djparkins

I agree. I fully applaud Dapol for releasing this locomotive, which in my opinion will be extremely important in terms of the longer term future of UK O Gauge. However, l still fail completely to see how they will be able to bring such a complex subject to market at anywhere near the prices they are quoting. I do hope I’m wrong though! Also the two main GBRf schemes really need adding to the livery options DJP

I agree with everyone else that it is a really good issue. Though I feel that even with the future layout projects mentioned, they are still very much reflecting about the past. During the time of Tim Shackleton's editorship they were starting to have some more modern features [well not really modern, but post-steam!] in the magazine, but even that has decreased. Perhaps they need to get a little less cliquey in terms of their contributors.

It may be hard as there are so many etched sheets in the kits that are on ultra-thick material, and thus very expensive now, [with the demise of Photo Etch Consultants], that I fear the end-user price may well be beyond what most customers might be prepared to pay, and for the manufacturer to make a profit. I'm pleased I have ten of the O gauge Kemilway coaches in my stash, but getting all the parts was a long and arduous business! It is sad, as the Kemilway originator George Pring was something of a pioneer in the early years of etched kits, as I'm sure many of you will know. Just another sign of the times in the hobby. Fortunately, our purchase of the Cavalier Coaches range from the ABS stable, will enable us to carry on with something comparable. David Parkins MMP/ABS 7mm Wagons/Cavalier Coaches/Classic Commercials/Wrightlines - Blah de Blah! www.davidjparkins.com

That is true in a sense but it also means he cannot reclaim the VAT on his/her business inputs that have VAT applied, and then becomes an end-user where that VAT amount is concerned. So he has to pass it on to the customer in with the price, plus his own mark-up on top. This then comes out at maybe a slightly lower end-user price for a UK customer [as he is not paying VAT on the trader's mark-up] but a higher one for custoimers outside the UK, as the VAT paid on the input element of the sale cannot be deducted from the proportion it forms of the export purchase price. Before I reached the VAT threshold [too long ago to remember exactly!] I was constantly getting castigated by my trade customers, saying [in effect] they were sick of paying my VAT for me. They had a point, and the same applies to the example I've just given. As for VAT registration thresholds in the UK - they seem to have risen way beyond, say, the inflation rate. There are two points of view to this. Either we become like some EU countries and the registration threshold is so low that to be any kind of trader you really have to register. This would give everyone a fair and level playing field to operate from in one sense. But then a local VAT inspector told me that 90% of VAT revenue is gained from less that 10% of businesses that are registered for VAT and he said he would like to see the threshold set at as high as £100-120,000 turnover, He was a little dejected on his visit to me, as he was suposed to collect a minimum of £1000 per day in underpaid VAT. I was short by 1p. I asked him if he wanted cash or would they send a bill? - he said he'd waive it. Really, so very kind! This bit is off-topic I know, but interesting nonetheless, I feel. In the end I suppose it comes down to how much a trader is motivated to keep going. But all these oft-mentioned 'new-fangled' changes really are not so hard, and like many things in life are as simple or as complicated as you choose to make them. I personally moaned for a long time about the introduction of making VAT digital but now it's here and I do it, it is simplicity iteslf and just saves so much time. So I was wrong! I think whatever you are - whether a trader or a customer, the main thing is to enjoy what you are doing whilst you are doing it. Once it stops being enjoyable - then you do have the option to quit. The world will keep turning.

Well even though I was on the losing side, we have left and so that is that - but regarding export we have found no problems. We export most weekdays and what were EU sales are now simply the same as the US, Canadian and any other 'rest of world' sales. They are VAT deducted and post charged as per normal. Customs paperwork for the kind of orders we process are the work of moments if you are set up for it. It really is not very difficult, and that is just as well, as with our military ranges, as well as the railway ones, around 70% of our sales are to overseas customers. David Parkins MMP/ABS 7mm etc.

Just an update on the various ex-Adrian Swain Ranges + stock availability. 43-two-1 Wagon kits - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=348 Both the remaining Wagon Kits and Accessory Packs are dwindling fairly rapidly and many subjects have now sold out. We now have no BR wagon kits left. There are one or two ‘stickers’ left that we do have some quantities of – mainly the ‘boring’ open wagons, that you actually need most of! So we have reduced these subjects still further and offer even greater discounts for multiples of five [or four and three in some cases]. Some Accessory Packs have similarly been reduced. Cavalier Coaches – https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=351 We have reduced still further the prices for the remaining Bogie Kits that are left – not many types remain now. Some are now only £4.00 per pair – Ridiculous prices I know, so get them whilst you can. We have discovered a few more Cavalier Coach Accessory Packs and have added these to the web site. This puts some sets back into availability. Once again prices have been reduced still further on many items, whilst we keep them available. Wrightlines - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=352 The remaining Wrightlines items are selling out fast and we have very few locos and coaches left. We still some of most types of the Talyllyn wagons available at very low prices. To the future! We are now preparing the first batch of re-tooled subjects from Adrian’s ranges, for release throughout the Autumn of this year and the 23/24 winter period. This involves some 25 standard gauge wagons from the 43--two-1 range , all the Wrightlines coaching stock and wagon kits plus all the smaller packs and accessories from the Classic Commercials range - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=353 - together with FOUR variants of the much-missed BR Scammell Scarab kit. All these subjects and those that follow will be virtually unrecognisable from what went before! More wagons will then follow in batches, plus loco kits on a one by one basis from all the ranges – both ABS and Wrightlines. As regards Cavalier Coaches. Our purpose in acquiring this range was never to keep available the bogie and accessory packs as previously and currently sold. We wanted these masters to form the basis a new range of coach and non-passenger coaching stock kits – but more of that anon. So there it is – an update for those interested. And for those of you who are fans of Adrian’s kits as he traditionally sold them – this is your final call – get all you think you will need at these current ludicrously-low prices! They won’t come again – or last very long. Happy Modelling DJP

No - its the secret path to The Dark Web.

So your A4 arrives at the head of a train using buckeye couplers, as per prototype, and on the layout you pick up a ten coach train from the track in order to uncouple the loco from the first coach?! And you can't lift the coupler enough above the horizontal with everything on the track, as there is very little clearance below the gangways [if your coach is accurate]. Sounds great. The hook won't drop or raise up enough. I've just tried it on a Darstead Thompson full brake and it won't work, so no chance on our own Mk.1s, with much tighter tolerances. It is a shame as in many ways, as stated above, they are otherwise well engineered. I would order many more sets if they would simply drop from the horizontal.

I bought five sets of these but am seriously debating now whether to buy more. I cannot understand why you would want to raise the coupling. I can't really think of an instance why, on gangwayed stock, you would want to do this. But even so, the much more important function is to be able to drop it from the horizontal easily and bring it back up again to that position - and the method suggested above to do this seems very far from being either easy or convenient. Apart from the ability to join two pieces of stock together via the sprung knuckles with the couplers in the horiziontal position [which I agree is nice to have], it is much easier to raise the couplings on the buckeyes in our own Mk.1 kits for example - simply by sliding through a locking pin, attached to the coach buffer beam via chain [as per prototype], with no lifting of the coupler head above the horizontal. David Parkins, Modern Motive Power

Yes they were. I built an LMS jubilee for a customer in the early ‘70s. Another nightmare!

Would that have been the kit for the Egyptian Railways 'Asp' Class, one of which was named 'Elizabeth Taylor' as I recall!

Can anyone get before our first CAD etched kit in 1993 [in our Flightpath range] - for 1:32nd scale F-4C/D Phantom Jet Pipes. I'm sure they probably can!

I bet fretting out those clerestory side panels was fun!

This is developing into a real trip down Memory Lane! Yes I remember that green coating all too well. I had to build two rakes of Cambrian stock from those TC sides. I never thought that the window cutting, drilling of door handle/handrail locations, and the removal of that coating would end, and I could actually begin any real construction work and earn some money! And to think there are still modellers who cannot handle today's 21st century etched kits! They don't know they are born. Thanks to Barclay for the pics of the Sayer 'kit'. It looks utterly horrendous. So possibly we can still say then that the first fully etched kits as we know them today were the George Allan ones!

Ah l think l recall someone mentioning these and had completely forgotten. Can you post a photo of the contents? That would be really interesting. Thanks

George Allan Models, which later became Kemilway introduced an etched footbridge kit in [I believe] 1971 and a kit for a kind of three bay awning for a goods/parcels depot. I was working in my father's model shop when we got them in and I'd never seen anything like it. These are often referred to as being the first etched kits produced but I'm sure others might know of something earlier. I built both of the above and remember thinking how it would change the hobby. I took to them like a duck to water and could instantly see the possibilites for locomotives and rolling stock - and indeed, it wasn't that long before Kemilway/George Allan brought out their GWR Siphon kit. I found that time in the hobby very exciting, and when the 7mm Mallard and Metalmodels kits came out things really started to get interesting to me. I should also mention the superb Colin Waite GWR kits of that period. By that time I was a full time commission builder and used to be so pleased if I got a Colin Waite kit to build for a customer as I knew everything fitted so well. The Trever Charlton coach sides and ends referred to above were just surface detail on zinc, and you had to cut out all the window apertures. Can you imagine anyone doing that today?! I remember showing the Late Adrian Swain of ABS Models a Metalmodels Siphon F kit and telling him it would change kit design in the future. Of course Adrian just scoffed! David Parkins, MMP/43-two-1/Classic Commercials etc. www.djparkins.com

Don't you just love border collies. Those guys are ALWAYS on duty!

Yes but you’d still be left with a wagon with BR pattern W irons. That’s my point. Dapol really need to have versions with LMS/RCH style W irons too for all their proposed versions to be accurate. And for those who say it doesn’t matter - it matters to some of us - and it must also matter to Dapol, given their avowed intention as stated in their latest blurb about the Stroudley coaches, to make all future releases to the greatest level of accuracy possible. I’d like 20-30 of these vans but they become a very expensive proposition if l have to design, produce, build and fit a conversion set to around 60-70 percent of the vehicles l would like to buy. The only other option is the very unlikely event that Dapol would sell the bodies separately for those who would like an accurate GWR or LMS built vehicle. David Parkins MMP/ABS-43two1 etc www.djparkins.com

Axleboxes quite probably - but W irons probably less so and those are the most glaring error. But as l said earlier, the BR W irons will be passable for wagons in the BR period and numbered as for the pre-nationalisation designs built after 1948, for a brief period. The problem is if you wish to depict them as GWR or LMS built vehicles.

For me, up there with the greatest, alongside John Mclaughlin [who Beck considered to be the greatest]. Unlike a lot of the Rock Elder Statesmen he didn't rest on his laurels and just got better. So pleased I saw him in Cardiff last May.

In my opinion the first Siphon G is a Diag. 0.62 vehicle in rail blue that has been newly converted for Newspaper traffic, given the date of the photo. These vehicles were either ETH fitted or piped. Note the plated-over lourves. The white 'Newpapers' branding has yet to be added. The second Siphon G is I believe to Diag. 0.33. As cctransuk says the last livery this vehicle would have carried in non-departmental use would have been BR Maroon [BR Crimson before that] in the 1960s - never brown. Several were repainted in olive grren once they went into departmental use. I would interpret the vehicle to be in highly weathered maroon from the photo. Given the date I doubt that a vehicle painted in olive green in the late 1970s/early-mid1980s would have weathered that much - even given the fact that they were probably never cleaned. DJP

Try this link - came up third in google when I searched Albion Alloys https://www.albionalloys.com/en/ As can be seen on Hannants Web Site - AA do wire/rod as well, though it is not readily apparent from their Albion Alloys' own web site. They do seem more interested in selling through dealers. Excellent quality though. https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=362490&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=&keyword_search=&setPerPage=25&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search= DJP

Yes you are quite correct, it was the waiting room that had those models on display. I think there were about six showcases in all. And yes, l also recall now that Dudley Dimmock’s shop was indeed on that crescent. Memory plays tricks, as you say!

Thanks. Well I remember Westbourne Model Supplies, and there was an afro caribbean guy used to work there around that time. I may be getting confused as I don't know if that was the same shop that became Dudley Dimmock's before he opened up in [IIRC] Charminster Road in Bournemouth. I certainly remember myself and a school friend cycling over 20 miles to Westbourne and buying Graham Farish points from him and then walking part of the way back to Ringwood over an overgrown part of the old Christchurch-Ringwood line - that closed in 1935. Later, in 1975, I interviewed Harold Delia [by then very old], he being the last member of staff at Hurn station, when he was told of it's impending closure in 1935. All interesting stuff. Does anyone remember the large scale models of rolling stock on display in cases in the main hall of Bournemouth West station? Imagine such a thing now!

Of course E. Rankine Grey was a very 'difficult' man and very easy to fall out with as my family can attest when he was trying to to sell the model railway as a going business concern. He and the proprietor of ERG Models, Jock Stewart, were at daggers drawn in the later years! I post below part of a piece I wrote recalling my own and my father's visits to ERGs, when it was in the basement at Roumelia Lane in Boscombe. As has been said, Jock was flooded towards the end, but was in any case, often in dispute with the Wimpy bar above regarding water leakage! The picture of the final location of ERGs relates, I believe, to the purchaser of the business after Jock Stewart's death when it carried on as a source of John E. Skinley drawings. Excerpt follows, which some my find interesting - "There was no greater one-off however, than Mr. 'Jock' Stewart the proprietor. Roumelia Lane was, in fact, a place I loved, and it was the epitome of an area that is missing from so many towns now - that delicious mix of small industrial premises amongst the residential. It was a narrow lane running parallel with the main high street, and it had lots of small businesses, such as a printers, a sheet metal workers at one point, and a much larger concern - a branch of British Insulated Calendar Cables [BICC]. A walk along the lane from the western end and a left turn before the printers would lead you across a patch of ‘waste ground' towards the top of some concrete steps. These steps lead to what was, for me, paradise. As you descended the steps, the first thing you would be greeted by would be two or three of the stray cats that Jock would feed. The steps would need careful negotiation, particularly in winter, as there was no handrail provided and would certainly fall seriously foul of today's 'ealth and safety regulations. At the foot of the steps were the doors to Jock's model emporium, which was entitled 'ERGs'. The almost Southern Railway Green doors complete with a small black and red sign, declared that this business was a member of META, the Model Engineering Traders Association, if I recall correctly. What greeted you instead was an array of open trays, that might have been from discarded matchboxes. They contained all the parts and accessories a serious modeller of the day might require to hand build, or 'scratch' build railway locomotives, carriages and freight wagons - wheels, axles and bearings, gears, buffers and a host of other fittings. Then there were most of the tools you would need to build these items. To the left of the counter were shelves with examples of locomotives his customers had built and these, as a child, were my inspiration. Oh that I might aspire to be that good one day, either at that, or at something else! The greatest treasure to me though were what lay in the wooden drawer units on the right of this basement shop. These were full of blueprints for the building of those same locomotives, carriages and wagons - white outlines on blue sheets from the firm 'John E. Skinley'. These held infinite wonder and possibilities for an aspiring young modelmaker. Likewise the ERG printed cardboard lorries. These you could cut out and reinforce for strength, then make into the classic road haulage vehicles of the late 1940s and 1950s. They were pre-coloured, and you would then use brass rod for the axles and add wheels, although I never got as far as actually fitting any with them. The old saying 'it is better to travel hopefully, than to arrive' is apposite, I think! Top of the tree for me though, were the Bilteezi sheets that Mr. Stewart sold you. These were pre-coloured buildings and lineside accessories - from station buildings and signal boxes to factories, corner shops, village churches and barns. Again, these you would cut out, score to bend and reinforce with thick card on the inside. He would also sell you the glue to make these - Pafra. Now Pafra was something else as regards the fumes and would find a ready market today for quite different purposes! My father was the master of the Bilteezi Sheet. He would cut out and individually glaze all the windows, shape and fit brass tubing for the downpipes and chimneys, and cut plastic drinking straws in half for the guttering. I recall a stone blacksmith's shop he made, complete with a glowing forge deep inside the building. This was achieved by the use of some ‘magic’ glow-in-the-dark red powder he purchased from Woolworths, from what he called their 'trinkets' counter - another source of useful modelmaking aids. To return to Mr. Stewart. He would greet you with a loud 'Hellooo' followed by two short snuffles - possibly due to his prolonged presence in the damp basement shop. He wore an overcoat over an engineer's apron, a cap and wellington boots. Over a period of almost eighteen years I don't think I ever saw him in any other attire. If you arrived near to his closing time and asked him if you were too late, his reply would always be "aye, that depends on how much you'll be spending laddie". To the right of the shop was a workbench at which would sit Mr. Stewart's daughter Nina, packing parcels for the mail-order side of the business. This constituted the main source of income, and was in response to the adverts he would place in model magazines [no internet then!]. For her, it must have been a very gloomy existence, working down in that basement each day, with only her father for company. Years later, after Jock's death in the early 1980s, I would often bump into her whilst shopping, and was struck by the change in her. She was absolutely transformed into an outgoing, and even vivacious, woman. So for all my own nostalgia about Mr. Stewart and his shop, I suppose its demise, after his death, did have one good outcome - Nina started to live a little! Jock travelled to and from the shop on an old tradesman's bike, with a basket at the front and a metal plate set within the 'triangle' of the cycle frame. As I recall, this was left blank however. In the later years of visiting the shop there would often be a ‘back in ten minutes’ sign on the door. On his return he would say "sorry to keep you waiting laddie, I was just having a flutter on the gee-gees", having visited the bookies at the end of Roumelia Lane. In later years particularly, the shop took on that unmistakable fragrance that only cat's urine can provide. He loved the stray cats and on cold nights would let them 'sleep-over' inside the shop! He also developed a unique way of turning the introduction of Value Added Tax [VAT] in 1973, into a sales promotion tool! He would jot down each item you purchased on a card and then add it up, saying "that’s £2.50 plus the VATees" and “£4.20 plus the VATees" and so-on. He would then reach the total, which by then, would of course include the VAT. Then he would say "that all comes to £19.50 plus the VATees, but since you're a good customer, I'll stand you the tax!". All these are little vignettes of a vanished world. Model shops today, at least those that still exist, are, for the most part, like many other shops. They are clean, bright, open, even slick, and mostly very well-run. They would have to be to survive! Not all the clientele have changed accordingly though, and I certainly look back on my 'ERG Days' with huge affection - and particularly those visits made during my late school years, when I would load up my duffel bag with 'goodies' before going for a day out on the real trains, during those final years of steam on the Bournemouth line. Once seated on the London-bound express, I would delve into the bag and inspect my purchases, dreaming of the models I would make from them – beginning, of course, the very next day! Mostly, I never did though - as I said earlier, it is better to travel hopefully, than to arrive."