GWR-fan

My experience on eBay, mostly as a seller is that people only purchase items if they are cheap or cannot be sourced elsewhere. Sometimes as a seller one gets a very jaded view of humanity. I even had one buyer complain that I charged him five cents more than than the actual postage cost. I did not charge him for the packaging nor the five kilometre drive to the post office plus my time in sending him the item. I normally sell my items at below what others charge as they are surplus to my needs and I want them gone. I am sure that people do "punt" on items, but unless very cheap they pass on them. Punting assumes a degree of risk. Do these punters acknowledge this risk when assessing the item received?

I have an unusual attraction for the old Graham Farish generic "Collett"(?) coaches in both corridor "mainline" and non-corridor "suburban" guises. Unfortunately if retro fitting with later metal wheelsets such as from Hornby, the axle length is too short and just the weight of the coach will have the wheel slip out of the bogie pinpoint bearing recess. Unfortunately, I damaged a couple of bogies by bending the sideframes in while the bogies were at room temperature. Most were successful but having the occasional breakage had me looking for another method. Initially I tried a heat gun but unfortunately the heat could be too much causing damage to the bogie moulding. The most successful method was to pour hot water into a bowl and immerse the bogie for a couple of minutes, keeping the coupler out of the water. Once removed, the bogie became more pliable and with the frames adjusted inwards the bogie was immersed in cold water. Perhaps this method may be used on the brittle Tri-ang bogies.

Andy, yes. The site that is blacklisted is "s2.adxpremium.services"

Yesterday I received an email from a company selling tools as regularly seen on the Google advertisements when opening this web forum. In hindsight I should have simply sent the email to the junk/do not receive pile but unfortunately I decided to unsubscribe from the sender. I am internet savvy and always dubious of incioming emails however, this one caught me offguard as it was not asking for any personal data, only showing tools for sale. Now everytime I log onto this forum my antivirus programme sweeps into action and protects me from a malicious programme which is trying to install a programme called "URL:Blacklist". I thought that I would never fall victim to an internet hacker but one must always be very, very careful and be wary on any incoming emails, even innocent looking ones. Edit: I even got the antivirus into action just submitting this posting.

I posted four packages this morning of which three packages had two purchases each combined and a refund was returned for the overcharge on shipping on each package. In each case eBay refunded me a portion of the fees paid on the amount of postage cost refunded.

With around $600.00 in sales yesterday, I now need to await the funds into my account. I have input the tracking numbers (I do not use the eBay postage label link) and marked the items as sent. I find the new web layout very cumbersome and time consuming to input the postal information, unlike the setup around three years ago when I last sold items. Another fault with the system is that buyers select an item and immediately pay the required postage on that item and then select another item and pay the postage for that item, thus paying excess postage which I need to refund once I have combined and posted the items. This necessitates wasted time. In days of old one would select the items to purchase and then request a combined postage charge. What I liked with the old system was all the sales were on one page with a drop down link on the right column whereby one would select the required task such as marking as sent or inputting tracking information. All the sales, whether sent or unsent, would remain on the selling page until removed or time expired. Now it seems that every task requires a different page selected. Until I know better it seems that I have to select the specific item sold then open the "order details" page and then input tracking info and marking as sent. The item then "vanishes" leaving just the unsent items listed. To get all the sent orders shown, one has to select "show all orders". It is a very cumbersome, time wasting platform.

The reason for this dates back many, many years ago when large sellers, many with feedback close to hundreds of thousands, who would list say a CD or DVD for $0.99 and then charge $25.00 upwards on postage. Thus paying no fees and pocketing the overcharge on actual shipping costs.

With over 2500 feedback and around twenty years selling on eBay, I had not listed items for a few years. Finally listed some items today, what a chore. One item sold promptly and it seems that funds are onhold until the buyer confirms receipt of the item. How times have changed. I find the "Selling" pages very user unfriendly. No doubt I will adapt to the changing times.

Back in the late 1970's I had been an ardent fan of the Mini, having had a string of them over the previous decade, including a Mk1 Cooper "S". When BMC/Leyland Australia announced the final run of the Mini, a 1275GT limited run, 750 in silver and 750 in gold, I purchased a silver model. It turned out to be a total lemon of a car with glue marked interior and an engine that overheated and was strangled by all the exhaust emission gear fitted. I traded it in just four months later, totally disappointed with the model. Well, the production car sold so well that the company jumped on the bandwagon and produced another 750 "limited run" of each colour. So much for a limited release production run of initially just 1500 cars. At the time the car cost around $5000.00. Fast forward to today and the car is worth around $25,000.00.

Currently Hattons have the excellent Peters Spares Lima AEC railcar replacement non-traction tyre wheelsets in stock, both geared and non-geared. Saves the exhorbitant international shipping cost from the original supplier. Edit: the gauge needs to be checked prior fitment as I have found every wheelset purchased to be undergauge.

I have found that a cheap matt black poster paint from the likes of K-mart or one of the $2.00 stores and then matt clear coated gives a good finish. Usually around $2.00 - 4.00 for 500mls.

Given a release date in just a few months, I doubt any revision to the tooling will be made. Most likely "promises" that issues will be looked into but I highly suspect that what you see is what you get.

What is it that they say about rats and ships?

While perhaps not simple solutions, either replace the driving wheels with a traction tyre fitted set or as seen in a You-tube video, run the loco with a Bachmann "City" class loco and many, many coaches may be hauled.

I have had two occasions with eBay in which stolen goods were involved. First was an american seller from whom I purchased several LGB locomotives of considerable value. As the locomotives were quite heavy I requested the seller (a New Jersey eBay power seller with a physical brick and mortat store) to ship the items via USPS economy mail (no longer available). At the time the shipping period exceeded the timeframe in which a buyer could post feedback. As that periodn was getting close I messaged the seller who in hindsight was passing me off as he stated that he would send me the shipping details, which like the goods in question never arrived. EBay refused my messaging as they said the period to post feedback had passed and all details of the transactions had timed out. Months later the seller relisted my items as individual listings. I contacted eBay on three occasions reporting the listings as stolen items but eBay's response was that as the seller was a trusted power seller, the seller would not engage in dealing with stolen items. I even reported the seller for fraud as he took postage money from me but never sent the goods. Alas, USPS also was not interested in investigating the transactions. I even contacted each of the bidders who had bid on my items and advised them that the items were subject to an eBay claim as stolen items, but was ignored by each of the bidders and eBay. As usual, eBay had no interest at all in pursuing any action, preferring instead on supporting their precious "power sellers" reputation status. I was out of pocket a considerable sum of money. Second incident I purchased secondhand items from a respected local eBay licenced secondhand dealer that turned out to be stolen. The original owner became aware that I had the items and demanded them to be returned. I contacted the seller who made it known that I had purchased the items "in good faith" and that as the original owner had been compensated by way of an insurance claim, the original owner had no further claim to the goods and under law, as he was a licenced secondhand dealer, my rights were covered under law and that I had nothing to be concerned about. He even advised me that should the original owner commence criminal proceedings that he, the dealer, would report the owner to the police for fraud as he had already been compensated for the theft by way of an insurance settlement.

While DCC installation, these videos may assist you.

Personally, I would be very surprised if KR Models actualy "owns" their tooling. They may have exclusive rights to the tooling. These days the Chinese like to keep everything inhouse, doing all the cad work and owning the tooling.

Actually I quite like the red version. This is not a defense of the manufacturer, but when you have a one off prototype then future production runs are very limited. Was Hornby similarly criticised for its card renditions of the "hush-hush" or its numerous repaints of Margate tooling items? At a guess I would believe that most manufacturers have released "fantasy" liveries on both locomotives or rolling stock in the past. There is a market for those who demand authenticity and obviously a market for those who like something a little different to the norm.

Peters Spares replacement wheelsets now fitted to all three Lima railcars. While relatively expensive the wheels are worth the money for improved performance. Several points to note for fitment. On early versions the wheelsets require disassembly to install to the powered bogie, however, on later models the axles fit directly into the axle cutouts with no need to disassemble the wheels. As supplied the wheelsets are under gauge so if not adjusted the geared wheels rub on the powered bogie sides, resulting in either no motion or at the best, minimal RPM. Once the gauge is adjusted to allow a little sideplay, the power bogie comes to life. At the moment the only further modification I will carry out is additional power pickups on the non-driven bogie. These wheels really do transform the model.

Received my two ambulance wagons. I am astonished at not just the quality of the wagons but also the quality of the packaging, better than how most locomotives are packaged.

Well, I had to bite the bullet and purchase the required items from the Peters Spares website for the Lima railcars. With the purchase of a BR green Lima railcar I needed three sets of replacement wheels so with two pairs of non-geared wheels already purchased from Hattons, I purchased the remaining geared wheelsets, a pair of non-geared wheels plus five pairs of the 10mm metal wheels for Lowmac wagons, plus some shouldered bearings. Surprisingly, VAT was removed from the GBP39.99 shipping cost bringing it down to GBP33.33.

Had to laugh today as among the latest arrivals was a Graham Farish "N" scale LMS mainline corridor coach in mint condition. Now I do not model "N" scale but I do like the old relatively inexpensive generic "OO" scale GF mainline corridor coaches and the non-corridor suburban coaches. Once received I slightly bend the bogie sideframes inwards to enable Hornby metal wheelsets to be fitted. I also make styrene infill pieces to cover up the underside of the coach moulding so that the underframe is one smooth piece rather than seeing the unsightly bottom of the seats in the coach moulding. Now when I purchased the apparent "N" scale coach I was not sure that it was actually "OO" scale although the pre-owned listing description did state "OO" scale. As only one image was shown on the listing of the coach in its packaging so the type of coupler was not evident, I did a Google image search of the supplied part number and it returned the "OO" scale coach. The packaging shown in the description image was not the usual blister packaging but as I already had received "OO" coaches in similar box type packaging, I convinced myself that the coach must be "OO" scale. At least the store thought that it was "OO" scale. What did concern me though was that the "OO" scale coach only has "LMS" on the coach side, whereas on this coach the supplied image showed not just "LMS" but also had the LMS logo (totem?). Well the coach is no use to me but it is a nice coach afterall and brings a smile to my face each time I look at it. We live and (hopefully) learn.

I am a sucker for the recent Hornby nostalgia trainsets, so when Hattons had listed a pre-owned R1285M Crash Train set for less than half their discounted retail price, I felt compelled to buy it even though described as a non-runner. A study of the supplied images showed what was possibly a customer return with which a coupling rod screw had departed causing the forward right split coupling rod to bend and jam the mechanism. Loose coupling rod screws are still a common issue on Hornby locomotives. Each new and pre-owned purchase I check tighten the screws before running the model. The trainset arrived this morning. The store not only protected the original Hornby brown outer packaging by double boxing the set for shipping but also supplied the missing coupling rod screw. Upon removing the chassis I had expected to find the coupling rod bent but it was not to be. The rod was perfect, so it was a simple matter of inserting the "missing" screw and test running the model. Of the five installed coupling rod screws still insitu, three were loose. Performance was more than acceptable considering the generic 0-6-0 chassis that Hornby put under a lot of their Rairoad range models. The loco showed minimal usage so the rod screw may have separated shortly after purchase, rendering it unusable. The rest of the contents of the trainset showed no usage at all.

Received this morning four train packs from the current Hattons warehouse sale. The "Caledonian" pack was perfect. The loco "King George VI" ran perfectly. The Hornby "Cambrian coast" with Castle class "Nunney Castle" was also in good shape. The Hornby "Bristolian" with King class "King Charles II" was described as minor cosmetic damage (easily fixed) and inconsistent runner. As received the loco was dead when placed on the rails. A little prodding and suddenly the loco sprang into life and ran smoothly. Three wins. Even the ex-Dapol ringfield drive in "Nunney Castle" ran well. Alas, the fourth trainpack "The Red Dragon" did not fare so well. Described as ran fine when last run, the loco was a basket case of previous hamfisted work being carried out to get it to run. I purchased "The Red Dragon" pack as I specificially wanted the five-pole can motor chassis to fit into the "Nunney Castle" loco from the "Cambrian Coast" pack as I have a distinct distaste for the ex-Dapol ringfield drives. Alas, when placed the loco on the track the motor would spin with no drive to the wheels. Immediate thought was split axle gear. I removed the body to find a butcher had stripped the forward body mount screw hole and had inserted a brass wood screw. Immediately obvious was that the worm gear retention saddle was loose allowing the worm to lift away from the intermediate gear, so I thought a bullet had been dodged. I then reassembled and tested only to find not only the final drive gear split but Billy the butcher had mangled the power pickups to each wheel and in the process had stripped all six coupling rod mount screw holes. Basically, what I have now is a pile of spare parts (of which some are usable) and not the "ran fine when last run" loco that I thought I was receiving. I had some wins and unfortunately some losses. Now awaiting a further three packs from the sale so fingers crossed.

No sign of any corrosion or "crud" on the axles or bearing recesses in the chassis block. The loco appeared as new with no sign of use.