Mutley

There was an ex-LMS presence at Minehead Butlins as well!

I was there the Saturday before last to pickup a standard DCC ready version and they mentioned that the sound fitted locos were due in 2-3 weeks.

I bow to your expertise. Just saying that Hitatchi build trains for their home market that have to endure a lot more than what is thrown up at Dawlish.

Are you serious? Do you have any idea of the extreme weather conditions that Japanese trains have to endure? The Japanese Rail system is amongst the most efficient and reliable in the world. I'd suggest the problem is not with the build quality of the trains, it's with the cheapskate DfT and their specifications.

There's this rental layout: https://www.youtube.com/c/レンタルレイアウトReColor/featured

All of my Japanese stock provides for slide-in decoders on cab cars and the centre coaches with motors. I think the ICE models also use this and so would presume it will be the same for the 800's. See here for an example of fitting:

My Kato stock runs the best of anything I've ever owned. I bought a couple of Shinkansen sets, thinking that I'd have a small N Gauge layout alongside my OO Gauge Minories but that plan was soon out of the window and 12 months on, all of my British stock has been sold and I have no less than 30 Japanese-prototype EMU's and loco-hauled sets. Absolutely no regrets!

Another vote for Zimo. I've just returned to OO Gauge after a brief period in O and I've equipped my whole fleet (20ish locos) with Zimo MX600R's for the 8-Pin locos and MX638D's for the 21-Pins - as SR Man says above, £20 each. I tried some of the Hattons 21-Pins a year or two back and didn't find them to be as good as the Lenz's I had elsewhere, but the Zimo's beat both of them in my opinion for quiet, smooth running and fine tuning on motor control. Mike

Try here for some extra detail, usually fairly accurate: http://cgibin.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/r-roster.cgi

Brilliant, thanks - really appreciate it.

Hi all, A layout that really inspired me back in the 1990's was Hexworth Market Street, set in the northwest in the BR Blue period. It appeared in one of the Model Rail supplements of Rail Magazine back in the 1990's and I kept a whole load of them for years but unfortunately they all got lost in a house move. I'm trying to track down the issue in which it appeared so that I can try to nab a copy from Ebay and wondered if anybody could point in me in the right direction? I realise that a long time has passed now but thought it was worth asking the question! Thanks in advance Mike

I advertised in the 'Wanted' section that I was looking for a Hornby loco that was released back in 2014, haven't been able to find it anywhere and Barry dropped me a message to say that they had one. Loco arrived very quickly, excellent, friendly service and will definitely use them again. Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM. Thanks Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM. Thanks Mike

If you have one of the above that you're looking to sell, please drop me a PM. Thanks Mike