large production run....

BTW, there is still a Budd RDC operated by Via Rail between Sudbury and White River, Ontario. If you want to ride one, get over here. I don't know how much longer it will run.

Have a good day.