Jump to content
 

34theletterbetweenB&D

Members
  • Posts

    13,020
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

34theletterbetweenB&D last won the day on December 20 2011

34theletterbetweenB&D had the most liked content!

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

34theletterbetweenB&D's Achievements

14.5k

Reputation

  1. Should have used that one with the weird outside axleboxes on the leading bogie wheelset which makes it look like a steamroller, that would have been a better fit
  2. N.B.The funny response is specifically for the above. Five hundred year old materials and work, and the current curators likely inhibited from attempting to take off the ancient varnish to reveal what truly lies beneath.
  3. Since I am pre-diabetic, where to send the contents?
  4. It's a large proportion of RTR OO loco purchasers in my opinion, and here's my basis for this statement: My own second hand purchases that have no evidence of ever being run; and that's once removed from the pristine box it arrived in, still neatly wrapped in the plastic film lining and other pieces to protect it in transit, which can never be reinstated as neatly as the unknown Chinese lady originally managed to place it so tidily. Dealers of my acquaintance that have in quiet moments spoken of (excellent) customers that regularly buy locos, little to no rolling stock, and no track or anything else necessary to actually make an operational layout, and never return anything as faulty. (Comparison to RTR N gauge purchasers; always purchasing 'everything' to make an operable model railway, and regularly with returns. One now retired retailer told me he would drop N gauge tomorrow because of the return rate, were it not that he liked his customers and didn't want to see their consequent disappointment.) The effect of this is twofold: There is an 'invisible subsidy' for those that want to make use of RTR OO on layouts, which has made the production of the large array of models now before us economically feasible. Consequence, the brands don't obtain accurate feedback within the warranty period of the failure rate of their loco product. Something of a 'Supping with the Devil, use a long spoon' situation for those of us that want to operate the RTR OO product, especially if wanting to buy s/h for the cost saving. My 'solution' has been to always buy new from a retailer when something appropriate for my interest is first released, so that it can have an infant mortality test completed within days of purchase; and to read the known reliable 'owner's that operate' findings online, (many on this site). Thus far since 1999, I haven't had an intrinsically duff RTR OO mechanism. I ducked the Heljan Brush 4 and Hornby Brush 2 mazak rot episodes because neither was of accurate appearance in my opinion, so simply not purchased; and the Bachmann K3 - initially released with electrical joints made with lead free solder - the problem was detected online, and immediately corrected in consequence. There's the useful listing on this site, which is an invaluable reference. Due to the ease with which the widely used zinc alloys can be contaminated, this is a risk which simply has to be accepted, since AFAIK there is no economically viable alternative.
  5. Bog roll of the cheapest and cheerful unpatterned variety. (I happen to use Tesco's but that's because it's where we do the bulk shopping, I expect it all comes from the same factories.) Peel it apart to get a single lamination, cut to size, arrange as required, 'dope' with dark brown grey paint to hold in place. Also good for all vehicles that had a canvas doped roof to represent 'long time in service condition' with small creases, tears and patches.
  6. And it is not as though there is no competition, looking for subjects. I would give priority to the A1, which was a very early 'Blue Riband' introduction and easily the best pacific model seen up that time in RTR OO. (The A2 model looks better than the A1, inherent to the protoype design which has neater proportions.)
  7. Coming from a lifelong interest in high fidelity sound reproduction, among the limitations on accurate reproduction of sound is the matter of those who don't want to hear it. I regularly found myself writing to remind others with the bug that before they lashed out on ambitious kit they needed first a detached house, (and should that be impossible, then a large investment in sound insulation) and to ensure approval of the family and any others they resided with. I have to wait for the wife to be lunching with her friends before hearing Liszt's ideas on Faust's plummet into hell, among other works...
  8. Stations with a siding terminating in a loading ramp were a commonplace item from the time that the national rail network was beginning to develop. The initial purpose was to permit the loading of flat wagons attached to passenger trains, which allowed the wealthy to have their road coach travel with them. (There was regular provision of horseboxes too.)
  9. On the evidence that Heljan have signed up to this EFE distribution deal that's probably the case. If you want to get a numerical result for this here is a UK listing: https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/
  10. So long as they were to dump the malfunctioning camming loco to tender link seen on the V2 a new Pepp A2 should be OK. I would hope that if a new tooling were considered, Bachmann might follow Hornby's lead by giving the one Doncaster pacific they 'own' outright a largely metal loco body. And since they would be adding brass bearings to the drivers, they might as well take just over a millimetre out of the coupled wheelbase, to get as close to scale as Hornby managed on the P2. That might in turn offer the space for a slight increase to scale length of the cylinder block. The user optional sprung flanged wheelset for the Cartazzi truck as executed on the V2 would be good, and finally to couple the tender on, let's have the screw locked slide spacing adjustment that appeared on all the steam tender models released since the A2, only to be abruptly dropped - kerlunk - for the V2's camming link which should only be consigned to the outer darkness at express speed. Opportunity for incremental improvements in short.
  11. And that certainly wasn't what I intended to suggest was your opinion. Hornby's actions in OO considered overall look commercially sound to me. And from among the other long term competitors, it was Bachmann/TMC that for my money had the standout 2023 steam loco introduction with the G5 0-4-4T. The correct layout to deliver a tractively competent small front coupled tank loco, that enabled them to do away with the traction tyre option on the earlier MR 1P 0-4-4T introduction. That's real progress, makes all previous 0-4-4T and 0-4-2T obsolete. (I don't see anything in the Accurascale Manor that brings any such advance over what Hornby demonstrated with their B12/3.) I will acquire an Accurascale J69, and will be interested to see if it beats the current 0-6-0T mechanism benchmark, which is that on the 1997 Bachmann 57xx, a truly excellent job thanks to its easily user adjustable sprung centre axle and pick up wiper arrangements, to ensure reliable current collection.
  12. And it may interest you to know, that in the late Iain Rice's opinion, as matters then stood in RTR OO in the early 1990s, the Replica B1 was as good a model as could be had in terms of exterior appearance. The mechanism, not so good, dated back to Mainline's practise of the 1970s, all of which product was in the 'looks well, mechanism the weak spot' category. Thirty years on, and after two successive Bachmann mechanism upgrades, this B1remains in their catalogue, despite the introduction of a very much more recent high grade Hornby tooling which is able to represent siginificant variatitions within this class.
  13. Rather the reverse. Look how much product they have listed where they compete, and the proportion of the total vote obtained: and then consider how much more product they have before the customers. Just because it's not 'the very latest' doesn't mean everything to a large proportion of the customer base. (My own example, have just purchased a Hornby product that was introduced ten years ago, and 'squeezed out' at that time by higher priority items that required the budget I adhere to. And it's a corker! Which is how it was assessed at introduction.) Just too many factors in purchaser opinion for this to be meaningful. Now, if we could get independently audited results of speed to - lets say - 95% sell out at full price from date of introduction to market; that would be more telling. No more honest vote than what we are prepared to dig out of our wallet...
  14. The Replica product was produced by Kader for Replica using their Bachmann brand, before they had entered the UK market under that name.
  15. That's the original Replica Railways design mechanism. Worth a look at their site for spares. http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/
×
×
  • Create New...