Stanley Melrose

Mike, I'd be thinking seriously of shipping the buildings to France before 1st January. I wouldn't like to be responsible for the duty payable, let alone the paperwork that will probably be involved. I took delivery of wine direct from a co-operative in south-west France today just to avoid any duty that will probably be payable in 2021. HTH, Stan

As you take up your new responsibilities, may I plead with you to ensure that any future UK Rapido products take account of those who model to the more accurate wider track gauges (18.2mm and 18.83mm)? Accurascale and Sutton's Locomotive Workshop have shown the way and already produce easily convertible rolling stock as well as committing that their future products will be easily converted to run on more accurately gauged track, while still supporting the traditional (and admittedly much larger) 00 market. If these two new entrants to the market can do it, surely Rapido can as we

Great news - many thanks for the confirmation! Stan

Please remember to carry on making provision in the base product for those who work in the more accurate gauges. The early products definitely did so and I really hope this is adopted as a firm principle for future developments. Stan

I've just received the sad news that Brian Rogers has died. He had not been in good health for a while but his death sees the passing of a very talented engineer whose Ultrascale products made such a difference to the running of many of our models. I knew Brian well when I lived near to him but apart from exchanging Christmas greetings, i haven't seen him for over 20 years. I hope someone who can write a more fitting tribute to him will do so but I will remember him as a truly gentle man whose skills benefitted our hobby enormously. Stan

Some time ago I scanned a copy of an article in Steam Days (October 2010) entitled Fish Traffic From North East Scotland. It's about 12.5 MBytes and as I am unsure of the copyright situation I won't attempt to attach it but if anyone would like a copy, please PM me and I'll assume they can cope with a file of that size via personal email for their own use. Cheers, Stan

I give you, Len Plum's daughter, Victoria. Len worked for Ford at Dagenham when I worked there, as did the young lady who made her name as Sandie Shaw (Puppet on a String).

The headmaster of the school my sons attended was Mr Hoare. His son was named Nicholas . . .

I'll order 2 x Pecketts and 1 x Barclay (all P4) whenever you want to start supplying. Stan

Bump!

I must award black marks to Hornby and Rails. I ordered a blue coach from Rails as soon as they sent me an email announcing it. This morning I received an email from Rails telling me they had cancelled theirs because of the Hornby announcement and inviting me to pre-order the Hornby one. I did this immediately but it appears they had sold their pre-order quantity in the few minutes available to me. So now I can buy neither and that's what comes of Rails and Hornby playing silly games. Time to grow up, chaps . . .

My R3810 was paid for at the weekend and I sent Rails an email asking when I could collect it. I had pre-ordered the blue coach so they replied that they would hold my R3810 until I could collect both. Then I asked when the blue coach would be available and was told it would be a while. I've now agreed to collect my R3810 later this week and wait for news of the blue coach to make another journey to Sheffield to collect that order. As a lockdowner, it will be a treat to go all the way to Sheffield and back for change of scenery and get a bit of charge in the car battery. I won

I can't help wondering from looking at the photos on Wright Writes if the cut-out in your V2 body is sufficient for OO width frames but not for EM of P4 width frames? Assuming Comet frames set the appropriate distance apart for the wider gauges, is it be possible for you to modify the body to suit the wider gauges?

You could always throw caution to the wind and buy these <https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-plastic-bevel-gear-white-gear-helical-gear-for-DIY-reduction-gear-box/132760566338?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225086%26meid%3D4f49a59a6b72429a881d1a6dcde0e803%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D2%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D152726693943%26itm%3D132760566338%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV2bDemotion%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851> HTH Stan

I have in my hand a 14mm x 50mm LiPo battery with a claimed capacity of 2400mAh. I also have 16mm x 34mm 2800 mAh and 18mm x 65mm 4000mAh rechargeable batteries plus lots of smaller capacity rechargeable batteries. Just search on the internet. Thanks to our vaping smokers and those who need wobbly toys, rechargeable batteries are developing at a great rate - as are small electric motors for said toys . . . Stan