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Really enjoyed the video and pictures from York, what I noted above anything else was just how good the layout looks in natural light/sunlight - it makes such a difference. The warmth of the sunlight and the natural shadows add an element of realism that doesn't come across in artificial light. I guess artificial light is too white and tends to bleach colours? Lovely! Steve

John, It is always interesting to compare you data with mine, as I believe our systems are similar in specification, except that I have a battery. So this month as follows: Generated: 75kwh Used: 19.7kwh Battery charge: 30kwh Exported: 25.3kwh Consumption: Self use: 19.7kwh Battery discharge: 31kwh Imported: 38.81kwh Unlike you, we don't use much power when the panels are generating - AM and early PM as they are SE facing. The battery comes into its own in the late afternoon/evening when we are all home and doing stuff. Goes to show that the battery/no battery decision is very much down to personal circumstances. For comparison, last month we generated 138kwh and imported 225kwh. Like you say, roll on the summer. Steve

@MattR I have a spare Brassmasters buffer beam and some white metal buffers that would happily bag up and send to you for a small consideration - ie p&p at cost. PM me if you are interested. Steve

You could try a coat of Johnsons Klear. I hasten to add I have never tried it on resin but it does seem to cover clouding on things like clear perspex. Good luck

Thanks Dave @DIW - good spot. I will give him a call. Steve

This is a long shot, but would anyone have a spare/redundant Conrad universal point motor. I know they are available from Conrad but I only need one to replace a failed unit and the €20 p&p more than doubles the cost of the motor. Happy to pay for the motor and p&p if anyone has one spare? Thank you Steve

@landscapesmust confess your picture made me do a double take. I thought it was the real thing - the track in the foreground is especially convincing. Lovely work. Steve

Something appears in the model railway press and then "everyone" wants one

@Hobby and @hayfield - correct the inverter is automatic and handles all the routing based on supply and demand. We managed 12.4kwh today, exporting 5.8kwh. Consumption (so far) is 5.15kwh but one of the kids is insisting on baking cookies now 😠- so the battery is rapidly draining and is currently at 24%. Interestingly, the battery is now now at 24% but is discharging at 1.9kwh - 0.5kwh is being consumed and 0.9kwh is being exported. I would prefer not to be exporting and for the battery to retain its charge for the rest of the evening. But, it is automatic so I am confused as to why it does this. It won't be long before we have to import power as the battery tends not to go below 15% charge. For us, the battery makes sense as most of our generation is in the morning, but we consume in the evening. The delta between the cost of importing and income generated for exports makes the battery a reasonable medium-long term investment.

Mange tout Rodney!

Hi John, I am not sure it is that logical - my system (which has a 3kwh battery) doesn't follow that pattern. So, for example when I get up in the morning, invariably my system has imported >2kwh overnight - don't ask me what for as I don't know. So I am already down before the sun is up. Then depending on the generation and the draw on the battery at any given time, it may/may not use power directly from the panels/import energy/use the battery/export energy. I think this is the function performed by the inverter. If i take the other day as an example: We generated 7kwh Consumed 10.86kwh Charged and discharged the battery: 4kwh Self used (from the panels) 2.17kwh Imported 4.69kwh Exported 0.83kwh I am sure someone more technical than I can explain it better. Steve

If it were a stamp or a bank note it would be worth a fortune!

I pre ordered too, but suspect the email was a victim of one of many culls since 2018. I am sure @tmc will be reaching out to all the preorder customers to give a status update once there is something to report. Steve

Lots of younger fans were begging the team for the "jet train". I didn't hang around to see it, does anyone have any pics? Thanks Steve

That is well observed, trying to move them at a railway expo (even AllyPally) would be trickier - smaller target audience, better informed/less likely to buy as well as bringing them into conflict with retailers in attendance - we have seen a few comments on RMWeb about retailers being undermined by manufacturers in the past. I also wonder if the cost of attending AllyPally would also undercut their margin?

Hi @Graham108, Thanks for your post, I plan to have isolating section switches wired in line with the rotary switches that will direct power to specific sections. Does that make sense? Steve

@woodenhead you are not wrong. I just bought a new Bachmann 47 in green from Kernow for £169. I dug out my first generation version for comparison. I kept the 2011 invoice from Rails: £34.50! I know the new one is far superior and there is 12 years of inflation - but still. I also sold off some of my collection a few years ago: mostly Hornby A3s, Britannia's, 9Fs and Bachmann Jubilees. Instantly regretted it having realised a fraction of their subsequent value. Now I find it really hard to part with anything, and I still don't have a competed layout to run them on!

@ejstubbs working on it, I am on their standard export tariff but need to switch supply to them in the coming months. Just waiting for things to settle down a bit. Currently with eon.next

@Hobby PS: having a small battery probably makes some sense to help out on a rainy day, but given your usage pattern it may not be worth it.

@Hobby it comes down to how much electricity you use and cost. As @hayfield mentioned - installation costs do seem to step up once you reach a certain number of panels. So, take a look at your consumption, get some quotes and estimates of how much power each installation will yield and do your calculations. You will have to make some assumptions owing to the many variables. By way of example, our system (which has a 3kw battery) has generated 245Kwh in 2023 YTD, of which we exported 10% (for which we received approximately £1). 220Kwh at £0.354 per unit means we have saved approximately £80. Our system came on line in September, for the last 4 months of 2022 we generated 517Kwh and exported 141kwh. So, the lowest yielding months of the year have generated 737kwh (£255 at today's prices) and we exported 166kwh (£6.64 export value). I am working on the basis that the next 5.5 months will significantly improve. With an expected annual cost offset of around £700-800 per annum I should recover my costs in 9-10 years. Good luck Steve

I think you need to consider what your consumption looks like - no point over egging the solar system if you are not going to use the power it generates - selling it back to the grid is quite a marginal benefit unless you get @hayfield's 15p a KW! We have 7 panels on an ESE facing roof. This has helped brought our bills down about 66%, although not such a good yield in the winter. Our 3kwh battery has proved useful as our panels stop generating by about 2pm, so it sees us through into the evening. You may not need it with your SSW aspect. I viewed the cost as an alternative investment to keeping cash in the bank, yielding ~8% pa compared to <2% in the bank (at the time). If however, you need the cash at some point it may be a different matter?

I use brass lace making pins - squared off using a carbon disk or squashed using a pair of pliers for the lower hinges - which protrude more than the top hinges.

@rovex if you are referring to the ones I advertised a few months back, I was going to standardise on my Bachmann 40s, but having not generated any interest I decided my Limby 40s are worth more to me than to let them go too cheaply. I am planning to give them a spritz at some point. They won't evera match the Bachmanns but will be okay layout locos.

I picked up an A2/2 from Amazon Warehouse for a decent price (at the time) and it had buckled eccentric rod - the problem was due to a loose nut holding the eccentric crank. All sorted and running sweetly. Probably worth checking the nut on the eccentric crank is nice and tight before running in.

i have doen the same with my Lima class 40s, which now run with new Hornby chassis - which is a drop in replacement